EBU grants broadcasters the right to host national finals in order to select their representatives. Many countries organise a selection process – only in 2020 25 countries organise a national final for the artist, the song or both of them. In this series of posts, we analyse the results of the past decade.

Today, we analyse the two hundred qualified entries and the Top-10 placed countries of the past ten years. How many of them were ballads and how many were uptempo? Does the genre of the song guarantee a better placing?

Qualification & Genres

From all the qualified songs of the past decade, 93 entries were ballads-slow tempo songs whilst 103 were uptempo.

Last year was the “perfect” year with equal number of ballads and dance songs that qualified to the final. On six others occasions the uptempo songs were more than the “slow” songs.

TOP-10 & Genres

Since 2010, from all the top-10 placed songs, only 2 years the uptempo songs were more than the ballads.

On three occasions there was an equal number of slow and uptempo songs. On the remaining five contests the ballads overcome the dance songs.

Note: The data were collected through the official site of the contest. Despite our best efforts, there might be some mistakes.

What do you think about the existence of an international juries on national finals? Write your thoughts on the comment box below.