Eurovision 2010 - 25/27/29 May 2010 - Norway

I might be wrong on this but I think this year was the first year they used the main hosts for the semi-finals too - and that helped a lot.

Hope the de-rigging is going well, the stadium stages a first division football match on Wednesday 9th.

This is the arena at 10am on Sunday:
http://www.m-m-pr.com/images/stories/ESC2010/May30/arenainside.jpg

More photos, and the entire production blog (for those who don't already have the link) is here.

2009 was the only year they used different final and semi final presenters!

I really have to applaud the organisers of this years contest. They really embraced the share the moment and opened the experience up to so many fans. I was filmed in Dublin for the Irish Postcard shot and did get my face on screen for a few seconds before Ireland sung on Thursday and Saturday! I was getting calls/texts all night asking was that me on the Eurovision! Then I was also involved in the Dublin Flashmob filming. The Irish Flashmob was only featured for something like 30 seconds, but we rehearsed for some 90 mins and filmed for over an hour too. Amazing inclusive Eurovision.

Wow, you managed to get through all that without using the phrase 'Tommy Rot'

It's the other way round. Moscow last year was the only time they had a different set of presenters for the semi-final(s) and the final - thank goodness. The semi-final presenters in Moscow were truly awful (the bloke in the green room was better than the two on-stage)

My mistake. Didn't the "bloke in the green room" get promoted too to do the main show as originally one of the main semi-final hosts was supposed to be in that role.

No, Daniel Diges looked more like Jon Pertwee, the third doctor in Doctor Who.

Last July I posted a league table of all countries that have participated in Eurovision Song Contest from 1956 to 2009 inclusive. The total is calculated on the following basis: in a given year, a country is awarded points for a top 10 place as follows:

1st = 12 pts
2nd = 10 pts
3rd = 8 pts
4th = 7 pts
5th = 6 pts
6th = 5 pts
7th = 4 pts
8th = 3 pts
9th = 2 pts
10th = 1 pt

Now that Eurovision Song Contest 2010 has been and gone, here's an up to date league table covering years 1956 to 2010. The columns are in the following order: country name, years in Final, and total. Sorry I've been unable to align the columns neatly.

N.B. Final is used loosely here. From 1956 to 2003 there was only one ESC per year, that's what it refers to. Since 2004 , when there has been at least one semi-final, "final" refers to the Saturday night show. From 2004 onwards, "years in final" only counts the years that a country made it to the final, and ignores years when a country participated in a semi-final but failed to qualify. For example, Serbia appeared in the final in 2007, 2008 and 2010, but failed to make it past the semi-final in 2009, so their "years in final" count is 3.

Where there is a tie-break for total, with one or more points, the tied countries are sorted by entries in final lowest first. For example, Latvia took just 8 years to score 26 points, whereas Romania took 12 years to reach 26 points, so Latvia rank higher. However where there's a tie for nul points, the tied countries are sorted by entries in final highest first.

Andorra, Montenegro, Czech Republic and San Marino have so far never gone further than the semis, hence their "years in final" counts are zero.

United Kingdom 53 313
France 53 243
Ireland 41 205
Germany 54 188
Sweden 49 184
Switzerland 46 159
Italy 36 147
Spain 50 136
Luxembourg 37 135
Denmark 37 125
Israel 31 120
Netherlands 45 119
Norway 48 112
Belgium 47 107
Monaco 21 97
Austria 41 78
Greece 31 75
Malta 20 59
Yugoslavia* 27 58
Turkey 32 58
Russia 14 51
Estonia 10 46
Finland 41 43
Cyprus 24 38
Ukraine 8 37
Iceland 20 34
Croatia 16 28
Latvia 8 26
Romania 12 26
Portugal 40 25
Armenia 5 18
Serbia 3 17
Azerbaijan 3 17
Bosnia-Herzegovina 16 17
Serbia-Montenegro* 2 14
Poland 10 14
Hungary 6 9
Slovenia 10 9
Bulgaria 1 6
Moldova 5 6
Belarus 2 5
Lithuania 7 5
Albania 5 4
Georgia 3 2
FYR Macedonia 7 0
Slovakia 3 0
Morocco 1 0
Andorra 0 0
Montenegro 0 0
Czech Republic 0 0
San Marino 0 0

*country no longer exists

As you can see the UK is the winner here. That's deceptive though as the UK has entered 53 times (despite so many bad years 1999 to 2010 inclusive). Going by total alone doesn't take into account number of entries in final, which is unfair on the newer countries that have debuted since the 90s.

By dividing the total by years in final, we can find each country's average score per year it appeared in the final. Again, years in final excludes years a country failed to make it past the semi since 2004. It could be argued this is a fairer representation as it takes into account that recent newcomers (Ukraine, Serbia, Azerbaijan) have had nowhere near as many entries in the final as the early birds such as France, Germany and UK.

Eurovision Song Contest League Table 1956 to 2010 Inclusive
Serbia-Montenegro* 7.00
Bulgaria 6.00
United Kingdom 5.91
Serbia 5.67
Azerbaijan 5.67
Ireland 5.00
Ukraine 4.63
Monaco 4.62
Estonia 4.60
France 4.58
Italy 4.08
Israel 3.87
Sweden 3.76
Luxembourg 3.65
Russia 3.64
Armenia 3.60
Germany 3.48
Switzerland 3.46
Denmark 3.38
Latvia 3.25
Malta 2.95
Spain 2.72
Netherlands 2.64
Belarus 2.50
Greece 2.42
Norway 2.33
Belgium 2.28
Romania 2.17
Yugoslavia* 2.15
Austria 1.90
Turkey 1.81
Croatia 1.75
Iceland 1.70
Cyprus 1.58
Hungary 1.50
Poland 1.40
Moldova 1.20
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1.06
Finland 1.05
Slovenia 0.90
Albania 0.80
Lithuania 0.71
Georgia 0.67
Portugal 0.63
Morocco 0.00
Slovakia 0.00
FYR Macedonia 0.00
Andorra 0.00
Montenegro 0.00
Czech Republic 0.00
San Marino 0.00

*country no longer exists

If you compare the above with the equivalent table for 1956 to 2009 you'll spot some significant changes.

It's finished now, Mr Tumble Tower.

Time to move on. You need some closure.