Eurovision Song Contest

Anyone else following this yearly (almost year-long) spectacle? Recent editions have been pretty awesome, though last year a bit of enthusiasm has been lost because of Israel participating, and them making it political. Hopefully they will stay low (in profile and results) this year. Anyway, there sure are some promising entries so far:

Estonia just trolls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a40eFHAqBqs

Lithuanian emo-shoegaze:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2f2aZ6Fy58

Ukrainian indie femboy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv4Zp_FG0qg

Malta’s serving Kant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qNK1tt6L5k

Latvian iso-polyphony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_t79mQkm4

Finnish dominatrix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg3QoTpnqyw

Australian total sleaze:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08I6mjHSLA

Yeah, that’s not even all of them, but it’s really set up for an exciting contest this year. Anyone else watching it?

I am. If this qualifies for Sweden, it would be sort of two entries for Finland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28__O2Ngc74

Oh, great. I’m really rooting for them…. are you on Bluesky? You should be, i can’t find you on there…

Bara bada bastu won for Sweden, awesome!

I’m not on Bluesky.. I don’t care much about social media.

Wow, now it looks it might not even happen at all in 2026, because of a bunch of countries quitting in protest against Israel being allowed to participate. The ultimate lulz would be if it gets cancelled completely because of that (not enough money with all the countries leaving, etc) or if Israel for some reason doesn’t participate anyway, so the Israel-lovers don’t get an ESC with them competing anyway…

This forum actually coming back wasn’t on my 2026 bingo card.

Either way, ESC sure is looking interesting.

Austria’s sorta furry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPpL_ZuRTZY

Denmark’s just awesome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKzEP9dwoss

And Greece sends… whatever this is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_tDJ77ntPE

And the UK selected a noise/DIY synth youtuber (Look Mum No Computer), gonna be interesting to hear for sure.

After the bullshit the EBU pulled to keep Israel in the ESC, I’m keeping well away from the contest this year. I think I’ve looked at one song an it’s a national final non-winner.

Oh boy, what a wild edition that was! First off, what an amazing and totally unexpected winner. I did not have “Bangaranga” as a remotely possible winner before the show, nor did everyone else from what it seems, but then they revealed the performance… innovative, personal, stylish, SLAYED… and we’re back to a East European country winning, the first one other than Ukraine to win since 2008 actually.

I can see it being defining for what the next few years will look like, it’s a change from the last few winners and it’s surprising that they manage to come first with the juries too. And Romania coming 3rd, also totally unexpected, didn’t care for it myself but i can see why it did so well, the horror-rock thing is just so “done” to me.

Kinda sad Georgia screwed it up with their staging, they deserved better, the UK too kinda, it should have been more edgy and punk, instead it came off as silly and childish. Denmark was great, but i can see how it’s a bit overdone in the contest and people wanted something else. 7th place really isn’t bad though, and i’m surprised Finland didn’t do better than 6th considering how many thought they would win.

Otherwise, Lithuania and Serbia were probably my favorite songs this year overall, but they both came off as a bit irrelevant to the contest. Greece just turned out very messy and not really that fun or convincing in any way, there were too many things happening on stage with no real connection made. And Sweden did worse than expected, for most… i can see how it was unconvincing to most viewers, still she was probably the best choice in the AWFUL national selection we had this year, hardly a single good song in it…

Really hoping Israel will be gone and a lot of countries coming back next year, it really was a pretty good edition after all, in many ways better than the last few years.