A grand total of 26 acts will be competing to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö tonight. The all important jury rehearsal took place on Friday night and, like on Monday and Wednesday, the team of the Eurovision 2024 Audience Poll was present outside the arena to ask the general public attending the show the all important question: Who was your favourite? The answer was a clear victory for Switzerland’s Nemo.
Nemo takes the lead ahead of tonight’s Grand Final
In this year’s final Eurovision Audience Poll, run by a collective of six fan media platforms (ESCXTRA.com, ESC Insight, The Euro Trip Podcast, That Eurovision Site, 12 Points From America and OGAE Sweden), Nemo claimed a resounding victory after narrowly topping the poll for Semi-Final 2 on Wednesday. In the Malmö Arena, the audience resonated with Switzerland’s ‘The Code’. This turned into 716 votes, (21.73%). At the top of the chasing pack, by some distance, is Croatia in second place. Baby Lasagna amassed 637 votes, (19.33%). A good result for the winner of the first Audience Poll on Monday.
Meanwhile, in third place is The Netherlands. Holding its solid Audience Poll position throughout the week with 279 votes, (8.74%). However, the surprise package of the week, Ireland was not far off the podium. After shocking everyone with second place in the first Audience Poll, Bambie Thug’s Doomsday Blue bewitched the crowd again to earn 266 votes, (8.07%).
Following behind, we see the jury favourite, France with 6.10%. Next, we see the crowd pleasers of the show, Spain (5.40%) and Austria (4.55%). The remainder of the top ten consisted of, Italy (3%), Ukraine (2.61%) and Israel (2.49%). Only two votes clear of Greece in 11th with 2.43%. The lowest placement for an automatic qualifier was Germany in 20th place with 0.94%.
As is typical for a crowd that wants to party, the ballads underperformed with the voting audience. At the bottom of the table are, Portugal (0.67%), Latvia (0.58%) and Serbia (0.27%). In last place with 5 votes is Slovenia (0.15%).
In total, 3295 votes were cast outside the Malmö Arena yesterday.
Analysing the Grand Final results
Compared to previous expectations from bookmakers, fans and the ESCXTRA.com Press Poll, there are some surprising conclusions. Comparing the two polls tells us that the battle between Switzerland and Croatia seems to be on. Yet, throughout the week this gap has narrowed. Croatia dominated the first Audience Poll of the week, with Switzerland only beating The Netherlands by one vote in the second poll on Wednesday. Last night, the tables turned once again. Switzerland ended the night with a clear 79 vote margin over Croatia. Outlining the volatile nature of trying to predict the outcome of this contest for fans and pundits alike.
Of course, it must be noted that yesterday due to an ongoing incident, The Netherlands were unable to perform live in the evening jury rehearsal. Instead, the Semi-Final 2 performance was shown on screens throughout the arena and to the voting jury members. Today, the EBU have confirmed that Joost has been disqualified from tonight’s Grand Final.
The success story of every Press Poll and Audience Poll this week is undoubtedly, Ireland. Tonight, Bambie Thug and the delegation will be hoping the luck of the Irish is with them to turn these podium challenging results into a good result in the grand final following many difficult years for the nation with the joint most Eurovision victories tied with Sweden on seven.
Another contender to consider is France. Slimane placed fifth in both of yesterday’s polls. The highest placing traditional ballad. If you take the Audience Poll as an indicator of the televote, it suggests there is an opportunity for a ballad to cut through the noise and appeal to the voting viewers.
There’s a big difference between the Press Poll and the Audience Poll when we look at Spain. Nebulossa scored a solid sixth place with the audience in Malmö, but had to settle for 16th with the accredited press. Likewise, Austria placed seventh with the audience and only 15th with the press. It’s looking the other way around for both Portugal and the Lithuania: Iolanda came 23rd with the Audience Poll, but tenth with the Press Poll. For Silvester Belt, it’s 18th and eighth. Highlighting their likelihood to receive appreciation from the voting jury.
Finally, we turn to the host nation Sweden. The hosts are opening the show later tonight with ‘Unforgettable’. However, the home crowd only managed to place Marcus & Martinus in 15th. A surprise, when Swedish fans rank in second place for overall ticket sales. Often we see low placements for host entries, will that trend continue tonight?
The Eurovision Audience Poll thanks you!
The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will take place tonight at 20:00 BST. Twenty-six acts will battle for Eurovision glory. Make sure you tune in to find out who will take the trophy home and to see where we’ll be travelling for Eurovision next year!
On behalf of the six partaking fan media platforms ESCXTRA.com, ESC Insight, The Euro Trip Podcast, That Eurovision Site, 12 Points From America and OGAE Sweden, we would like to thank you all for your interest and engagement with these second Eurovision Audience Polls. It is safe to say: We will be back next year!
