Infographic: Eurovision voting alliances

On 12th May 2018 Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song Toy by Netta. It was the fourth time in the competition’s history an Israeli tune had won the most votes (awarded by both expert panels and telephone votes cast by TV audiences from each participating country) – quite impressive for a country which, as our infographic shows, doesn’t tend to rely on the support of a regional voting bloc when it comes to Eurovision.
Having carefully mapped historical support between Eurovision countries, our map above redraws the geopolitics of the continent – at least when it comes to catchy choruses – and exposes the power-trading that goes on annually in deciding which nation will host next time round. But what does it reveal about real-world national rivalries and affiliations? We’ll leave that to you to decide.
This infographic was published in DG#31. Pick up a copy in our online shop or take out an annual subscription using the promotion code ‘SLOWNEWSDAY’ for 10 percent off.