Following the final of Eurovision 2023, which ended with a victory for Sweden, the EBU published the full voting results of the two semi-finals. Thus, we can see that the winner of the first semi-final was Finland, followed by Sweden and Israel, while in the second the first place was taken by Australia. The countries left at the gates were Latvia in the first semi-final and Iceland in the second.
First semi final
In the first semi-final, Karija clearly prevailed for 177 points: all countries voted for him (the lowest number was 6 from Moldova) and he won with seven of the twelve coming from Germany, Latvia, Ireland, Israel, Croatia, Sweden For. and Norway. The podium was completed by Sweden (135 points, with twelve each from Malta and the Netherlands) and Israel (127 points and the highest score from Moldova, the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan). They were followed by the Czech Republic, Moldova, Norway (all with scores over 100), Switzerland, Croatia and Portugal. Tenth place went to Serbia, which with 37 points (including 10 from its neighbor Croatia) trailed only the Latvians, eventually finishing in eleventh place, by 3 points.
There is little excitement at the bottom of the table, as none of the countries in the last four places have scored more than 10 points. Ireland were twelfth with 10 points, the Netherlands thirteenth with seven and Azerbaijan fourteenth with four. The Red Lanterns were taken over by The Boys of the Busker, who had to settle for two points from Israel and one point from the rest of the world. It was a highly polarized final with Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Moldova all receiving points from countries, and Norway and Switzerland from all countries apart from the “Rest of the World”. Only Moldova failed Israel and Portugal was voted out by all its opponents except Azerbaijan and Latvia.
For twelve, the podium monopolized most of the top scores, but the Czech Republic got one from Finland, Croatia one from Serbia, Moldova one from Portugal and Italy, and Portugal one from France and Switzerland. Norway, in sixth place with 102 points, had none but collected six tenths. Twelve went to Israel from the rest of the world.
Second semi final
The second semi-final was more open, ending with Australia’s victory thanks to 149 points and three twelves coming from Albania, Estonia and Iceland. The silver medal was taken by Austrians Teia and Salina (129 points and Australia’s twelve), while the podium was closed out by Poland. Although she did not start as one of the favourites, she received 124 points, including twelve points each from Estonia and Ukraine.
They are followed by Lithuania, Slovenia, Armenia, Cyprus, Belgium, Albania and Estonia, who close the list of qualifiers with 74 points, far behind Icelandic Diljia (44 points). Georgian Iru, who was in several pools to advance to the finals, had to settle for twelfth place and 33 points. Thirteenth went to Greece (14 points) and fourteenth to Denmark (6 points, all from Iceland). In the queue there was an unprecedented tie to zero points between Romanian Theodore Andrei and Italians Piquet Jack representing San Marino.
The twelve were very distributed and almost all countries took at least one. Only two countries got three dozen: the aforementioned Voyager and Joker Out from Slovenia, who were the most-voted in Spain (and in Poland and Romania). Lithuania had twelve from the United Kingdom and San Marino; Armenia of Belgium and Georgia; Cyprus of Greece; Belgium of Austria; and Albania of Slovenia. Of those that were not classified, some remained: Iceland took over from Denmark, Greece took over from Cyprus, and Georgia took over from Armenia. Rest of the World’s 12, in this case it was for an Albanian family.
Spain voted like this
In the semi-final draw, Spain was placed second, and the Spanish public showed their preference for the guys from Joker Out, who represented Slovenia with the indie song Carpe Diem, Ten went to Armenia and eight to Belgium. The Australian winners were awarded seven points by Spain. in other countries top ten The Spanish televote had Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, Albania and Estonia, so it matched perfectly with the ten classifieds.
Positive lines…
Sweden has not missed a final since 2010 and Norway since 2016. They have the two best streaks of all participating nations, followed by Serbia, who have qualified without interruption since 2018, and surprisingly, Switzerland. The former chronic semi-finalist has already achieved four consecutive passes, which is a record for him. Lithuania, Belgium or Moldova are also going in the right direction (they haven’t been excluded since 2019) and two delegations that have made changes to their pre-selection system and whose results are notorious: Finland and Portugal, which passed in Has happened. With the last three editions and more than remarkable results. In addition, both Lithuania and Portugal match their best streak and Finland surpasses it: they did not reach the final three times in a row, with the added qualification that in two of them they emerged as winners of the televote: blind. Along with the channel and along with Karija
Countries like Slovenia, which has chosen one of its most famous bands, Joker Out, and other delegations like Israel or Cyprus (both faltered last year after positive streaks) return to grand finals after one or two setbacks. It is also worth noting that the Czech Republic, Estonia, Australia and Armenia do a good job with two consecutive passes.
…And negative
On the other side of the coin, there are countries that have not raised their heads or have been eliminated from the finals after passing it several times in a row. The case of Georgia and Latvia is paradigmatic. None of them have qualified for the finals since 2016, which is six years in a row. The semi-finals have since had an overall negative record in the festival’s history, although it should be remembered that this year the Latvian sudden light has been three points from the long-awaited pass. Other countries that should track their participation in Eurovision are Ireland and Denmark. The former have been landing in the semi-finals for four years now, with negative criticism of their songs and delegation work and the dire circumstances that they are no longer the country with the most wins, as they share the honors with Sweden. As for Denmark, since they were the hosts in 2014, they have only reached the final twice: in 2017 and 2018 and they have never gone three years in a row without qualifying.
Iceland plays for the first time in four years and the Netherlands have broken their streak (since 2016) of consecutive passes. Azerbaijan landed in the semi-finals for the second time (only having missed it in 2018) and also Greece, which returned to excite Eurofandom after good feelings between 2019 and 2022, finished bottom of the table in their semis. Other countries that appear to be battle-wounded are Romania (the WRS pass is a mirage before the donut is taken by Theodore Andrei), San Marino (also with zero) and Malta, who started their score but with three points. Didn’t move forward.
