The Eurovision fandom are a unique and passionate bunch. But who exactly are they and why do they love the contest so much? We decided to investigate.... We put out a fan survey far and wide and received 417 responses from over 40 nations. Here are the results.
Where were the respondents from?
Being an Australian based site, our own nation was over represented but the majority of responses were from Europe.
We received:
240 responses from Europe
(UK - 96, Netherlands - 17, France - 13, Ireland - 11 Germany - 10, Spain -10)
135 responses from Australia
42 from the rest of the world
(USA - 20, Philippines - 7, New Zealand - 4)
Demographics
Fans were more likely to be young (38% are 18-24 and 75% under 35), Male (61%), LGBTIQ (58%) and single (68%).
Gathering all responses online will skew the results to be younger and therefore more likely to be single. However the results were particularly strong on these responses, so there appears to be a over representation ion the fandom of these. Full demographic responses below:
Male - 61%
Female - 38.5%
Non-binary - 0.5%
Under 18 - 13%
18-24 - 38%
25-34 - 24%
35-44 - 14%
45-54 - 9%
55+ - 1%
Heterosexual - 42%
Gay - 37%
Bisexual - 13%
Lesbian - 2%
Other identity - 6%
Single - 68%
Married - 8%
Defacto - 8%
Relationship - 15%
Other - 1%
What else are fans obsessed with?
We asked fans to rate how much they were into a few different interests. They rated on a 1-5 scale with 1 being no interest at all and 5 being obsessed.
Eurovision fans are most obsessed with:
Travel - 35%
Pop music - 22%
Trivia/quizzes - 18%
Olympics - 13%
Pop culture - 11%
Although individual sports didn't rate as high - big events like the Olympics (13%) and the Football World Cup (9%) performed well.
Topics that weren't on the list but were listed by the fans themselves were languages (11%) and reading (9%)
Fans are a knowledgable bunch
We asked the fandom to rate their knowledge of certain topics on a 1-5 scale of very low to very high. Fans rated themselves to have high or very high knowledge of:
Flags - 74%
Geography - 74%
Music trivia - 47%
History - 45%
All topics that have relevance to the Eurovision song contest.
Eurovision activities
We asked the fans how else they get involved with Eurovion other than watching the contest. These were:
Watch all the songs before the contest starts - 94%
Rewatch old Eurovision contests - 83%
Watch some of the national finals - 77%
Go to Eurovision parties - 38%
Host Eurovision parties - 30%
Watch all the national finals - 28%
Are a Eurovision fan club member - 28%
Have gone to the Eurovision Song Contest - 25%
Write for or run fan sites - 13%
Views on Australia in the contest
We asked fans if Australia should be in the contest..... these were the results:
Yes they should be in it permanently - 62%
Yes they should be in it until Eurovision Asia starts - 21%
Not sure - 10%
No - 6%
Now of course that does include all the Australians who responded. If we look at Europeans these were the results:
Yes they should be in it permanently - 57%
Yes they should be in it until Eurovision Asia starts - 22%
Not sure - 14%
No - 7%
So overall not hugely different. The nations most against competing were (only counting those with five responses or more):
Portugal - 25%
Lithuania - 20%
Ireland - 18%
Spain - 10%
USA - 10%
UK - 8%
Australia - 2%
Interestingly 50% of the four responses from New Zealand were against Australia competing.
Those against Australia competing were more likely to younger, straight, single with higher rates of females and those interested in sports. They were also more likely to be engaged with the Eurovision contest itself (45% had been to the contest).
Australian fans
We had some very different results from Australian fans. Generally they were older and were less engaged in the early months of Eurovision but at the pointy end of the actual contest were more engaged by going or partying during the week. Some more detailed results below:
Australians were more likely to be:
Older (47% were over 35, compared to 24% for all fans)
Male (64%)
LGBTIQ (63%)
Less likely to be single (47% compared to 68%)
More obsessed with travel (39% compared to 35%)
More likely to go to Eurovision parties (56% compared to 38%)
More likely to host parties (44%)
Less likely to watch national finals (64% compared to 77%)
Be a fan club member (44%) and have been to the contest (30%)
LGBTIQ fans
Fans from the LGBTIQ community have a reputation for being the more extreme of engaged fans. But other than being completely over represented in the respondents (58% compared to 5-10% of general popultaion), they only have slightly higher rates of:
Going to the contest - 29% compared to 25%
Watching all the national finals - 30% to 28%
Rewatching old contests - 88% to 83%
But they do over represent with parties - 45% to 38%
Thanks to everyone who helped complete our first Eurovision Fan Survey.