[LMBTO] OGAE SCC 2016 Results - Eurovision 2016 comes to a close...

First up, a pleasant introduction to the wonderfully picturesque vision of Siena plus the stereotypical warm-up by our hosts for the 'evening'!  It was also nice to see the promo video for Nek and "Fatti avanti amore" which gave Italy the opportunity to stage this year's contest - any other year and we could have seen Nek vying for a Eurovision win but if you are in Sanremo alongside Il Volo, you've got a tough time ahead!  As the guy in the vid said, 23 countries this year were competing for the title, including (for the first time since I have been a juror) my own nation, the UK.  The recap was very Eurovision, all apart from any voting numbers at the bottom!  It all reinforced how I voted, to be fair - nothing would change how I placed all the songs and it was very interesting to see how the other 32 OGAE clubs (plus the UK) decided to allocate their points.  I liked the geographical links around the continent - I wonder if Australia will ever be invited to this Contest, as that would have stretched the budget with the red line...

The spokespeople were a variety as always - we actually had The Hungry Hearts for Norway awarding the first marks!  Such irony after the dread I felt about how well they would do!  The first set of votes were encouraging for my favourites (Margaret and Anja getting 8 and 7 respectively) and Germany's Avantasia getting ten hinted at possibly a soft rock double after Nek but Italy with twelve points?  I had that right down the bottom of my voting list - different strokes, I suppose:
The next vote of note was that of Finland - the first time that Margaret topped the leaderboard and the first of two 12s for Norway.  Poland had yet to get a 12 but their regular top three placings were keeping "Cool Me Down" there or thereabouts.  It was obviously too early to tell what was going to happen but as a Brit, I was already starting to realise that we weren't going to win:
Although Poland were generous enough as jury number four to ensure that we didn't end up with no points:
Thank you for that!  They were also the first jury to give The Hardkiss from Ukraine any points, starting them off with their douze point!  Belarus followed up this effort with a repeat top score to Ukraine and all of a sudden they were back in the game.  No one after five juries was pulling away from the rest of the pack on their own, although Poland and Sweden had given themselves almost a 'jury gap' from third place Norway.  I didn't really get the love for Wiktoria either but I suppose it was Sweden and they are the masters of the SCC!  At this stage there would have been an early thumbs up from Ms. Johansson:
There were still no votes yet for three of my points scorers (Albania, Austria and Slovenia) - my musical tastes really do seem to differ with a lot of the OGAE membership!  But who is right?  Silly question...

Spain awarded Margaret her first twelve points, six juries in, but what this set of scores triggered was Israel's 'purple patch' this year, with ten consecutive 'podium finishes' up until their jury vote as 15 out of 33.  Norway received their second and last 12 points from Germany who were jury 7 - with hindsight, third place ten points behind the leader was the highest point of the night for The Hungry Hearts feat. Lisa Dillan.

We rapidly reached jury eleven and a third of the way through - a few things were obvious this year that made the 2016 Contest different to the previous two years:
First, everyone had points already!  Secondly, Albania had just doubled our score in the UK and thirdly there were three acts out in front but not by much - there were a chasing pack of four who could still come back into contention with the right scores.  At this stage, it was still anyone's game - Israel's Ella Daniel helping keep Margaret honest:
Next up was the UK jury and this gave me the opportunity to see if I at least matched up with my fellow country people - the answer on the whole was no, although I and most other UK Eurovision fans readily endorse Gary's words about still loving Europe.  How did my placings compare with the rest of the UK jurors?


At least my liking Margaret was spot on!  That was where my similarity in musical tastes finished - only Denmark appearing in the final UK placings and the rest of my preferences nowhere!  As for our placings as a whole, Israel was a surprise to be there at all and definitely as second.  A decent dance track yes but not a strong entrant for this contest at all in my opinion but as the voting across Europe was going on, it seemed as though I was a minority with that view.  I was NOT surprised in the slightest that the OGAE jurors had placed 'Laika' so highly with its LGBT battle cry and that being picked up on by our members, most of which are LGBT themselves.  I just considered it a comedy entry, of novelty value only but even I realised that it was going to be popular but even I was surprised that it didn't get 12 from the UK!  Estonia in sixth place was also a shock for me - I had "Supersonic" down in my bottom five...

Halfway through the voting found us at Israel giving out their scores during their OGAE meet - I've seen these three  hosts before, Gili always catching my eye:
"Cool Me Down" was pulling in the big points now, with the Albanian score being the first podium of TEN out of twelve juries - at halfway, Margaret had a 22 point lead at the top and a 35 point gap to third.  Unless OGAE Italy had used a similar algorithm to the EBU to make things exciting, there was the possibility that even now Poland's lead might be big enough to secure them the win.

Four juries on and we in the UK got a massive buzz, as big as Malta giving Joe & Jake twelve jury points in Stockholm - Luxembourg gave Bianca a 12 too:
Thank you very much - that probably secured our mid-table finish on its own!  The UK were the lowest placed nation to get top marks from a jury and in the end only one of seven nations to get a 12.  Interesting stuff but Poland had an even more commanding lead now - 33 points clear of the second place nation.  Remember that stat, you may see and hear it later on...

Two juries on and Russia bucked the trend of all but one other jury (Estonia) by giving Poland NOTHING, nada, nought.  This, along with 12 for Sweden suddenly pulled Margaret back into the pack and maybe hinted at something resembling a tense last third of the voting but this was rapidly quashed by the time we reached Denmark who gave Margaret her ninth 12:
At this stage, it was only mathematically possible for four nations to win the OGAE SCC 2016 and Italy would drop out of that scenario after the next jury vote - there was really no tension in the scoring at this stage, merely inevitability of Poland winning this year, unless some twist was in store for us, courtesy of OGAE Italy.  Podium finishes now would be enough for Margaret but it seemed that 90% of OGAE fans across Europe were of the same mind, although four juries out the gap between the only possible winners was just 15 points:
Portugal, Latvia, Andorra and Romania were the last four nations to vote - could Sweden eliminate the gap and win for the 15th time or could Poland hang on and gain their maiden victory?  Portugal totally gave the advantage back to Margaret, giving her 8 and Wiktoria no points at all, whereas Latvia gave 8 and 10, leaving a 21 point gap with two juries left.  Almost all over - the tiny state of Andorra had the privilege of announcing the votes that gave us the winner of the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2016:
Giving 8 to Wiktoria clinched the win for Margaret, which was made more emphatic by Poland being given top marks by Andorra and the last jury, Romania.  Realistically, Poland winning this year had been on the cards all along and Margaret had been in the lead since we in the UK had given our votes as jury 12 but it had not been a runaway win like Loreen, more like an expected but gradual victory for Emmelie De Forest.  The final scores were read out by a former Eurovision participant, Mihai:
And so we had the final placings of the SCC 2016, the last piece of business associated with Stockholm and the 2016 season:
I still felt that this could have so easily been what could have happened in Stockholm but at least the many Eurovision fans who felt the same way as I did can now have some consolation that Poland will be hosting a Contest next year!  The victory was well deserved - eleven top marks, four tens, nine 8s and all bar two juries giving Margaret points demonstrated her dominance this year.  The OGAE Italy video was slick and well produced and closed with a 'reprise performance' by the winning entry:



My thoughts on this year's Contest?

• I am absolutely delighted that my favourite won in the end - we really missed something in Stockholm when this failed to qualify and this was different enough to have won.  Admittedly Margaret's vocals weren't top notch at her NF but a few months of endless rehearsals and tours, combined with lots of PR that would have been inevitable (given the genre of music and her looks), would have put her out front;
• I was majorly surprised that Anja Nissen did so poorly, only finishing 12th with 68 points, getting one paltry ten - an entry that for some reason didn't gel with OGAE members across Europe.  Maybe they prefered Lighthouse X...
• As per usual, my preferences were totally at odds with other OGAE members, even my own UK jurors!  I have to say that I didn't see Israel doing so well but I did foresee one of the top five being Norway - not to my taste I'm afraid and I'm probably not the demographic that the song was written to appeal to;
• As for the UK, Bianca finishing 13th with a 12 from OGAE Luxembourg is a decent result and hopefully another NF in 2017 will give us a good selection of entries to enter into the OGAE SCC next year.