On New Year’s Eve, the voting results of 11,314 Eurovision fans were aired all day on ESC Radio. Votes came in from around the world to find the best Eurovision song at year end 2022. Just before midnight CET, we learned that despite getting some 6,000 more points than last year, Loreen had to settle for second place. Chanel‘s 35,367 points is more than double the 17,292 points that gave Loreen the victory in 2021.

Once songfestival.be released the complete results on New Year’s Day, the full scale of the impact of the votes for Spain became known. 28 Spanish and 28 Swedish songs cracked the top 500 list, however Spain received 8,122 more overall points to secure first place. With the results extended from 251st to 500th place, we find 2 entries from Andorra, two from Monaco, and Morocco‘s only entry, meaning all 52 participating nations in Eurovision history are now represented on the list.

What’s another year?

The Class of 2022 had the most songs on the ESC Top 250, with 28 of the 40 competing songs making the Top 250 list. Only 3 of the 25 in the Grand Final in Turin didn’t make the Top 250. Azerbaijan finished in 425th place, Germany held on for 446th place, while Switzerland finished somewhere outside the Top 500.

In the 66 editions of Eurovision since 1956, 48 of them had at least one entry in the Top 250. The 18 Contests without an entry all came from 1989 or earlier, meaning every year from the 1990s onward had some representation in the Top 250. The 2010s alone featured 92 songs, or about 37% of the list. Here is a breakdown by decade:

Countries on the move

The Netherlands raised eyebrows during the ESC250 broadcast. “‘t Is O.K.” by Harmony (1978) got 0 points and tied for last (1,582nd place) in 2021, and shot up to 250th this year, opening the program. That catapulted the Netherlands to take first place when we compare the ‘movement’ of all songs combined. The seven Dutch songs in the top 250 moved up an astounding 3,060 points!

On the one hand, Greece had 12 songs in the top 250 that featured last year – all moved up this year for a total jump of 1,109 spots. No other country had as many entries without at least one song losing ground.

On the other hand, some countries saw their fortunes change. Sweden, for example, had 25 songs in the top 250 last year, however this time, only 17 made it that high. Sweden’s most recent winner Måns Zelmerlöw was also pushed out of the top 20, down 9 spots this year to 25th overall.

Now with the full results released, the biggest drop from last year is Moje 3’s Ljubav je svuda (🇷🇸 2013) which was 88th, and only finished in 435th place in this poll. That’s a drop of 347 places! Within the Top 250, the biggest drops came from 2021. Both Lithuania and Moldova‘s entries dropped by 137 spots each.

Some Surprises

• Entries with media attention this year saw big gains: Several songs appear to have gotten boosts from some extra time in the spotlight this year. Zdob și Zdub came second in the televote in Turin this year, and in ESC250, their 2005 song Boonika bate toba rose 488 places this year! Samantha Janus‘ 1991 song A Message to Your Heart rose 278 places, in a year where she openly discussed her health issues. Similarly, Iva Zanicchi made news in Italy back in February, as she performed at her 11th Sanremo Festival (her first since 2009). In ESC250, her 1969 entry Due grosse lacrime bianche jumped 597 places to hit 224th overall.
• Dutch delight: The Netherlands had 3 songs that blew up the charts for no apparent reason. Harmony’s ‘t Is OK finished 13th in Paris 1978, Xandra’s Colorado came 12th in Jerusalem 1979, while Maxine and Franklin Brown’s De eerste keer came 7th in Oslo 1996. Not spectacular results for ‘classic’ songs, but they stormed the ESC250 vote this year, getting 685, 713, and 691 points respectively. In fact, they all performed better than 12 of 2022’s 40 songs.
• Where is Olivia Newton John?: Given the media attention surrounding Olivia’s death in August 2022, one might have expected Long Live Love to appear in the chart this year. However, the song was not in the Top 500, and has not charted in this poll since it was 229th place back in 2008.
• Little love for Lys: Lys Assia’s Refrain, Eurovision’s first winner from 1956, came 772nd (down from 587th in 2021), while her second song (Das alte Karussell) from 1956 only got 3 points, good enough for 1,322nd place.
• Just random: 368th place (The Netherlands 1975) got 369 points, while 369th place (Azerbaijan 2013) got 368 points!

What did you find interesting about the ESC250 results this year? You can let us know below in the comments or on our social media @escbubble!