Normally I like the eastern flavor from Turkey, Israel, and lately Bosnia, Albania, Montenegro with Greece on top, so maybe ironic that the country I'm most looking forward to each year is Iceland. Even in their nationals there are usually some gems better than most in ESC imo.
I tried to count out which countries my faves would be if I gave the 12, 10, 8-1 score to my top 10s for each year and divide their total score with the number of entries they had. This is what the list would look like:
Ok, as this new Eurovision edition is shaping up nicely, I thought it was time for me to tweak my previous rankings a little.
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
I upgraded Azerbaijan 2012 to 4th place, and modified my 2017 top, which was a bit of a mess:
-Portugal entered my top 10 to directly reach the first place, while Italy left.
-France, my default favourite at that time, dropped from 1st to 6th place.
-Bulgaria collapsed from 3rd to 10th place.
-Hungary dropped from 4th to 7th place.
-Azerbaijan and Belgium both lost 3 places.
-Russia gained 3 places and Estonia gained 5.
Overall ranking (if each nation receives points ESC-style)
It's still Ukraine I think, but what a pity that in the last 2 years they decided to sell themselves out to the fanboys's filthy wishes... They used to be so daring, innovative and revolutionary, they didn't need this change of heart...
Since one single post can't handle too many flags, I tried a wiki-like presentation out instead.
Here are my detailed personal tops from 2009 to 2018:
I tweaked my 2017 ranking because "Requiem" kept fading on me and had to lose four more places. It's still in my top, but considering it was my default winner right after the competition it's not a very glorious journey for Alma.
As for 2018 - as I said in the "top list" thread - the overall lineup didn't light my fire. My top 3 is super great, and the rest of my top a bit less so, yet still decent. Some people had trouble making their rankings because they loved too many songs, I had trouble too, but it's because there were too few songs I really liked.
Anyway, you'll find below the overall ranking of the countries I had in my personal tops since 2009 if I awarded them point ESC-style, as well as a some comments on the impact of 2018.
After two years of efforts I didn't care about, Slovenia really was in danger of being dethroned by a nation that took advantage of the situation (like Azerbaijan). Thankfully, "Hvala, Ne!" came out of the blue and managed to secure their first place in my heart with a healthy amount of points. As a result, Slovenia remains my favourite country in Eurovision! Yay!
Due to their very first victory, Estonia finally reached my top 3 while pipping Azerbaijan at the post by one point (their "X My Heart" mess didn't help either).
Russia did rise overall thanks to Yulia again, even though I much prefer "Flame Is Burning". Same with Portugal and Serbia, that reached my top 5 two years in a row.
Shoutout to Lithuania snatching their very first point with me and thus shortening the list of nations that have yet to impress me enough for me to praise them.
Finally, I give a high five to tireless Slovakia that is still in the overall top ten thanks to two entries that are eight years old.
This is the average placing of each country over the last 10 years.(2010-2019) Slovakia,Turkey and Bosnia are not ranked, because they didn't take part at least 5 times.
Oh, it's been a year to the day already since I posted my rankings Time for an update!
Here are my detailed personal tops from 2009 to 2019 as of today (wiki-style):
Firstly, I tweaked some of my past rankings:
2012: I kind of turned it upside down. Estonia, Serbia and Italy moved up while Slovenia, North Macedonia, Croatia and San Marino went down. Note: Iceland joined the chat while Sweden left it.
2014: minor change here, Slovenia went from 5th to 3rd, to the detriment of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
2017: Estonia gained two places and Bulgaria gained one while Armenia and Azerbaijan lost several ones (twins!). I said farewell to France and welcomed North Macedonia.
2018: Some changes worth noting. Hungary went from oblivion to 3rd place (kicking out The Netherlands in the process), same with Sweden and Switzerland respectively reaching the 6th and 8th places (bye Belgium and the Netherlands!). Russia dropped.
Secondly, I added my top for 2019. It's difficult to rank songs that are just one-week old for me, but I'm pretty happy with the results for now.
As every year, I post below the overall ranking of the countries if I awarded them points ESC-style, along with a few comments.
Taking into account the various tweaks I made and the brand new 2019 ranking, Slovenians remain unbothered in my world thanks to "Sebi". Just so you know, "KAOS" might have fought more fiercely for victory, but a second place is still super great.
Albania, Serbia and San Marino perked up, while Portugal scored big again after three years of slayage (including two victories).
Australia received their very first points this year. The list of null pointers is shortening, which is cool!
Slovakia is safe in the top 10 for one more year Unless they return in 2020, they'll be in trouble though.
a) "Ancestral" favorites if you will that would do very well if I decided my favorite country by crunching the numbers:
b) Countries on the kind of roll such that they may as well park their places in my 2020 top 10 now:
c) Countries with a philosophy on Eurovision/a method of presentation such that I always look forward to their entries regardless of whether I end up liking them: and is certainly getting there after a few great Sanremo years in a row; could certainly make a case for belonging here, as could had they sent more than one (1) great entry this decade. That's just not going to cut it. used to be very much in this group, but the inherent disclaimer feels unnecessary given how great their last few choices have been.
d) Some combination of all of those:
Even in their nationals there are usually some gems better than most in ESC imo.
it's not a very glorious journey for Alma.
