2010s By Numbers: The Artists

HAPPY BLOG-XING DAY! Very shortly we will be throwing ourselves head first into a cavalcade of national finals. In fact with FiKmas done and the first collective Eurofan shit fit out of the way we’re already well into the 2020 season. However, before we get swept away I wanted to take time to reflect on the last decade of the Contest. Over the next few posts I’m going to drill down into the facts & figures behind the 2010s Eurovision. Later this week I’ll be looking at staging, hosts & spokespersons but today is time for the folks we couldn’t do this without, the artists.

0.98% – Trying to nail down definitive numbers for such as things is like nailing jelly to wall, or getting Jon Ola to appear natural on screen. Acts such as Sergey, Jedward and Serhat all technically count twice. So despite only being one Queen, Valentina Monetta actually counts for four separate entries, accounting for nearly one percent of all Eurovision songs of the 2010s. This will be the same for the rest of this post, just in case anyone has also counted and comes to a different figure (don’t give me your crap, this took me weeks).

408 –  In an alternate universe the total number of entries in the last ten years could’ve have been as high as 412. However, the Armenian withdrawal from the 2012 Contest, as well as the omission of Ovidiu Anton, Julia Samoylova (first time) and Maruv means the final total sits at 408. Taking into account soloists, duets, groups and collaborations the total number of named performers actually comes to 692. I had originally tried to include backing vocalists in these totals as well, but given they started to hide away in different nooks and crannies of the recent stages it’s nigh on impossible.

42% – Of these 408 competing acts there have been 172 female soloists, accounting for 42% of the entrants over the last ten years. This far eclipses the number of male counterparts with only 121 competing, just shy of 30%. Somewhat unsurprisingly the lassies have outranked the lads at all but two of the last ten Contests. In 2014 for every one male there were at least two female soloists. Only in Lisbon & Tel Aviv was this trend bucked as there were 15 & 18 men respectively compared to 14 women both times. Stockholm was the most solo vocalist heavy Contest with 22 females & 13 males accounting for 83% of the total acts.

27 – The next most popular act to be sent to the 2010s Eurovision was a male/female duet. This number is a little harder to settle on due to acts such Dalal & Deen in 2016. Strictly speaking Jala & Ana Runcer were also named performers so they didn’t count towards this total. So considering  the male/female duet only there have 27 occurrences. With regards to other duets there have been 11 all male & 7 all female duets. Despite only Claudia Pascoal being listed for Portugal last year I have counted it as a female duet given Isaura’s significant contribution.

69 – No, stop it. Come on, you know you’re better than that. The groups & bands make up the remaining 69 acts of the decade. Within that there have been 35 all male and only 6 all female bands to have taken to the Eurovision stage. Of those six there have been 4 all female trios, one quartet and only once have they used the maximum number in Buranovskyie Babushki. Looking at all bloke groups, it seems Eurovision has turned into most city centres with five guys being the most popular, with a total of 13 male quintets.

Come back later this week for some more obscure stats, stat fans!