Eurovision countries by their longest Top 10 streak (SINCE 2004)

[u/thatdominoguy]

Currently we have a tie between Greece and Italy for the longest ever top 10 streaks. Greece had theirs from 2004 to 2011, however had Aphrodisiac (Greece 2012) placed top 10, their streak would have extended to 10 years in a row. Italy’s streak is currently ongoing and has been since Occidentali’s Karma (Italy 2017). I think it’s pretty likely that, unless some disaster occurs in Sanremo 2026, Italy will extend their streak and break the record. In terms of the other powerhouses, Ukraine is currently ongoing its longest top 10 streaks, with theirs starting with Shum (Ukraine 2021), while Sweden’s current streak is not its longest. Sweden’s 6-year streak was from 2014 to 2019, and they currently have a streak of 4, coming top 10 every year since Hold Me Closer (Sweden 2022). The only other currently participating countries with ongoing streaks greater than 1 year are France, Switzerland, and Israel. Which countries do you think could get long streaks in the near future?

[u/sleepytoday]

This is interesting to me in light of the recent posts we’ve had about an anti-eastern europe bias in the judging.

Out of the 8 nations with longest streaks, we have Greece, Italy, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. That seems like eastern european countries have been doing pretty well!

Edit: since some people think I’m claiming that the likes of Italy and Sweden are Eastern European. I’m not. I was pointing out that 5 or 6 (depending on your definition) of these 8 are Eastern European.

[u/ponjo_89 → u/sleepytoday]

I mean considering all these streaks happened mainly when juries weren’t in Eurovision, yes. The anti-Eastern bias is very real since all these countries started being marked down a lot by juries compared to the televote.

Greece specifically has scored higher with juries than televote only once, which means 12/13 times the public has ranked their song higher than juries, which is crazy considering the juries mostly do the opposite with Western countries🧐

[u/TheHabro → u/ponjo_89]

So let me get this straight. Juries from Eastern Europe are continuously snubbing Eastern European entries?

[u/FeelTheKetasy → u/TheHabro]

No but when the EE juries are going out of their way to not favour their own a lot (because we only need one year where EE countries to better than Western ones for the “SSR propaganda” discussion to start again) while the Western juries only reward their own, you can see why EA has a disadvantage here

[u/TheHabro → u/FeelTheKetasy]

I'm confused, if Eastern Europe doesn't vote for Eastern Europeans, nor does the rest of Europe, how do Eastern European countries get to top 10 places? (In jury voting) Latvia and Estonia this year, Croatia and Ukraine 2024, Estonia and Czechia 2023 (and Lithuania was 11th too).

Where did their points come from? How did North Macedonia win jury in 2019?

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/TheHabro]

Croatia 2024 | Baby Lasagna - Rim Tim Tagi Dim
Ukraine 2024 | alyona alyona & Jerry Heil - Teresa & Maria
Estonia 2023 | Alika - Bridges
Czechia 2023 | Vesna - My Sister's Crown

[u/ponjo_89 → u/ESC-song-bot]

You are literally nitpicking trying to find some entries that did well with the juries over the past 15 years. We’re talking more than 500 songs. Of course there’s gonna be SOME songs out of those that juries have marked well, but if you look at the majority and bigger picture, it’s clear as day that Western countries have been pushed in an extremely unbalanced way. If you can only find a handful of examples, that literally proves the point. And don’t tell me that Croatia or North Macedonia are exactly favoured by juries other than this one time they got a good result.

Also I’d hardly consider Estonia, Czechia, Latvia eastern countries. They’re northern and share more similarities with Nordics I’d say than eastern countries like the Balkans. I mean if you look at the amount of countries, and which countries have withdrawn in the past few years due to western favouritism, it’s shows a clear pattern. Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova.

[u/TheHabro → u/ponjo_89]

You are literally nitpicking trying to find some entries that did well with the juries over the past 15 years. We’re talking more than 500 songs.

I am not nitpicking lol. Since 2014 (so in last 10 competitions), only 2014 and 2022 had 1 Eastern European country in top 10 jury (though in 2022 Serbia was 11th). All the rest had at least 2 Eastern European countries, emphasis on at least.

Of course there’s gonna be SOME songs out of those that juries have marked well, but if you look at the majority and bigger picture, it’s clear as day that Western countries have been pushed in an extremely unbalanced way.

So why does it come to bias and not the fact Western countries send better songs? Really, Sweden and Italy are most consistent countries, everyone else has better and worse years. Even Austria or Switzerland don't do well every year. UK and Germany almost always do bad, yet they're not Eastern Europe. So why can't this be true of Eastern Europe?

And don’t tell me that Croatia or North Macedonia are exactly favoured by juries other than this one time they got a good result.

So if we ignore all good songs Eastern Europe sends, they are doing bad? No shit.

I can tell you for Croatia, no one here think we a sent a top 10 songs since mid 2000s before Let 3 and Baby Lasagna. And obviously, in 2023 everyone expected Let 3 to do bad in jury not because of bias toward Croatia, but because of performance.

The moment we sent a quality song, it was recognized by juries.

lso I’d hardly consider Estonia, Czechia, Latvia eastern countries. They’re northern and share more similarities with Nordics I’d say than eastern countries like the Balkans. I mean if you look at the amount of countries, and which countries have withdrawn in the past few years due to western favouritism, it’s shows a clear pattern. Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova.

So we are moving goal posts? The discussion was about former Communist block. Regardless, obviously if you decrease number of countries in a group, of course that there will be less chance for one of those countries to do well.

btw did you mean Lithuania instead of Czechia?

Secondly, financing is a bigger issue for smaller countries than just jury not voting for them. This is why Moldova didn't send an entry this year, but is expected to return next year. BiH has some debts that need to paid to EBU before it can return (though there is a lot of politics involved). If I am not mistaken Turkey has also withdrawn for political reasons.

Now, even if a country claims they quit for bias, it doesn't mean bias exists. Just that people think it exists. Take for an example, Bulgaria. They had a non qualifying streak between 2008 and 2013, quit, came back in 2017 and between 2017 and 2021 were in juries top 10 every single competition. They again failed to qualify in 2022 (but not because of jury, 14th in televote, 15th in jury in their semi final) and quit again. Even if they claim jury is biased against them, it's just not true.

North Macedonia is opposite. They rarely qualified to finals. But looking at voting since 2012, only once they would qualify via televote, and twice via jury only (in all 3 case they didn't qualify just to be clear). So there's no evidence of bias against North Macedonia, unless you want to claim both the public and jury hate North Macedonia. Actually, the fact they won jury in 2019 speaks that there's only bias against bad songs, not countries.

Romania would qualify more often than not, but without stellar results. Similarly like North Macedonia, sometimes they'd do better with jury, sometimes with televote. There's no evidence of bias.

Also, more Eastern European countries quit, there will earn less points (except for favourites) because of tendency of both public and jury to favour neighbouring countries.

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/TheHabro]

Serbia 2022 | Konstrakta - In corpore sano