The 2022 escbetting Awards
The least prestigious “awards” of the eurovision world are finally here, nevermind the season being over, delaying this any further and the year would be too. Anyways, in the second annual prizegiving here we take one final look back at the best and worst of the year.
Worst National Final Choice-
Nominees- Albania, Slovenia, Germany, Israel
A tough category this, with sensible decisions being the theme of the year. I don’t think any country left anything on the table that would have had a dramatic impact on their final placing. Israel make up the numbers being unlikely to qualify regardless but show the danger of selecting through a weeks long personality based process. Germany likewise were on for a bottom 5 regardless so read this as more of a criticism of their entire field and the notable abscence of Eskimo Callboy from Unser Lied who at a minimum would have livened up proceedings. Slovenia get their mention from selecting statistically the weakest entry of the year and whilst they had better, Albania probably have to take this one with the likeliest Q/NQ difference. ‘Sekret’ and ‘Theje’ both seemed relatively equal options at the time but the later would not have took the backwards steps Ronela eventually did.
Best National Final Choice-
Nominees- Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Romania
A mention first on our lack of nominee from Ukraine- whether Kalush can be classed as a ‘national final choice’ or an internal selection is up in the air really so it’s best to look elsewhere, particularly as if we do class them as coming through Vidbir we have to acknowledge the Eurovision winners staggeringly weren't the strongest option. Spain’s voting system of diluting the public vote turned out undoubtedly for the better with Chanel’s 3rd place finish. Whilst Benidorm Fest was a strong field, there was nothing there that would have come close to that final result. Serbia also put in one of their strongest showings in many years with a selection that seemed strange to me at the time but were rewarded for their risk. Anders Bagge wouldn’t have suffered a complete collapse but was far from top 4 quality meaning Sweden also have to take a mention here. We have to look further down the scoreboard for our final nominee to find an option that a. wasn’t obvious and b. reached a higher ceiling than the rest of their choices and that brings me to Romania. WRS turned out to be a comfortable qualifier eventually whilst also dodging the bottom 5- somewhat turning around Romania’s poor form. Overall, Spain have to take this fairly comfortably, particularly considering their format being new and recent results.
Winner: Spain
Worst staging-
Nominees: Albania, Cyprus, France, Austria
Now for three of these nominees, I was at some point more optimistic than the average commentator and left disappointed. Albania and France can be taken a snapshot of and placed in the dictionary next to the word ‘messy’. Both needed frantic energy but came up short whilst the overall performances were dragged down too. Both also took steps back from national final form which gets them extra points. Cyprus’ NQ is something I was the last to the party on and perhaps I’m still overrating the song in a way by blaming the result all on the live performance- a charisma free dark package is not what was needed. Whilst not being as bad as feared perhaps, Austria still made a very poor first impression to viewers on the night with the overall package and becomes just the latest example of the genre struggling live. Albania narrowly top the pile for me with my initial reaction to the full rehearsal being a ‘why didn’t you tell me this was so bad”, to a source of mine having missed the first rehearsals.
“Winner”: Albania
Best Staging
Nominees: The UK, Czech Republic, Spain, Serbia
The UK and Spain both making the shortlist here seems like the ultimate opposites year particularly with The UK strolling the opposite category last year. The same general theme of improving on each showing was present with both showing the kind of considered approach both the BBC and RTVE have been severerly lacking in recent years. The Czech Republic quashed what qualification doubts existed with their first rehearsal bringing the big festival vibe extremely well. Serbia provided the strong progression, story telling and commitment necessary to make their niche work. Hopefully there’ll be further chances to give The UK the win here but I’ll not risk and having been won over completely by Sam Ryder after my initial poo-pooing that seems fair.
“Winner”: The UK
Flop of the Year
Nominees: Australia, Poland, Italy, France
As has become the norm, by finals night the market’s accuracy was pretty accurate so instead we consider this category more on earlier predictions. Australia spent much of the early season as the favourite with several highly regarded contenders/ rumours only to end up with the typical respecatble jury/awful televote score yet again. Ochman was also a name to get the market excited and ‘River’ kept that belief going for a little while however their eventual finish out of the top 10 was a big disappointment. Italy were seen as the likeliest winner or Ukraine’s biggest rival until rehearsals began only to miss the top 4 entirely. France were mainly seen around the top 10 region- lower for some, higher for others but went to being a last place tip which is quite the comedown on their runner-up position from last year. I don’t think anyone can argue with handing this one to our hosts all things considered with their longevity high in the odds compared to the other nominees.
“Winner”: Italy
False Hype of the Year
Nominees: Greece, San Marino, Australia, Finland
If there’s one thing the eurovision community rarely lacks it’s hype and much of that does indeed fall into the ‘false, variety. Greece and San Marino make returns as nominees after missing out last year, in part for post rehearsal hype but also for the early low odds and “big name” respectively. Australia were the most fancied country in the pre song days with the market and fans jumping on a few national final contenders before eventual representative Sheldon assumed the annual public snub. ‘The Rasmus’ representing Finland received some early interest and there was talk of an interesting stageshow which boiled down to some balloons. Greece can be satisfied with their jury score, but have to take this category for me for popping up not once but twice over the months.
“Winner” : Greece
Likeliest to Return
Nominees: Zdob si Zdub/ Advahov Borthers (Moldova), Mahmood/Blanco (Italy), Emma Muscat (Malta), Achille Lauro (San Marino)
The same caveat as last year applies- my post contest reading has been poor so let me know if these guesses are off in the comments below. Anyhow- San Marino and Malta will always be default nominees here due to their size though Emma is the more likely of the two given their relative careers and no I don’t really give Achille much chance of making it through San Remo. Moldova likewise are an easy guess and are sure to return to the Zdob si Zdub well at some point. Further San Remo participations from both Mahmood and Blanco (separately) are likely- so further participations can’t be ruled out and crucially provide two stabs at getting this right to provide a fairly obvious foursome of contenders. Overall, I’ll go for the boring option- in more ways than one-and give Malta a second successive victory in this category
Winner: Emma Muscat (Malta)
Shock of the year
Nominees: Ukraine’s televote score, North Macedonia’s 11th place in the semi, Azerbaijan’s televoting scores,Armenia’s streaming success
I’ve decided to branch this category out slightly from a pure finishing position perspective to give us a little more to discuss. For some, Ukraine’s televote total was the most predictable outcome but to see such a monumental total still came as a surprise and was of course unprecedented. Even with the caveat of semi 2s excluded votes- ‘Circles’ was pretty much a “put your house on it” NQ. Even if they were mathematically a way off still, to see them on the borderline still baffles a little. Azerbaijan has few natural allies in the contest and brought a very by the numbers ballad but receiving 0 and 3 points in the semis and finals is still a surprise all things considered. Usually these televote bombs are much more telegraphed. Now the line between massive success and being completely forgotten is always thin in my opinion and that’s particularly true when social media and tiktok is thrown into the mix but props to Rosa Linn for emerging with the best and widest charting statistics despite quite a middling result.
Winner: Armenia
Worst price of the year
Nominees: Poland @12 early February, Italy @4 late February, Australia @7.6 mid February, Bulgaria @ 10 Late February
Due to the ever shortening favourite of the year all of our nominees come from earlier in the season so there’s room for a bit more understanding perhaps, though a rule of thumb of anything hitting single figures making at the very least a strong run for a top 4/each way finish provides some real food for thought to anyone involved in the early season which can’t entirely be hand waved away by the circumstances of the year. That said, there’s not much use going over our nominees as there can’t be any winner other than Bulgaria with the whole Kostov tweet business sending the market into meltdown. Sure, nabbing some big prices for safety or dumping some dollar on a sportsbook *with cashout* was reasonable, sensible even. Chasing down to 10s with a 10,000-1 act in situ, it goes without saying, is not. At that price you’re pretty much taking the rumours at 100% face value, or even beyond. Anyway, it will probably be a long time until that is topped in the poor price category.
“Winner”: Bulgaria
Best Price of the year
Nominees: Ukraine @2.5ish mid April, Spain mid 30s during rehearsals, UK@13 late April, Sweden @16 early March
Good ‘ol hindsight tells us that this contest was indeed won on the 24th of February but I can’t really be having a fastest finger move on the day win the category. Having gave it much thought I’d have to go with mid April being the point to have jumped on Kalush- “main contender” Italy had started their miss-steps whilst participation and an ongoing war were looking the likeliest outcomes. Calculating a Cornelia win pre-selection, and jumping on the UK as Eurojury winners would have both returned good profits and I’d make them the main risk/reward times to get involved. Anyone fighting Spain’s drift out and trading during the final or snapping up generous double figure e/w odds would have been the most profitable however so this might be a rare time when the overall winner doesn’t take this category.
Winner: Spain
Personal Favourite:
Nominees: Serbia, Australia, The UK, Spain
Tackling these in the order I heard them- I always had a soft spot for Slo-Mo from the benidorm fest line-up release. ‘Not The Same’ is still powerfull in it’s studio version with it’s build and might just keep it’s spot in my favs despite the lives usually being key. ‘In Corpore Sano’ is one that I made a full 180 reversal on from being completely cold on at first. ‘Space Man’ was really brought to life for me other the season despite an average first impression and despite not winning is the entry that left the biggest impression of the year on me.
Winner: The UK
Personal Bottom:
Nominees: Switzerland, Georgia, Lithuania, Slovenia
It’s funny with Switzerland- it’s unpopularity (as in being almost dead last in fan polls) did seem harsh but then their televote 0 seemed the most predictable 0 ever and I too have it in the basement. There’s just something “off” about ‘Boys Do Cry’ that I can’t seem to find the words to express. ‘Lock Me In’ does nothing for me with it’s attempts at being zany and experimental giving Georgia a mention for the second year in a row here- buck up your ideas guys, I used to quite enjoy your efforts. Dated Lithuanian jazz/disco doesn’t do it for me but very dated Slovenian disco really doesn’t do it for me. Weakest semi final points tally well deserved.
“Winner”: Slovenia