I told you on Friday night that “if consensus wins, Finland wins. If Eurovision wants its 2026 surprise, it lives at slot #8 (Australia), slot #10 (Malta), or slot #22 (Italy).” Eurovision wanted its surprise. And it lived at slot #12: Bulgaria’s Dara, with “Bangaranga”. Bulgaria didn’t just win — it demolished the field with 516 points, a record-breaking 173-point margin (beating Alexander Rybak’s 169 in 2009). It won both the jury (204) and the televote (312) — the first ti

Few hours to go. Tonight, 21:00 CEST, Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna. The 70th Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final is upon us. Over the last two weeks I've been writing about this contest from every angle I could — the lyrics, the fun stats, the network analysis, and the streaming numbers. All of it built on the data infrastructure I've been developing with my co-authors Alessia Morrone, Barbara Będowska-Sójka, Sabrina Giordano, and Claudia Tarantola. A lot has changed since I pub

The Eurovision 2026 Grand Final is in five days — Saturday 16 May, 21:00 CEST, live from the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna. Thirty-five countries; twenty-five spots in the final; one crystal microphone. So who wins? Last year I closed the pre-final piece with a simple line: let's keep our spreadsheets on one side and our hearts on the other. This year I'm doing the same — but the spreadsheets are bigger. With my co-authors Alessia Morrone, Barbara Będowska-Sójka, Sabrina Giorda