Connections and cliques

With the Eurovision Song contest starting in a few moments "all Malta is glued to radios, TV sets, big screens and PC monitors in huge anticipation for the final". Anthony Gatt writes for MaltaMedia about the Economist article that deals with the research on Eurovision geopolitics just published by arXiv. From MaltaMedia:

...To try to understand such ambiguities the team working on the study took a 12-year range worth of results for imaginary contests in which all songs were equally nice and there were no biases between countries and compared them to what really happened in the ESC between 1992 and 2003. The two sets of scores where than analyzed so to determine some major voting patterns. “Voting cliques were immediately apparent, with geographical gangs of countries that show a strong tendency to vote for each other, such as the Nordic bunch, and political allegiances between countries such as Greece and Cyprus. But some cliques, such as that between Croatia and Malta, defied explanation, with no obvious geographical or political connection”, affirmed the study.

The creators of such study are now anxious to analyze future developments especially after Middle Eastern countries join the contest.“For now, though, they are waiting to see what horror the judges will inflict on a hapless continent this time” concluded the study. Meanwhile all Malta is glued to radios, TV sets, big screens and PC monitors in huge anticipation for the final hoping that not only Croatia will favor us and that our song queen will climb right up to the top of musical Europe.For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.

The original arXiv research: How does Europe Make Its Mind Up? Connections, cliques, and compatibility between countries in the Eurovision Song Contest (PDF)

Chiara set for a splendid performance in Eurovision final - MaltaMedia