EUROVISION THREAD 3. THE UK ARE TOP OF THE LEADERBOARD (FOR NOW)

[RedToothBrush]

JUST THAT.

If it’s not political, how is it that Greece and Cyprus always award one another 12 points? Same as Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Germany's song was great! I can't believe it was last

Yep me too. I've never felt more loved. It was brilliant😊

Hope this is readable. Its an info graphic of social links and voting patterns. People say its political but I think its more a question of common cultural links and heritage. In this respect the UK is always going to be something of an outlier because we are an island.

Source dgquarterly on twitter.

I know right?!

Stop it!

Wish we could join Europe again 😞

I am not sure if you're being sarcastic or not!

I voted to remain but I don't think not wanting to be in the EU - the institution means that leavers don't want to be part of Europe the continent

Oh ffs why is every post cut off halfway through at the minute

Well we never actually left Europe. We did leave the European Union though so that's why you might be getting confused.

If it’s not political, how is it that Greece and Cyprus always award one another 12 points? Same as Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Because they're virtually the same country, share the same musical taste. Take a look at a map. They speak Greek in Cyprus (in the parts that are not part of Turkey anyway). Georgia and Azerbaijan are neighbours, with a significant diaspora in each other's country.

When countries cast votes for each other it usually follows a pattern in which their songs enjoy widespread popularity outside of the regions in which the votes are cast.

There are regional cultural affiliations within Europe - Scandinavia, Baltic, Eastern bloc, Western, Balkans, Caucuses. Some countries flow between regions - Bulgaria swings toward the Balkans sometimes; Malta's taste is unpredictable. Switzerland gets votes from several quarters.

The existence of diasporas usually skews a vote in favour of the home country's song, but the vote isn't always reciprocal. Turkey got votes from Germany and other western European countries many times but didn't reciprocate.

It's not a simple, "They don't liiiiiike us!" They like other entries.

Germany's song was great! I can't believe it was last

No, no, no, it was dire. And the staging was even worse than the song.

I agree with Cats and Turin part, it’s a song which people loved

he was very good

I don’t usually watch it but his song was much better than I remembered them to be

I agree. I'm in Sweden and we often give most points to Norway and the brits say it's political but it really isn't. Norway pick the song they like best and we're close enough in culture that we also like it best. Take this year and the Give The Wolf A Banana song. All the kids in my DS's school wanted that one to win, not because they're political, but because they love it and they've heard it played in school and they've learnt the words.

A few years ago there was a really weird song Bosnia. Most of Europe were like WTF? But all their neighbours gave them 12 points. Obviously all political. Except I was watching with my Croatian friend and she was dying laughing. Apparantly, for those who understood the language, the song lyrics were absolutely hilarious and that's why all their neighbours gave them 12 points.

Yes, and a case in point, the Moldova entry has similar appeal for Balkan voters.

Often if you read comments under YouTube videos of the songs you can see comments from people in neighbouring countries who love them. In the case of Moldova, there are plenty of remarks to the effect that this would be a great Balkan region wedding song and that every aspect of the song has deep roots in the music of that part of the world (East coast of the Black Sea and south into the Balkans).

#West coast of the Black Sea, ahem...