ESC 250 2020 - the results by numbers

So there it is - the annual Eurovision Song Contest Top 250 countdown, lovingly referred to as the ESC250, has taken us into 2021 with 'Euphoria' claiming the crown.

But being the stats nerd I am, here's some more interesting facts and figures to come out of this year's countdown:

Country representation

Whereas Italy has finished with the most entries in the countdown in recent years, this year was a rather different affair - a tie. Italy and Sweden finished with 14 entries apiece, with Spain close behind on 13.

Australia managed three entries in this year's countdown, while Monaco, Andorra and Morocco were the only nations that went unrepresented.

A larger list:

• Italy - 14

• Sweden - 14

• Spain - 13

• Germany - 10

• Greece - 10

• Norway - 10

• Portugal - 10

• Turkey - 9

• Ukraine - 9

• Azerbaijan - 8

• Iceland - 8

• Israel - 8

• France - 7

• Estonia - 6

• Netherlands - 6

• Russia - 6

• Serbia - 6

• Switzerland - 6

• Albania - 5

• Armenia - 5

• Finland - 5

• Ireland - 5

• United Kingdom - 5

Decade representation

A common expression on Twitter around ESC250 time is 'recency bias' - in reference to the well-studied psychological phenomenon where an individual is more likely to view something favourably if you've encountered it more, well, recently.

In an ESC250 context it's often used to bemoan the large representation of entries from within the preceding decade - and this happened again in 2020. The 2010s were king in this year's countdown, with 117 entries from the decade just gone making up 47% of the countdown. The full rankings were as follows:

• 2010s - 117 (47%)

• 1990s - 42 (17%)

• 2000s - 39 (16%)

• 2020s - 20 (8%)

• 1980s - 16 (6%)

• 1970s - 10 (4%)

• 1960s - 5 (2%)

• 1950s - 1 (0.4%)

2020 - the lost year

It was a point of discussion as to whether 2020 entries would be eligible to be voted for in this year's countdown – and in the end, it was decided that they would be. 20 of this year's official entries qualified for the countdown, just under half of the overall 41 entries. This is down on last year, where 25 of the 41 songs that competed in 2019 made it. The twenty songs that qualified were:

8. Diodato - Fai rumore (Italy 2020)

16. Daði og Gagnamagnið - Think About Things (Iceland 2020)

26. Victoria - Tears Getting Sober (Bulgaria 2020)

31. Gjon's Tears - Répondez-moi (Switzerland 2020)

40. The Roop - On Fire (Lithuania 2020)

46. Ulrikke - Attention (Norway 2020)

75. Efendi - Cleopatra (Azerbaijan 2020)

85. The Mamas - Move (Sweden 2020)

99. Little Big - Uno (Russia 2020)

120. Go_A - Solovey (Ukraine 2020)

137. Ben Dolic - Violent Thing (Germany 2020)

142. Hurricane - Hasta la Vista (Serbia 2020)

149. Destiny - All Of My Love (Malta 2020)

153. Arilena Ara - Fall From the Sky (Albania 2020)

177. Samanta Tīna - Still Breathing (Latvia 2020)

180. Roxen - Alcohol You (Romania 2020)

182. Jeangu Macrooy - Grow (Netherlands 2020)

189. Athena Manoukian - Chains on You (Armenia 2020)

207. Damir Kedžo - Dvilji vjetre (Croatia 2020)

242. Montaigne - Don't Break Me (Australia 2020)

Risers and fallers

A number of songs came out from the ESC250 wilderness to grace our ears this year. Some of these even made their ESC250 in this edition of the countdown. Check out the top 5 here:

1. MFÖ - 'Sufi' (Turkey 1988) (1131st → 184th, 947 places)

2. Aud Wilken - 'Fra Mols til Skagen' (Denmark 1995) (563rd → 193rd, 370 places)

3. Jurij Veklenko - 'Run with the Lions' (Lithuania 2019) (599th → 239th, 360 places)

4. MeKaDo - 'Wir geben 'ne Party' (Germany 1994) (545th → 221st, 324 places)

5. Paloma San Basilio - 'La fiesta terminó' (Spain 1985) (500th → 188th, 312 places)

Meanwhile, a number of songs rose and fell from the top 100. Earning a double-digit placing is one of the higher honours on offer in the countdown, so a shift in or out of the top 100 is a memorable moment, good or bad, for fans of a given song. Some of these included:

Risers:

• Mélovin - 'Under the Ladder' (Ukraine 2018) (144th → 62nd, rose 82 places)

• Beth - 'Dime' (Spain 2003) (107th → 50th, rose 57 places)

• Jalisse - 'Fiumi di parole' (Italy 1997) (121st → 67th, rose 54 places)

• Azúcar Moreno - 'Bandido' (Spain 1990) (122nd → 71st, rose 51 places)

• Doris Dragović - 'Marija Magdalena' (Croatia 1999) (103rd → 56th, rose 47 places)

Fallers:

• Nox - 'Forogj, világ!' (Hungary 2005) (98th → 227th, 129 places)

• John Lundvik - 'Too Late for Love' (Sweden 2019) (89th → 200th, 111 places)

• Moje 3 - 'Ljubav je svuda' (Serbia 2013) (61st → 167th, 106 places)

• Amir - 'J'ai cherché' (France 2016) (64th → 128th, 64 places)

• Tamara Todevska - 'Proud' (North Macedonia 2019) (65th → 122nd, 57 places)

Songs that missed out

A number of entries that ranked highly in last year's countdown failed to even qualify this year. In total, 55 entries reached the Top 250 last year but were unheard in 2020's edition. Among these were:

• Silvia Night - Congratulations (Iceland 2006) (106th in 2019)

• Ester Peony - On a Sunday (Romania 2019)

• Tulia - Fire of Love (Pali się) (Poland 2019)

• Serhat - Say Na Na Na (San Marino 2019)

• Bilal Hassani - Roi (France 2019)

• Greta Salóme - Hear Them Calling (Iceland 2016)

• Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco 1971) (past winner)

• Cesár Sampson - Nobody But You (Austria 2018)

• Lake Malawi - Friend of a Friend (Czech Republic 2019)

• Guy Sebastian - Tonight Again (Australia 2015)

• Hara & Andreas Konstantinou - Mana mou (Cyprus 1997)

• Brotherhood of Man - Save Your Kisses for Me (United Kingdom 1976) (past winner)

• Anonymous - Salvem el món (Andorra 2007)

• Nina Zilli - L'amore è femmina (Out of Love) (Italy 2012)

• Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together (Ireland 2018)

• Dima Bilan - Believe (Russia 2008) (past winner)

• Jessica Mauboy - We Got Love (Australia 2018)

Three older entries actually failed to reach the countdown for the first time since its inception in 2008. These were:

• Gigliola Cinquetti - Sì (Italy 1974)

• Frida Boccara - Un jour, un enfant (France 1969)

• Ruth Jacott - Vrede (Netherlands 1993)

Countdown debutants

On the flip-side of this, though, there were some countdown newcomers. Alongside the twenty entrants from 2020, six entries from previous years also made their debut in the ESC250 countdown. These were:

184. MFÖ - Sufi (Turkey 1988)

208. O.Torvald - Time (Ukraine 2017)

214. Gromee ft. Lukas Meijer - Light Me Up (Poland 2018)

217. Anna Odobescu - Stay (Moldova 2019)

239. Jurij Veklenko - Run with the Lions (Lithuania 2019)

243. Malcolm Lincoln ft. Manpower 4 - Siren (Estonia 2010)

If you have any further questions regarding the results of this year's countdown, feel free to follow and message me on Twitter (@_milESC_).