Eurovision Song Contest 2013: The Final Result

1. Denmark	Emmelie de Forest	Only Teardrops	281 points
2. Azerbaijan	Farid Mammadov	Hold Me	234 points
3. Ukraine	Zlata Ognevich	Gravity	214 points
4. Norway	Margaret Berger	I Feed You My Love	191 points
5. Russia	Dina Garipova	What If	174 points
6. Greece	Koza Mostra ft. Agathon Iakovidis	Alcohol is Free	152 points
7. Italy	Marco Mengoni	L'essenziale	126 points
8. Malta	Gianluca	Tomorrow	120 points
9. The Netherlands	Anouk	Birds	114 points
10. Hungary	ByeAlex	Kedvesem	84 points
11. Moldova	Aliona Moon	O Mie	71 points
12. Belgium	Roberto Bellarosa	Love Kills	71 points
13. Romania	Cezar	It's My Life	65 points
14. Sweden	Robin Stjernberg	You	62 points
15. Georgia	Nodi and Sophie	Waterfall	50 points
16. Belarus	Alyona Lanskaya	Solayoh	48 points
17. Iceland	Eythor Ingi	Ég á líf	47 points
18. Armenia	Dorians	Lonely Planet	41 points
19. United Kingdom	Bonnie Tyler	Believe in Me	23 points
20. Estonia	Birgit	Et uus saaks alguse	19 points
21. Germany	Cascada	Glorious	18 points
22. Lithuania	Andrius Pojavis	Something	17 points
23. France	Amandine Bourgeois	L'enfer et moi	14 points
24. Finland	Krista Siegfrids	Marry Me	13 points
25. Spain	ESDM	Contigo Hasta El Final	8 points
26. Ireland	Ryan Dolan	Only Love Survives	5 points

Another Eurovision Song Contest comes to a close with the trophy remaining in Scandinavia, as Emmelie de Forest predictably wins the competition for Denmark with Only Teardrops.

As the voting began, it did not look as if the 2014 Contest would be heading to Copenhagen as many had thought. The voting pattern for Denmark got off to a sluggish and surprising start, as San Marino obviously didn't like the song and both Albania and Austria ranked it lower than expected.

This rate of points soon altered as the voting progressed, with Emmelie soon in a tussle for first place with Azerbaijan and the Ukraine. On the night, Denmark was awarded the coveted twelve points on eight occasions and managed to score points from 37 of the participating nations. Farid Mammadov did even better with the top score, receiving 12 points from 10 countries. Surprisingly, eight nations (including the UK) didn't score him at all.

Denmark's Emmelie de Forest

In the same way that predictions about Denmark's runaway success did not ring true - this was no Alexander Rybak in 2009 - what seemed to be foregone conclusions about other nations also withered on the vine.

The much publicized lesbian kiss from Finland turned into a slobbering mess at the bottom of the leader board, as did the copycat Glorious from Germany's high profile Cascada. Even Ryan Dolan from Ireland, who the BBC's Graham Norton thought had a chance of capturing the crown, was left dumped in the bargain basement with only five points. So much for performing last in the running order!

The nations included in the Final that have most to think about are the Big Five - those that contribute the most to Eurovision and which earn a free pass to the endgame. While Italy may be content with its seventh place, the UK, France, Germany and Spain will once again be asking what went wrong.

In most cases, it is easy to answer. It was either the song, the singer or both. France was the first to perform  with a song that should have picked up more points, but suffered from its position in the draw. Spain came next featuring a singer that could not sing an average song live. Germany was rejected because of an all too familiar track.

This leads us to the biggest name in the Contest this year: Bonnie Tyler. Anticipation was high that the United Kingdom would be able to pull itself out of the right hand side of the scoreboard with such a well-known personality. After all, Bonnie has droves of fans across Europe and many of them were predicting either a Top 10 or Top 5 placing. It was not to be. The beginning of her performance of the country ballad Believe in Me had viewers believing otherwise. Her voice croaked and cracked through the first few bars of the song, which in itself is so laid back it was likely to send people to sleep. Unfortunately, the clever staging at the end could not disguise the damp squib that was the climax of the song. 

To have any success in Eurovision, the BBC is going to have to rethink its selection policy. It seems neither the Corporation nor the public can be trusted to pick a decent entry. But you can't blame the public entirely, when the BBC was giving it second rate songs to choose from. What is needed is younger input so that relevant tracks that reflect today's music can be put forward.

It seems that it is not only the UK which now complains about tactical or political voting. Note the furor in the Balkans over the lack of a Slav representative and the continuing moans about neighbourly votes in the final. I've been watching Eurovision since the early 1970s and it was the same back then. Scandinavia voted for Scandinavia, Greece for Cyprus and vice-versa and with the Netherlands back in the Final this year, who could forget the Dutch/Belgian connection?

There have already been rumours that various countries will withdraw from the 2014 competition because of this. As yet, not the classic "old school" Western countries, but instead the very nations that grumbled about their complaints: the Balkans. Whether that happens remains to be seen.

2014 in Denmark appears as if may turn into an interesting season. Hopefully, the Danes will put on as good a show as their Swedish counterparts and, in some respects, the quality of the songs improve in twelve months time.

Well done Denmark!

Emmelie de Forest image by Albin Olsson (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.