Iceland

It’s Belgium vs. Greece in the Eurovision First Semi-Final YouTube Rehearsal Race. The countries competing in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest had their second and final rehearsal on stage in Kyiv, Ukraine Thursday and Friday. Now that a full day has passed since Latvia closed out the round, let’s take a look at the YouTube data to speculate on outcomes this Tuesday. First, it should be noted that Eurovision changed up how they presented the second rehearsal clips. Rather than a two-minute clip including staging and backstage moments, each performance was a 40-second snippet showing how the performance will look on TV during the show. It works as a teaser, as well as clearing up some concerns that may arise if there are weird camera angles from off-stage that wouldn’t be part of the actual presentation. Here is how the countries rank as of 22:35 Central European Time / 4:35pm Eastern: Belgium Greece Sweden Poland Portugal Azerbaijan Montenegro Armenia Iceland Australia That’s quite a changeup from what happened after the first rehearsal. Finland and Latvia have fallen out of the top 10, though they are both within striking distance of Australia. Belgium is solidly in first place, […] [Read more…]

If YouTube provides a clue as to who will qualify from the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final, there could be some major surprises in store. Rehearsals for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest kicked off Sunday, with the first half of the first semi-final taking the stage in Kyiv. On Monday, the second half of the first semi-final got their turn on the stage in the International Exhibition Centre. As has been customary for the last several years, Eurovision has released teaser snippets of each rehearsal, giving home viewers a glimpse into what is in store for next week’s competition. You know what that also means? MORE DATA TO SPECULATE UPON! We have been tracking the viewership of these snippets and have discovered some surprises that may reveal some potential shakeups to previous expectations for this year’s Contest. As of this writing1, here are the Top 10 first rehearsal videos from the first semi-final: Greece Belgium Finland Poland Montenegro Portugal Sweden Azerbaijan Iceland Latvia There are quite a few countries on that list that haven’t been part of the conversation this season, including Greece, Finland, Poland, and Iceland. Noticeably absent from the list are Armenia (11th) and Australia (13th). It’s possible that […] [Read more…]