News - Results analysis: Numbers and statistics in the semi finals | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

As always after the Eurovision Song Contest, we take a look at the results from a statistical point of view. The analysis is split into four parts and the second part is dedicated to the numbers and records in the semi finals.

Also read our analysis based on who qualified and who did not here and here.  

The winners

Iceland won the first semi final 174 points, only two points more than Turkey. Iceland got a strong average result of 9.2 points per country. Norway did even better in the second semi final getting 201 from 21 countries voting. That means an average score 9.57 points per country, which comes very close to the United Kingdom's average record score of 9.65 points in 1976. Unlike last year, the winners of the two semi finals finished second and first in the final.

 

Statistics

Having never won a Eurovision Song Contest, Iceland took its first place in a Eurovision in the first semi final. On the other hand, the Czech Republic finished last for the second time in three participations. With two last places and a second last place in 2008, the country is obviously the least successful one these days. The Czech Republic is also the first country since Switzerland in 2004 to achieve nil points despite the fact that every country that voted had to give points to ten out of 18 countries. In the second semi final, Latvia finished last for the very first time. Slovakia finished second last returning after after eleven years, which is the country's worst result counting backwards. However, counting forwards, the 18th place equals Slovakia's best result to date achieved in 1996. In the first semi final, only Turkey and Iceland got points from all countries while in the second semi final, only Norway did so.

 

12 points

The following countries got sets of full marks in the semi finals:

1st semi final: Turkey - 8 times Iceland - 6 times Armenia - once Finland - once Bosnia & Herzegovina - once             Portugal - once

2nd semi final:  Norway - 6 times Azerbaijan - 6 times Serbia - 3 times Greece - twice Croatia - once Cyprus - once Denmark - once Lithuania - once Estonia - once

One third of the competing countries in the first semi final got at least one set of 12 points and in fact, all them qualified for the final, although Finland was the jury wildcard. Turkey got two more sets of 12 points than the semi final winner Iceland. In the second semi final, Azerbaijan and Norway both got the top mark six times. Serbia got 12 points three times, but only finished tenth and did not make it to the final at all. In this semi final, nine countries got at least once 12 points, which meand almost half of the contestants.

 

The running order

As stated before, we can see that songs late in the running order did much better in both semi finals. We can also see that song placed last in the first semi final was performed second and the song placed last in the second semi final was performed third, which maintains the legend of the curse of number two and three.

 

The jury wildcards

Finland was saved by the jury in the first semi final and Croatia was saved in the second semi final. Both countries were rather close finishing 12th and 13th in the televoting respectively. FYR Macedonia once again was the unlucky country finishing tenth and not making it.

 

Stay tuned for the upcoming parts of our results analysis. The parts are:

1. Numbers and statistics in the final
2. Numbers and statistics in the semi final
3. What if...?
4. Voting blocs, friendly neighbours & diasporas