"Now that the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest is down to 42 participants, what countries are the top ten for YouTube views?
We're in the homestretch of wild speculation season April, which means we can pretty much lock in what the YouTube favorites are for this year's Eurovision Song Contest. With rehearsals beginning a week from Sunday, what can we glean from which videos are at the top of the list?
The Favorites
- Sweden -- "I Can't Go On" -- Robin Bengtsson 3 million views
- Belgium -- "City Lights" -- Blanche 2.7 million views
- Bulgaria -- "Beautiful Mess" -- Kristian Kostov 2.1 million views
- San Marino -- "Spirit of the Night" -- Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson 2 million views
- FYR Macedonia -- "Dance Alone" -- Jana Burcesca 1.87 million views
- France -- "Requiem" -- ALMA 1.74 million views
- Serbia -- "In Too Deep" -- Tijana Bogicevic 1.69 million views
- Australia -- "Don't Come Easy" -- Isaiah Firebrace 1.51 million views
- Armenia -- "Fly With Me" -- Artsvik 1.39 million views
- Azerbaijan -- "Skeletons" -- Dihaj 1.32 million views
Now, there are some caveats to this list. First, Italy's Francesco Gabbani's Vevo video for "Occidentali's Karma" (which has been available since February 9) is approaching 100 million views. The abridged Eurovision version (posted at the end of March) has only 870,000 views. It'll be interesting to see how his numbers stack up once rehearsal footage gets posted.
Caveat number two: Russia. Before dropping out of the Contest last week due to continued strained relations with host country Ukraine, Julia Samoylova's "Flame is Burning" had racked up more than 2 million views. If anything, Russia's departure has made the second semi-final a bit more competitive.
The surprises from this list: San Marino and FYR Macedonia. Both countries have struggled for attention at the Contest, and both have managed to generate quite a lot of positive buzz. It remains to be seen if and how YouTube popularity will translate to televotes, but this could be a watershed year for both delegations.
YouTube viewership figures are based on surveying the official Eurovision channel videos between 8pm and 8:30pm Eastern on Wednesdays."