Due to Nemo’s victory in 2024, the 69th edition of Eurovision takes place this year in Basel. With three titles to its credit, Switzerland is doing rather honorably, even if it is far from the record of seven victories of Sweden and Ireland. Immersed in competition statistics to see which are the most efficient countries.
In less than two weeks, 37 countries will try to win the 69th edition of the Eurovision song competition. The semi-finals will be held on May 13 and 15, before the grand final scheduled for Saturday, May 17.
This year, the event will take place in Basel, after the victory of the Biennese artist Nemo in 2024 in Malmö, Sweden.
>> Our quiz on Basel, host city of Eurovision in 2025: Test your knowledge of Basel, host city of the Eurovision competition
Before the coronation of Nemo last year, the last Swiss victory dates back to 1988, when Céline Dion, then representative of Switzerland, won with “do not leave without me”. The next edition had been organized in Lausanne, at the Palais de Beaulieu.
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Record of seven victories for Sweden and Ireland
Since its creation in 1956 and the holding of its first edition the same year in Lugano, Eurovision has emerged from particularly efficient countries. Sweden, with seven victories to its credit, shares the top of the charts with Ireland, another large accustomed to the catwalks.
If Switzerland does not compete with these behemoths, it appears to a very honorable place in the history of the competition, with three titles to its counter. She shares this position with Denmark, Italy, Norway and Ukraine, which places her on the fourth step of the number of victories.
Astonishing fact: no country has won exactly six editions, but several have five (4), four (1), three (5), two (3) or only one (12). In total, 27 nations have registered their name at least once in the list of Eurovision, of which Yugoslavia has now disappeared. About twenty other nations have never won, such as Malta, Hungary, Croatia, Poland and Iceland.
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-Ukraine, remarkable efficiency
Switzerland is one of the founding countries of Eurovision, present since the very first edition in 1956, alongside the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy. Other nations joined the competition much later, such as Spain in 1961, Israel in 1973, Ukraine in 2003 or Australia in 2015.
Consequently, comparing countries only on the total number of victories may seem biased. Some have had much less opportunities to shine, having joined the competition late. To better assess performance, a classification based on the victories/participation ratio offers a completely different lighting.
Ukraine dominates this alternative ranking, with three victories in just 20 participations – a victory for all seven competitions approximately. It is followed by Luxembourg (5 victories in 39 participations, a victory every eight competition) and Ireland (7 victories in 58 participations, also a victory every eight years).
Switzerland, for its part, ranks 14th with three victories in 65 participations, on average a victory every 22 competitions.
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Italy, champion of the number of points collected
The promotion of another factor can still give a different classification: that of the number of points obtained by each country since 2016, the year of the implementation of a new scale (Read box).
In this case, Italy is taking first place with 2648 points collected since 2016 (jury and confused viewers), followed by Sweden with 2517 points, Ukraine with 2391 points and France 1735 points. Switzerland arrives just behind, with 1557 points collected since the implementation of the new voting system.
Note that it was Portugal, in 2017, which collected the greatest number of points never won by a country at Eurovision, totaling the evening of the final 758 points with its song “Amar Pelos must”.
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Fabien Grenon
