With all the buzz around Sandra Nurmsalu and Helena Paparizou's participation in their respective NF's, I started thinking about other returning artists, so I collated a table and drew some 'fun' statistics from it. Here (under the cut because there's a lot) are the results:
First off, some trivia:
Corry Brokken (Netherlands) and Lys Assia (Switzerland) were the first artists to represent their countries in two contests, 1956 and 1957 - also making them the first to represent their countries in two consecutive contests.
Belgian singer Fud Leclerc and Swiss band Peter, Sue and Marc jointly hold the record for most times participating for the same country, with four participations each (1956, 1958, 1960 and 1962 for Fud, and 1971, 1976, 1979 and 1981 for Peter, Sue and Marc).
The list contains 16 winners (Lys Assia, Corry Brokken, Isabelle Aubret, Jean-Claude Pascal, Gigliolia Cinquetti, Vicky Leandros, Udo Jurgens, Carola, Elisabeth Andreassen and Hanne Krogh (won as Bobbysocks in 1985), Charlotte Perelli (née Nilsson), Johnny Logan, Niamh Kavanagh, Izhar Cohen, Dana International, and Dima Bilan)
Now for some analysis -
NOTE: I discounted 1956 as a year because the exact placing of the runners up is not known.
As you can see, the country that has re-used artists the most is Norway (11 times), followed by Germany, Sweden and Switzerland (both 7 times). It is of note that while the Norwegians chose 11 times to reuse an artist, there are only 8 singers that represented Norway more than once, as Kristi Sparboe, Hanne Krogh, Anita Skorgan and Elisabeth Andreassen all represented the Nordic nation three times.
In terms of placing when they return, most artists tend to do worse second (or third) (or maybe even fourth) time round, with 29% of returning artists ever achieving a higher placing than their previous contest.
The most successful country with returning artists is Switzerland, from which 5 of the 7 'recycles' achieved a higher placing second time round.
The least successful country with returning artists is Norway, from which 8 of the 11 'recycles' had to settle for a lower placing on their next try.
The most consistent country, with 2 out of 7 'recycles' attaining the same position on their second try, is Germany.
Chiara (Malta) had the biggest fall, by 20 places, from 2nd in 2005 to 22nd in 2009.
Hanne Krogh (Norway) had the biggest jump, from 17th in 1971 to 1st (as half of Bobbysocks) in 1985.
(Also interesting about Hanne Krogh is that in her third participation for Norway in 1991, she fell back down to 17th place)
And that's about it, just some patterns/numbers/facts that jumped out at me when I did the research.
(NB: I collated it myself, so there is possibility for human error ie these figures may not be 100% accurate ((but I'd say they're pretty damn close))
Thanks for Reading! Hope this has left you euroyally statisfied.
