Eurovision!

[Seryndelle]

Hey folks! I know it's ridiculously late (Eurovision was nearly two weeks ago now), but I just noticed that there wasn't a Eurovision thread here on the forums, so I thought I'd start one! I've still got so many of the songs buzzing around my head that I haven't been able to forget about it—and now it's everyone else's problem!

Obviously any discussion of this year's competition is a little passé... but that's never stopped me before! And hey, I've only been a Eurovision fan since like 2022, so I feel like I'm owed about 20 years of Eurovision geekery

With that in mind, here are some questions for anyone who did happen to tune in!

• What were your favourite songs this year?
• Who did better than you were expecting?
• Who did about as well as you were expecting?
• Who did worse than you were expecting?
• Did any of the staging stand out to you?

Feel free to ignore those questions (or add to them if you like)! Hopefully this thread can stick around until next year's contest


My own answers are as follows:

• What were your favourite songs this year? My two top songs at the time were Espresso Macchiato by Tommy Cash (Estonia) and Bur man laimi by Tautumeitas (Latvia). Since then, a few of the other songs have grown on me: some standouts include La Poupée Monte Le Son by Laura Thorn (Luxembourg) and ICH KOMME by Erika Vikman (Finland).
• Who did better than you were expecting? Well, for a start, I wasn't expecting Austria to win by any stretch of the imagination! Their song, Wasted Love by JJ, was pretty solidly slap bang in the middle of my rankings. I'm not a great lover of Eurovision ballads, but I do have to admit that the execution of this one is really nicely done. JJ sings in counter-tenor, I think, and it's really unlike anything you'd expect from pop music (if you can call it that). It reminds me almost of early Nightwish!
• Who did about as well as you were expecting? As a British person (hello!), I have to say that we did about average. I liked our song, What The Hell Just Happened? by Remember Monday—it reminded me a bit of Six the Musical crossed with the Sabrina Carpenter / Olivia Rodrigo style of music, which I'm a fan of anyway. I think it was definitely more of a jury-pleaser than a crowd-pleaser, hence us doing really well with the jury vote and then getting our famous "nul points" from the public.
• Who did worse than you were expecting? First of all, I was shocked when Australia didn't even qualify for the final with their song Milkshake Man by Go-Jo. I loved it! But an even bigger shock was the fact that Sweden, with their song Bara Bada Bastu by KAJ, only finished fourth when they'd been a shoo-in to win the whole thing!
• Did any of the staging stand out to you? The aforementioned banger by Luxembourg was accompanied by utterly fantastic visuals (you can see them in the video I linked above), but another standout was Malta with their song Serving by Miriana Conte. The set and special effects were visually stunning. I'm always really curious how things like that look in real life!

[Blue]

I won't lie, Eurovision has been getting worse and worse every year, to a degree I didn't even bother to watch it this time  I only saw the final 3 votes to see the winner and that was it (I will give credit to the winner, his voice was amazing. not really my genre though). None of the songs felt interesting to me or even eye-catching this time, and even last year, there were maybe two or three. The last time I really enjoyed it was in 2022. I have been watching it since I was a kid (so 2009 was the first time I remember watching it), and really, the last few years were such a bummer. Most songs just did not hit enough for me, they do not feel interesting at all.

[Seryndelle]

None of the songs felt interesting to me or even eye-catching this time, and even last year, there were maybe two or three. The last time I really enjoyed it was in 2022.

Sorry to hear it! What's the last Eurovision song you can remember genuinely enjoying? I think last year's winner for me was Doomsday Blue by Bambie Thug (Ireland). It was totally unlike anything I'd seen either of the times I'd watched it before, while still being very much the sort of music I enjoy listening to (I'm a big Poppy fan, so it was right up my street)

[Blue]

What's the last Eurovision song you can remember genuinely enjoying?

A most recent favourite would be Rim Tim Tagi Dim, which is biased because neighbouring country and the music is just a lot more enjoyable to me (though I did like the winning song, just not as much). Bambie did not click with me tho, even if it's something I would enjoy in theory.