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Aidan performs in —d —h —m
AIDAN Bella · Malta

Aidan vs Europe.

Thursday 14 May. Fifteen countries, one stage, ten qualify. Here's what Aidan is up against.

Friends of Malta

Who votes for Malta
the most?

Average points sent to Malta per final, all-time (1971–2025). Minimum 5 finals together. Ireland leads — handing Malta 4.36 points every time they share the stage.

The Italian Job

Malta loves Italy.
Italy doesn't love Malta back.

Italy is auto-qualified for the Eurovision Final every year (Big Five since 2011). So Malta gets to vote on Italy almost every contest — and almost always hands them the maximum. The reverse only happens when Malta qualifies, and even then, Italy doesn't return the favour.

Malta gives Italy 2.4× more points than Italy gives Malta back.

Malta → Italy
11.79 / 12
Average per final · 19 finals voted Almost always max points
Italy → Malta
4.85 / 12
Average per final · only 13 finals (Malta has to qualify) Below half

The Italian public has given Malta zero points — every single year since the jury/televote split was introduced (2016, 2019, 2021). Every Italian point Malta has ever received came from the professional juries.

Italy makes the final every year, and Malta hands them top marks. When Malta does qualify, Italy returns a fraction. The most lopsided friendship in Maltese Eurovision history.
Jury vs Public · 2025

The juries loved
Miriana Conte.

In Basel 2025, Malta's entry got two completely different verdicts. The professional juries adored her. The public at home barely noticed.

Miriana Conte
"Serving" · Eurovision 2025 Final
17th place · 91 pts
🎩 The Juries 0
📱 The Public 0
Juries gave Miriana 10× more points than the public did. Without the juries, Malta would have finished near the bottom of the scoreboard.

Miriana wasn't alone. Here are the most extreme jury-vs-public splits of the modern era.

2025Switzerland — Zoë Më +214 jury
2025UK — Remember Monday +88 jury
2024UK — Olly Alexander +46 jury
2025Malta — Miriana Conte +75 jury
2024Croatia — Baby Lasagna +127 public
2024Israel — Eden Golan +271 public
Smart Money · 2015 → 2025

The bookies have never
bet on Malta to win.

Across eleven Maltese entries since 2015, the smart money's best-ever opinion of us was Destiny 2021 at 5/1 — a 20% implied chance of winning. Every other year, we were a long shot. Here's how each call panned out.

Michela, 2019. The bookies averaged 205/1 on her to win the final — a 0.5% implied chance (best price 17/1). She finished 14th out of 26. The single biggest underrating in modern Maltese Eurovision history.

Malta in the Modern Era

We qualify 52% of the time.

Since semi-finals were introduced in 2004, Malta has had to qualify each year. Tap a year to see what happened.

Tap a year above Eurovision is a coin flip for Malta. 11 qualifications out of 21 modern attempts.
0 / 0 = 52%
Qualification rate · 2004–2025
Every Maltese Act · 1971 → 2026

From 1971
to Aidan's Bella.

Fifty-five years. Thirty entries. Zero wins, but two second places. Scroll through every Maltese Eurovision act in history — best finishes glow cyan, top-10s in blue, missed finals in red.

Vienna 2026 · The Empty Chairs

Five countries won't show up in 2026.

The largest Eurovision boycott since 1970. Five regulars have withdrawn from Vienna 2026 in protest at Israel's continued participation.

Countries Withdrawn 0
Last Boycott Bigger 1970
Iceland Withdrew December 2025
Withdrew
Ireland 7-time winner · Won't participate
Withdrew
Netherlands 2019 winner · Out for 2026
Withdrew
Slovenia Joined the boycott
Withdrew
Spain Big-Five auto-qualifier · Now absent
Withdrew
⚠️ Spain breaks the Big Five
Spain's withdrawal collapses the famous "Big Five" auto-qualifier bloc for the first time since Italy joined it in 2011. Vienna 2026 effectively runs with a Big Four (France, Germany, Italy, UK) plus host Austria. The Grand Final has just 25 entries instead of the usual 26.
The Bloc

Cyprus and Greece can't stop voting for each other.

The textbook Eurovision voting alliance. When both countries make the final, the result is almost always the same: maximum points, both ways.

🇨🇾 Cyprus
🇬🇷 Greece
PING
PONG
CY → GR average
12.71
GR → CY average
12.85
Finals together
31
Years exchanging
40+
The Geography Theory

Neighbours vote for neighbours.

Eurovision's most enduring rumour: countries near each other quietly trade points. We tested it across 70 years of finals data. The theory is real — and Cyprus–Greece is just the loudest example.

4.81×
More points exchanged within bloc vs outside
1
Cyprus & Greece 12.78 withinvs2.66 outside · 58 finals
4.81×
2
Ex-Yugoslavia 8.72 withinvs2.52 outside · 231 finals
3.46×
3
Ex-Soviet 8.58 withinvs2.59 outside · 136 finals
3.31×
4
Italy & Malta 8.97 withinvs2.76 outside · 32 finals
3.25×
5
The Baltics 8.30 withinvs2.82 outside · 74 finals
2.95×
6
Nordics 5.14 withinvs2.42 outside · 770 finals
2.12×
7
Caucasus 6.48 withinvs3.20 outside · 56 finals
2.03×
8
British Isles 5.16 withinvs2.71 outside · 101 finals
1.90×
9
Iberia 4.59 withinvs2.72 outside · 99 finals
1.69×
10
DACH (Germanic) 2.81 withinvs2.72 outside · 301 finals
1.03×

The strongest two-way friendships

1
Moldova ↔ Romania
26.23
2
Cyprus ↔ Greece
25.56
3
Albania ↔ Italy
24.00
4
Armenia ↔ Georgia
23.21
5
Bosnia ↔ Serbia
22.83
6
Azerbaijan ↔ Russia
22.27
7
Australia ↔ Sweden
21.86
8
Armenia ↔ Russia
21.57
9
Lithuania ↔ Latvia
21.09
10
Serbia ↔ Slovenia
20.92
Moldova and Romania share a language — and average over 26 mutual points every time both make the final, the highest two-way exchange in Eurovision. The biggest curiosity? Australia ↔ Sweden, the only pair in the top 10 that aren't actual neighbours (the Australian Eurovision broadcaster is run by Swedish-Australians, and the Australian televote consistently goes to Scandi songs).

Geography explains 9 of the 10 strongest mutual exchanges. The exception proves the rule.