Russia wins ESC 2016 China Vote, Full Result

Chinese fans’ ESC 2016 voting has just ended. 123 persons joined the voting via Baidu postbar (http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4437049093) and Sina Weibo respectively, which means 16 more than last year. One more time the fans showed their diversity of music taste and no entry was able to gain an absolute majority over the other entries.

We used Eurovision voting method, but the difference was that we gave the voters the right to modify their votes for unlimited times before deadline, although only a few voters really did modify their votes.

The Russian song “You’re the only one” wins our vote with a margin of 55 points over Nina Kraljic’s “Lighthouse”

The full result of China’s vote is as follows:

1- Russia 587 pts

2- Croatia 532

3- Hungary 451

4- France 413

5- Azerbaijan 345

6- Germany 321

7- Denmark 317

8- Norway 311

9- Estonia 278

10- Australia 266

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11- Czech Republic 235

12- Bulgaria 225

13- Ukraine 198

14- Ireland 175

15- Spain 160

16- Poland 158

17- The Netherlands 157

18- Italy 154

19- Armenia 152

20- Sweden 151

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21- Austria 147

22- Iceland 142

23- Lithuania 128

24- Cyprus 114

25- Latvia 113

26- Macedonia 109

27- Malta 102

28- Serbia 95

29- Slovenia 75

30- Romania 69 (with 2 sets of 12 pts)

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31- Moldova 69  (without sets of 12 pts)

32- Switzerland 63

33- Belgium 59

34- Israel 51

35- Greece 45 (with 1 set of 12 pts)

36- United Kingdom 45 (without sets of 12 pts)

37- Belarus 41

38- Finland 37 (with 1 set of 12 pts)

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39- Bosnia and Herzegovina 37 (without sets of 12 pts)

40- Albania 33

41- San Marino 17

42- Georgia 10

43- Montenegro 5

 

Curious Statistics:

Average points obtained per entry:

Total: 167.26

1st Semifinal: 191.78

2nd Semifinal: 131.37

Big5+Sweden: 207.33

 

Number of entries with more than 200 points: 12

Number of entries with points between 100 and 200: 15

Number of entries below 100 pts: 16

 

Average points of entries performed by male singer: 199.21 per entry

Average points of entries performed by female singer: 174.1 per entry

Average points of entries performed by duo and group: 81.85 per entry

Average points of entries of Ex-USSR countries: 192.1 per entry

Average points of entries of Ex-Yugoslav countries: 142.17 per entry

 

Distribution of 12 points

Russia: 23 sets of 12 pts

Croatia: 14 sets

Hungary: 10 sets

Estonia: 7 sets

France: 6 sets

Australia: 5 sets

 

Countries with 4 sets of 12 pts: Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Ireland, Ukraine

Countries with 3 sets of 12 pts: Denmark, Italy, Armenia, Cyprus

Countries with 2 sets of 12 pts: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Serbia, Romania

Countries with 1 set of 12 pts: The Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, Latvia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Belgium, Greece, Finland, San Marino

Countries without sets of 12 pts: Malta, Moldova, Switzerland, Israel, United Kingdom, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Georgia, Montenegro

 

Moreover, we expect a possible creation of voting section in the website of Hunan TV for the next edition of Eurovision and are actively negotiating with the broadcaster about it, so that Hunan TV would be declaring our result in a more official way (just like what Australia did before joining the Contest), and eventually, we’d like to see Chinese ESC Fans’ voting declared live during the Contest to make our voice heard, although it won’t count and won’t affect the final result of the Contest.

China: Participation of ESC 2016 Possible

Yesterday a piece of news in China Daily website reads that Hunan TV, the broadcaster which for the first time in China’s history broadcasted live both semifinals and the Grand Final, may actually participate in it for the next edition.

Hong Tao, Director of China’s song contest “I’m A Singer”, together with the musical supervisor of the program Liang Qiaobo and specialist of music industry Wu Zhoutong is currently working in Vienna’s Eurovillage. Liang and Wu are working as commentators during the live broadcasting of ESC 2015 of Hunan TV.

Meanwhile, it is said by well-informed personnel that Hong Tao has been in Vienna with a mysterious mission. After the live broadcasting of Semifinal 1, a large number of viewers expressed their hope that the champion of the Season 4 of “I’m A Singer” would take part in the 61st Edition of ESC representing China. For this very purpose, Hunan TV is “in close contact with EBU“.

You can read the whole article in Chinese here: http://ent.chinadaily.com.cn/2015-05/21/content_20785578.htm

China’s Vote for ESC 2015: Sweden Wins By Small Margin

China’s vote for ESC 2015 ended today with a Swedish win by a margin of 14 points over Italy. 109 votes from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were casted via our official Sina Weibo account as well as Baidu Postbar, which increased greatly compared to last year’s 60 due to significant improvement of popularity of not only the ESC itself but also our weibo account in China.

This year participants of the voting went on giving their votes in a 1-8, 10 and 12 ESC classical mode.

This year we made voting deadline later than last year and allowed voting modification until last minute of deadline to make the voting result more objective and more affected by the participants’ rehearsal performance. The most positively affected countries through rehearsal are Norway, Georgia, Sweden, Albania and Azerbaijan, each gained more than 10 extra points with the modification of some votes. The most negatively affected country after rehearsal is Portugal, which lost 5 points and was placed last. Countries like Israel, Germany etc. all lost some points after rehearsal, although Germany was still placed 5th without any change.

Here is the Final Result of China’s vote for this edition of Eurovision Song Contest:

TOP 10:

1 – Sweden, 521 pts

2 – Italy, 507

3 – Estonia, 474

4 – Slovenia, 315

5 – Germany, 266

6 – Iceland, 249

7 – Azerbaijan, 238

8 – Norway, 236

9 – Australia, 220

10 – Albania, 213

 

11-20 places:

 

11 – Belarus, 209

12 – Macedonia, 200

13 – Spain, 175

14 – Russia, 167

15 – Belgium, 166

16 – Romania, 154

17 – France, 132

18 – United Kingdom, 122

19 – Cyprus, 120

20 – Israel, 117

 

21-30 places

 

21 – Hungary, 111

22 – Armenia, 102

23 – Ireland, 95

24 – Poland, 93

25 – Malta, 87 (2 sets of 12 pts)

26 – Switzerland, 87 (0 set of 12 pts)

27 – Denmark, 76

28 – Netherlands, 76

29 – Moldova, 73

30 – Georgia, 72

 

Last 10 places:

 

31 – Finland, 71 (2 sets of 12 pts)

32 – Greece, 71 (1 set of 12 pts)

33 – Serbia, 68

34 – Czech Republic, 62

35 – Montenegro, 61

36 – San Marino, 55

37 – Latvia, 47

38 – Austria, 39

39 – Lithuania, 29

40 – Portugal, 28

 

Number of 12-point sets:

More than 10: Sweden (19), Italy (14), Estonia (12)

5-9: Slovenia (9), Albania (7), Belgium (5)

Four sets of 12-points: Norway, Australia

Three sets of 12 points: Iceland, Spain, Russia

Two sets of 12 points: Cyprus, Malta, Moldova, Finland

One set of 12 points: Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Israel, Hungary, Armenia, Ireland, Georgia, Greece, Serbia, Czech Republic, San Marino, Latvia

Eurovision 2015: 100 Million More Viewers?

The official Sina Weibo account of Hunan TV revealed that its Music Channel will BROADCAST ESC 2015 both semifinals and Grand Final LIVE, despite that they will be held at 03:00 after midnight Beijing Time. It will mark the first time that a mainland Chinese TV channel broadcast Eurovision LIVE, although CCTV’s Music Channel has already broadcasted ESC 2012 and 2013 with delay.

Hunan TV is the second-viewed Chinese TV channel, but it is famous for its satellite channel rather than other channels, much fewer people may have access to its Music Channel. However, as Hunan is a province with more than 60 Million population, its broadcasting will still be a great increase of the number of viewers of Eurovision 2015.

Moreover, in fact, this piece of great news is still a good relief for the Eurovision Fans in mainland China as it means that direct ONLINE watching of ESC without logging on to a foreign website (which may be exposed to China’s GFW system) will be for the first time possible, as those who want to watch will not have to download plug-ins, which may be victim of China’s Internet-blocking system, and suffer from constant buffering and bad speed.

So, this decision of Hunan TV, despite a television channel, actually benefits China’s Internet navigators more than TV viewers. regardless of the way people watch the great show, it will be considered as a big progress that has been made for the popularization of ESC events in the remote China (in the Europeans’ eyes).

Analyze: China and Eurovision 2014 – A Dilemma For the State Media

Transmit or not this year’s Eurovision Song Contest? This is the question. First of all, for a reason known by all, China’s state media CCTV surely doesn’t want an Austrian win, as the travesti (transgender? or something else, but is now called “Ms. Beard” by Chinese fans) has won an edition of Eurovision that was filled with Chinese element, which has never been seen before. So it remains to be seen how will China’s Central Television deal with this year’s contest, here is a humble analysis by me as a inmature blogger without any experience of news reporting:

Why in Eurovision 2014 the hosts keep talking about China?

Well, with absence of any official background, this blog cannot give you an official answer, but some rumours can be told here for you to take as a reference stating that it has something to do with a recent visit of Danish Queen to China and this may be a signal to make Copenhagen closer to Beijing as if they are talking about establishing a twin-cities relation. But some states that China may have been a secret financial sponsor of this year’s Contest, which I tend not to agree without a concrete evidence.

Is Conchita Wurst style accepted by Chinese society?

Not really, we have to say that in China you can really find travesti, and also the people around looking at them as if here comes a man with mental disorder, or a strange man or something just got off from a UFO. Among younger generation travesti and transgender are tolerated to some degrees, but still receive a notable number of discontent (even more than homosexuality, as gays at least knows how to dress “normally”). China is a country with a history of more than 5,000 years and people are proud to hold their (maybe too conservative) traditional values. I’ve stated when Krista’s lesbian kiss was censored in CCTV-15 that such a big society of 1.3 billion people (with more than 0.8 billion of rural population) cannot be changed within a day. Any change may be gradual and slow, especially if it is about people’s view and reflections. Tolerance is bliss, this sentence is being accepted by more and more Chinese population.

What’s the reaction of China’s Music Fans related to Conchita’s Win?

Conchita’s win really rocked China’s music fans, there has been some entries in Sina Weibo (alternative service of twitter in China), claiming that Conchita has taught us to be tolerant and to respect diversity. A tweet that I received says, there are two reasons to make us burst into tears: Valentina’s qualification and Conchita’s win. Large numbers of China’s Eurofans and music fans are sharing with European fans the excitement of the moving moment when Conchita held the trophy of ESC Winner despite that it was about 5 am in Beijing, an hour unfavorable to watch any kind of TV programs.

Will CCTV censure this year’s contest?

If censorship means that we cut, or modify something, sure, because CCTV does not broadcast solely for younger generation, the old people and rural people surely don’t want to see Conchita performing on the stage, and nor do CCTV like to be blamed for its taste and value. But I don’t really think that CCTV will skip this year’s contest as Conchita wins, mainly because of various Chinese elements in this year’s contest, which can be interpreted as our great victory of cultural diplomacy and output, and also an evidence that shows the increase of China’s soft power. China’s diplomacy is quite controversial here as some claim that it is inefficient and useless. This year’s Eurovision Song Contest may offer China’s officials a good proof to say that our exchange with foreign countries work at some extent. So I think CCTV has more reason this year to transmit ESC than last year, and it may not want to give up.

In which way may CCTV censure this year’s contest?

Mainly the way they define Conchita. I guess people will more easily accept if they’re not told that Conchita is a travesti or a transgender, but a man (or a woman) that, according to the necessity of the performance and a stage effect required by the theme of the song, was dressed and made up like this (or maybe a person with genetic defect?), in a word, they may avoid mentioning Conchita’s gender and other personal profiles. Since ESC 2013 was broadcasted without commentators, we don’t need one, so neither do the audience need much imformation about the artists. Anyway, it is impossible to broadcast the competition without a winner. But we can be sure that the proclamation that Conchita made knowing she has won the contest, that contained terms like freedom, future and instoppable, will definitely be cut.

How did state media report Conchita’s victory?

Xinhuanet (the media that stands in line with the government the most) – Austria’s “Travesti Queen” wins the Eurovision: http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2014-05/11/c_126486289.htm  I can’t open the page, and don’t know if it has already been deleted.

Chinadaily.com – Austria’s “Bearded Beauty” wins the Eurovision. Well if you open the page you may only see a title. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqgj/jryw/2014-05-11/content_11684527.html

But Beijing TV Station posted a report titled: “Beijing Week of Eurovision Song Contest begins, Chinese Culture Shines in Copenhagen”, which is reposted by state-run people.com.cn.

The de-facto state-run Phoenix News reported with a title: “Eurovision: Music Without Boundary, Austrian ‘Bearded Beauty’ Wins”: http://v.ifeng.com/ent/music/2014005/0183efa3-c39e-4ca0-8d77-dab2beff551a.shtml

I think the term “Bearded Beauty” will be used as an official alias for Conchita by Chinese state-run medias, as when you call “beauty”, people will understand that she is a woman, and will not care whether she is travesti or transgender, it may be the best way to avoid controversies among CCTV’s audiences.

So our dear readers, what do you think about the possible solutions? Please let us know! But as a Chinese with limited English skills I would say, don’t demand too much on Chinese audience, let us change little by little. At this time, it will surely be a victory only if ESC 2014 and Conchita appear in the screen of China’s 1.3 billion TV sets, no matter whether censored or not.

ESC 2014 China Vote: Sweden wins by wide margin

China’s Poll for Eurovision 2014 has ended. We received 60 votes from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, a number much larger than 2012’s 29 and 2013’s 33, thanks to the increasing popularity of Eurovision and our sina weibo (twitter’s Chinese version) account and Baidu Postbar. Sweden wins our poll with 368 points, while Ireland follows with 192. The first 10 places are occupied by:

 

1. – Sweden  368
2. – Ireland 192
3. – Montenegro 169
4. – Spain 139
5. – Norway 138
6. – Switzerland 135
7. – Azerbaijan 134
8. – United Kingdom 133
9. – Armenia 129
10. – Denmark 127.

11th to 20th places:

 

11.- Romania  121

12.- Macedonia 109

13.- Russia 108

14.- Netherlands 105

15.- Ukraine 103

16.- Austria 99

17.- Slovenia 97

18.- Belgium 91

19.- Israel 84

20.- Greece 80

 

21st to 30th places:

 

21.- Iceland 79

22.- Poland 73

23.- Belarus 73

24.- Portugal 70

25.- Germany 68

26.- Italy 62

27.- France 61

28.- Estonia 54

29.- Finland 53

30.- San Marino 53

 

The last places:

31.- Albania 48

32.- Hungary 37

33.- Latvia 30

34.- Malta  25

35.- Lithuania 16

36.- Moldova 13

37.- Georgia  4

 

That means: Sweden and Spain become the only two countries that have been placed among Top 10 for 3 consecutive years.

 

This year, voters are allowed to modify their votes before deadline, as some songs may be growers and others may not. The majority of voters did not change their points at all, but some of them did (and one voter modified 4 times his vote). Countries like Austria, Macedonia, San Marino, etc. have had their points decreased. Their final points are lower than the maximum points they got some time during the voting process. Portugal once entered Top 10, but almost didn’t receive anything afterwards.

 

Chinese ESC Fans also voted for their favorite songs in 2012 and 2013, when Iceland and Denmark won respectively, while the runner-up was Sweden and Switzerland.

 

CCTV: To Air ESC 2012 Grand Final

According to CCTV Music Channel (CCTV-15)’s official Sina Weibo, CCTV-15 is to air ESC 2012 Grand Final in Baku on Sunday, 1st of December at 07:30 CET (14:30 Beijing Time). Live stream can be watched here: http://tv.cntv.cn/live/cctv15/ and maybe with some plugin required. It seems that the Chinese Central Television really desires to do more to promote the Eurovision Song Contest.

All the three shows of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest first aired in CCTV-15 on October 5 to 7 at night hours during the annual one-week-long National Day holiday with a retransmission on the afternoons of the next days. This marked the first time in the history of CCTV to broadcast ESC shows full, and not just appears in news reports like years earlier. ESC 2013 was transmitted with lyrics translated into Chinese sentence by sentence displayed as Chinese subtitles in the screen. Singers were introduced briefly with something like verbal presentation announced during the projection of postcards, without commentators of the broadcaster. It is not clear if the transmission method will change tomorrow for the 2012 edition.

China Eurovision Emission: Krista Kiss Censored

Hours earlier, the CCTV-15 aired Eurovision 2013 Semifinal 2, but the moment that Finnish representative Krista Siegfrids kissed one of her vocals after having performed her song “Marry Me” was censored and completely cut. Many active Chinese Eurovision Fans, despite of not being gay or lesbian, protested the censorship in the comment of CCTV-15’s official Sina Weibo (a popular twitter alternative of China).

Despite the fact that the historical records of homosexual activity can date back to some 4,000 years ago, homosexuality still seems to be something new and curious in China’s society due to China’s decades-lasting economic and cultural closure from late Qing Dynasty (19th Century) to the reign of Mao. HIV AIDS is another case of this kind. China discovered the first case of HIV AIDS no earlier than 1980s, and the very case was an Argentinian tourist rather than a fellow Chinese.

In China, homosexuality is never ruled ilegal, but used to be considered as mental problem or persons and activities against morality. Fortunately, as time goes by, a strong sense of tolerance towards homosexuality appeared among young generation, In some major cities of China, open gay/les meeting parks and public places (bars, discos etc.) have appeared without any intervention of police forces and straight persons. According to the recent statistics, the homosexual population in China has reached some 36 to 48 million. At the same time, more and more homosexual sites also appeared, and most importantly, uncensored.

Despite of the increasing tolerance towards homosexuality, China’s Central Television, as state-run TV Channels broadcasting for 1.3 billion viewers, opted to be prudent towards homosexual content of the TV programs. This censorship is not a surprise for us. We believe that, a social tolerance to homosexuality of a society of the most populated country in the world, is a matter of time, but cannot achieve in one night.

China’s Broadcasting of Eurovision 2013: More Details

Days ago, our blog has stated that the Music Channel of China’s Central Television (CCTV-MUSIC or CCTV-15) will be broadcasting the Eurovision semifinals during the first week of October. Today more details have been released.

On 5th October, CCTV-15 will broadcast ESC 2013 1st Semifinal twice at 1435 hours and 2154 hours Beijing Time.

On 6th October, 2nd Semifinal will be broadcast twice at 1435 and 2224 hours Beijing Time

On 7th October, the Grand Final will be on air at 1440 and 2224 hours Beijing Time, the program list inform that the broadcast of Grand Final can last until 0200 hours Beijing Time or so, so it seems that the voting procedure will be shown as well.

Lang Kun, General Supervisor of the CCTV Music Channel afirmed that, China’s television and music industry personnels should learn from the methods of the management and transmission of the Eurovision Song Contest. We can conclude that, while the contents of the programs are important, it is even more important to learn “how to organize them”. Only by improving the quality of a program, increasing its creativity and integrity, can it be gaining good rating and fame. As the only associated member of EBU in China, CCTV-15 will continue the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest, aiming at promoting the popularity and influence of the cultural event masterpiece.

You can watch CCTV-15 live here at http://tv.cntv.cn/live/cctv15

Exclusive: ESC 2013 Rebroadcasting due in China

Accounts of sina weibo (The alternative of Twitter in China) of some internal figures in the radio-television field of China told @escfans_china that the Music Channel of Chinese Central Television (CCTV-MUSIC or CCTV-15) will rebroadcast Eurovision 2013 on 5th and 6th of October at 2200 hours Beijing Time (GMT+8).

Chinese people will enjoy annual National Day holiday from 1 to 7 of October, and moreover, night hours after 20:00 are considered as “Golden Hours” with higher rate of Chinese viewers. After this broadcast, and with the rumour that Emmelie de Forest, ESC 2013 winner, may travel to China sometime in the next six months, we expect a big boost of ESC 2013 popularity here in China.

However, it remains to be seen whether sensitive moments of ESC 2013 performance, for example, Finnish representative Krista Siegfrids’ lesbian-style kiss, will be censored or not, and in which way if it will be.