Winning the ESC is no guarantee of a top chart position
Published: Sunday, May 12th 2024, 14:20
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Is Nemo's Eurovision winning song "The Code" now taking off in the charts? It's possible, but a look at past competition successes shows that winning the Eurovision Song Contest is no guarantee of a top position in the charts.
Nemo's "The Code" entered the Swiss singles charts in March at number 22. It then slipped - despite consistently good betting odds and good reviews. A week ago, it was at number 50.
Many Swiss contributions were not major commercial successes, according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG). In total, only 26 of the 60 entries made it into the charts, ten of which reached the top 10.
The winning song "Ne partez pas sans moi" by Céline Dion in 1988 only made it to number eleven in the singles charts in Switzerland. And when Lys Assia won with "Refrain" in 1956, there were no Swiss singles charts at all.
Pepe Lienhard was the front runner
The most commercially successful Swiss contribution was the song "Swiss Lady" by the Pepe Lienhard Band in 1977. It was also the only song to reach number one in the Swiss singles charts until 2019.
Simone Drexel was also very successful in 1975 with "Mikado" in second place, followed by DJ BoBo in 2007 with "Vampires Are Alive" and Anna Rossinelli in 2011 with "In Love for a While", both top 3.
In 2014, Sebalter reached number 6 in the charts with "Hunter of Stars". This was only surpassed again in 2019, when Luca Hänni reached number one in the charts. He achieved the first number one hit since 1977.
After Gjon's Tears narrowly made it into the charts at number 100 in 2020 despite the contest being canceled, his 2021 entry went straight to number 1, but only a week after the contest. At the same time, his previous year's hit "Répondez moi" returned to the charts, this time at number 42.
©Keystone/SDA
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