Eurovision 2022. The year when Moldova came 2nd in the public vote and the UK 1st with the juries.

 A very well-run show in Turin saw Ukraine take the prize (then sell it in order to pay for some tanks!)

The overall Top 10 looked like this.

1	Ukraine	Stefania Kalush Orchestra	631
2	United Kingdom	Space Man Sam Ryder	466
3	Spain	SloMo Chanel	459
4	Sweden	Hold Me Closer Cornelia Jakobs	438
5	Serbia	In Corpore Sano Konstrakta	312
6	Italy	Brividi Mahmood & Blanco	268
7	Moldova	Trenuleţul Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers	253
8	Greece	Die Together Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord	215
9	Portugal	Saudade, saudade Maro	207
10	Norway	Give That Wolf a Banana Subwoolfer	182

This comprised two sets of scores. The national 'professional' juries' points came first. It was great to see United Kingdom at the top. Portugal were very highly placed at 5th at this stage with the Netherlands, Australia and even Azerbaijan looking as if they might have a chance.

1	United Kingdom	Space Man Sam Ryder	283
2	Sweden	Hold Me Closer Cornelia Jakobs	258
3	Spain	SloMo Chanel	231
4	Ukraine	Stefania Kalush Orchestra	192
5	Portugal	Saudade, saudade Maro	171
6	Italy	Brividi Mahmood & Blanco	158
7	Greece	Die Together Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord	158
8	Netherlands	De Diepte S10	129
9	Australia	Not the Same Sheldon Riley	123
10	Azerbaijan	Fade To Black Nadir Rustamli	103

Look at what the voting public said, though! Clearly way out in front with a massive number of votes was the Ukraine entry and it was now more a matter of who might come second. Moldova, who nearly always get precious few points from the national juries were the public's second choice! An extraordinary result for a catchy but very unlikely winning song. The other entry where the public violently disagreed with the boring old jury people was Serbia's where some woman talking about good health and appearing to wash her hands incessantly and not always in time to the music was their 4th choice. It was very catchy, though.

Spain were consistent - scoring enough to hold 3rd place in each but they were just beaten by Sam Ryder's Space Man who took 2nd place overall. I had been expecting the two ballads to do well and the public agreed with me, placing both Poland's and Estonia's entries in the top 10. They also liked the yellow and black phenomena that was Norway's crazy-looking entry, which the national juries had left lounging near the foot of the table a little earlier.

1	Ukraine	Stefania Kalush Orchestra	439
2	Moldova	Trenuleţul Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers	239
3	Spain	SloMo Chanel	228
4	Serbia	In Corpore Sano Konstrakta	225
5	United Kingdom	Space Man Sam Ryder	183
6	Sweden	Hold Me Closer Cornelia Jakobs	180
7	Norway	Give That Wolf a Banana Subwoolfer	146
8	Italy	Brividi Mahmood & Blanco	110
9	Poland	River Ochman	105
10	Estonia	Hope Stefan	98

This format lends a lot of excitement and is fascinating to see the difference between what satisfies the national juries and what the public actually pay money and vote for. I do wonder now whether we should do away with the juries and just leave the public to decide. If it means Moldova come 2nd with a pretty poor number but it's one that people like then so be it. We are talking about Eurovision, not some professional concert.