i’s Eurovision predictions: What we got right and wrong after hoping for top 10 finish for UK’s Mae Muller

i could see the star quality of Sweden’s Eurovision entry well before the big night.

We predicted Loreen’s Spotify hit “Tattoo” would come in second place, but it ended up stealing the crown.

Loreen made history as the first woman, and only the second person, to win Eurovision twice. She first won in 2012.

And i was bang on the money when we predicted Germany’s “Blood & Glitter” from Lord of the Lost would come last. We weren’t the only ones who didn’t take to the surreal heavy metal performance, which scored just 18 points.

Our predicted winner was Austria. We said Teya & Salena’s “Who the Hell is Edgar?”, which criticised the music industry, deserved victory for its “perfect balance of weird, clever, catchy and captivating”. It ended up in 15th position with 120 points but we will forever hail the song “iconic”.

The runner-up was Finland, with Käärijä’s weirdly wonderful “Cha Cha Cha” winning 526 points. i predicted Finland would do very well on the night by landing fourth place, which turned out to be an understatement.

Last year’s winner Ukraine scored highly, with sixth position for its defiant tune “Heart of Steel” from duo Tvorchi, close to i‘s forecast of eighth place.

Of course, Eurovision is notoriously hard to predict so it’s only fair that i is allowed a few mea culpas.

Though perhaps we should hang our heads in shame for our verdict on Italy. We predicted the country would come in a very lowly 23rd – even calling it a snore-fest! – but clearly Marco Mengoni’s “Due Vite” (which means “Two Lives”) struck a chord with viewers and other countries. It came in fourth place.

We weren’t fans of Australia’s song “Promise” by Voyager either, and predicted it would do even worse and score 24th place – although we applauded Voyager for making it into the final after bidding to take part in Eurovision every year since 2015. Point scorers loved “Promise” though, propelling the tune to number nine with 151 points.

National pride likely got in the way of our view of how the UK would do on the big night. We were sure Mae Muller’s “I Wrote a Song”, a catchy tune about overcoming a break-up, at least deserved a spot in the top 10 – but sadly very few agreed. With just 24 points, the UK came a rather mortifying second-to-last. At least it wasn’t nul points.

But one thing we can be proud of is that the grand final in Liverpool was the most watched in history with an average of 9.9 million UK viewers.

Clearly our predictions need some fine-tuning for next year but one thing is certain: unpredictability is the very essence of Eurovision.

i predictions vs the results

WINNER

i prediction: Austria
Result: Sweden

SECOND

i prediction: Sweden
Result: Finland

THIRD

i prediction: Norway
Result: Israel

Fourth

i prediction: Finland
Result: Italy

Fifth

i prediction: France
Result: Norway

Sixth

i prediction: Israel
Result: Ukraine

Seventh

i prediction: Belgium
Result: Belgium

Eighth

i prediction: Ukraine
Result: Estonia

Ninth

i prediction: UK
Result: Australia

10th

i prediction: Spain  
Result: Czech Republic

11th

i prediction: Poland  
Result: Lithuania

12th

i prediction: Moldova
Result: Cyprus

13th

i prediction: Croatia
Result: Croatia

14th

i prediction: Portugal
Result: Armenia

15th

i prediction: Slovenia
Result: Austria

16th

i prediction: Armenia
Result: France

17th

i prediction: Czech Republic
Result: Spain

18th

i prediction: Switzerland
Result: Moldova

19th

i prediction: Lithuania
Result: Poland

20th

i prediction: Albania
Result: Switzerland

21th

i prediction: Estonia
Result: Slovenia

22th

i prediction: Cyprus
Result: Albania

23th

i prediction: Italy
Result: Portugal

24th

i prediction: Australia
Result: Serbia

25th

i prediction: Serbia
Result: UK

LAST

i prediction: Germany
Result: Germany