Countries have dominated or had successful periods during the history of Eurovision. Ireland dominated the 90s, Luxembourg won several times in the 60s and 70s, Israel had a good run in the late 70s into the early 80s as did Ukraine, Greece and Turkey in the 2000s
But which nation will be the best of 2010s? And how exactly do we work this out?
With a changing points system - total points received by a country are out. That leaves two options:
1. The average position the country received over the years it competed
2. Give 12, 10, 8 points down to 1 for each top 10 of each year.
We polled our Twitter followers and they voted for average position.... so let's look at that first.... and the winner is....
Australia!
Full rankings below:
1. Australia 5.33
2. Russia 6.57
3. Sweden 7.25
4. Ukraine 9.00
5. Italy 9.14
6. Azerbaijan 9.63
7. Romania 11.29
8. Turkey 12.67
9. Armenia 13.86
10. Hungary 15.43
11. Serbia 16.14
12. Denmark 16.63
13. Greece 16.75
14. Germany. 16.88
15. Bosnia 17.00
16. Belgium 17.25
17. France 17.63
18. Norway 18.13
19. Spain 19.00
20. Georgia 19.88
21. UK 2.00
22. Moldova 20.50
23. Bulgaris 21.50
24. Austria 21.57
25. Netherlands 22.00
26. Lithuania 22.13
27. Poland 23.00
28. Malta 23.24
29. Estonia 24.00
30. Iceland 24.75
30. Israel 24.75
32. Belarus 24.88
33. Ireland 25.38
34. Portugal 25.50
35. Cyprus 25.86
36. Albania 25.88
37. Finland 27.00
38. Croatia 27.33
39. Montenegro 27.33
40. Slovenia 29.99
41. Czech Republic 30.67
42. FYR Macedonia 30.75
42. Switzerland 30.75
43. Latvia 30.88
44. San Marino 33.71
45. Slovakia 35.00
It doesn't seem quite fair does it? A country that has only competed three times and never won is the best? It's like Wozniacki or Halep being tennis world no.1 without a grand slam title or Belgium being the highest ranked football team in the world. All great quality but without a big win... I don't think we can claim them to be the best.
So let's look at what the leaderboard looks like if we do Eurovision scoring of Top 10s for each year.
And the winner is.....
Sweden!
Full rankings below
1. Sweden 52
2. Russia 38
3. Azerbaijan 35
4. Ukraine 33
5. Italy 29
6. Denmark 27
7. Belgium 20
8. Australia 18
9. Bulgaria 17
10. Germany 16
11. Armenia 15
12. Norway 14
12. Turkey 14
14. Austria 12
14. Greece 12
14. Netherlands 12
14. Portugal 12
14. Romania 12
19. Hungary 10
20. Estonia 9
20. Serbia 9
22. Moldova 8
23. Albania 6
24. Bosnia 5
24. France 5
24. Latvia 5
27. Georgia 4
28. Ireland 3
28. Malta 3
28. Poland 3
29. Israel 2
29. Lithuania 2
29. Spain 2
A special shout out must go to Azerbaijan who is the only nation outside the big four who have been in the final of each year since 2010.
Additionally Australia, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Ukraine have made it every year they have tried in the 2010s.
What do you think is fairer and who do you think has been the best nation?