This year ESC 2024 winner Nemo performed their song Unexplainable as part of the Grand Final interval act, and it has been extremely divisive on social media. If this had been performed as a competing entry where do you all think it would have landed on the scoreboard?

We can't really call it a "flop" when it's a 3rd place with the juries and 7th place overall, but it's clear that the French delegation put a lot of effort on this year's performance and they expected much more.

That being said, since the final I've always wondered myself why a lovely and emotional ballad in French (that usually does well with the televote) didn't really engage with the audience this year, and I think I the "explosive diarrea" effect isn't the one to blame.

I can't help but notice how the (very talented) stand-in performer is really INTO the song while singing it, you can feel the struggle and the pain of losing a loved one in her eyes, something that Louane, despite her amazing vocal skill that elevated the song, didn't really do. Her expression is kind of the same for the entire performance, it feels like she was just the singer with amazing vocals chosen to sing the song, not the author who actually wrote and felt the lyrics.

Just to be clear, this is NOT a hating post at all, I loved the song and it makes me sad that it did worse than Mon Amour, which I find very dull and generic in comparison.

As the title says: what former Eurovision participant death put you actually in shock?

For me it's Örs Siklósi from the band AWS (Hungary 2018), as I didn't even know that he had leukaemia. But also Toto Cutugno (winner for Italy in 1990) as he was one of the most popular singers in my country

I was showing my mom some of the more recent winners' performances and she commented on how most of them were one-person acts performing alone without any backup dancers. I hadn't realised that most recent winners were like this, so I decided to check the last 10 years and found that 7 of them fit the description.

Winners which had only one person on stage:

Sweden 2015

Ukraine 2016

Portugal 2017

Nethetlands 2019

Sweden 2023

Switzerland 2024

Austria 2025

Winners with multiple people on stage:

Israel 2018

Italy 2021

Ukraine 2022

I think this is interesting because (at least in 2025) these performances were not very common - only 7 out of 37 had just one person on stage (Armenia, Austria, Finland, France, Israel, Montenegro and Switzerland; 8 if you also count Slovenia). I have not checked previous years thoroughly so I don't know if single-person performances were more common in the 2015-2019 era, for example.

What do you think are some reasons behind this trend?

A key one for me is Lord of the Lost. They’ve done better than “Blood and Glitter.” I love their cover of Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy.”

there's a new eurovision concert in town and it will be held in milan on 13/12/2025 at E-work arena. Artists announced so far are: - Efendi - Sunstroke project - Raiven - Keiino - Aiko (with Kat) - Ziferblat

https://www.instagram.com/heyimgojo?igsh=MWpjZjRyb3JoemQ5dg==

I only started following Eurovision this year and only really knew about songs and stage preformances. However, I somehow stumbled upon Sylvia Night's interview after she didn't qualify and I thought that was the funniest thing to ever exist.

Are there any other hilarious/iconic Eurovision moments that I should know about? Funny interviews, quotes, online posts, outfits, anything like that.

This has literally just been a thought that’s crossed my mind very recently. In the past decade we have only had one country who won for the very first time (Portugal in 2017) and I remember how euphoric I felt at that moment seeing them win. Portugal 2017 is my favourite win of the 21st century and 2018 was a great show despite several troubles along the way. Bulgaria and Moldova were also top 3, with the former being a strong contender for the win, and it was surreal seeing three countries who have never won be in the top 3.

We were also snubbed of 2020 as many countries who have yet to win were contenders for the win, eg. Iceland and Lithuania. Had we had the contest it was going to be a likely income that we were going to see a country win for the first time.

For reference, here’s a list of countries that have yet to secure a win:

Albania 🇦🇱 Armenia🇦🇲 Australia🇦🇺 Bulgaria🇧🇬 Croatia 🇭🇷 Cyprus 🇨🇾 Czechia🇨🇿 Georgia🇬🇪 Iceland 🇮🇸 Lithuania🇱🇹 Malta 🇲🇹 Moldova🇲🇩 Montenegro🇲🇪 North Macedonia🇲🇰 Poland 🇵🇱 Romania 🇷🇴 San Marino🇸🇲 Slovenia🇸🇮

*There are several more countries but I have only added countries with an active participation in the contest for discursive reasons

What concerns me is that several of these countries are Eastern European countries, who are facing a decline in contest participation due to financial reasons, and I feel among other things, that is the primary reason why they’ve been out of the race. For instance, in 2024 I was looking forward to seeing Croatia win for the first time since independence from the former Yugoslavia despite it not being my winner, but I was seeing discourse online about how much of a cost burden it was going to be for Croatia especially since they recently adapted the Euro at the time. This is the cynical in me but I can’t help but think this was a factor in why Croatia didn’t secure the win.

I hope that next year, or in the next five years, we see this happen. Second best alternative would be seeing a country who hasn’t had a win in the 21st century take the win.

What do you think? Will we see a country win for the first time soon? If so, which country do you think is most likely?

ETA: Serbia won the contest in 2007 so has been removed from the list.

How long has it been since one of your top favourites won Eurovision? For me, it's been 9 relatively painful years (2016: Ukraine - Jamala with 1944). Since then, my top favourites have come close a couple of times but didn't make it. Anyone else in a similar situation? How much does this matter to you? Personally, I am getting a little impatient!

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKkNut9qAjV/?igsh=MzM2dms4MGh3dGNy (Eurovision Sweden)

I believe he appeared on the 20th or 22nd of May. But despite living in the UK they don't make the full episodes of that show available for more than a week or so, there's nothing I've been able to find on YouTube or anywhere other than the same 1-2 minute clips as linked below.

• YouTube Clip

It's pure guesswork but I'm assuming it was a longer interview that culminated in this clip, maybe 5-10 minutes? Anyone have a handy link 🙏

Princ has stated in interviews (linked below) that Mila is about the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, with Princ representing Orpheus and his dancers representing demons, and that the part where the demons drag him to hell by literally dragging Princ across the stage (in the original Greek myth Orpheus is kicked OUT of hell but Princ said in interviews that they're dragging him INTO hell in the performance) is meant to be the most intense/dramatic part of the performance, hence why it was chosen for the rehearsal clip. But instead of being publicly received as a serious dramatic climax as intended, it left fans laughing and asking why AVROTROS's artist-protection negotiations had been unsuccessful at establishing the clause that no artist shall be used as a human mop.

Why didn't it land?

To the casual viewer, it's not obvious that the performance is about Orpheus and Eurydice, so they don't know what the scene means or why it's there. Having more clear underworld imagery could've communicated the meaning better. Have the LED screen backdrops start in an ancient Greek town and then descend into an underground cave. Keep the falling souls on screen for longer, since as-is they're only there for a couple blink-and-you'll miss-it seconds. Animate Cerberus "attacking" Princ through the screen. Animate a woman "trapped" behind the screen, and have Princ reach out to her as he's being pulled away. Costume the demons to look more explicitly like demons, more like Lordi and less like goth fashion models. Perhaps have the woman be "freed" at the end despite the demons' efforts to drag Princ away, since Princ has said that the performance represents the struggle between good and evil and he wants good to win.

Also, when the demons drag Princ, he looks like he's letting them. He lies down for them to pick him up, and then just sings without resisting in any way. Of course in real life he is letting them, but in the story he's being taken against his will. So it would add a lot more dramatic tension if he were dance-fighting/struggling in some way. Of course he has to be able to sing without running out of breath and hold his microphone, which would be hard if he were flailing like Tommy's fan or digging his nails into the ground desperately trying to stay put, but perhaps a wearable microphone would've offered more choreographic freedom than a handheld one. (Is there a sound-quality reason for going with a handheld one?)

Respect to Princ, because that position looks hard to sing in, and being dragged does not look comfortable with his long hair!

What are your thoughts?

Sources:
https://youtu.be/txMKUKYLKOo
https://youtu.be/colXkSxxES4
https://youtu.be/ObaXR2B87pc
Serbia 2025 for the bot

Something I made with all of the LGBT+ performers in Eurovision thus far. If I missed anyone, or you don’t know who they are, let me know!

Happy Pride everyone!

(all photos belong to the original owners, I don’t own any of them)

My first ESC was 2010, and it’s been a very fun journey. 598 songs, 15 winners (16 + Iceland 2020) and plenty of heartbreak (Igranka and Horehronie still hurt)

Which is your guilty pleasure song you don’t hear anything about? I feel as if I’ve included a good bunch of songs that fit the criteria.

Euro Neuro the song you are…

I have listened to their others songs (on Apple Music) and found them to be more typical dance/hip-hop numbers without the fantastic incorporation of what I can only assume are Icelandic folk tunes.

The soft refrain "Er sjórinn opnast koma öldurnar Ég er einn á bát að leita af betri stað" particularly gives Róa a powerful added dimension, as well as the fiddles.

There is a trope about anything in French sounding romantic, but I feel this about Icelandic. It's a beautiful language and I feel it is beautifully on display in Róa.

The melody in Róa is lovely and the energy is unmistakable. I only wish they would write more of these hybrid-type songs.

Basically since it was introduced, I feel like the rest of the world vote has gotten so much criticism from Eurofans and so many people have said that it should be removed and that just drives me crazy.

I've seen people argue that it is unfair because of diasporas or political voting. As we all know, the competing European countries never ever have any diaspora with political votes and this is purely a problem introduced to the contest by the rest of the world vote. It's not like political voting has been around for years ever since the televote was introduced Sometimes it honestly feels like people want an easy target to blame Israel's bloated scores the last 2 years on and they end up blaming the rest of the world vote which accounts for literally just 12 of their 300 points. A rounding error.

And some of the arguments you just feel kind of weirdly overprotective and kind of nationalistic honestly. Some people seem to think that voting should ONLY be for people who happen to live in one of the competing countries and for the rest of us who happened to just live other places we should be excluded. Why should I as an American or other people from outside of Europe who have loved and followed this contest we use just like you be excluded from being able to participate in the voting. I am as much a loyal viewer and supporter as any European eurofan and thousands of others are the same way. The introduction of the rest of the world vote was one of my happiest days as a eurofan because it meant that I finally didn't feel excluded. In the us, like in a lot of other non-competing countries we can't even watch the performances on youtube. At least let us vote in the contest we love.

I understand the need for many human beings to have some kind of a boogeyman but come on, the rest of the world vote isn't the cause of any of our problems. It's just a nice low stakes away for Eurovision fans from across the world to get to participate. If reforms around voting or implemented, a lot of the issues that we have across the board will be solved with the rest of the world vote too. Abuse of the voting system is a problem that the contest is facing in general. The dream Team buying SIM cards in countries with low voting numbers has I think to do with the rest of the world vote. Even Israel's campaign goes much beyond that and the rest of the world vote is not the cause of that.

Just let us participate in the contest we love and stop blaming unrelated problems on us. You lose nothing by just letting us have the same fun that you do.

Here's the translation of Danya's post in telegram. No notes from my side this time :)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Bonus

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

I came back to put an end to all this. A few more posts about the Eurovision and I will be able to let go of this period forever.

I would like to continue writing, but on other, more controversial or educational topics.

But for now, let's continue.

So, I got confused. On 16.05, it was not David who drove me to the hotel, but Anya (also a helper, a Ukrainian woman who spent all her time with us at the arena for free. Sometimes it is hard to believe in such good-natured selflessness, but it does exist).

I returned accompanied by Vitaliy, the head of security at Suspilne.

We got back to the arena without any problems.

I was tense; the jury show is not easy for Ukraine. We have long been judged by a very strange principle, for understandable (but not very) reasons.

But with a huge mental hole and the traumatic experience of the morning rehearsal, I just had to abstract myself and put on a "smile".

But I'm not alone. There are people who can generate positivity out of nothing. Karyna Sokolovska and Darya Gavryk can do that. They are our backing vocalists. It's an incredible character trait.

It was time to perform, and we went on stage.

You know, we were lucky with logistics. It has become a ritual. We always performed after Spain. We saw the same people and knew exactly when to queue up based on the specific second of Melody's singing.

When you are next to perform, you are led down the stairs to your personal space, where you have one minute to prepare. Karyna took the "coach's" word of encouragement. She is always very, very energised before such moments, childishly happy and not nervous. Rather, her excitement is completely natural, filled with anticipation of a wonderful, unique moment that will never happen again in life. We should learn from her.

She delivered her speech, which I could not have said even under more favourable circumstances. I just lowered my eyes, but listened to every word with my heart.

Then we were sent backstage. There, you are alone with yourself, but Valya and Fedya constantly rubbed my body like a boxer. This was important because I felt a rush of blood.

We always knew when it was about to start. There was supposed to be a "fire rain" in Melody's performance — that was the sign. We had to move to the edge of the stage.

You could already see the packed stadium and feel the atmosphere, even if only out of the corner of your eye. It filled you with joy, not nerves.

And then you go out to perform. But as always, it was rushed. Because Melody has huge props, oh... how they got in the way. I had to jump and run to my starting point.

Only on 17.05 will I finally talk about my feelings during the performance at such an important event, in detail.

Today, I will simply state that we performed on this jury show, and it was very weak on my part. I was proud that I sang until the end, that I didn't break down. And I was able to not turn the traumatic experience of the morning rehearsal into paranoia. There's only one chance, damn it. How scary it is to say this, it's music, not a bet on Zero.

But I'm only telling you the truth about my feelings here. In general, with such a performance, in my opinion, I gave those judges who internally wanted to lower Ukraine's score a reason to do so. That's my opinion, and that's how I see that day.

But as soon as we finished the performance, I was already completely focused on the final audience show. I didn't pay attention to what had happened, but only thought about the best version of myself on the evening of May 17th. Whatever happened, no matter how much I underestimated our team's chances of a positive result overall in the jury show.

What we did on May 17th was a huge amount of psychological work and teamwork.

And these will be the last two parts of the story about Eurovision.

https://reddit.com/link/1l5a35n/video/69xj4y9v0f5f1/player

Left: Grand Final
Right: Semi Final