Running Order

Winning draw The best draw in history has been either 17th or last. Both draws resulted n six victories. The years in which the last song won were 1960, 1970, 1977, 1982, 1983 and 1989. Number 17 won in 1972, 1980, 1992, 1996, 2006 and 2007. Three of these six victories were Irish. Worst draw, when it comes to victories, so far has been number 2, with no winner yet in 51 contests.There hasn't been a winner performing 16th, 21st, 25th or 26th either. Until 2003, there hadn't been a winner from draw number 4 either, but Turkey's Everyway that I can changed that. As fur number 16, in 2006, in the semifinal, Finland, performed 16th and won. The only final winner from position 7 - Boom-bang-a-bang had to share its victory with three others in 1969. Last places The draws that have resulted in the most last places are 2 and 3 both accounting for 8 last places each. Notably half of those last places from starting position 3 have been in the last decade: 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2004. Coming close behind is number 13, which has proven to be an unlucky number for seven acts in ESC history. If we take into account the semifinals of 2004 and 2005 as well, draw 2 and 3 both accounted for even 9 last places! No country performing first has ever come last, neither did any performing 19th, 21st, 23rd or later. Only one song performed last has come last: the Finnish entry Fri? in 1990. All four songs that came last from starting position 6 scored 0 points. The only other draw position having resulted in a 0-points score four times is number 13 - three of them in consecutive years (1963, 1964, 1965). No songs performed 1st or later than 16th have ever scored 0 points, except for the Icelandic entry Þáð sem enginn sér in 1989, which was performed 20th or third last. Draws 2 to 15 have all resulted in a 0 on the scoreboard at least once. Thanks to Timoteus from Finland and Jon from Germany for their additions / corrections. Subscription to a starting position IRELAND and NORWAY hold the record for being drawn the most times at the same number. Ireland performed 17th on 8 occasions: 1966, 1967, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1992, 1996 and 1999. Three times Ireland even won from this draw.  Norway performed 5th on 8 occasions too. The years were 1960, 1963, 1973, 1977, 1984, 1995, 2005 and 2006. In 1995 this draw gave a victory for Norway. Switzerland performed 9th  on 7 occasions (two victories): 1956, 1960, 1978, 1980, 1988, 1994 and 1996.  Several countries had the same draw position six times. There was a typo in the years for Switzerland. Thanks to Peter de Vries from the Netherlands for correcting. Opening the show NETHERLANDS have opened the ESC the most: 6 times: 1956, 1965, 1967, 1970, 1975 and 2001. From the countries that have participated at least 20 times Greece, Monaco and Denmark never have had to perform first. Switzerland opened contest for the first time in 2006. Curiously whereas Greece never opened the adult contest, it did open the first three editions of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Openers have won the contest three times, in 1975, 1976 and 1984. Three times it was the hosting country that opened the show: in 1960, 1963 (United Kingdom) and 1970 (Netherlands). Finland opened the ESC twice in a row in 1973 and 1974, while Ireland did so in both 1977 and 1978, and Austria in both 1980 and 1981. In those last two years also the countries performing second and fourth were the same: Turkey and Luxembourg. Closing the show ITALY has closed the ESC on 5 occasions: in 1956, 1961, 1974, 1975 and 1991. Former Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Sweden come joint second with each 4 times closing the show. From the countries that have participated at least 20 times only Turkey and Cyprus never were drawn last. Songs performed last have won six times, which makes it historically the best draw. Twice the host of the show performed last: Italy in 1991 and Denmark in 2001. Italy and Yugoslavia are the only countries to have been drawn last twice in consequence. Attached to another country in the draw NORWAY and the UNITED KINGDOM seemed attached to each other in the late 70's and most of the 80's. From 1979 to 1986, with the exception of 1980 both countries were drawn each year one after another, and in the same order: the United Kingdom performed right after Norway. In 1980 only Germany split the two apart. Curiously enough after 1986 never were these countries drawn back to back again. Fixed to a draw (artist) SWEDEN/FINLAND/AUSTRIA - Swedish singer Björn Skifs took part in the ESC twice, in 1978 and 1981. On both occasions he performed 20th and last. Finnish singer Marion Rung however in her two participations opened the contest twice. By coincidence: both contests were held in the same town as well: Luxembourg. Austrian Marti Brem opened the contest twice in a row, in 1980 as part of the group Blue Danube, in 1981 solo. Jahn Teigen never had to wait long to go on the ESC stage either: he performed 2nd twice and 3rd a third time. Sebnem Paker from Turkey performed 1st in 1996 and 2nd the year after. André from Armenia is the only artist to have both opened and closed the show. He opened the semifinal in 2006, then proceeded to the final, where he performed last. Most consecutive songs in one language   In 2004 a record of 14 consecutive songs were performed totally in English: Songs 11 to 24 in the final. If we would count the songs that were partially in English too, this run would be even longer. All 2004 final songs after the entry from Serbia & Montenegro (the 5th out of 24 - thus 19 songs) were completely in English apart from a few lines in the 10th song (Ukraine). Since Ukraine and Serbia & Montenegro were number 1 and 2 in the ranking, one may set question marks if singing in English is really the advantage it is often perceived to be .. when (nearly) everyone else does at least. Best / worst semifinal draw   The best semifinal draws so far has been 15th. In all four years when there was a (televized) semifinal the song performed 15th proceeded to the final. Not yet through to the final yet were the songs drawn 2nd, 3rd, 12th and 23rd . Other oddities   * Lithuania in its first four appearances opened and closed the contest once, the other two times they performed 8th and 16th, roughtly at 1/4 and 3/4 of the show. On their 5th appearance in the 2004 semi they eventually were right in the middle (12th). * Neighbour Latvia's draws have been much more one-sided: in their 5 appearances in a Eurovision final 4 times they were among the last 6 countries to perform, twice as number 21, twice as number 23. * Armenia on its debut in 2006 both opened the semifinal and closed the final. * After winning in 1985 when performing 13th, and winning in 1995 performing 5th it looked good as an omen for Norway in 2005. After qualifying from the semi from spot number 13, in the final they were drawn 5th! That's though were the coincidence stops .. Norway did reasonably well with a lower top 10 score after all. * Turkey from 1980 to 1997, with the exception of 1984, was always among the first ten countries performing. * Belarus isdoing a Turkey in thenoughties: their draws so far have been 2, 8, 5 and 4 in the semifinal and 3 in the final. * After performing last in 2000 and being relegated in 2001, Austria was consecutively drawn 3rd, 2nd, 2nd and 1st (the last time in the semifinal of 2005). In 2006 the line continues: off the draw, as Austria withdrew. In 2007 Austria returned and were again first out.This time however it was decided that the first five countries drawn could pick their own slot. The Austrians picked 27, which turned out unfortunately to be also the position they reached scorewise. * No country yet was drawn at the same position three times in a row, but three consecutive Belgian entries submitted by the Flemish broadcaster were. The 1967, 1969 and 1971 entries all were performed 10th. From 1981 to 1984 the artists performing 11th were all female soloists from the Netherlands: Linda Williams, Stella Maessen, Bernadette Kraakman and Mariebelle. Stella in 1982 represented Belgium though. * On a sidenote: Greece in the first three editions of the Junior ESC was always performing 1st. * Their neighbours Republic of Macedonia performed 15th three times in only two years, namely in the 2004 semi and final, and in the 2005 final. This same country is also the only country keeping their semi draw for the final twice, in 2004 (15th) and 2006 (11th). * Former Yugoslavia and Luxembourg are the only countries to have had two 'consecutive' entries. Luxembourg were drawn last in 1963 and opened the 1964 contest. Yugoslavia repeated this in 1968 and 1969. * The only two winning ESC songs ever to be sung back-to-back were the 1969 British and Dutch entries. The 1991 Swedish and French song that tied at first place were performed one after another as well,  but only Sweden was eventually declared the winner. On a sidenote both the last song in 1983 and the first song in 1984 were winners.