Winners and Losers In The Grand Final Running Order Written by Ben Robertson on May 23, 2015 | 4 Comments

With the first ever 27 song Grand Final to the Eurovision Song Contest, the position in the show is this year absolutely value. Having seen and heard the Jury Final we have now worked out which songs we believe work in their respective locations in the order, and which have lost value amongst the crowd. Ben Robertson writes up three winners and three losers from the decisions of host broadcaster ORF.

Remember firstly that each country drew a position in either the first half (1 to 13) or the second half (15 to 27). The production team at ORF then produce a running order which is first approved by the EBU before being released. The EBU has not before disagreed with a running order suggestion from a broadcaster. There is a break after song 14 (Austria), and also a tiny pause for some host chatter before song 10 (Sweden), presumeably to check the angles for Måns’ extravagant stage show.

Our Three Losers

Slovenia

Having a strong opener to the show is of course an important part of the producer-led running order, but the Slovenian song has been cast away amongst a sea of up-tempo numbers in the first half. Given the nature of this, it appears the producers have almost created a feel of a false start to the Song Contest Final, with Slovenia being followed by France before the action really gets started by Israel and Estonia.

The Slovenian song has been struggling all week with turgid camera work, while the French song has delivered arguably the most iconic use of the backdrop this Contest. With Israel coming in firing out on all cylinders to actually get the party started Slovenia is of little use here to stand out after two hours of non-stop music. Falling out of contention rapidly.

Greece

There’s a huge lull in the competition after the host country, Austria, which slows the pace right down before we move into a break. Kicking off ballad-heavy half two is the Greek entry, which is an earnest, well-sung ballad but just takes far too long to move into a higher purpose. Coming off the break means that the crowd in the arena are likely to not be animated enough to drive this onwards, and the public at home are likely to find Montenegro following a stronger and more animated build. The Greek entry is not one expected now to be challenging for points across the board.

Maria from Greece is going to have a hard job picking the crowd back up after the break
Photo: Derek Sillerud

Georgia

Standing out alone in as the only up-tempo produced song in the Grand Final (although not at a high tempo itself), Georgia could potentially have picked up energy to stand out here. Instead Georgia is being used to pump up the final quarter of the show. Hungary brings things to snoozing pace at song 22, and the Georgian song is being sacrificed to try and insert the extra energy to give the big finish from Azerbaijan, Russia and Italy (little Albania in there might struggle too). If we had Georgia on the back of Russia, or after a high energy Spanish performance, ‘Warrior’ may have taken the show up to another level. Instead it only serves to create a dramatic build up which makes slot twenty-five super sweet.

Our Three Winners

Latvia

When looking at previous winners of the Contest we find lots that appear in the third quarter of the show, such as Emmelie de Forest (slot 18), Loreen (17), Ell and Nikki (19). There is a very viable theory that this is the part of the show where casual viewers often work out where to cast their vote. If you are looking for a winner here it is only Aminata who is showing any kind of potential to catch the attention on camera. Ann Sophie wiggling her bum in the camera isn’t having great impact on camera, Poland’s wheelchair distracts from any power the song has and Romania’s band are clearly preaching to their target audience. However given space in the running order to stand out helps Latvia here – the image of Aminata is beautifully strong and iconic and separated from the up-tempo songs gives the modern production here an edge which is going to help.

Belgium

Being gifted the last possible slot in the first half obviously puts the Belgian teenager at a slight mathematical advantage, but there is far more to this than the position there. Australia runs before it in 12, but Guy Sebastian comes up after the Cypriot song which sucked out the energy injected by the frantic Swedish performance. Guy’s going to have to work really hard to get the audience and adrenaline back up to fever pitch. Should he do so, that’s only going to play into Belgium’s hands.

The arrangement to Belgium’s pop song is brave and ultra-modern, and might just pick up from the vibes of Australia which are perfectly competant but musically classic. If the charts are correct in suggesting Belgium is onto a good thing here then comparing it to a more standard pop arrangement will only aide it shine.

Russia

It’s impossible not to look at this running order and point out the obvious. Russia has been given every possible shot at the title. Third from the end is a classic location for a top favourite, but it’s surrounded by Azerbaijan and Albania. Both of these have the big vocal acrobatics just like Polina is showing off, but the Russian entry is by far the more mainstream in terms of production and more easy to watch on camera. Compared to the songs around it Russia is only one that ends on a big, dramatic, vote for me finish and takes the ballad genre to the next level.

It’s not just voter apathy to Russia that might be of concern, it would also be the dullness of songs leading up to a powerful back five.
Photo: Derek Sillerud

The only caution is that Russia will be taken to the stage after 23:00 CET due to the long opening act (20 mins in the Jury Final), long show itself and the fact the third quarter of this show is dull beyond the help of any producers. However there’s enough pick up before the Russian song that it will get itself noticed, whether that translates into votes from across all parts of Europe will be something we analyse post-Contest.

What do you think? Will these countries over or under perform in the results on Saturday night? Does the running order even play that much of an important role? Discuss below.