Eurovision runners-up songs ranked by Spotify streams

Out of the 63 Eurovision runners-up songs, 53 of them can be streamed on Spotify in Australia.

Several weeks ago we had a look at how the Eurovision winning songs stack up against each other based on Spotify play counts (which you can check out here), so we thought we would take a look at how the Eurovision runners-up songs rank.

Ten Eurovision runners-up songs don’t appear on Spotify in Australia.

They include:

• Paule Desjardins - 'Le belle amour' - 1957 - France

• Esther Ofarim - 'T'en va pas' - 1963 - Switzerland

• Paola del Medico - 'Bonjour, Bonjour' - 1969 - Switzerland

• Jean Vallée - 'L'amour ça fait chanter la vie' - 1978 - Belgium

• Live Report - 'Why Do I Always Get it Wrong?' - 1989 - United Kingdom

• Amina - 'C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison' - 1991 - France

• Michael Ball - 'One Step Out of Time' - 1992 - United Kingdom

• Elisabeth Andreassen - 'I evighet' - 1996 - Norway

• Marc Roberts - 'Mysterious Woman' - 1997 - Ireland

• Chiara - 'Angel' - 2005 - Malta

When adding up the total play counts for each song we included all versions of the runner-up song bar from any remixes. The total play counts include radio edits, live, symphonic, acoustic and remastered versions.

This ranking of Spotify play counts were collated as of October 03:

1. Mahmood - 'Soldi' - 2019 - Italy - 165,828,475 play counts

2. Eleni Foureira - 'Fuego' - 2018 - Cyprus - 79,785,821

3. The Common Linnets - 'Calm After the Storm' - 2014 - Netherlands - 36,989,651

4. Mocedades - 'Eres tú' - 1973 - Spain - 25,362,722

5. Dami Im - 'Sound of Silence' - 2016 - Australia - 17,853,806

6. Kristian Kostov - 'Beautiful Mess' - 2017 - Bulgaria - 15,323,442

7. Verka Serduchka - 'Dancing Lasha Tumbai' - 2007 - Ukraine - 6,106,925

8. Buranovskiye Babushki - 'Party for Everybody' - 2012 - Russia - 3,303,939

9. Cliff Richard - 'Congratulations' - 1968 - United Kingdom - 2,653,138

10. Polina Gagarina - 'A Million Voices' - 2015 - Russia - 2,008,451

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11. Željko Joksimović & Ad-Hoc Orchestra - 'Lane moje' - 2004 - Serbia & Montenergro - 1,710,031

12. Edyta Górniak - 'To nie ja!' - 1994 - Poland - 1,653,771

13. Lena Valaitis - 'Johnny Blue' - 1981 - Germany - 1,337,871

14. The New Seekers - 'Beg, Steal or Borrow' - 1972 - United Kingdom - 1,311,641

15. maNga - 'We Could Be the Same' - 2010 - Turkey - 1,221,555

16. Wind - 'Lass die Sonne in dein Herz' - 1987 - Germany - 1,092,404

17. Farid Mammadov - 'Hold Me' - 2013 - Azerbaijan - 1,080,414

18. Ani Lorak - 'Shady Lady' - 2008 - Ukraine - 1,049,303

19. Yohanna - 'Is It True?' - 2009 - Iceland - 756,142

20. The Allisons - 'Are You Sure?' - 1961 - United Kingdom - 713,285

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21. Catherine Ferry - 'Un, deux, trois' - 1976 - France - 677,703

22. Raphael Gualazzi - 'Madness of Love' - 2011 - Italy - 674,762

23. Imaani - 'Where Are You?' - 1998 - United Kingdom - 572,626

24. Rollo & King - 'Never Ever Let You Go' - 2001 - Denmark - 563,484

25. Karina - 'En un mundo nuevo' - 1971 - Spain - 558,906

26. Katja Ebstein - 'Theater' - 1980 - Germany - 523,413

27. Wind - 'Für alle' - 1985 - Germany - 471,006

28. Sonia - 'Better the Devil You Know' - 1993 - United Kingdom - 366,575

29. The Shadows - 'Let Me Be The One' - 1975 - United Kingdom - 335,387

30. Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson - 'Nygammal vals' - 1966 - Sweden - 289,739

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31. Selma - 'All Out of Luck' - 1999 - Iceland - 282,670

32. Anabel Conde - 'Vuelve conmigo' - 1995 - Spain - 226,103

33. Joëlle Ursull - 'White and Black Blues' - 1990 - France - 212,116

34. Dima Bilan - 'Never Let You Go' - 2006 - Russia - 211,360

35. Ira Losco - '7th Wonder' - 2002 - Malta - 194,566

36. Ofra Haza - 'Hi' - 1983 - Israel - 179,195

37. Alsou - 'Solo' - 2000 - Russia - 153,989

38. Betty Missiego - 'Su canción' - 1979 - Spain - 144,896

39. Gigliola Cinquetti - ‘Sì (Go (Before You Break My Heart)’ - 1974 - Italy - 81,512

40. Avi Toledano - 'Hora' - 1982 - Israel - 61,745

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41. Liam Reilly - 'Somewhere in Europe' - 1990 - Ireland - 57,723

42. Scott Fitzgerald - 'Go' - 1988 - United Kingdom - 40,790

43. Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson - 'Sing, Little Birdie' - 1959 - United Kingdom - 30,651

44. Sean Dunphy - 'If I Could Choose' - 1967 - Ireland - 27,503

45. Kathy Kirby - 'I Belong' - 1965 - United Kingdom - 25,332

46. Mary Hopkin - 'Knock, Knock Who's There?' - 1970 - United Kingdom - 16,959 (play counts from Liv Maessen cover)

47. Lys Assia - 'Giorgio' - 1958 - Switzerland - 13,752

48. Urban Trad - 'Sanomi' - 2003 - Belgium - 13,078

49. Linda Martin - 'Terminal 3' - 1984 - Ireland - 12,219

50. François Deguelt - 'Dis rien' - 1962 - Monaco - 6,218

51. Matt Monro - 'I Love the Little Things' - 1964 - United Kingdom - 5,824

52. Daniela Simmons - 'Pas pour moi' - 1986 - Switzerland - 3,921

53. Bryan Johnson - 'Looking High, High, High' - 1960 - United Kingdom - 1,148 (play counts from David Hughes cover)

It comes at no surprise that ‘Soldi’ is the most streamed Eurovision runners-up song on Spotify. ‘Soldi’ garnered a huge following during and after Mahmood’s win at San Remo 2019 with strong Spotify streams. ‘Soldi’ was also one of the favourites to take out the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, finishing in runner-up spot overtaken by Duncan Laurence with ‘Arcade’.

As expected the more recent Eurovision runners-up songs have been played more, with seven Eurovision runners-up songs from the 2010’s making the top 10.

Australia’s runner-up entry from 2016 ‘Sound of Silence’ makes it into the Top 5. Dami Im’s top song on Spotify ‘Sound of Silence’ has over 17.8 million streams, which makes it the most streamed Australian Eurovision entry ever.

The oldest Eurovision runners-up song with the highest ranking in the Top 10 is Mocedades’ 'Eres tú' from 1973 reaching the top 5 in 4th place, it is no surprise given it became a worldwide hit.

The second oldest entry in the Top 10 is Cliff Richard’s 'Congratulations' in 9th place with over 2.6 million play counts.

Out of the countries with multiple Eurovision runners-up songs, we thought it would be interesting to look at their best song ranked in this list - with countries with three or more runner-up positions in Eurovision are:

• United Kingdom (14 runners-up entries) - 9th place - Cliff Richard - ‘Congratulations' - 1968 - 2,653,138 play counts

• France (4 runners-up entries) - 21st place - Catherine Ferry - 'Un, deux, trois' - 1976 - 677,703

• Germany (4 runners-up entries) - 13th place - Lena Valaitis - 'Johnny Blue' - 1981 - 1,337,871

• Russia (4 runners-up entries) - 8th place - Buranovskiye Babushki - 'Party for Everybody' - Russia - 3,303,939

• Spain (4 runners-up entries) - 4th place - Mocedades - 'Eres tú' - 1973 - 25,362,722

• Switzerland (4 runners-up entries) - 47th place - Lys Assia - 'Giorgio' - 1958 - 13,752

• Ireland (3 runners-up entries) - 41st place - Liam Reilly - 'Somewhere in Europe' - 1990 - 57,723

• Italy (3 runners-up entries) - 1st place - Mahmood - ‘Soldi’ - 2019 - 165,828,475

And lastly how do the total play counts of the Eurovision runners-up songs compare to the Eurovision winners songs?

Well interestingly we found a few surprises!! ‘Soldi’ has over 6.8 million more streams than the 2012 Eurovision winning song ‘Euphoria’ which came in at first place in our ranking of Spotify streaming Eurovision winning songs. It is a huge feat given ‘Soldi’ has only been streaming for over a year.

‘Soldi’ is so huge that it has been streamed over 46 million times more than the Eurovision winning song for 2019 ‘Arcade’ by Duncan Laurence.

We have found that this has been a regular occurrence more recently where the Eurovision runner-up song has garnered more Spotify streams than the winning song, with 4 runners-up songs over the last decade achieving this.

This includes Dami Im’s ‘Sound of Silence’ having over 7.2 million streams more than the 2016 winning Eurovision song ‘1944’ by Jamala.

Interestingly in the 2000’s only one runner-up Eurovision song has managed more streams than the Eurovision winner. This is Verka Serduchka’s 2007 ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’ which has 6,106,925 play counts compared to the Eurovision winner of that year ‘Molitva (Destiny)’ by Marija Šerifović with 4,641,296 play counts.

Lets compare the streaming of the winning and runner-up songs over the last ten years. The more popular streamed song out of the two is shown in bold. All the Spotify play counts were collated as of October 03:

2010

Winner: Lena - ‘Satellite’ - Germany - 43,952,415

Runner-up: maNga - ‘We Could Be the Same’ - Turkey - 1,221,555

2011

Winner: Ell and Nikki - ‘Running Scared’ - Azerbaijan - 3,528,275

Runner-up: Raphael Gualazzi - ‘Madness of Love’ - Italy - 674,762

2012

Winner: Loreen - ‘Euphoria’ - Sweden - 158,982,944

Runner-up: Buranovskiye Babushki - ‘Party for Everybody’ - Russia - 3,303,939

2013

Winner: Emmelie de Forest - ‘Only Teardrops’ - Denmark - 38,099,897

Runner-up: Farid Mammadov - ‘Hold Me’ - Azerbaijan - 1,080,414

2014

Winner: Conchita Wurst - ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ - Austria - 16,977,915

Runner-up: The Common Linnets - ‘Calm After the Storm’ - Netherlands - 36,989,651

2015

Winner: Måns Zelmerlöw - ‘Heroes’ - Sweden - 120,366,586

Runner-up: Polina Gagarina - ‘A Million Voices’ - Russia - 2,008,451

2016

Winner: Jamala - ‘1944’ - Ukraine - 10,625,223

Runner-up: Dami Im - 'Sound of Silence’ - Australia - 17,853,806

2017

Winner: Salvador Sobral - ‘Amar pelos dois’ - Portugal - 21,680,799

Runner-up: Kristian Kostov - ‘Beautiful Mess’ - Bulgaria - 15,323,442

2018

Winner: Netta - ‘Toy’ - Israel - 66,171,816

Runner-up: Eleni Foureira - ‘Fuego’ - Cyprus - 79,785,821

2019

Winner: Duncan Laurence - ‘Arcade’ - Netherlands - 119,433,006

Runner-up: Mahmood - ‘Soldi’ - Italy - 165,828,475