ESC Etc.

Country: Italy
Artist: Angelina Mango
Title: La noia
Songwriter(s): Angelina Mango, Madame, Dardust
Tempo: 112 BPM Mode: Minor Key: D Duration: 3:09

Country: Latvia
Artist: Dons
Title: Hollow
Songwriter(s): Artūrs Šingirejs, Kate Northrop, Liam Geddes
Tempo: 148 BPM Mode: Minor Key: C♯/D♭ Duration: 2:52

I’ve more or less covered both these songs while discussing these countries’ respective national finals – Dons more so than Angelina – but I still have opinions! With Dons in particular, since we knew from the get-go he would ultimately win Supernova, I think the national delegation should have taken a more is actually more approach. The track is already a fairly straightforward, somber, pensive number, the choice to bury Dons in sand tones both in terms of styling and LED didn’t do him any favors, and the color palette change for the grand final still came across as somewhat muted and flat to me. Ballads seem somewhat at a disadvantage in televote-only semifinals at ESC already, and this one’s not particularly remarkable to start with, so they will need to come up with a staging concept that really makes this pop – either telling some sort of story on stage or relying on VR. I don’t think this is an automatic qualifier, but it is quality, he’s a huge star back home, and I would love to see Latvia break their NQ streak even if I don’t feel I particularly need this song in my grand final. We’ll see.

Italy, as I already said, had about a gazillion options, and they ended up choosing one of the songs I had singled out as a potential ESC winner. A woman hadn’t won Sanremo as a solo act in 10 years, and Angelina showed up with a truly unique, infectious, Latin-tinged bop to do just that. La noia fuses the tradition of Colombian cumbia with Angelina’s ethnopop sensibility, and she performs the hell out if it. The aesthetic of the music video might (should) inform the staging concept that is currently in the works, and I just imagine a huge party on stage that’s going to be really hard to resist. Italy once again is one to watch.

Country: Finland
Artist: Windows95man
Title: No Rules!
Songwriter(s): Henri Piispanen, Jussi Roine, Teemu Keisteri
Tempo: 160 BPM Mode: Minor Key: B Duration: 2:56

I love ESC (obviously) and I don’t want to invite any negative energy into my coverage of the event. I’m also a believer in not saying anything when you don’t have anything nice to say. So! I will only say that, as previously discussed on the podcast, UMK‘s current voting system with a 75/25 televote/jury split essentially renders juries pointless. The final ranking will basically always match the televote 100% or thereabouts, and having juries then seems just like a huge waste of money, time, and manpower. This track isn’t for me, and the staging reminds me of the ESC Dark Ages from 2001 to 2007 circa, but I have to commend Windows95man for pulling off an incredible comeback to win this event after international juries had put them in last place. I can’t think of another instance of this ever happening in another national final off the top of my head (although I am fairly sure it must have at some point). Good luck!