Jennifer Cheng - A Eurovision History

Participant countries of Eurovision listed down the y-axis with the years on the x-axis to show the top and bottom 3 placements each year. — Final result: See full chart below.

What is #TidyTuesday?

Tidy Tuesday is a weekly project that provides a dataset for R users to explore and visualize. On May 17, 2022, it featured a Eurovision dataset.

Exploring the dataset

An American attempts to explain Eurovision

Every year, more than 40 countries across Europe, and from other continents, participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, a continent (and beyond)-wide extravaganza complete with sparkles and Hard Rock Hallelujah. In the case of the dataset, it lists every artist and song performed on the show since the inaugural show in 1956. The competition has been held annually since then, except in 2020.

A bit of wrangling of this dataset can give some insight into how the history of the competition and how it has changed through the decades to include more countries. Here’s a glimpse of the original dataset:

glimpse(eurovision)

Rows: 2,005
Columns: 18
$ event          <chr> "Turin 2022", "Turin 2022", "Turin 2022", "Turin 2022",…
$ host_city      <chr> "Turin", "Turin", "Turin", "Turin", "Turin", "Turin", "…
$ year           <dbl> 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2…
$ host_country   <chr> "Italy", "Italy", "Italy", "Italy", "Italy", "Italy", "…
$ event_url      <chr> "https://eurovision.tv/event/turin-2022", "https://euro…
$ section        <chr> "first-semi-final", "first-semi-final", "first-semi-fin…
$ artist         <chr> "Kalush Orchestra", "S10", "Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord",…
$ song           <chr> "Stefania", "De Diepte", "Die Together", "Saudade, Saud…
$ artist_url     <chr> "https://eurovision.tv/participant/kalush-orchestra-22"…
$ image_url      <chr> "https://static.eurovision.tv/hb-cgi/images/963164d0-06…
$ artist_country <chr> "Ukraine", "Netherlands", "Greece", "Portugal", "Bulgar…
$ country_emoji  <chr> ":flag_ua:", ":flag_nl:", ":flag_gr:", ":flag_pt:", ":f…
$ running_order  <dbl> 6, 8, 15, 10, 7, 5, 17, 16, 3, 9, 4, 14, 11, 1, 12, 2, …
$ total_points   <dbl> 337, 221, 211, 208, 29, 15, 187, 177, 159, 154, 118, 10…
$ rank           <dbl> 1, 2, 3, 4, 16, 17, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, …
$ rank_ordinal   <chr> "1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th", "16th", "17th", "5th", "6th…
$ qualified      <lgl> TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE,…
$ winner         <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE,…

To start off, how many countries have participated each year?

# divide up years on x-axis by decades
decade_breaks <- c(1960,1970,1980,1990,2000,2010,2020)

eurovision %>%
  select(year, artist_country) %>%
  distinct() %>%
  count(year) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=year, y=n)) + 
  geom_col(fill="#F7C04A", color="black", size=0.25, alpha=0.6, width=1, show.legend=FALSE) +
  scale_x_continuous(limits=c(1955,2023),
                     breaks=decade_breaks,
                     expand=c(0, 0)) +
  scale_y_continuous(expand=c(0, 0), limits=c(0, 45)) +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(plot.title = element_text(family="DM Serif Display", size=rel(1.75)),
        plot.title.position = "plot",
        legend.position = "top", 
        legend.justification = "left",
        legend.direction = "horizontal",
        legend.background = element_rect(fill="#fff7f5", color=NA),
        legend.text = element_text(margin=margin(r=0.28, unit="cm"), size=10),
        legend.box.margin = margin(c(0,0,0,-77)),
        text = element_text(family="Trade Gothic LT Std", color="#313131"),
        plot.caption = element_textbox_simple(color="#666666"),
        axis.title = element_text(size=rel(0.75), color="#525E75"),
        panel.grid.minor.x = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.minor.y = element_line(size=0.15),
        panel.grid.major.y = element_line(size=0.2)) +
  labs(title="Eurovision: Number of Participating Countries by Year",
       caption=NULL,
       x="Year",
       y="Number of countries")

Warning: Using `size` aesthetic for lines was deprecated in ggplot2 3.4.0.
ℹ Please use `linewidth` instead.

Warning: The `size` argument of `element_line()` is deprecated as of ggplot2 3.4.0.
ℹ Please use the `linewidth` argument instead.

Note: While the competition was not held in 2020, the list of participants had already been determined. Also, what happened in 1970?¹

Each row of the dataset includes, among other details, the year, song and singer, as well as the stage of the competition in which the performance took place. A look into the data reveals how over the years, the contest has expanded to include more countries, which in turn led to multiple segments of the eshow.

Which years had which segments?

eurovision %>%
  # keep only select variables
  select(host_city, year, host_country, section) %>%
  distinct() %>%
  # combine sections (ex. merge "semi-final" and "grand-final" rows that are in the same year into "semi-final, grand-final")
  group_by(year) %>% 
  mutate(sections = paste0(section, collapse = ", ")) %>%
  # How many of each type of combination of competition sections?
  count(sections) %>% 
  ungroup() %>%
  group_by(sections) %>%
  # for each section, get the earliest and latest year to get range
  summarize(first_year = min(year), last_year = max(year)) %>%
  # sort by earliest year
  arrange(first_year) %>% 
  select(Sections=sections, `Earliest year`=first_year, `Latest year`=last_year) %>%
  kable()

Sections	Earliest year	Latest year
final	1956	2003
semi-final, grand-final	2004	2007
first-semi-final, second-semi-final, grand-final	2008	2022

Results: For nearly 50 years, the competition included only one level, the “final” show. In 2004, following an influx of new participating countries, organizers introduced the semi-final stage, the top 10 of which proceeded to the final – along with the top 10 from the 2003 final, the host country and the five automatically qualifying countries of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

In 2008, the competition started holding two simultaneous semi-finals with qualifiers from each section (along with 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇬🇧 and the host country) making up the finalists.²

As evident in the dataset, only in 1956 did each of the participating countries (seven at the time) have two performances, either performed by the same or different people, with only two rankings in the end: One entry, representing the host country of Switzerland, (Lys Assia performing Refrain) placed first while the other 13 performances placed “second,” at least in the sense that ranked results beyond the winner were not announced.

eurovision %>%
  filter(year==1956) %>%
  arrange(rank) %>%
  select(Artist=artist, Song=song, `Artist's Country`=artist_country, Rank=rank) %>%
  kable()

Artist	Song	Artist’s Country	Rank
Lys Assia	Refrain	Switzerland	1
Tonina Torielli	Amami Se Vuoi	Italy	2
Michèle Arnaud	Les Amants De Minuit	Luxembourg	2
Dany Dauberson	Il Est Là	France	2
Freddy Quinn	So Geht Das Jede Nacht	Germany	2
Mony Marc	Le Plus Beau Jour De Ma Vie	Belgium	2
Corry Brokken	Voorgoed Voorbij	Netherlands	2
Franca Raimondi	Aprite Le Finestre	Italy	2
Michèle Arnaud	Ne Crois Pas	Luxembourg	2
Mathé Altéry	Le Temps Perdu	France	2
Walter Andreas Schwarz	Im Wartesaal Zum Großen Glück	Germany	2
Fud Leclerc	Messieurs Les Noyés De La Seine	Belgium	2
Lys Assia	Das Alte Karussell	Switzerland	2
Jetty Paerl	De Vogels Van Holland	Netherlands	2

Visualization

The visualization will include only the countries that have made it to at least one final stage of a competition. I have manipulated the data accordingly. Here’s a random sample of the result:

eurovision_plot <- eurovision %>%
  select(year, section, artist_country, rank) %>%
  distinct() %>%
  # narrow down to winners and non-winners
  filter(section=="final" | section=="grand-final") %>%
  group_by(year) %>%
  arrange(rank) %>%
  # remove non-winners of 1956 as other ranks were not specified
  filter(!(year==1956 & rank==1)) %>% 
  arrange(-year) %>% # order by most recent
  # assign placement to make it easier to assign color
  mutate(rank_text = case_when(
    rank==1 ~ "First",
    rank==2 ~ "Second",
    rank==3 ~ "Third",
    rank==max(rank)-2 ~ "Bottom 3",
    rank==max(rank)-1 ~ "Bottom 3",
    rank==max(rank) ~ "Bottom 3")) %>%
  ungroup() %>%
  select(artist_country, year, rank, rank_text) %>% 
  arrange(artist_country)

eurovision_plot %>% 
  select(Country=artist_country, Year=year, Rank=rank, `Rank group`=rank_text) %>%
  sample_n(5) %>%
  kable()

Country	Year	Rank	Rank group
Germany	1970	3	Third
Cyprus	2012	16	NA
Netherlands	1994	23	Bottom 3
Belgium	1986	1	First
Greece	2014	20	NA

Are there any countries that never made it to a final stage?

setdiff(eurovision$artist_country, eurovision_plot$artist_country) %>%
  sort() %>% # alphabetize
  paste0(., collapse = ", ") # transform to single element of countries separated by commas that can be selected and copied into the ggplot code

[1] "Andorra"

Here is the visualization:

shapes <- c("First"=24, "Second"=24, "Third"=24, "Bottom 3"=25)

rank_colors <- c("First"="#FFC600", "Second"="#73777B", "Third"="#AD7A54", "Bottom 3" = "#E83A14")

y_limits <- c(1955,2023)

y_breaks <- seq(1956,2022,2)

plot_theme <- theme(text = element_text(family = "IBM Plex Sans", color = "#383838"),
          axis.text.y = element_text(size=rel(0.8)),
          axis.text.x = element_text(family="DM Serif Display", size=rel(1.25)),
          plot.title = element_text(family="DM Serif Display", size=rel(1.5), hjust = 0.5),
          plot.title.position = "plot",
          plot.subtitle = element_textbox_simple(color = "#383838", hjust = 0.5, size=rel(0.8)),
          plot.caption = element_textbox_simple(color = "#818181", size=rel(0.7)),
          # legend
          legend.position = "top", 
          legend.justification = "left",
          legend.direction = "horizontal",
          #legend.box.margin = margin(c(-5,0,-10,-115)),
          legend.text = element_text(margin = margin(r = 0.4, unit = 'cm'), size=rel(0.7)),
          legend.title = element_blank(),
          legend.background = element_blank(),
          legend.key = element_blank(), # color around symbol in legend
          # lines for countries
          panel.grid.major.y = element_line(size = 0.2, color = "#383838"),
          axis.ticks.y = element_line(size = 0.2, color = "#383838"),
          # lines for labeled years
          panel.grid.major.x = element_line(size = 0.25, color = "#847e7e", linetype = 2),
          panel.grid.minor.x = element_line(size = 0.2, color = "#b7b2b2", linetype = 2), #e0dede
          axis.ticks.x = element_line(size = 0.25, color = "#847e7e"),
          panel.background = element_blank(),
          plot.background = element_rect(fill = "transparent", color = NA)) 

eurovision_earliest_yr <- eurovision %>%
  # create df of when country joined
  select(year, section, artist_country) %>%
  group_by(artist_country) %>%
  summarize(earliest_yr = min(year)) %>%
  # create character vector of just color numbers in same order as unique list of the countries
  right_join(eurovision_plot)

eurovision_earliest_yr %>%
  mutate(country_year = paste0("<strong>",artist_country,"</strong> <span style='color:#818181; font-size: 8px;'>", earliest_yr, "</span>")) %>%
  mutate(country_year = fct_rev(country_year)) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x=country_year, y=year, fill=rank_text), color="white") +
  geom_point(aes(shape=rank_text), color="transparent", size=1.5) +
  scale_shape_manual(values=shapes) +
  scale_fill_manual(values=rank_colors) +
  scale_y_continuous(limits=y_limits,
                     breaks=decade_breaks,
                     minor_breaks=y_breaks,
                     expand = c(0, 0),
                     position="right") +
  plot_theme +
  theme(axis.text.y = element_markdown()) +
  coord_flip() +
  annotate("rect",
           ymin = -Inf,
           ymax = 2003,
           xmin = -Inf,
           xmax = Inf,
           fill = "#D7E9B9", alpha = 0.3) +
  annotate("rect",
           ymin = 2003,
           ymax = 2007,
           xmin = -Inf,
           xmax = Inf,
           fill = "#FFD495", alpha = 0.3) +
  annotate("rect",
           ymin = 2007,
           ymax = Inf,
           xmin = -Inf,
           xmax = Inf,
           fill = "#FAAB78", alpha = 0.3) +
  labs(title="Eurovision: Top and Bottom 3",
         subtitle="<br />From <span style='color: #5e842c;'>1956 through 2003, the contest only had a final round</span> whereas from <span style='color: #fd9d3a;'>2004 to 2007, the competition introduced an additional semi-final round</span>. Since <span style='color: #e54111;'>2008, Eurovision has had two simultaneous semi-finals</span> in addition to the grand final.",
         caption="<br />A ranking may include multiple countries. The inaugural competition in 1956 was not included due to only the winner being announced (Switzerland).",
         x=NULL, y=NULL)

Footnotes

A “voting scandal” the year before.↩︎
Source: Eurovision.tv ↩︎