Review of ESC 2025 – Grand Final

Now that the first and second semi-finals have been battled out, we finally have a full lineup of 26 entries for Saturday's Grand Final – one of which will ultimately be the winner and snatch the coveted glass microphone trophy! There were some surprises among the results, but more on them later. Before we move on to the remaining entries, here are a few thoughts about the 2025 contest so far.

Having now heard all the songs from this edition of the contest, I don't know if this comes across as a particularly competitive year. This is not meant as a dismissal of any individual participants nor of what they bring to the table – it's just that compared to other recent contests, few songs emerge as immediate classics to be added to the Eurovision tapestry. I have a sneaking suspicion that 2025 might in the future be remembered as an in-between contest of sorts between stronger years, one that won't be looked back upon with exceptional fondness.

Perhaps paradoxically then, considering the 'weaker' overall level, the playing field seems to be much more level than usually. Mind you, I have intentionally been avoiding any betting odds so I might be completely off the mark. Still, I don't think there is a clear frontrunner at the moment whereas normally at this point, there would only be a small handful of contestants with a perceived change of winning. This makes the final night all the more interesting.

In the semi-finals, there seemed to be some small production issues. Some kinks with the camerawork and props could be noticed, and hopefully they will be ironed out by the final show. Such is the nature of live entertainment, of course, especially with this many moving parts. At least there's been nothing to the extent of 2022's infamous black sun fiasco.

The sound mixing was a more notable issue, however. The audience mics were turned jarringly low, which made the crowd sound muted and killed any sense of interaction between the performers and the arena. No doubt this was done to eliminate any signs of booing – they have been using anti-booing technology for the past decade, after all – but at what point does it simply become dishonest? Erasing negative responses and diminishing positive ones takes away from the authenticity and the live feel of the show, and there have even been comments circulating online about canned applause being employed to drown out the booing. But sometimes even the lead vocalists sounded oddly low in the mix.

Another thing I didn't care for was the new way of announcing semi-final qualifiers. It felt unnecessarily cruel to have constant close-ups on the contestants that kept failing to advance to the final and to have the camera zoom in on their disappointment multiple times. It served no meaningful purpose for storytelling or drama, so I truly hope they ditch that by next May.

Alright, now that I got all that off my chest, let's take a look at our Grand Final lineup!

Review of ESC 2025 – Semi-final 2

After having reviewed the entries of the first semi-final, it is now time to take a look at semi-final 2 and what it has to offer. The same rules apply here, i.e. the reviews are based on (mostly) first reactions, I will use official live recordings as preview clips whenever applicable, and the automatic qualifiers are included in the semi-final line-ups. Got it? Great, let's get going then!

Review of ESC 2025 – Semi-final 1

With May arriving, it's that time of the year again – the Eurovision season is almost upon us! That, of course, can only mean one thing, namely that we have a whole new batch of Eurovision entries to go through and form opinions on.

Sadly, Moldova announced its withdrawal earlier this year, citing 'economic, administrative and artistic challenges' as the reason. We're sorry to see you go, Moldova – may you be back soon. In more uplifting news, on the other hand, 2025 marks Montenegro's return to the contest after an absence of a couple of years. The country has given us some amazing Eurovision gems throughout the years, such as 'Igranka', 'Moj Svijet', and 'Adio', so this is definitely a pleasant return. Welcome back!

Last year, Nemo cracked the code, spinning and rapping and belting their way into Europe's hearts and to Eurovision victory. Perhaps in a fitting conclusion to last year's contest that was rapidly devolving into a raging dumpster fire of controversy that the fan base could not wait to get over with, Nemo accidentally broke the trophy immediately after receiving it.

But hopefully this year's Eurovision week is going to be a smoother and more drama-free experience for us all. In order to try and predict who will follow in Nemo's footsteps and snatch the coveted glass microphone trophy, let us take a closer look at what this year has to offer! As usual, I am going into this relatively blindly, having only heard a handful of the songs before. Most of the reviews are thus going to be based on first reactions as I find that to be the fairest way. Official live versions will be used as preview clips whenever available, otherwise I'll just watch the music videos instead. I've also steered clear from any betting odds to not let them sway my opinions. Finally, the automatic qualifiers (i.e. the 'Big Five' together with the host country) will be included and reviewed in the semi-final line-ups.

Enough chit-chat, let's get to it!

Review of ESC 2024 – Grand Final

  

Now that the semi-finals are over, it's grand final time! The biggest surprise was definitely Latvia qualifying as it was predicted to be the most unlikely qualifier in the odds. That said, I'd definitely consider it a deserved outcome as the vocals were top-notch.

In terms of non-qualifications, I was most gutted about Australia. Despite an off note or two, they had an amazing performance with otherwise great vocals, vibrant visuals, and a didgeridoo that gave me the chills. I would've loved to see them perform again on Saturday but alas, that was not to be. I was also expecting Belgium to qualify but the live singing was simply too weak. Azerbaijan is another entry that I would've liked to see in the final, though maybe the staging and the costumes felt a little disjointed.

Other than that, the semi-finals went rather expectedly and the shows themelves were great, as you'd come to expect from Sweden. Petra Mede remains a Eurovision legend and Malin Åkerman is also there. I'm surprised they haven't found a way to bring Måns out yet (he's like the Michael Bublé of Eurovision, every year he just pops out of nowhere), but maybe they're simply still defrosting him.

The interval acts were alright, just not on the same level as the past two Swedish-hosted contests. The segment about re-soundtracking Swedish film classics with Eurovision songs felt like a low-effort way to fill in a blank time slot, and the 'We Just Love Eurovision Too Much' act somehow managed to read both self-depracating (yay) and condescending (nay) at the same time. While it started funny, it also just ran way too long.

All the same, Sweden still knows how to put together a show and that is something they do excel at, so props to them and thank you for a so-far marvellous Eurovision spectacle.

Yet, although the week peacefully enough all things considered, the situation has swiftly been devolving into a chaos over the past 24 hours. Italy's televote results for the second semi-final were accidentally leaked, showing a staggering 39% of the vote going to Israel (for reference, back in 2022 Ukraine received a 'mere' 24% share of the Italian semi-final televote). The results were apparently incomplete but together with Israel qualifying for the final, caused the country to spike in the odds.

Israel's participation has been a contentious topic this year and the tensions started showing in the press conference for the second semi-final qualifiers. Then the Dutch representative Joost Klein was reported to have been involved in an altercation of some sort with a photographer. The EBU has remained tight-lipped about what had transpired, which means that rumours are spreading like wildfire, but the Netherlands were then excluded from the rehearsals as well as the jury show.

Meanwhile, the EBU is rumoured to have had a crisis meeting about the situation, also cancelling a scheduled press conference with the automatic qualifiers. Executive producer Martin Österdahl was furthermore reported to have been absent in the rehearsals. To add fuel to the fire, there have been stories about Israeli journalists harassing and provoking people. And you know things have gone to shit when someone whips out John Lennon's 'Imagine' as a way to soothe people (did they not learn anything from the pandemic times?).

How on earth did this all happen? Thing is not known. Despite the (now tame in comparison) Loreen vs. Käärijä drama last year, I sure bet Finland is happy they're not in charge of hosting this dumpster fire.

I am alredy dreading to see how things unfold come Grand Final night, but I'm here for the music first and foremost, and we've got a grand total of 26 finalists to go through, so let's get on with it.

Review of ESC 2024 – Semi-final 2

Now that we've got the first semi-final sorted out, it's time to take a look at what the second semi-final has to offer. Without further ado, let's move on to the entries!

Review of ESC 2024 – Semi-final 1

If you are getting a slight case of déjà vu with this year's Eurovision Song Contest, you are probably not alone – the parallels between this year and 2013 are almost comical in nature. Loreen won the competition with a dramatic dance-pop number (again), bringing the contest to Malmö (again), where the show will be hosted by Petra Mede (again). Also, they are apparently reusing the slogan from last year. Now, I know that Sweden tends to get some flak for constantly relying on a tried-and-tested formula but this is just downright silly!

Jokes aside, Loreen is obviously a spectacular performer – it's just that her second win felt a bit anticlimactic, especially with 'Tattoo' failing to reach the heights of 'Euphoria' or even her 2017 Melodifestivalen entry 'Statements' (in my subjective opinion, anyway). Either way, she is an undeniable powerhouse and it'll be interesting to see what kind of a career boost becoming Eurovision's second-ever double winner will translate into. Just... please don't come back to compete again, yeah?

Last year also sparked a heated debate about the role of the professional juries and whether they should have equal weight (or any at all) in comparison to the televote. Personally, I think that the bloc-voting-riddled and gimmicky televote-pandering years of the mid-00s are reason enough for the juries to exist. Mind you, just last year 'Solo' ranked third in its semi-final and eighth in the grand final based on televote alone. Yes, you read that correctly.

The issue I have with the juries is not their existence or even their equal influence in the grand final (if anything, I'd love to see them back in the semis) but rather their homogeneity. The juries seem to collectively favour certain genres and dare I say countries to such extent that I wish they were more diverse in their composition. Not in order to steer voting outcomes, of course, but rather to make them represent a wider range of tastes and genres while still keeping musical quality as the focal point.

This year also sees slight changes in how the televote works. The Rest of the World voting now starts 24 hours in advance for all three shows and in the grand final, the remaining televoters too can start voting before the first performance even starts. This is absolutely ridiculous to me. Previously, the live performance was always a make-or-break moment for any given song. Successful stagings have launched overlooked entries to the top of the scoreboard, while lacklustre performances have sunk fan favourites regardless of their pre-contest hype.

While this might be just an attempt to increase viewer engagement and televote revenue, taken together with the allowing of pre-recorded backing vocals, this change continues to erode the importance of actually great live vocal performances and I find this trend concerning. Theoretically, all televoting in the grand final could take place before a single note has been sung. Not to mention that many casual viewers skip the semis altogether, meaning that they might not even have seen any of the performances before casting their votes. I can't say I am a fan of this. Or the new 'Producer's Choice' shenanigans, yet another instrument of producer interference in the running order.

Although as a silver lining, there is one very welcome change: starting from this year, all automatic finalists will perform their songs in full during the semi-finals, giving them an equal opportunity to hone their live staging and leave an impression before the grand final. Anyway, seeing that we're already on paragraph #7 with no discussion on the entries themselves yet, let's take a look at some actual songs now, shall we?

Review of ESC 2023 – Grand Final

Now that the semi-finals are done, we finally know our Grand Final line-up! As mentioned before, this year's semi-finals were all about the televote, which probably didn't rock the boat all that much. The advancing countries were mostly predictable, with Croatia (yay) and Poland (nay) being the most surprising qualifiers and the entries that likely benefitted the most from the televote-only rule.

The flip side is that some entries that might normally have been carried through by the juries were now left in the semis, such as Georgia (it is not a secret that I love Georgia as an Eurovision country) and in particular Latvia. (Seriously, how did that not qualify with such a great live performance over so many shaky qualifiers? 'Aijā' was my absolute favourite this year so Europe, you are cancelled to me).

Regardless, the show must go on and the Grand Final is drawing nearer. So, let's see what we're working with!