To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC decided to carry out a poll for Ken Bruce’s Radio 2 show where people could vote for their favourite Eurovision winning song. Beating other obvious favourites, Helena Paparizou’s Greek winning song from 2005 once more did justice to its name as My Number One managed to get the coveted highest spot in the top 40 list of the poll.

The top 20 of Ken Bruce’s Ultimate Eurovision Chart on Radio 2 was revealed over several days during the week leading up to the 60th Eurovision Song Contest last Saturday in Vienna, whereas the full top 40 of the poll was played in full during the early hours of this morning.‘As soon as the voting lines opened the response was astounding and just shows the passion and enthusiasm the Eurovision fans still have after all these years. It has been an insightful week discovering who fans from across the continent love and remember, for better or worse. Like the Contest itself, there could be some surprises’, Radio 2’s Ken Bruce commented.

Indeed, Helena Paparizou’s My Number One beat Eurovision anthems such as Swedish winners Waterloo (1974) and Euphoria (2012) found in second and third place respectively. Given the fact that Paparizou, who was born to Greek parents, was born and raised in Sweden, one can argue that the Scandinavian country was present one way or another in all of the top three spots of the poll. If one takes into consideration the fact that the 60th Eurovision Song Contest was also won by Sweden, it seems that the country’s popularity in the contest remains as strong as ever. Yet, one has to acknowledge the success of My Number One as well as compliment its Greek creators and Helena Paparizou herself for the enduring popularity of Greece’s only winning song so far. Indeed, the timing of the announcement could not have been better as this year also marks the 10th anniversary since the song won the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv.

A full list of the poll’s top 40 can be found below (notice interesting features such as the two Dana’s – from Israel 1998 and Ireland 1970 – featuring side by side in 30th and 29th place respectively as well as the British tie in 11th place).

You can find the full broadcast of Ken Bruce’s Ultimate Eurovision Chart here.

In the following video, you can watch Helena Paparizou performing My Number One for Greece in the 50th Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.

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