Armenia 2022: Rosa Linn is the most unexpected “winner” of Eurovision!

Does it matter if Rosa Linn took the 20th place for Armenia in the Eurovision final, collecting only 61 points? Does it matter that her song, “Snap,” did not have any considerable success on streaming platforms before and during ESC? Maybe, it doesn’t. The representative of Armenia seems to be tasting a belated victory, with her song going viral on both Spotify and TikTok!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAJ6vfmD_ic&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

The “Snapping” of Chanel

Since June 26, Rosa Linn has taken the first place in streams among all year’s Eurovision entries, forcing Chanel, to retreat to the second place. And its run of success did not cease there; “Snap” has consistently been in first place for three consecutive weeks, having amassed more than 22 million streams to date.

Most-streamed #Eurovision 2022 songs on Spotify last week (July 8-14) – full chart:
1. (=) Snap (6,021,476 streams) 🇦🇲
2. (=) SloMo (2,058,249) 🇪🇸
3. (+1) Brividi (1,335,016) 🇮🇹
4. (-1) Space Man (1,307,131) 🇬🇧
5. (=) Hold Me Closer (927,906) 🇸🇪
6. (=) Stefania (851,111) 🇺🇦

— Eurovision Charts (@esc_charts) July 15, 2022

Most-streamed #Eurovision 2022 songs on Spotify last week (July 1-7) – full chart:
1. (=) Snap (4,013,474 streams) 🇦🇲
2. (=) SloMo (2,212,769) 🇪🇸
3. (=) Space Man (1,439,023) 🇬🇧
4. (=) Brividi (1,375,969) 🇮🇹
5. (+1) Hold Me Closer (1,021,729) 🇸🇪
6. (-1) Stefania (957,769) 🇺🇦

— Eurovision Charts (@esc_charts) July 10, 2022

Most-streamed #Eurovision 2022 songs on Spotify last week (June 24-30) – full chart:
1. (+4) Snap (2,795,486 streams) 🇦🇲
2. (-1) SloMo (2,448,063) 🇪🇸
3. (-1) Space Man (1,642,105) 🇬🇧
4. (-1) Brividi (1,380,201) 🇮🇹
5. (-1) Stefania (1,114,773) 🇺🇦

— Eurovision Charts (@esc_charts) July 2, 2022

The TikTok’s dynamics

The above success seems to be related to the even greater singer’s success on TikTok. Prior to the Competition, Rosa Linn had, on her personal TikTok account, 5k followers and 85k likes; today her followers amount to 133.2k and her likes to 3.1 mil.

@rosalinnmusic

What is striking is that what seems to attract attention is not the original version of the song, but an alternative version of it at a much faster tempo, which is used as a background sound for the videos posted by the users. Acting on that, Rosa Linn released this particular version of “Snap” on Spotify under the title “SNAP – HIGH AND FAST” .

It is not the first time that TikTok has been used as a springboard by Eurovision artists. The most typical example, perhaps, is Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade”, the winning song of ESC 2019, which, after its delayed success on TikTok, has today exceeded 900 mil. streams, becoming the most successful Eurovision song on Spotify.

Thus, despite the (justified) reactions expressed this year by fans, journalists and correspondents of the ESC, the strategic partnership between the EBU and TikTok (with the latter taking on the role of “Official Entertainment Partner” for Eurovision 2022) does not appear to be an one-off collaboration.

The dominance of Italy in streams

It should be mentioned, for purposes of clarity, that despite “Snap’s” substantial success in recent weeks on Spotify, Armenia’s entry does not overtake in streams other entries in this year’s Eurovision, such as Italy’s “Brividi” (102 mil. streams), Spain’s “SloMo” (40 mil. streams), Sweden’s “Hold me Closer” (33 mil. streams), Ukraine’s “Stefania” (32 mil. streams), and the United Kingdom’s “Space Man” (30 mil. streams) .

What do you think is preferable? To do well in Eurovision or to have your song become a hit?