Eurovision Fan Survey 2023: Which countries should be competing?

Our fifth annual Eurovision Fan Survey is complete with 426 people taking part from 33 countries.

We have already revealed details of who Eurovision fans are, now we take a look at their views on the Contest, starting with the countries taking part.

We asked a series of questions about banned, additional and returning countries, as well as thoughts on whether Australia should stay in Eurovision.

So, let's take a look at what fans thought and also break the results down into the regional differences between Europe, Australia and the Rest of the World.

Ban on Russia and Belarus

Currently, Russia and Belarus are both banned from competing in Eurovision. Belarus was removed in 2021 for using their entry as propaganda for the Lukashenko government, while Russia does not take part because of their invasion of Ukraine.

Respondents to our fan survey were asked if they supported the bans with options being Strongly support, support, neutral, don't support or strongly don't support.

It was not surprising to see fans support the EBU bans on Russia and Belarus with:

• 87% in total supporting the ban on Russia

• 79% in total supporting the ban on Belarus

This aligned closely with 2022's fan survey where 88% supported the ban on Russia and 82% on Belarus.

Support for the ban on Russia was strongest in Australia with 88%, while those from the Rest of the World were the least supportive with 80%.

If we break it down a little further, the UK had the strongest support at 91%.

Europe most strongly supported the ban on Belarus with 81%, while Rest of the World was lowest at 76%.

Australia's participation

Each year, we ask fans whether they support Australia taking part in Eurovision and the results, yet again, show strong support for our participation:

• Yes, every year regardless - 89%

• Yes, but for a limited time - 4%

• Not sure - 5%

• No - 3%

Obviously there is some bias, as we are an Australian driven site and more than half of respondents were from Down Under, but let's look a little deeper at the results.

The "Yes, every year regardless" response rose four percentage points to 89% and is up from 62% in our first edition of this poll.

Additionally, support for 'Yes, every year" was lowest in Australia with the breakdown being:

• Rest of the World - 98%

• Europe - 91%

• Australia - 86%

Combining both "Yes, every year" and "Yes, for a limited time" the results look even better:

• Rest of the World - 98%

• Europe - 92%

• Australia - 92%

In further good news, the amount of European respondents saying "no" to Australia competing dropped from 7% to 4%.

3% of Aussies and 0% of Rest of World fans were against Australia competing.

We should also add that this support is from the super engaged fans and may not represent the casual viewer at home on a Saturday night each year in Europe.

Returning countries

There are a number of nations who have competed at Eurovision before who didn't in 2023.

We asked fans to choose their Top 3 countries they would like to see return.

For the third straight year, Turkey was the no.1 choice of fans with 50% of respondents putting them in their Top 3.

Next best was Bulgaria on 42%, who competed in 2021 and 2022, but sat out this year.

While Hungary, who hasn't returned since not qualifying in 2019, was third on 36%.

The full rankings were:

1. Turkey - 50%

2. Bulgaria - 42%

3. Hungary - 36%

4. Bosnia and Herzegovina - 35%

5. North Macedonia - 33%

6. Montenegro - 25%

7. Monaco - 17%

8. Morocco - 15%

9. Slovakia - 22%

10. Andorra - 14%

11. Belarus - 5%

12. Russia - 5%

Regional differences

Turkey was the no.1 choice in all three regions but highest in Europe with 53%.

Bulgaria had most support from Europe who placed it 2nd with 49%, while Hungary was Australia's no.2 choice with 42%.

Europe also had most support for Bosnia and Herzegovina (42%) and Slovakia (23%).

Australia had the most support for North Macedonia (35%) and Montenegro (29%).

While Rest of the World got behind Morocco (27%), Monaco (24%), Andorra (18%), Belarus (11%) and Russia (9%).

Last year ,Luxembourg finished 4th in this ranking and are due to make their comeback next year in Sweden.

New countries

Over the years, there have been rumours of new countries competing or concerted efforts by some to enter the Contest.

Each year, we gauge how much support there is on a variety of new countries competing (whether eligible or not).

This year the results were:

1. Kosovo - 76%

2. Kazakhstan - 66%

3. Lebanon - 64%

4. New Zealand - 58%

5. Canada - 40%

6. USA - 13%

7. China - 8%

Kosovo tops our list for the second straight year, however support is down from 84% in 2022 and 86% in 2021.

Kazakhstan continues to drop from a high of 84% in 2021 to 71% last year and now at 66%.

Lebanon, who would be eligible to compete at Eurovision as a full EBU member, is down slightly to 64% from 67% last year.

New Zealand is a new addition to the survey and surprisingly has a majority of supporters at 58%.

Perhaps it was this comedic campaign done during the lead up to Eurovision that helped these numbers!

Canada is up from 38% to 40% despite their being no Canadian Song Contest this year while USA and China remain low at 13% and 8% respectively.

Regional differences

Unsurprisingly, Rest of the World has the most support for every new nation except Kosovo.

Europe's support for Kosovo at 85% was much higher than Rest of the World (77%) and Australia (70%).

Interestingly, the Rest of the World's high support for the USA was not from Americans themselves.

Only 10% of Americans support USA making their debut, while Canadians (40%) and Filipinos (33%) had them highest.

New Zealand, surprisingly, had majority support (53%) from Europeans, the first nation not a member of the EBU or close geographic ties to Europe, to do so in our survey.

58% of Australian supported New Zealand making their debut.

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So this was our snapshot on some of the views of Eurovision fans via our survey.

You can check out who the "average" Eurovision fan is from our article out earlier this week.

Over the next week we'll be revealing more from the Eurovision fan survey including regional differences between fans plus views on:

• Jury versus televote scoring

• Rule changes

• Which Eurovision contest is the best

And much, much more!

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