Comments on: Is the Eurovision song contest rigged?

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:51:41 +0000

I do believe the voting is rigged based on a group committee who decide it. To be honest it makes the most sense. I am English and don’t want to UK to win, we can’t afford it! So that is not the reason I moan, 2010 we deserved to be near the bottom. But anyone who says that the voting system hasn’t anything wrong with it is deluded. The same countries vote for eachother all the time, but why? Do the Greeks sit there and say to themselves “we’re going to vote for Cyprus again this year because they’re our neighbours”? England has no fans around Europe but I don’t see why any country would vote for their neighbours just for the sake of it over voting for the best song, what have they to gain out of it exactly? The political voting theorists would have you believe that certain countries around Europe get on really well, always helping eachother out, popping over for tea all the time etc. This isn’t the case. There are a lot of foreign nationals, here especially who are going to vote for their own country which should be disallowed as it’s clearly not based on the talent of the singer or song. It makes more sense that certain countries like their own style of music, Greece and Cyprus for example but this isn’t always the case in the style of song as Eurovision has it’s own pop sound. I wouldn’t be even thinking that it’s already decided but it’s a bit odd how some of the worst songs can get so many points and some of the best ones can get so few. Malta never get anywhere and they are the most consistent country with their singers and songs being brilliant. They never win because they can’t afford it, it’s based on political and socialogical factors of who would be good at hosting it the next year. Why the UK still pays so much into it I don’t know, that one is beyond me, idiotic government again as usual I expect. One time the winner was such the wrong choice I asked around and kept asking in life and online in every country who would listen about who voted for him, I couldn’t find a single one. That doesn’t prove anything, but the whole voting thing has always been just a little bit off and it’s only got worse the past few years. I just wouldn’t believe everything they tell you….after all, there was clear ‘intelligence’ that Saddam Hussein had nukes. You think Eurovision is a big deal to rig? I enjoy it for the show and the music, I just don’t take the voting seriously because it’s clearly rigged despite what ‘experts’ findings say. Maybe before this gets sorted out, something more important needs to be done and questioned about why there are so many non-european countries in Eurovision! Just because you’ve joined the EU doesn’t make you European. There’s about 5-10 that shouldn’t even be in it. But then again they do that in England, extend boundaries to get more money, ie Essex is NOT east London, never has been. So all in all, fun show, just take it for what it is and try to ignore all the bullshit.

By: eurovision songs in oslo

eurovision songs in oslo — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:55:37 +0000

10 points! very good job :)

By: rel

rel — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:04:13 +0000

people in the uk are only moaning cz we come last all or close to last all the time.
maybe if they had a decent song with singers that perform well live, just maybe other countries would vote uk.

By: Andy Brice

Andy Brice — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:15:53 +0000

There is a nice alternative approach to the visualisation here:
http://wordaligned.org/articles/eurovision-2008-charts

By: S. Tanna

S. Tanna — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:53:02 +0000

Rigging is not the only possible explanation for geographical corelations in voting.

Maybe there’s an Scandinavian-style of Eurovision music, an ex-Soviet style, a Balkan style, etc.

Countries in each region, might then tend to make songs of this type of their region’s style, and also tend to vote for songs of their region’s style.

Likewise, you need to also take into account, the only people in Europe who speak Spanish to understand the Spanish entry, are Spain itself (which can’t vote for itself) and Andorra. Likewise Greeks and Cypriots can understand each other’s entries, assuming it’s in Greek, Nordic languages are somewhat mutually comprehensible, etc.

By: Andy Brice

Andy Brice — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:42:10 +0000

I realise that cultural similarity is one possible interpretation of the results. But the trashy homogenised commercial pop of Eurovision sounds pretty devoid of local influences to my (untrained) ear.

By: Eurovision song contest rigged! « Ladgeful

Eurovision song contest rigged! « Ladgeful — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:23:40 +0000

[...] pm on May 26, 2008 | # | Tags: brits, europe, eurovision song contest, rigged Just goes to show all the europeans don’t much like us Brits (that’s ok, cause we don’t want to be associated with a bunch frog eaters and the like [...]

By: George Sudarkoff

George Sudarkoff — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:30:34 +0000

Correlation and causality are two big differences (as we say in Russia). Just because it is generally cold when it snows doesn’t mean the snow causes low air temperatures. In this case, like Vladimir Radmilovic already noted, it probably just a cultural bias that causes the skew.

By: D

Mon, 26 May 2008 13:31:23 +0000

Whats interesting is foreign nationals voting.
Ireland has hundreds of thousands of Polish and Latvians.
Who did Ireland give their 10 and 12 points to? Poland and Latvia!

By: Andy Brice

Andy Brice — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:12:33 +0000

>any scandinavia country voting for or getting voted for by iceland should show in blue as they are scandi countries

It is purely done on the pixel distance between the capitals in the map I used.