Eurovision 2018 | The Facts And Stats From The Competition In Lisbon

As Eurovision 2018 has come to a close and with it, the full results from the final and both semi finals are released, and this is the perfect to look over some of the facts and statistics that the competition in Lisbon presented with us this year.

Firstly Germany and Italy both made it into the top five of the Grand final, this is the first time since 2015 a Big Five nation has cracked and the top five and also marks Italy's third top five result in the contest since their return in 2011, Michael Schulte's fourth place is also Germany's best result since their won the contest in 2010 and their highest placing since Roman Loeb back in 2012.

This year, Sweden suffered the biggest contrast in their jury and televote scoring, since the new system has come into affect in 2016, Benjamin Ingrosso actually scored their highest placing and points total in the jury, coming second with 253 points, however his televote score of 21 points is the lowest number received from the voting public in a Grand Final since 1992

Eurovision 2018 saw six countries which competed in the semi finals recieve points from every competing nation and automatic qualifier voting in their heat, in semi final one only two countries achieved this which were Czech Republic and Cyprus respectively, in semi final two, Denmark, Norway, Moldova and Ukraine all received points from every televoteing nation, out of the six countries, Denmark received the most 12s from the public, received the maximum 12 points from six nations, whereas Cyprus had the best average score from the televote out all 37 semi finalists with 7.8 points per voting country (in their heat). However with the jury vote, Norway was the only nation over the two semi finals to receive points from every single jury nation.

In terms of qualification records, things flipped on their heads somewhat. Russia, Azerbaijian and Romania all lost their perfect qualification records this year, leaving only Ukraine and Australia having qualified from the semi finals every year they have competed, Poland failed to make the final for the first time since they returned to contest, having qualified every year since 2014, Armenia were also absent from the final for the first time since 2013, having qualified the last five years, Belgium after three consecutive top tens also missed out on a spot in the final on Saturday for the first time since 2014.. As for ongoing non-qualifications, Switzerland, San Marino and Iceland all failed to qualify to the Grand Final for a fourth successive year, however Macedonia has the worst non-qualification streak after Eye Cue failure to make the final, makes is six years since their last appeared in a Grand Final, and 2012 being their only Grand Final appearance in the last 11 years.

It was good news for Finland and Ireland whoever, who broke their non-qualification streaks in Lisbon. Saara Aalto got the Nordic nation back into the final for the first time since 2014, and Ryan O'Shaughnessy was a surprise qualifier, as an outsider with the bookies, managed to qualify in 6th place, making the Emerald Isle's first appearance in the final since 2013, also Slovenia, Albania and Estonia all qualified having failed to do so in the 2016 and 2017 contests.

in the sense of the Grand Final, the leaderboard brought cause for celebration for some whilst sadness for others, firstly it was Israel's first victory in the contest in 20 years since Dana International won the trophy, but also Czech Republic and Cyprus scored their highest placings every in the contest, placing sixth for Czech Republic and second for Cyprus, elsewhere Albania scored their highest finish in the contest since 2012 and Ireland with their highest finish since 2011, Denmark broke into the top ten in the final for the host time since they hosted back in 2014 and Moldova for the first time in their history made the top ten in consecutive years, with DoReDoS' 10th place finish following on from SunStroke Project getting 3rd in 2017. On the other side of the coin however, Lisbon saw Australia finishing outside the top ten in their albeit short time in the contest, with Jessica Mauboy only achieving 20th overall and finishing rock bottom with the public vote, elsewhere Ukraine for the first time in their history in the contest failed to make the top ten for two consecutive years, with MELOVIN only placing 17th overall, despite placing within the top ten of the public vote, he only received 11 points from the jury, also despite getting them back into the final Saara Aalto's 25th place in the final is Finland join worst placing in the final, they've only placed that low on other occasion in 2009, when represented by Waldo's People. Also since their return to the competition in 2016, Bulgaria received their lowest placing of only 14th, putting them outside the top five for the first time in any other of their appearances in the Eurovision final. 2018 also marked the first time ever a semi final winner went on to finish on the right hand side of the scoreboard, which Alexander Rybak did, after winning the second semi final, went on to only place 15th in the final.

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