Were my Eurovision prediction true?

It has been a few months since the end of Eurovision. Remember my article about my predictions about Eurovision Song Contest 2022?

It's time to review them!

Prediction #1: Some ballads/sad/slow songs are not qualifying.

This prediction came true to some extent, but I still noticed a lot more of these songs qualifying than I would expect, so I would not say that I was 100% right.

Indeed, out of the at least 12 sad songs in the competition, only 2 of them did not qualify - Montenegro and North Macedonia. Conversely, a lot of upbeat and eccentric songs were tanked by the jury.

However, despite this trend, I do not think that the presence of such a high number of ballads helped in the long run. Indeed, the public tanked a lot of them in the Grand Final, with Germany getting 6 points, Australia getting only 2 points, and Switzerland even getting 0 points. While it is sad for the artists, it was quite predictable - generally speaking, any kind of oversaturation is never a good idea at Eurovision.

Prediction #2: a song I don't like is going to win.

Believe it or not, I liked Ukraine's entry Stefania, so I was not nearly as disappointed as expected.

Yet, I think this prediction applied a lot more to other Eurovision fans who thought it was okay to throw a whole tantrum about this topic. Among these, there were also Eurovision YouTubers who spent the whole night of the Grand Final posting rants in their community tabs, to the point where their subscribers told them to stop.

Months after this mess, it even looks more ridiculous than it already was. Has the world ended? No. Did your life significantly change? Also no.

Prediction #3: Georgia will go up in the rankings after the live performance.

This is probably the least accurate out of all my predictions. Despite a good performance, Circus Mircus ended up placing last in their semi-final, and second last overall.

What did not work in their favour? First of all, the semi-final: the second one was the most unpredictable of the two. A lot of the songs with the most niche concepts were packed there, and it was predictable that some unique songs would have been left out.

Secondly, I would say their staging did not live up to the expectation set up by the music video for Lock Me In. The video had indeed more circus-related elements, which could have benefitted them in such a competitive semifinal and Eurovision in general.

Prediction #4: Chanel (Spain) is going to have an Eleni Foureira-ish moment.

Chanel did not disappoint. I could not have been more satisfied with her performance and her upgraded version of SloMo. It even manages to make the original one sound boring!

That performance was applauded by most Eurovision fans and, ironically, caught the attention of Eleni Foureira herself, who hinted at a future collaboration.

Moreover, Chanel managed to gain the sympathy of Spain and, according to some Spanish fans, she reignited the enthusiasm for Eurovision among the locals as well.

For these reasons, I would say that this prediction was pretty spot on.

Prediction #5: Semi-final 2 is going to be more competitive than semi-final 1.

In retrospect, I have mixed feelings about this prediction. Yes, to me the result of the second semi-final seemed way more unpredictable than the first, but I was still very doubtful during the televote for the first semi-final as well.

I would say that it was pretty accurate to me since most of my favourite entries were competing in semi-final 2, but the competitors of semi-final 1 had it harder than expected.

Prediction #6: None of the big 5 is going to get zero points, but Germany is going to rank the lowest among them.

While I am happy that none got nul points, which would have been extremely cruel, I was not surprised that Germany ended up the last in the Grand Final, as the song did not stand out to me, despite not being my personal last.

A surprisingly disappointing result, however, was France's. It was my second favourite entry from the big 5, and I still cannot conceive how it got so few points. We will never know, I guess.

Regardless, I am proud of the UK and Spain's glow-ups from last year. They did an excellent job at choosing their entries and the final result was more than deserved.

Prediction #7: There is going to be at least one surprise qualifier.

This is extremely subjective, but to me, there were at least two, namely Belgium and Switzerland. I did not mind Belgium qualifying but, seeing so many fans deeming it a non-qualifier, I had little hope. Switzerland, on the other hand, was one of my least favourite entries this year, so it was a shocker to me. However, I admit that Marius Bear managed to market his song Boys Do Cry outstandingly with his performance and staging.

For other fans, Romania and Moldova were surprise qualifiers but, to me, they were not. WRS' Lllamame (Romania) was one of my favourite entries and Frații Advahov and Zdob și Zdub's Trenulețul (Moldova) was an obvious qualifier to me.

First of all, they were performing between two ballads, so they were going to stand out, and they managed to sound authentic and appeal to locals. My parents watched the first semi-final with me and they appreciated the entry a lot specifically because it was more upbeat than the other.

These were my considerations about my previous predictions about Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Making these was a lot of fun and I look forward to the first entries for ESC 2023!