The "Curse of Number Two" is one of the most famous phenomenons to occur at the Eurovision Song Contest. It is called that because no country that has performed out of the second spot in the running order of the final has ever won the contest at all. In fact, those performing second over the years have ended up last nine times (three of those times with the ever-dreaded Nul Points). This leaves many fans, media people, and artists to believe that this particular spot is "cursed".
It is also interesting to note that the 16th position in the running order is similarly "cursed", no country has won performing from that position either. It should be noted, however, that a number of countries have won their semi-final performing out of the 16th spot, most recently the Netherlands in 2019, Switzerland in 2021 and Australia in 2023.
Qualifying from the semifinals when performing out of the second spot in the running order is also a very rare occurrence. For example, in 2014 and 2022, neither country which performed second in the semifinals (Latvia in semifinal 1 and Israel in semifinal 2) advanced to the final, whereas in 2012, both countries which performed second in the semifinals (Iceland in semifinal 1 and Macedonia in semifinal 2) advanced to the final.
The 1957 winner Corry Brokken was the first victim of this phenomenon when she performed second in the 1958 contest on home ground in Hilversum and finished last. The only times a second-spot performer has done well was second in 1965 and equal third in 1997, 2002 and 2024.