Out of the 41 participating countries at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, 23 of them chose their act through a national final. In this article we are analysing the results of these national finals. Which act won the jury vote and who travels to Rotterdam because of the televote?
At the Eurovision Song Contest, it is essential that the total package of each delegation matches the demands of getting points from both the jury and the televote. But both have a different set of rules and red or green flags, to get the top votes.
The result in the national final can be a good precursor to predict whether an act is more ‘jury-food’ or aims to get their points from the televote. Some won the televote, but did not do so well with the juries. And the other way around. And of course, some acts already seem to have it right, with winning both the jury and the televote in their national selection.
Eurovision 2020 acts that won the jury vote and televote
Eight countries have send an entry to Eurovision that was widely supported in their own nation. In Ukraine, Lithuania, Iceland, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Sweden and Romania, the winning act won both the televote and the jury vote.
It needs to be said that Romania had a final where only a song for Roxen was selected: ‘Alcohol You‘. And in Sweden, we never had a more intense voting sequence in Melodifestivalen in recent years. The Mamas were a tied winner of the jury vote with Dotter, and ‘Move‘ only won because of 1 (!) extra point in the televote.
Lithuania and Iceland are placed high in the list of the bookmakers. Their fun acts for ‘On Fire’ by The Roop and ‘Think about things’ by Dadi and Gagnamagnid seem to be appealing most to the televote. But they both also won the jury vote in their national final, making them serious contenders in Rotterdam, according to the bookmakers.
In Moldova a massive national final was held and Natalia Gordienko performed from the second starting position. Still, her song ‘Prison’ was chosen as the clear winner. The same happened with Sanja Vucic’ girl group Hurricane in Serbia.
The Polish final only had three contestants but it is interesting that the strong vocalist Alicja not only won with the jury, but also managed to keep Lake Malawi-singer Albert Cerny from winning the televote. And in their neighbour nation Ukraine, ‘Solovey‘ was never in any danger of winning Vidbir. And, miracles do happen, the group Go_A is actually allowed to go to Eurovision from the Ukrainian government.
These countries aim for the jury vote at Eurovision 2020
Not all countries had a balanced result in their national final. Six of them had a winner who is only in Rotterdam because they won the jury vote. Okay, one of these six is Albania, and Festivali i Këngës only had a jury vote, so it actually leaves us five five.
Three of them came close. Montaigne from Australia won the jury vote, and came second in the televote of Australia decides. The same happened to Samanta Tina in Latvia with her song ‘Still Breathing’ and the Finnish singer Aksel Kankaanranta and ‘Looking Back‘.
For Diodato from Italy it is remarkable that he was a clear winner with the jury of Sanremo 2020. But in the televote of the Italian superfinal, he finished in third place out of the three competitors. Athena Manukyan and ‘Chains On You‘, with all the dancing and uptempo-vibes, appears to be an entry aiming for the televote. But it finished in third place in Yerevan and only won Depi Evratesil because of the jury.
Acts that hope to win the televote at Eurovision 2020
We of course also see some acts in Rotterdam that have reached the city in The Netherlands the other way around. Seven acts did not win the jury vote, but made it to Eurovision 2020 because of their win in the televote. Once again, Slovenia (Ana Saklic – ‘Voda’), Norway (Ulrikke – ‘Attention’) and Denmark (Ben & Tan – ‘Yes’) only had a televote in their superfinal, so we are looking at the four acts will real discrepancy.
In Israel, only the song for Eden Alene was chosen and ‘Feker Libi‘ got the second place with the jury and won the televote. Most of them won the televote, and got a second place with the jury. In the Czech Republic ‘Kemana‘ was second with the jury based on their video clip, so we don’t know yet how they will respond to the actual performance, which is quite energetic.
At Dora 2020, Damir Kedzo’s ‘Divlji Vjetre‘ was the jury runner-up, but went to Rotterdam after winning the public vote. In Estonia however, we see the biggest discrepancy. Uku Suviste took the televote with force, whilst the juries placed him in 4th place.
Not winning the jury or televote but still at Eurovision 2020
If you calculated with us, you might have noticed: Hey, we are missing two acts. And that is correct. There are two artists in Rotterdam who did a “Duncan Laurence”-win. Meaning that they were the overall winner, despite winning neither the jury vote or the televote.
Elisa from Portugal will sing ‘Medo de Sentir‘, the runner-up of the televote and the jury vote in Festival de Cancao 2020. And in Belarus we had the same result for ‘Da Vidna‘, the winning song by VAL.
It is surely something to keep in mind when the reheasals start taking place at Ahoy Rotterdam and people get ready to make their lists and predictions.
Overview results national finals Eurovision 2020
Jury and Televote winner
Ukraine
Lithuania
Iceland
Moldova
Poland
Serbia
Sweden (jury vote tied with Dotter, and televote 1 point more)
Romania (song only)
Jury only winner
Italy – Jury, televote 3rd
Australia – Jury, televote 2nd
Albania (jury only)
Armenia, Jury, televote 3rd
Latvia, Online jury, televote 2nd
Finland, Jury, televote 2nd
Televote only winner
Czech Republic (based on video clip) – Televote , Jury 2nd
Norway (televote only)
Denmark (televote only)
Croatia – Televote, Jury 2nd
Slovenia (televote only)
Israel (song only), Televote, jury 2nd
Estonia – Televote, jury 4th
None winner
Belarus – 2nd jury, 2nd televote
Portugal – 2nd jury, 2nd televote