Eurovision YouTube – The Most Notable And Notorious Videos

The official Eurovision YouTube channel has been posting videos for a number of years now and like all channels of a certain size, these videos have triggered a mixture of reactions. Previously on this site, we explored the most watched Eurovision entries on the channel, which maybe told us about the audience the channel is geared towards? This time around however, it is time to consider the other statistical piece of information YouTube provides. What is it? Well of course it is the like to dislike ratio.

For this topic I don’t want to purely focus on entries per say but rather on the more general topic of what did or didn’t go down well with the Eurovision crowd. Of course if any entries come up (which SPOILER they do) then they will be included. Ultimately this article is to start discussion and relive some nostalgia, as we look back at the one and only Eurovision Song Contest.

The Best Of The Best

The top 30 videos with the highest like:dislike ratio as of 01/10/2021 were as follows:

Rank	Title	Percentage Likes	Number of Likes (For Tiebreak Purposes)	Views	Upload Date
1	‘Postcard of ZiBBZ from Switzerland – Eurovision 2018’	100.0000	161	7,585	26/05/2018
2	‘Fans arrive at the arena!’	100.0000	102	6,932	19/05/2015
3	‘Videosnack: vocal training by Kasey Smith from Ireland’	100.0000	84	8,184	08/05/2014
4	‘Winner’s Tour – Day 4’	100.0000	25	7,406	20/05/2007
5	‘Timelapse: Producing Eurovision 2021’	99.5627	3,415	39,704	20/09/2021
6	‘Postcard of Finland – Eurovision 2021’	99.4369	883	15,663	03/06/2021
7	‘LookLab Blind Channel – Finland 🇫🇮 with NikkieTutorials’	99.4191	15,231	379,116	18/05/2021
8	‘Countdown to the final: Make Up preparation for the Grand Final!’	99.4118	169	14,069	23/05/2015
9	‘Countdown to SF1: Delegations Arriving at the delegation area’	99.4048	167	10,458	19/05/2015
10	‘LookLab Måneskin– Italy 🇮🇹 with NikkieTutorials’	99.3814	66,030	1,716,611	20/05/2021
11	‘Interview with Frank Naef – Part I’	99.3377	150	7,736	20/12/2016
12	‘Måneskin – Acoustic version of Zitti E Buoni – Italy 🇮🇹 – Eurovision 2021’	99.3202	113,520	2,556,193	07/05/2021
13	‘Video snack: Meet Oma Ella, Our oldest fan’	99.2754	137	8,971	09/05/2014
14	‘LookLab Daði & Gagnamagnið – Iceland 🇮🇸 with NikkieTutorials’	99.2633	17,111	458,637	18/05/2021
15	‘Eurovision Book Of Records: Most ‘LA’-s’	99.2453	526	43,864	10/05/2014
16	‘360 Mafra – Rasmussen’s Postcard Eurovision 2018’	99.2126	252	12,743	13/05/2018
17	‘Watch Eurovision 2006 in HD for the very first time!’	99.1744	1,929	42,785	28/07/2021
18	‘150 Days left until the Grand Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest!’	99.1473	1,279	31,092	13/12/2017
19	‘Alexander Rybak – Fairytale (Norway) Live 2009 Eurovision Song Contest’	99.1434	176,397	5,580,673	18/08/2016
20	‘In Memoriam: Lys Assia, the winner of the first Eurovision Song Contest’	99.1379	2,530	71,852	25/05/2021
21	‘Alexander Rybak – Fairytale (Norway) 2009 Eurovision Song Contest’	99.1313	971,663	37,773,990	22/04/2012
22	‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Never Dies – Måneskin 🇮🇹 meets Blind Channel 🇫🇮 – Eurovision 2021′	99.1274	41,576	1,013,499	25/05/2021
23	‘EUROVISION THIS MONTH: OCTOBER 2019’	99.1232	2,261	47,626	29/10/2019
24	‘Postcard of Bulgaria – Eurovision 2021’	99.0847	433	10,222	03/06/2021
25	‘LookLab ROXEN – Romania 🇷🇴 with NikkieTutorials’	99.0812	7,441	150,682	14/05/2021
26	‘LookLab TIX – Norway 🇳🇴 with NikkieTutorials’	99.0793	15,711	371,247	12/05/2021
27	‘EUROVISION THIS MONTH – JANUARY 2020’	99.0741	2,140	65,697	28/01/2020
28	‘Mor ve Ötesi – Deli (Turkey) Live 2008 Eurovision Song Contest’	99.0474	111,458	7,412,825	13/09/2016
29	‘Thank You for 5 BILLION VIEWS!’	99.0468	4,572	88,165	18/05/2021
30	‘Eurovision Song Contest – Weekly Update 17 April 2018’	99.0415	930	27,398	17/04/2018

Interesting Points

• Most of the most popular videos unsurprisingly are from the initial lead up to contests, when hype and media attention is at its largest
• Significant milestones for the contest such as achieving 5 billion views on the channel or videos commemorating former participants such as Lys Assia (Switzerland 1956 a, 1956 b, 1957 & 1958) or Natalia Pugacheva (Russia, 2012), also gathered a lot of engagement
• The only two videos to appear on our most watched song list and this most liked list are Deli (Turkey, 2008) and Fairytale (Norway, 2009)
• Popular video series for high positive engagement were NikkieTutorials’ LookLabs and 2014’s videosnack series
• As we will see with the less liked videos, re-uploading videos in a higher quality like Eurovision 2006 in HD got a lot of love – quality matters
• Postcards and fashion videos are seemingly popular
• Four videos have no dislikes! These are a video in which 2007 champion Marija Šerifović celebrates her win with Dutch Eurovision singer (1998 & 2007) and host (2020/2021) Edsilia Rombley, a short clip of fans entering the 2015 arena, Switzerland’s 2018 postcard and a short clip of Ireland, 2014’s Kasey Smith backstage. You see you don’t have to qualify to have one of the best like:dislike ratios!

‘I’m Sorry…’ The Videos With Less Love

On the flip side the least popular by like:dislike ratio were as follows:

Rank	Title	Percentage Likes	Number of Likes (For Tiebreak Purposes)	Views	Upload Date
6132	‘Message from Kaliopi from F.Y.R. Macedonia to Eurovision.tv viewers’	0.0000	0	132,533	24/04/2012
6131	‘TeliaSonera billboard’	0.0000	0	16,019	03/04/2007
6130	‘TVR (Romania) no longer entitled to take part in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest’	0.1427	311	52,649	22/04/2016
6129	‘Julia Samoylova – I Won’t Break – Russia – LIVE – Second Semi-Final – Eurovision 2018’	0.1842	20,398	5,911,578	10/05/2018
6128	‘RAFAŁ – The Ride – LIVE – Poland 🇵🇱 – Second Semi-Final – Eurovision 2021’	0.2121	19,045	3,042,572	20/05/2021
6127	‘Joan – You And Me (The Netherlands) 2nd rehearsal’	0.2469	572	600,143	18/05/2012
6126	‘Julia Samoylova – I Won’t Break – First Rehearsal – Russia – Eurovision 2018’	0.2512	3,687	1,131,844	01/05/2018
6125	‘Eduard Romanyuta wins the Moldovan final’	0.2588	96	19,404	02/03/2015
6124	‘Jamala (Ukraine) wants to thank you for voting’	0.2662	2,920	129,496	15/05/2016
6123	‘Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät – Aina Mun Pitää (Finland) Impression of first rehearsal’	0.2722	306	39,569	11/05/2015
6122	‘Manel Navarro – Do It For Your Lover (Spain) First rehearsal in Kyiv’	0.2775	1,842	190,060	05/05/2017
6121	‘RAFAŁ – The Ride – Second Rehearsal – Poland 🇵🇱 – Eurovision 2021’	0.2919	5,147	487,498	13/05/2021
6120	‘Julia Samoylova – I Won’t Break – Exclusive Rehearsal Clip – Russia – Eurovision 2018’	0.2967	2,875	357,297	05/05/2018
6119	‘Shirley Clamp (Sweden) talking to Eurovision.tv’	0.3095	13	13,007	05/03/2011
6118	‘Jamala is the winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest !’	0.3122	6,774	460,476	15/05/2016
6117	‘Statement from the EBU regarding Russia’s participation in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest’	0.3186	1,257	96,027	22/03/2017
6116	‘Press conference of F.Y.R. Macedonia’	0.3269	17	2,181	19/05/2015
6115	‘Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät – Aina Mun Pitää (Finland) Second Rehearsal’	0.3289	496	54,335	15/05/2015
6114	‘Iris – would You (Belgium) First rehearsal’	0.3299	413	372,978	13/05/2012
6113	‘Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät win UMK in Finland!’	0.3412	275	33,750	01/03/2015
6112	‘Iris – Would You (Belgium) Second rehearsal’	0.3417	219	193,091	17/05/2012
6111	‘Josh Dubovie – That sounds good to me (United Kingdom)’	0.3541	682	559,423	26/03/2010
6110	‘Montenegro 🇲🇪 – D Mol – Heaven – Exclusive Rehearsal Clip – Eurovision 2019’	0.3575	1,464	112,456	09/05/2019
6109	‘Valentina Monetta – The Social Network Song (OH OH — Uh – OH OH) (San Marino) 2012’	0.3603	2,811	703,532	23/03/2012
6108	‘RAFAŁ – The Ride – Poland 🇵🇱 – Official Music Video – Eurovision 2021’	0.3681	26,846	2,244,653	12/03/2021
6107	‘Slavko Kalezić – Space (Montenegro) First rehearsal in Kyiv’	0.3704	1,312	187,384	30/04/2017
6106	‘Manel Navarro (Spain): ‘My song is an anthem for love”	0.3721	857	34,063	17/02/2017
6105	‘PeR – Here We Go (Latvia) impression of second rehearsal’	0.3750	138	39,848	11/05/2013
6104	‘PeR – Here We Go (Latvia) 2013 Eurovision Song Contest’	0.3766	296	80,508	23/02/2013
6103	‘Lena (Germany) performs winning 2010 Eurovision Song Contest song’	0.3769	38,409	7,183,656	04/06/2010

Interesting Points

• Poor video quality/editing seems to play a factor e.g. Lena’s reprise only goes up to 240p and Shirley Clamp’s interview takes place with a lot of background noise
• Controversial results both in the contest and from national finals seem to have played a role in others.
• Political controversy in the comments is another unfortunate theme in some of these videos e.g. North Macedonia’s name dispute
• Unsurprisingly, videos announcing withdrawals of countries (or the contest completely) do not make for happy fans! This is reflected in the sheer number of dislikes such videos received.
• A few songs were clearly very divisive and feature high dislikes in multiple uploads
• Two songs feature no likes or dislikes, these are a somewhat random 5 second advert from a partner of the 2007 contest and a video in which Kaliopi encourages her fans to vote for her in the 2012 semi final.

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