Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮

Fan of pop music, Eurovision and most sports. Londoner based in Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏳️‍🌈🎶

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

@ascottreid @OneiroMou Interesting though that the U.K. televote preferred Sweden! Not what you would have expected if you had been told Estonia were going to beat them by 50 points in the overall televote

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

I hope the 🇩🇪 delegation see this and realise they are onto something, rather than get scared off by the 15th place

Especially when some more amazing acts there might be seeing Abor + Tynna going from thousands to millions of streams and feel like ESC is worth a try

[Eurovision Charts @esc_charts]

Most-streamed #Eurovision 2025 songs on Spotify (May 20):

🇪🇪 Espresso Macchiato - 1,883,728
🇸🇪 Bara bada bastu - 1,755,002
🇩🇪 Baller - 1,673,900
🇦🇹 Wasted Love - 1,649,602
🇳🇴 Lighter - 1,196,937
🇮🇹 Volevo essere un duro - 1,004,469
🇪🇸 Esa diva - 762,133
🇮🇸 Róa - 746,351

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

@gjkooijman Totally agree about closing the loophole but there is also still the vulnerability from the number of votes you give each person. With the Spanish televote this year, 700 people voting 20 times each would give you about 10% of the total vote!

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

With the huge jump from 2023 to 2024/25 - it doesn’t mean these are fake votes, 70k increase could be 3500 people voting 20 times. Shows how vulnerable the televote is to a committed minority, how many right wing Israel supporters do you think there are in a country of 11.8m?

[ESC Discord @ESCdiscord]

🇧🇪 In response to @Songfestival_be, VRT has revealed the Belgian televote figures for #Eurovision 2023, 2024 and 2025.

[James Archie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @JamesArchieJO]

I would argue that because Ukraine has been invaded by a much larger power who want to erase their culture, their language and their people, it is more important than ever that we get to see Ukrainian people, culture and language on a stage like Eurovision.

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

I hope this could help end the current farce, where show producers talk about an ‘apolitical’ show, ‘united by music’, as some of the people most intent on dividing our societies try to turn the contest into an annual victory for their political worldview

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

My concern here is that the EBU might try to fob broadcasters off by saying the vote is secure, no fake SIM cards, computer manipulation etc.

If the votes are from real people, exploiting the voting system to skew the televote for political reasons, is that not still a problem?

[ESC Discord @ESCdiscord]

🇮🇸 Icelandic broadcaster RÚV is the third broadcaster to request information from the EBU about their #Eurovision televote.

"We will... request the same information from the EBU about the telephone vote as [RTVE]", said RÚV director Stefán Eiríksson.

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

The analysis I would like to see, and that I hope some broadcasters demand, is how many unique numbers supported each country + what proportion of countries’ televote came from numbers that gave them the maximum 20 votes

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

@gjkooijman @ESCinsight ‘A bit naive’, understatement of the century

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

Especially crazy to think that the highest scoring song of all time by some distance is a gentle ballad, Switzerland try to stand out in the same way and it’s 0 televote points

[*THE* Tudeeeeee @thegretatude]

Still baffles me how Switzerland came 2nd with the jury and had 0 televote like what is going on? If someone tells me one more time that jury should not be in Eurovision, they can walk a mile to put it nicely

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

If you watched the show in 2023, with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, and now you’re turning on Ukraine, I don’t know what to say.

We shouldn’t begrudge the defenders of free Europe a spot in the grand final and a place in the lower top 10.

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

Depressing to see Ukraine dragged into arguments about Israel’s televote. In last 3 years, only time they got within 100 points of the televote winner is with a top notch entry that did big streaming numbers post-show. Not the same as right wingers spam-voting bilge to 300 points

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

@JelleNLIT Some of it will be the ‘novelty’ entries appealing more to the once a-year casual viewers who only tune in for the Saturday show

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

‘Apolitical entertainment show’, destined to be hijacked by fascists year after year for the foreseeable future, how can it go on like this #eurovision

[ESC Discord @ESCdiscord]

🇪🇸 RTVE has been warned by the EBU not to refer to Gaza in their #Eurovision 2025 broadcast, after commentators cited casualty figures during Thursday's semi-final.

The Spanish public broadcaster "may incur punitive fines" if these statements are repeated.

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

👏👏👏 Tynna, such a banger, really think (/hope) it can be a televote dark horse with the streaming numbers it has been putting up #eurovision

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

If I was an Austria fan, I would be feeling more optimistic that it can get the 200+ televote it needs #eurovision

[Eurovision Charts @esc_charts]

"Wasted Love" by JJ in the Spotify charts on May 16: 🇦🇹

#4 Austria
#14 Lithuania
#15 Iceland
#22 Estonia
#29 Latvia
#40 Switzerland
#48 Finland
#78 Greece
#85 Sweden
#86 Luxembourg
#139 Norway
#172 Netherlands
#197 Poland
#198 Ukraine

[elsa 🗣️ @diskoboll]

what the hell sure

[Ben 🇮🇹🇦🇱🇫🇮 @b_0_p]

@ESCSophie My instinct is that, rightly or wrongly, they are comfortable burying him with a bad running order because of the expectation that he’ll do badly with the juries