Eurovision 2014: Australia Votes

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

Sydney calling! These are the votes from Australia - with the official placings in brackets:

1. Austria 74,434 votes  (1)
2. Sweden 53,562  (3)
3. The Netherlands 33,990  (2)
4. Finland 29,702  (11)
5. Iceland 24,106  (15)
6. Poland 23,928  (14)
7. UK 23,154  (17)
8. Switzerland 18,934  (13)
9. Malta 18,884  (23)
10. Ukraine 18,392  (6)
11. Spain 15,116  (10)
12. Greece 14,936  (20)
13. Hungary 12,034  (5)
14. Norway 11,594  (8)
15. Denmark 10,430  (9)
16. Romania 10,044  (12)
17. Belarus 10,042  (16)
18. France 9,176  (26)
19. Armenia 7,614  (4)
20. Germany 6,316  (18)
21. Slovenia 5,912  (25)
22. Russia 5,824  (7)
23. Montenegro 5,346  (19)
24. Italy 4,968  (21)
25. Azerbaijan 4,724  (22)
26. San Marino 4,698  (24)

Eurovision was even more popular with Australians this year, with just shy of a million viewers tuning in at one point during the final. As usual, the television station transmitting the show permitted people to vote for their favourite song and in line with the official result Austria took first place.

Some surprising differences can be seen between the official standings and how Australia placed the songs, though. Probably, the most notable positive changes are the fortunes of those countries filling positions four to nine, all of which ranked outside the official Top 10.

Not even getting a sniff of the Top 20, let alone the 10, was France. However, in a year when most everybody seemed to vote for the 'beard', Australia also gave much more love to the Moustache of the French, placing it 18th and relegating San Marino into their last position.

Valentina Monetta was not the only loser. Both Russia (22) and Armenia (19) fared much worse Down Under, fuelling yet more speculation about political voting in the northern hemisphere.

That aside, one of my personal favourites this year also went running in the wrong direction too, as Hungary could only manage 13th as opposed to its much better official showing of 5th.

What do you think of the Australian vote?

Image by David Iliff (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons