The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.
It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country’s victory at the 2018 contest with the song “Toy” by Netta.
Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan), the contest was held at Expo Tel Aviv, and consisted of two semi-finals on 14 and 16 May, and a final on 18 May 2019.
The three live shows were presented by Israeli television presenters Erez Tal, Assi Azar and Lucy Ayoub, and Israeli model Bar Refaeli.
Forty-one countries participated in the contest, with Bulgaria and Ukraine not returning after their participation in the previous edition. Members of Bulgaria’s delegation had been moved to other projects, while Ukraine, which had originally planned to participate, ultimately withdrew as a result of a controversy surrounding its national selection.
The winner was the Netherlands with the song “Arcade”, performed by Duncan Laurence and written by Laurence along with Joel Sjöö, Wouter Hardy and Will Knox.
The EBU reported that the contest had an audience of 182 million viewers in 40 European markets, a decrease of 4 million viewers from the previous edition. However, an increase of two percent in the 15–24 year old age range was reported.
The lead-up to the contest was met with controversy on multiple fronts, primarily on issues surrounding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict – this eventually led to demonstrations by interval act performer Madonna and Icelandic entrants Hatari during the broadcast of the final.
I put money on Australia after SF1, and I think the draw has been kind. Netherlands is possibly a threat, as is Switzerland, but I can’t see either Russia or Sweden challenging now. I think Iceland will be Top 5 too.
The Netherlands squeezed between Cyprus and Greece will standout as calm between the madness.
Australia at 25 is too late in the running order. It is, if I remember correctly, the same position Cyprus had in 2018.
Russia has no chance what so ever.
Italy at 22nd, that’s interesting. Netta won from that position but I am not sure about why they put them right after France
The running order puts to rest the urban myth about Germany and EBU having and agreement about Germany’s placing in case of 1st half draw
2nd place from both 2018 (Cyprus) and 2017 (Bulgaria) sung from second last. Dima Bilan won from second last position in 2008. Back in the 20th Century the UK’s last win was from second last, and 7 different winners performed last, so I don’t agree that there is such a thing as “too late” to perform. There’s also several recentexamples of semi-final winners from last or second last.
I do firmly believe that recency does have an effect on results, perhaps not a huge effect but often enough to determine whether a song can win or not. But some of those runaway winners of the past (e.g. Norway 2009) would have won even if performed in the famed second place.