Any analysis must start from 1964, the year of Portugal’s first participation in the competition. António Calvariu took Horacao to Copenhagen, but in his pocket we brought zero points (zero score will be repeated in 1997 with Celia Lawson’s “Antes do Adeus”). Spain, for its part, had made its debut a few years earlier, in 1961, at Cannes.
It is important to emphasize that this analysis concerns only the voting in the final. As of 2003, given the increase in the number of competing nations, qualification to the final is guaranteed after two semi-finals. Portugal failed to guarantee a ticket nine times (from 2004 to 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019) and has not participated twice since then (2013 and 2016). Spain is part of the so-called “Big Five” (“Big Four” between 2004 and 2010), a group of countries which, thanks to their (monetary) contribution to the Festival’s organizing body, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), has a guaranteed place in the final .
0 points goes to…
Between 1964 and 2022, Portugal did not vote for Spanish songs 21 times, and Spain “zeroed” Portuguese songs 19 times (most recently this Saturday).
There are even two time slots where Spain simply ignored Portugal when it came to scoring. Between 1980 and 1982 and between 1994 and 1997. On the other side of the border, how to say, no tailwind, no glasses?
In seven cases, in situations where they could vote for each other (for example, both in the final), two countries chose not to do so (1965, 1976, 1077, 1982, 1992, 1994 and 1999).
How do you vote in Eurovision?
Each country’s televote is 50% of the total score; the remaining 50% is left to the discretion of music industry experts selected by the respective country.
Each panel of judges from the participating countries awards points (from one to eight points, then ten and 12 points for the top two), and during the final, a representative of each country announces the scores. “Insert country name”, double dots…”, remember the phrase?
But it was not always so. There have been many different voting systems over the years.
- The account has evolved. In 1964 the jury awarded only 5, 3 and 1 points. Years later, in 1967, voting already ranged from 1 to 10 points. The model we know today, 1 to 12, did not come into effect until 1975.
- Televoting began to be used in some countries only in 1997. The following year and until 2000, jury voting disappeared and telephone voting became the only voting model.
- It was only in 2009 that the 50/50% model (televoting/jury) was adopted. The National Jury returns and consists of five professionals from the music world who evaluate the performance of each of the countries except their own. Among the evaluation criteria are the singer’s vocal abilities, stage performance, song composition, originality of the song and acting.
- The voting model as we know it goes into effect in 2016. In the case of televoting, although each country also assigns points on the same scale as the jury, the votes of all countries are added together. Thus, the total number of votes assigned by the public to the song is known, without distinction of the points awarded by each country.
Of those cases where Spain gave Portugal zero points, there are those that can “fall” worse. As in the case of the lack of points in the year of José Cid (“Um grande, grande amor”, 1980), das Doce (“Bem Bom”, 1982) or Lucia Moniz (“O meu Coração não tem cor”, 1996, who had the best result before the victory of Salvador Sobral, 6th place).
But, on the contrary, there are things that are difficult to explain. Just like in 1979 when Spain finished second, 9 points behind Israel’s winning song. If Portugal had given 10 points (rather than zero) to “Su canción” Betty Missiego, Spain would have won this year.
And the highest score goes to…
In terms of maximum score, Portugal gave Spain 12 first places, while our neighbors awarded us maximum points only six times (Lusitana Paixão, Dulce Pontes, in 1991, is one such case).
In Spain’s two Eurovision victories in 1968 and 1969, Portugal contributed to this result by assigning maximum points to the Spanish themes of those editions.
Since 2010 alone, Portugal have given Spain 12 points five times (but also not given them a single point in three editions).
During the same period, Spain only had the opportunity to vote for Portugal five times, of which we qualified for the final, twice with 0 points and once with the highest score (12 points for “Love for Two”).
If many people were pissed off by the difference between the 12 points / 0 points awarded in this latest edition that gave Ukraine victory, because know this is not the first time this has happened.
In 2018, when Portugal hosted Eurovision for the first time, we already got 12 points for the Spanish theme “Tu canción” by Alfred Garcia and Amaya Romero. In response, “O Jardim”, performed by Claudia Pascoal, received zero points (and finished last in the classification).
As for televoting, the values of which have become known since 2016, the trend is slightly different. In 2017, the popular vote in Spain gave Portugal the maximum score (“Amar Pelos Dois”), and we returned it with zero points. In 2021, we gave our neighbors a handful of nothing and got only one point in return.
In 2022, the national televote followed the same trend as the Portuguese jury and awarded 10 points to “SloMo” by Chanel. The popular vote in Spain was more generous than the expert jury and gave “Saudade, Saudade” Maro four points.
The Kalush Orchestra became the winner of Eurovision this year. OUR the public vote was decisive and the topic “Stefania”, representing Ukraine, is the second most highlighted topic (the list headed by Salvador Sobral). The Spanish jury did not evaluate the Ukrainian theme, while the Portuguese jury awarded it 8 points. The televoting of both countries gave Ukraine the maximum score: 12 points.
