The Conversation (0)
Jordan Waller
May 19, 2019
The UK came in last position at the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in almost a decade and people think the reason is political.
The singing competition, which took place in Israel last night, was won by the Netherland’s entry and bookies favourite Duncan Laurence.
The winning song Arcade secured victory with 492 points. A stark contrast to the UK who only managed to muster 16 points for their entry sung by Michael Rice.
Rice’s song Bigger Than Us was selected by a public vote earlier this year was down at odds of 150-1 to win prior to the competition, 12-1 to get nil points and shockingly 4-1 to finish last. So, good calls all around there.
The UK has finished second a record 15 times and has the record for the longest running string of Top 5 placings. This is the first time the UK has come last in the contest since 2010, where the dubious honour was taken by Josh Dubovie and their (unanimously voted awful) song That Sounds Good To Me.
The last time that the UK won the infamous European singing competition was in 1997 when they took the top spot with Katrina and the Waves' performance of Love Shine A Light.
Many took to social media to blame Brexit for our such an embarrassing placing.
Others thought it was a case of art imitating life
And then there were those who thought our terrible finishing position was more likely due to the fact we entered a terrible song
And some people just thought it was typical of the UK to come up with an elaborate excuse
Still, some people just thought it confirmed Brexit was a good idea
Here’s the final positions for all the 2019 Eurovision entrees:
Netherlands: Duncan Laurence - Arcade - 492
Italy: Mahmood – Soldi - 465
Russia: Sergey Lazarev - Scream - 369
Switzerland: Luca Hanni - She Got Me - 360
Norway: KEiiNO - Spirit in the Sky - 338
Sweden: John Lunvik - Too Late for Love - 332
Azerbaijan: Chingiz - Truth - 297
North Macedonia: Tamara Todevska - Proud - 295
Australia: Australia: Kate Miller-Heidke – Zero Gravity - 285
Iceland: Hatari – Hatrið mun sigra - 234
Czech: Lake Malawi – Friend of a Friend - 157
Denmark: Leonora - Love is Forever - 120
Slovenia: Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl – Sebi - 105
France: Bilal Hassani – Roi - 105
Cyprus: Tamta: Replay - 101
Malta: Michaela Pace- Chameleon - 95
Serbia: Nevena Božović – Kruna - 92
Albania: Jonida Maliqi- Ktheju Tokes - 90
Estonia: Victor Crone – Storm - 86
San Marino: Serhat – Say Na Na Na - 81
Greece: Katerine Duska – Better Love - 71
Spain: Miki – La venda - 60
Israel: Kobi Marimi – Home - 47
Germany: Sisters - Sister - 32
Belarus: Zena - Like It - 31
United Kingdom: United Kingdom: Michael Rice - Bigger Than Us - 16