How does Europe Make Its Mind Up? Connections, cliques, and compatibility between countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

Abstract

We investigate the complex relationships between countries in the Eurovision\nSong Contest, by recasting past voting data in terms of a dynamical network.\nDespite the British tendency to feel distant from Europe, our analysis shows\nthat the U.K. is remarkably compatible, or 'in tune', with other European\ncountries. Equally surprising is our finding that some other core countries,\nmost notably France, are significantly 'out of tune' with the rest of Europe.\nIn addition, our analysis enables us to confirm a widely-held belief that there\nare unofficial cliques of countries -- however these cliques are not always the\nexpected ones, nor can their existence be explained solely on the grounds of\ngeographical proximity. The complexity in this system emerges via the group\n'self-assessment' process, and in the absence of any central controller. One\nmight therefore speculate that such complexity is representative of many\nreal-world situations in which groups of 'agents' establish their own\ninter-relationships and hence ultimately decide their own fate. Possible\nexamples include groups of individuals, societies, political groups or even\ngovernments.\n