This week, it’s the 69th (nice) Eurovision Song Contest, which is being hosted in Switzerland following Nemo’s win last year. As per last year, I’ve listened to all of the 37 songs that will be entered into the semi-finals this week, and this Saturday’s final, and here are my verdicts. If you want to listen yourself, here’s the official playlist on Spotify.
Douze points
- “C’est La Vie” by Claude (Luxembourg). Claude has a nice voice, like a Francophone John Legend.
- “Esa Diva” by Melody (Spain). This is exactly the sort of song you would expect Spain to enter – a big latin-themed dance track.
- “Gaja” by Justyna Steczkowska (Poland). Poland doesn’t have a strong record with Eurovision, apart from its memorable 2014 entry with “We Are Slavik” by Cleo, but I think this is good.
- “Hallucination” by Sissal (Denmark). I think this is one of my top picks, actually. Some great lyrics and a strong voice.
- “Laika Party” by Emmy (Ireland). I really like this one too. It’s also mildly controversial (by Eurovision standards of controversy) as Emmy is Norwegian, and indeed has tried multiple times to be Norway’s pick for Eurovision. As one of the song’s writers was Irish, she was eligible to perform for Ireland. I like how the lyrics are based on the true story of Laika the dog, the first earth animal to go into space.
- “Mila” by Princ (Serbia). I don’t think this will win but I enjoyed listening to it nonetheless.
- “Milkshake Man” by Go-Jo (Australia). Australia participating in Eurovision is just something that’s not worth thinking too hard about. Eurovision always needs at least one novelty act and thankfully this one is catchy.
- “Róa” by Væb (Iceland). Iceland probably would have won the 2020 contest if it had gone ahead. This is good too.
- “Run with U” by Mamaga (Azerbaijan). Azerbaijan hosted Eurovision in 2012 and often does well. This year’s entry is catchy pop and I think it could score well.
- “Serving” by Miriana Conte (Malta). I liked Malta’s 2021 entry, “Je Me Casse” by Destiny, and it came seventh that year. This is in a similar vein, although the song had to be re-recorded as the original chorus was about ‘serving kant’.
- “Tutta l’Italia” by Gabri Ponte (San Marino). You may have heard of Gabri Ponte – he’s quite big in the Eurodance scene at the moment – but you’ll almost certainly remember his previous band, Eiffel 65, and their 1998/99 song “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”. He’s back, with this song in Italian. Potentially one to watch, although previous established dance acts like Darude and Cascada haven’t always done well at Eurovision.
Nul points
- “Deslocado” by Napa (Portugal). Nope, found this really boring.
- “Tavo akys” by Katarsis (Lithuania). I can’t even remember why this song was bad, which probably says a lot.
- “Volevo essere un duro” by Lucio Corsi (Italy). There are two other songs being sung in Italian in this year’s Eurovision (San Marino, mentioned above, and Estonia for some reason) and this isn’t the best one.
The UK Eurovision entry
Last year, we were represented by Olly Alexander from Years & Years with “Dizzy”. I think it was an okay song, but I gather the performance on the night wasn’t well-received. It came 18th out of 25 songs, and scored the dreaded ‘nul points’ from the public vote, gaining points only from professional juries.
This year’s entry is “What The Hell Just Happened?” by Remember Monday, and it’s an upbeat country-themed pop song. I think it certainly stands out against a lot of Eurodance. I don’t think it’ll win, but a top 10 position would be well-deserved.
Looking back at last year’s top 5, two of my top picks were in there. But I also liked the Norwegian entry which came last. Of those that I disliked, Joost’s “Europapa” was disqualified after some backstage shenanigans, but the Israeli and Irish entries came 5th and 6th.
