Aussie Eurovision fans are like no other fans in the world. It is partially thanks to intense levels of dedication, pleading and maybe some begging that Australia was able to finally officially joined the competition instead of just watching from afar!
The most committed of all of these fans started ESCFAN - Eurovision Song Contest Fans of Australia Network in 2015 as a way to represent Australia fans of the contest.
For the second year running ESCFAN held a song preview party in Melbourne over the weekend.
Fans from all around Australia came together to listen to this year’s songs, watch the performances and cast their votes as to who they thought would come out on top.
Last year at the party, the fans picked Sweden to win out of out of the 40 participating countries. They also went as far as to guess he would score 360 points.
As we all know, in the real contest, held in Austria, Måns Zelmerlöw did win with the song Heroes and he scored a whopping 365 points, making it the third-highest-scoring song ever.
Hence, for a strong indication of who could take out top spot for Eurovision 2016, it would be wise to take note of the fan vote this year too! Here are their results:
Topping the vote was France's contestant Amir with his song “J’ai cherche”. The super-catchy tune with half-French, half-English lyrics has also been an odds-on favourite with the bookies. Listen to it here:
ESCFAN Preview Party poll results (Source: Sharleen Wright for ESCFAN) Source: Facebook
Interestingly, Russia, who has been vying neck and neck with France for the top spot in the betting odds, only came in third, pushed out of the way by Spain's Barei and her joyful anthem 'Say Yay'.
Not included in the official poll results were Australia, (as with the official Eurovision vote, countries are not allowed to vote for their own entrants) or Romania, who were sadly disqualified last week due to outstanding debts owed by the national broadcaster to the European Broadcasting Union.
Fan club president Sharleen Wright also explained that: "We took 86 valid votes on the night, and included Australia and Romania as a possibility."
"If we counted those, Dami would have come 3rd (401 points) and Ovidiu from Romania would have been 39th (18 points)."
Clearly these fans know their power ballads from their retro dance tracks and what Europe likes. Will the Aussie superfans pick the winner again? Tune in to SBS in May to find out!
