Algorithms exclude Spain from the group of Eurovision favorites

Neither was nor fa. Thus, without shame or glory, artificial intelligence (AI) ventures that Spain will have a discreet role in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest that will be held next Saturday at the Liverpool Arena in the British city. Specifically, the algorithms have weighted hundreds of variables of the most voted songs in recent years to exclude from among the favorites the song that Blanca Paloma will defend.

According to Gracenote, an AI company owned by Nielsen, The countries called to win the contest will be Iceland, Austria, Israel, Poland, Malta and Moldova. Curiously, the representation of Sweden, the main candidate for the betting houses, does not appear in the leading squad, the same as France, Finland, Ukraine… and Spain, the latter as the fifth best option, ahead of the theme that represents Israel , marked as a favorite by artificial intelligence.

Gracenote’s research highlights that the themes that have triumphed in the last 25 years have as a common denominator the transmission of energy and passion, ingredients that promise to be repeated on this occasion. Romantic, melancholic or simply catchy themes do not offer guarantees of success, according to the usual preferences of the juries and the public. According to sources from Gracenote, this artificial intelligence “enables music search and discovery to connect audiences to the songs they are most likely to like.” With this premise, the machine analyzes elements such as rhythm, melody, harmony, and timbre to argue its verdict. Along with the Biga Data and the lines of code, Gracenote has also hired the services of musicologists to train the AI ​​with all the commercial music of the moment and group it into different levels. With these premises, cognitive tools have observed that Eurovision winning songs tend to be more energetic since Israeli Dana International brought the first “passionate” song to the top of the podium in 1998. With these same wickers, the AI ​​has also analyzed the characters of the 37 songs that compete this year to estimate that -in alphabetical order- Austria, Iceland, Israel, Malta, Moldova, Poland and the favorites, Sweden, present “energizing” songs. .

According to the character analysis, Tattoo, the Swedish theme that Loreen presents this year, has exactly the same character traits (energizing, exciting rhythm and sexy steamroller) as the song Euphoria, with which the same Nordic participant won the festival in 2012. Two of last year’s top five finishers, Spain and Serbia, also feature energizing songs, albeit with slightly different characters at the lower levels of Gracenote’s taxonomy. Azerbaijan, Cyprus, France, Greece, the Netherlands and Ukraine compete with uplifting songs to see if they repeat the success story of the first seven winners with songs with this character. Similarly, last year there was only one uplifting song at the festival (Albania), but it failed to qualify for the final.

Bookmakers opt for Sweden, despite not enjoying the favor of Artificial Intelligence

Estonia, Italy, Lithuania and Switzerland have opted for songs classified as nostalgic, a stereotype that has lost its predicament, but without forgetting that the United Kingdom won silver last year with this type of music.

For its part, the artificial intelligence of Chat GPT avoids indicating its favourites, but it does point out some recipes for success: catchy and easy to remember melody; emotional lyrics capable of resonating with viewers (with themes of love, hope, peace or unity, injustice or oppression); elaborate theatrical performance, with intricate choreography, striking visual effects, or extravagant costumes; powerful voices, with singers with multiple registers of styles and tones; diverse instrumentation and a surprise or provocative factor that moves the public and the judges in some way.