Phew! Europe ‘done did’ the right thing last night, and crowned the absolute best song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 – ‘Euphoria’ by Loreen for Sweden.
Yes we all knew that it SHOULD happen, but few of us dared to actually assume it WOULD happen. All the signs were there – it had already gained some sort of a stronghold over various iTunes charts across Europe, it was the big fan favourite, and it was universally the bookies favourite too – ever since the song won Sweden’s national final Melodifestivalen in mid March. And above all, as we’ve already said, it WAS the absolute best song in the contest – although unfortunately that doesn’t always guarantee success in Eurovision. Last night it did though, and with a score of 372 points. With that score it also broke the record of most top marks awarded to an entry – with 18 countries giving Sweden their 12 points.
So that’s Eurovision conquered, and the contest brought home to Sweden in 2013. Amazing. Phew!
Now though, it’s interesting to take a look at what happens next for Loreen and ‘Euphoria’, over the coming month at least. Now that we’re in the digital download age where people see a song they like and then go and buy it straight away, it’s fascinating to look at the iTunes charts all over Europe – 12 hours after the contest finished. And here’s where Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ lies in each country’s chart as of the time of writing;
#1 Austria
#1 Belgium
#1 Cyprus
#1 Denmark
#1 Finland
#1 Germany
#1 Greece
#1 Ireland
#1 Luxembourg
#1 Malta
#1 Netherlands
#1 Norway
#1 Spain
#1 Sweden
#1 Switzerland
#2 Sweden
#2 United Kingdom
#3 Norway
#12 France
#47 Malta
#51 Luxembourg
#53 Portugal
#55 Italy
#61 Greece
#67 Australia
#73 Netherlands
#84 Denmark
#92 Belgium
Christ, that’s all very WOW, isn’t it?!
And as radio airplay will no doubt start to kick in post-contest, we’re hoping that those numbers don’t die down too quickly. It’s great that ‘Euphoria’ is a Eurovision winner, but the song doesn’t deserve to stop there. It truly deserves to be one of the biggest hits of the year all around the Europe, if not even further. So we’ll be continuing to cheer Loreen and ‘Euphoria’ on until it happens. Their journey doesn’t end here.
A massive well done to Loreen, and to ‘Euphoria’s songwriters Thomas G:son and Peter Böstrom. They haven’t just done their home country proud (and extremely proud at that), they’ve also done pop music fans everywhere immensely proud. And particularly, we think it’s fair to say, Scandinavian pop music fans.
And here are the two performances last night that made us all so glad to be big pop lovers.
First performance
Victory performance
