Achievements in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest

The new leaderboard

This year, there has been an addition to the 'Eurovision leaderboard' podium. Aside from Ireland, which holds on to the gold for one more year with their 7 victories, and Sweden, who maintains its silver with 6 wins, the Netherlands joins France, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom in the bronze medalist category with 5 victories each.

The Netherlands was one of the seven original participants of the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1956 and the last time they won was in 1975 with Teach In's Ding-A-Dong, no less than 44 years ago.

Smalltown boy's big hit

It has been confirmed now that, in its 13th week on the chart, Arcade is the most popular Dutch Eurovision song in the history of the Dutch Top 40 chart, surpassing former leader Birds by Anouk. So far, Arcade has been at the top of the list for four weeks, equal time to four other Eurovision hits in the Netherlands: Vicky Leandros' Après Toi, Cliff Richard's Congratulations and Power To All our Friends, and Nicole's Ein Bisschen Frieden.

At this stage in the history of the Dutch Top 40, there is only one Eurovision song that was even more successful: Euphoria by Loreen, which spent 26 weeks on the Dutch charts in 2012. Internationally, Arcade entered the charts in no less than 20 countries, peaking at #2 in the Euro Digital Song Sales, according to Billboard.

Italy's quest for gold

Italy has won the Eurovision Song Contest twice, but this year, instead of a third victory, Mahmood's Soldi secured a second place for Italy for the third time in Eurovision history.

In 1974, Gigliola Cinquetti, who previously gave her country its first victory ten years before with the classic Non ho l'età, landed at second placing with Si, behind no other than ABBA with Waterloo. Italy's return to the competition after withdrawing from 13 contests (1998-2010) was rewarded with another number 2 for Raphael Gualazzi and his Madness Of Love.

In this particularly successful comeback to the contest, with seven Top 10 finishers out of nine participations, Italy is yet to win Eurovision after Mahmood's and Gualazzi's runner-up ranks and Il Volo's third placing in 2015.

After having conquered the Italian charts following its Sanremo win, Soldi is on its way to becoming an international hit, entering the Top 10 in almost ten other countries. It has also accumulated more than 120 million views on YouTube.

Sergey's second bronze is Russia's fourth

Russia's Sergey Lazarev had the most successful Eurovision comeback this year, among the returning artists in the 2019 competition. In 2016, Sergey Lazarev placed third with You Are The Only One, and this year he managed to get the same place with Scream, giving Russia their 9th Top 3 result out of 21 participations - a record in recent times. It is the 4th time that Russia places 3rd. They also finished 2nd on four occasions, adding to Dima Bilan's victory in 2008.

This is not the first time that the same artist has finished in 3rd place twice: Germany's Katja Ebstein placed 3rd in 1970 and then again in 1971. She eventually came back to the Eurovision Song Contest one more time, and placed 2nd in 1980, in a contest that was held in the Netherlands. Will Sergey be hungry for victory enough to try to do one better next year?

Back on top after 26 years

For those who think it's always the same countries that do well in Eurovision, let us remind them that Arcade marks the first victory for the Netherlands in 44 years and that Switzerland was welcomed in the Top 5 after 26 years. The last time Switzerland was seen amongst the top five was in 1993 when Annie Cotton placed 3rd with her song Moi, Tout Simplement.

Luca Hänni's 4th place finish with She Got Me is Switzerland's second Top 10 placing so far this century. The other time they managed that list was in Kyiv in 2005 with Vanilla Ninja's Cool Vibes, which ended in 8th place. It is also the 4th time that the country qualified for the Grand Final since 2004. This is quite an achievement, rewarded by finding hit-status at home. She Got Me has been topping the Swiss charts for three weeks now and has made appearances in the charts of twelve other countries!

Never too late for another Top 5

As proved by this year's ranking, once jury and televotes votes were added and corrected, it wasn't too late for another Top 5 finish for Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. Too Late For Love placed 5th, the 10th time Sweden managed that ranking and the 25th time they made it to a Top 5 spot. In 41 occasions out of 59 participations, Sweden has finished in the Top 10, a Eurovision record paralleled only by the United Kingdom.

With two victories, Euphoria and Heroes, and eight Top 10 placings, Sweden is the most successful country this decade. John Lundvik also reached the #1 position in the charts at home; Too Late For Love has been the most successful song in Sweden for four weeks and is making an impact in the charts of seven other countries.

Best ever

Besides the Netherlands, this year's contest saw two other countries manage their best placement so far in the competition.

It was Tamara Todevska's second participation as a lead artist, representing North Macedonia. In 2008, Tamara, alongside Vrčak and Adrian, lost her spot in the Grand Final with Let Me Love You, due to the Jury vote. However, she was the Proud winner of the Jury vote in 2019, ultimately placing 7th and giving her country its best placing to date in the Grand Final.

Until 2019, the country participated under the name F.Y.R. Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), and their best result was 12th, thanks to Elena Risteska's Ninanajna. The country debuted in 1998 and had a flawless qualifying record in the years where there was only one Semi-Final (2004-2007). Since the introduction of the two Semi-Finals, however, they've only reached the Grand Final in 2012 with Crno I Belo by Kaliopi.

The other country that secured their highest ranking to date is San Marino, which made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 and had made it to the Grand Final only once, in 2014, when Valentina Monetta took to the stage with Maybe (Forse). Serhat tried to qualify in 2016 with I Didn't Know, but placed 12th in the Semi-Finals. He got his revenge this year when Say Na Na Na reached the 19th spot in the Grand Final.

Other achievements

This year's ranking saw even more achievements:

After Ukraine withdrew from the competition, Australia was the only country left participating with a perfect qualifying record, and they managed to reach the Grand Final for their 4th time. Kate Miller-Heidke won the first Semi-Final with Zero Gravity and placed 9th in the Grand Final.

Iceland's Hatari snuck into the Top 10 at the Grand Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with Hatriđ Mun Sigra, the 6th time that Iceland reached the Top 10 since their debut in 1986. It was also the first time in 5 years that the country qualified from the Semi-Finals.

Iceland continues to deliver the largest viewing share of any market at 98.4%. With the country's Grand Final performance, Icelandic broadcaster RUV enjoyed their best viewing share in 5 years.

The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, on the 14th, 16th and 18th of May. Re-live the first Semi-Final, second Semi-Final and Grand Final, or subscribe to our Youtube channel.