In this week's episode.

Long time ago, was it?

I take a look at the countries who have been waiting the longest to notch up another win at Eurovision and whether they're in with a chance of lifting the trophy again anytime soon.

I'm Stephen Perkins and this is Douce Poire.

Hello London, we are ready for your vote.

It is Monday 21st April.

Happy Easter Monday to all of you.

And I'm back with another of our Deep Dive episodes.

But before we get underway with this week's main event, let's lets take a quick look at the latest headlines.

Some sad news to begin with, as Cloda Rogers, who represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision in 1971 with Jack in the Box, has died at the age of 78.

The singer from county down in Northern Ireland finished in fourth place in the 1971 contest and went on to be a mainstay on British and Irish tv, including starring in adverts for Bisto Gravy.

Her son Sam Sorby announced her death on social media, saying that she had been battling illness for the last three years.

This week also saw the passing of Colin berry, a former BBC Radio 2 presenter who was an inherent part of UK Eurovision.

He was best known as the spokesperson delivering our results from 1977 to 2002.

Only missing two contests in his incredible 25 year run, he was 79 years old.

And our thoughts here at Duz Bois go out to the family and friends of both Clodagh and Colin.

Elsewhere, there's more news from Switzerland as to what this year's contest will look like.

As last year's winner, Nemo has been announced as a guest performer.

It hasn't been revealed yet which of the shows they will be performing in, but they will be performing a new song.

This follows a previous announcement that one of the shows will also feature past Swiss Eurovision entrants Paola, Peter, Su and Marc, Luca, Henny and Jean's Thiers performing a medley in celebration of Switzerland's Eurovision heritage.

In addition, Swiss broadcaster SRGSSR has confirmed that each of this year's three shows will have a theme.

Semi Final one will be where it all began.

Looking back to the birth of Eurovision in Switzerland, Semi Final 2 will be Eurovision fans celebrating the people who make Eurovision what it is.

And the Grand Final will be, perhaps unsurprisingly, let's celebrate a new winner.

Now, I can't speak for other nations, but here in the UK we like to complain about how hard done by we are at Eurovision, that nobody likes us, that we're the eternal pariahs of the competition, that we could send Adele and Ed Sheeran with the ghost of John Lennon on the piano and we still wouldn't win.

And quite rightly so.

I haven't read all of the rules of Eurovision, but I'm fairly certain it's implicit that everyone performing on stage has to actually be alive.

But are we really uniquely bad at Eurovision?

I don't think the stats back that up.

Sure, we've had a bad run of things since 1997.

Our last win, of course, with Katrina and the Waves and Love Shine A Light.

But if you look at how long some countries have been waiting since the last time they topped the scoreboard at Eurovision, we're actually sitting pretty.

So in this week's episode, we're going to take a look at the top five countries who've been waiting the longest for their next Eurovision win.

A few ground rules.

First of all, this is about countries who have won Eurovision at least once before.

We've already done a couple of podcasts back in 2023 about all of the countries who've yet to score their first win at the contest.

So this time we're looking at the countries who have at least one win under their belts already.

So sorry, Malta and Iceland, it's not your time right now.

Second of all, this list is only for countries that still exist and are active participants in Eurovision.

So there'll be no Monaco on here because despite having not won the contest since 1971, they haven't submitted an entry since 2006 either.

And likewise, we're going to have to leave out Yugoslavia, who last won the contest in 1989, but also ceased to exist as a country in 1992.

So they're unlikely to win Eurovision again without, frankly, major geopolitical shake up.

Honourable mention before we get going, to those who just missed the cut off.

Azerbaijan have currently got a 12 year drought.

Serbia have 14, Greece are on 19, Latvia have 22.

And narrowly missing the top five are Estonia, with a 23 year wait for another win.

And before anyone gets all numbers lawyer on me, I'm only counting those droughts as far as the 2024 contest, because 2025 hasn't happened yet and technically any of them could still win it, however unlikely that may seem.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the top five countries who've endured the longest waits for their next win.

And at number five, it's the United Kingdom.

As much as our pundits wouldn't like to admit it, we're not actually the country who's been kept waiting the longest for a win.

Not only are there four countries ahead of us in the queue, albeit one with a bit of a technicality, but we will get to that in due course.

But there are actually two countries on this list whose most recent win is so far in the past that the UK has actually lifted the trophy twice since then.

But of course it's not just about wins, it's about your overall track record, which is what we'll also be looking at in this episode.

And I don't think you need me to tell you that this does make for fairly uninspiring reading as far as the UK is concerned.

We've had just four top 10 finishes since 1997 Imani's Where Are youe second place in 1998, Jessica Garlick's comeback finishing joint third in 2002 Jade Ewan's It's My Time finishing fifth in 2009 and of course Sam Ryder finishing second in 2022 with Spaceman.

But barring a couple of good years, we have spent the post 2002e firmly on the right hand side of the leaderboard every time.

Quite what alchemy brought Sam Ryder to us in 2022 when all seemed lost is something I've never fully figured out.

But ever since he proved that Europe really will vote for us if we give them a good reason to, there has been a renewed interest in the UK actually doing well at Eurovision again.

We have admittedly not really pulled it off since then, but in both cases it wasn't for a lack of actively trying.

We had some good solid ideas, but the execution was a little bit off.

Ultimately, I think this comes down to the same thing I've been saying since 2022 it does take a while to turn a ship around and we do need to keep trying things to figure out what's going to work.

It will be interesting to see how things go for Remember Monday this year.

I still have my reservations about the song itself, but they're great live performers who do seem to have been getting a warm reception on the pre contest party circuit.

I don't think this song is anyone's idea of a winner, but if Sam Ryder and Lucy Jones are anything to go by, we do better when our main focus is on sending a skilled singer who won't crack mentally or vocally under pressure.

So there's still a chance for us to have a good result this year.

Watch this space.

In fourth place we have Belgium they are unique on this list in only having won the competition once, so they do perhaps have slightly more to prove than anyone else.

Their only Victory came in 1986 with 13 year old Sandra Kim's J'aime la vie or I Love Life, although they did come agonisingly close in 2003 with Urban Trad's Sanomi, a1 of a kind modern folk composition, which was the first song entered at the contest to be performed in an imaginary language and finished in second place just two points behind Turkiye's Sertab Erena.

With every way that I can however, Belgium's fortunes have been decidedly mixed since 1986 and it does seem to have been feast or famine for them at Eurovision.

They had an unbroken run of non qualifiers from 2005 to 2009 but also managed back to back to back top 10 finishes courtesy of Luik Nutett's Rhythm Inside and Blanche's City Lights, both finishing fourth in 2015 and 2017 respectively, and Laura Tesoro's what's the Pressure sandwiched in between them finishing 10th in 2016.

As for their recent form, a couple of 19th place finishes in 2021 and 2022 followed by a surprise feel good story when Gustav finished seventh in 2023 with because of youf, which I admit wasn't really to my taste, but it was impossible not to feel thrilled for him and for Belgium in general.

But then the wheels came off last year with Musty's before the Party's over, an early favourite which lost momentum once people caught sight of the rehearsals and a combination of shaky vocals and off putting staging left it missing out on a place in the vinyl.

I think Belgium are definitely hungry for another win and this year's entry Strobe Lights by Red Sebastian is currently hovering around seventh place with the bookies, which shows they've not lost their touch from their hotspot around a decade ago.

The other thing worth noting about Belgium is that it is unusual in Eurovision terms in that its two major broadcasters, the Flemish speaking VRT and francophone RTBF are both full members of the EBU and take it in turns organising the national submission to the contest, which does make it slightly harder to build momentum and may be part of the reason for Belgium's hit and misfortunes.

But I definitely think they've got another win in the tank somewhere in third place.

And this I admit is where things may get a little bit controversial.

We have Luxembourg who last won the contest in 1983 with Si La Vieille Cadeau or if Life Is a Gift by Corinne Hermes, there will probably be a few of you listening and thinking, hey, hang on a minute.

Given that Luxembourg withdrew from the contest in 1995 and only returned last year, and sure, I'll be the first to admit that it might be an overstatement to claim that they've had a long wait for their follow up win, given that they sat out of the competition for the best part of 30 years.

Years.

But as I said at the top, to be eligible for inclusion on this list you need to currently be an active participant at Eurovision, and they are.

So Luxembourg stays on the list at number three, even if it comes with an asterisk.

Besides, I do think there is a case to be made here for their inclusion on the grounds that their perception that another win was out of reach is what led them to step away from the contest in the first place.

So let's put it into context.

Luxembourg's win in 1983 was their fifth, which at the time put them up alongside France as the country with the most Eurovision wins overall.

And that's not bad considering the size of Luxembourg compared to a lot of the other countries in the contest.

But in the years after that fifth victory, they began to really struggle to make an impact in the contest.

They finished third in 1986 with L'Amour de la Vie or the Love of My Life by Charisse Laurence and picked up a couple more top 10 finishes.

But their run in the contest in the decade following their final win was mostly mid or lower tier results, culminating in them being relegated from the contest in 1994 and declining to return from 1995 onwards on the grounds that the competition was just too big a financial outlay for comparatively little return.

Admittedly, this doesn't leave us as much to measure in terms of their recent form in the contest, and you could argue that 2024 is kind of a statistical outlier anyway, although they had a good result with Tali's fighter qualifying for the final and finishing 13th overall.

This happened in the wider context of their heavily hyped return to the contest and a heightened level of interest that's unlikely to apply going forward.

Their 2025 entry, La Poupement Esson by Laura Thorne, is currently tipped to qualify for the final, but it is in the tougher of the two semis and is by no means a lock.

However, it's an interesting entry because it directly references arguably their most famous winning song, Poupee de Sire, Poupez de Son by France Gao from 1965.

So it does feel pretty coded in a way to suggest that Luxembourg want to remind everyone of the time when they dominated at Eurovision and that they'd like to be up there again.

Whether they have the heft and the infrastructure to pull that off in the long term remains to be seen, but I don't doubt that the will is there.

At number two on the Countdown, we move to Luxembourg's neighbour to the south, France.

I mentioned just now that Luxembourg's win in 1983 put them alongside France with five wins apiece.

Well, France's fifth win happened in 1977 with Loiseau et l'enfant or the Bird and the Child by Marie Miriam, and that's their most recent one to date.

France's fortunes at Eurovision are an interesting thing to track because their approach is always quite individualistic, even after the language rules were relaxed.

They've occasionally included the odd verse in English here and there, but their songs are always primarily in French.

Similarly, they don't seem particularly interested in chasing trends.

They will send what they want to send and if it flops, they'll simply shrug in a Gallic sort of way and carry on.

As a result, their participation at the contest can occasionally seem a bit more of a bureaucratic box ticking exercise than something that anyone is actively, passionately interested in.

But I do think that could be about to change.

In terms of track record, they haven't been in the weeds entirely since their win in 1977.

For a start, they finished third in three out of the four subsequent contests.

They also finished second in 1990 with Joel Ursel's white and black Blues.

And they followed that up in 1991 with possibly the most agonising near myths of all time, Amina's Ciradenia Chiapale, Chia Raison or It's the Last One who Spoke who is Right ended up receiving the same number of points as Carola's Vongard Allen Stormwind or caught up in a Stormwind for Sweden, 146, putting them both at the top of the scoreboard.

This meant that the tie break procedure to determine the winner was implemented for the first and to date only time at Eurovision, where the votes were counted back to see who had the most number of maximum 12 points points.

Both countries had in fact received a top score from four different countries, so the count continued to see who had received the most tens, which turned out to be Carola, meaning Sweden won and France had to settle for second place.

This also makes France the only country ever to have tied for the top spot at Eurovision twice following the four way tie for the win in 1969.

As we discussed in detail two weeks ago, after 1991 France had a long wait for their next top three placing.

Despite some generally respectable results and a handful of top 10 finishes over the next couple of decades, they did hit quite a bad run between 2012 and 2015 including including their first ever last place finish in 2014 with twin twins Moustache undeserved in my opinion.

But there we go.

However, France seemed to be suddenly re energised in 2016 following a change in their head of delegation when Amir finished sixth with J Chercherche or I've searched.

The aftermath of that was a solid run of mid table finishes as France tried to figure out exactly what their presence in the modern contest should look like before they struck gold.

Well, silver in 2021 with Barbara Pravi's Voila finishing second overall after finishing second with the juries and third in the televote.

Much like the UK, they followed a huge resurgence with a couple more disappointing attempts.

But unlike the uk so far they managed to prove it wasn't a fluke when Slimane finished fourth last year with Mon Amour.

And this year they're sending a huge domestic star, Luann, with Maman, another song that's tipped to do very well and possibly even win.

So could we see another France win at Eurovision in the near future?

While I don't think France has yet reached the same level of hunger for a victory among its general population as some other countries might have, it's clear the delegation means business at this point.

And given their recent run of success at Junior Eurovision, I certainly wouldn't bet against them crossing the line in the main contest sooner rather than later.

It will be really interesting to see how well Luann does this year.

If she does as well as expected, I think it will definitely galvanise France to throw themselves behind a full attempt at a win sooner rather than later.

That leaves us with our number one, Spain.

Spain hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1969 with Salome and Vivo Cantando or I live singing.

But 1969 was of course that four way tie for first place.

So their last solo win was the year before 1968, Maciel with La La La.

Those are Spain's only wins at Eurovision to date, meaning that they have been waiting more than half a century to win the contest again.

Since then they finished second four times, most recently with Annabel Conde's Vuela vi Conmigo or Come Back With Me in 1995.

And of course they recently stunned with Chanel's Slo Mo in 2022, which finished third.

Now, I'm going to say something potentially controversial here, which is that I personally think if 2022 had been a normal year and Ukraine weren't nailed on to sweep the televote for reasons not entirely related to the contest, I actually think Spain would have won it.

Yes, the UK finished second that year, but Spain were about 50 points behind us in the jury and about 45 points ahead of us in the televote.

And I think if Ukraine were removed from that equation, Spain's televote share would have been massively increased, probably enough to overtake us overall.

I've got no proof for this, only vibes, but I'm just putting that out there.

I do think there's possibly less chance for optimism about another Spain win in the near future.

For now, at least since the turn of the century, they finish in the top 10 seven times, but most of those are from a while ago.

Their average placing over the last 10 years is 19th, and that is being shored up to some extent by Ruth Lorenzo's 10th place finish in 2014 with Dancing in the Rain.

So if they don't finish 10th or better this year, that's likely to drop even further.

This year's entry, Esser Diva, or this diva by melody, is currently 27th, with the bookies sandwiched in between Azerbaijan and Denmark in terms of overall chance to win.

And given that Azerbaijan and Denmark are currently predicted to not even qualify for the final, that's not really an encouraging sign.

I don't doubt that Spain would love to win Eurovision again.

Their enthusiasm at getting to host junior Eurovision last year is evidence of that, but I'm not sure if the route to another win for them looks particularly clear at the moment.

The standard of entries at this year's Benidormfest, Spain's national final, was generally considered to be fairly subpar this time round, and if the pipeline of exciting artists isn't there in the first place, it's quite hard to see how Spain becomes competitive at Eurovision again.

I would say perhaps reverting to an internal selection might help, but they tried that in 2021 and finished 24th with a grand total of six points.

So as much as I hate to end on a pessimistic note, I do think Spain needs a rethink from the ground up if they're to end their victory drought.

But who knows what lies around the corner.

Let's wait and see.

That's all from me this week.

Thanks as always for listening.

I appreciate it very much and I hope you enjoyed this week's episode.

Please do make sure you hit subscribe on your podcast platform of choice to make sure you don't miss any of our upcoming episodes.

And I will be back next week with a brand new Douze Poir.

Until then, good night Europe and good morning Australia.