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Semifinal 2 Predictions (Post-Rehearsal)
Possibly the least exciting semifinal of the two semis – depending on where your allegiance lies – but with a fairly high ceiling considering that two winner contenders are here and both seem to have delivered excellent staging packages. And yes, I’m predicting a couple of upsets because I love mess.
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Semifinal 1 Predictions (Pre-Rehearsal)
As per usual, these are my pre-rehearsal musings based on absolutely nothing (although last year I did pretty decently on these, so there’s that). The overall vibe, in a year that has fans rather divided in terms of overall strength/quality, is that this is the stronger of the two semis, and considering the fact that…
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Winner Roundup! Poland (Justyna Steczkowska), Estonia (Tommy Cash), Norway (Kyle Alessandro), Lithuania (Katarsis), Italy (Lucio Corsi), Armenia (Parg), Iceland (Væb), Australia (Go-Jo), Serbia (Princ), Denmark (Sissal), Germany (Abor & Tynna), Croatia (Marko Bošnjak)
More songs! I promise I’m almost all caught up!!!!
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Our Second EVEN BIGGER Super Saturday! Luxembourg (Laura Thorn), Ireland (Emmy), Ukraine (Ziferblat), Finland (Erika Vikman), Latvia (Tautumeitas), and Malta (Miriana Conte) Reviews
The most national finals since 2011! We’re drowning in songs!!!!! Since I’ve reviewed most of these and I have approximately 4826648329 other national finals to get to, I’ll try to focus more on each entry’s execution and ESC prospects.
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Our First Super Saturday!!! Belgium (Red Sebastian), Spain (Melody), Greece (Klavdia), and Slovenia (Klemen) Reviews
I love it when there are literally 4 finals + a bunch of semis all happening at once and I need 15 TVs and 8 sets of eyes. ESC season keeps me supple and young. Here are this past weekend’s winners!
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Catching up! ESC Etc. Faves from Belgium, Iceland, and Ireland
It’s raining songs!!! ESC season is ramping up with more and more countries releasing their entries and holding national finals, and because YES…I make a point to listen to every single song from from each and every selection, I figured it would be a bit more time efficient for me to combine stand-out tracks from…
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UMK 2025 – All 7 Entries from the Finnish National Final Ranked by ESC Etc.
I’ve written extensively about what went down at UMK last year and I really do feel like I’ve said my peace – the voting system hasn’t changed, so I’m still a bit wary of what might happen once it’s time for people at home to pick up the phone and choose. That said, UMK does…
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Ethnikós Telikós 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Greek National Final
I don’t even remember the last time Greece held a national final to select their ESC entry. I have to be honest – while I was not particularly impressed with this selection of songs, I still found it to be an overall pleasant line-up, with several entries featuring traditional sounds and instrumentation, as well as…
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Dora 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 2 Songs from the Croatian National Final
I’ll be honest: I tried to go into this post-Baby Lasagna new edition of Dora keeping a level head, much like a did last year with UMK in Finland, hoping lightning would strike twice while keeping my expectations in check. I’ll open with the good first: I definitely appreciated the musical variety and the different…
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MESC 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Maltese National Final
It’s all happening this week! 24 tracks for Dora dropped today, Finland has started releasing their tracks, the Greek line-up is getting revealed tomorrow, and Lithuania will soon follow. My backlog keeps expanding, but I did take the time to listen to all the MESC entries and I have to say…Malta has OPTIONS. I still…
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Eesti Laul 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 4 Songs from the Estonian National Final
I’m going to keep it short and sweet because I have 24 (!!!) MESC songs to listen to and review: with a format revamp that cut down the number of entries to 16 resulting in a much more competitive lin-up (as it’s usually the case), Eesti Laul put together a banging national final with two…
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Albania 2025 Review: “Zjerm” – Shkodra Elektronike
Was I a bit harsh in reviewing FiK? Perhaps. It’s not so much that I thought all the songs were bad, but more that none of them stood out as competitive for Eurovision with the exception of Karnaval, which instead sounded like it was engineered specifically for Eurovision. Maybe that’s exactly what doomed it, relegating…
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Luxembourg Song Contest 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 2 Songs from the Luxembourgian National Final
I am not going to lie: I left last year’s LSC national final with mixed feelings. Lots of money was thrown at the show itself, which was incredibly well produced especially for a new contest, but the selection of songs itself lacked a real point of view or any distinctive identity – it felt more…
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Benidorm Fest 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 4 Songs from the Spanish National Final
Benidorm Fest is so established at this point, the tracks’ release feels almost like the official beginning of Eurovision season. Since Spain started taking ESC seriously again three years ago, Benidorm almost managed to single-handedly bring back the contest to Valencia back in 2022, and every Spanish entry since then has consistently been quality -…
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Montenegro 2025 Review: “Dobrodošli” – Nina Žižić
I already hinted at the fact that, while I’m absolutely overjoyed to have Montenegro back in the mix at ESC after a 2-year hiatus, I couldn’t quite get into any of the entries in Montesong – the newly established Montenegrin national final – and, beyond my own personal taste, I struggled to identify any competitive…
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Festivali i Këngës #63 – ESC Etc. Top…uh…The Only Song I Liked from the Albanian National Final
I don’t mean to sound harsh – I do really respect and cherish Festivali i Këngës, which is one of those festivals that would exist regardless of Eurovision itself, and it is a great window into Albania’s culture and musical roots and, as such, indispensable. That said, I have historically had a harder time warming…
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Supernova 2025 – ESC Etc. Top 5 Songs from the Latvian National Final
It’s that time of the year again!!! I held off on writing up a Montesong review because A) None of the songs sounded competitive to me B) We don’t know who’s going to ESC because as of Wednesday, winners NeonoeN have withdrawn after a video surfaced of their entry being performed at a Festival in…
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The Swedish Police Just Dropped the Investigation on Joost. So Now What?
The Malmö Public Prosecutor’s Office has officially closed the investigation on Joost Klein and the accident that led to his disqualification before the ESC final on May 11. The investigation was dropped and no charges were pressed due to lack of…uh…anything of note actually having happened? A statement released by Fredrik Jönsson, a senior prosecutor…
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ESC Etc. Episode 24 – We’re on the Gravitron as it Tangles (ESC 2024 Post Contest Song By Song Recap)
What was that? You need to hear how Cesco and Anthony felt about each and every song that competed in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö? You’re in luck! The boys are sliding in to your podcast feed with a deep dive into every entrant to wrap up their coverage of this year’s competition.…
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“Sometimes Things That Are Expensive Are Worse” – A Case Study of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu and the Art of (Not) Sending the Most Competitive Entry
Eurovision National Finals have one job: selecting a song to send to the contest and ideally win the whole thing. I’m stating the obvious – these are often competitions that only exist in connection with ESC and (unlike Sanremo, Melodifestivalen, or Festivali i Këngës) are by large structured/organized to mirror the ESC layout and voting…
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ESC Etc. Episode 23 – I’m a F*cking Wreck (ESC 2024 Wrap Up Eurotherapy Session)
I’m sure it will come as no shock to you that Anthony and Cesco had a LOT to say about the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. So much, in fact, that they had to split their annual wrap up into parts! In this slice, they will be talking about the show as a whole. They cover…
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ESC Etc. Episode 22 – I Am Not a Slut. I Am THE Slut. (Our Personal Top 10s of ESC 2024)
You. Come closer. Sit down. Hold Cesco and Anthony’s hands. We’ll sit in a circle and they will share their 10 personal favorite Eurovision Song Contest songs of 2024. Let’s share this space together as we patiently wait for the big show. Let’s have deeper than expected conversations about queer identity. Let’s gaze into each…
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Some Thoughts and Considerations re: the Joost Klein ESC Mess
As we all know by now, Joost Klein, the Eurovision 2024 Dutch representative, was barred from participating in the ESC Grand Final due to an accident that occurred backstage shortly after his semifinal performance. The news rocked the ESC fandom bubble first before snowballing into a kind of international diplomatic incident, with the EBU, the…
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On Why You Just Need to Get Over Your Fake Performative Outrage re: Juries at ESC
In light of Nemo’s win in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the scoring system used in the competition has come under scrutiny again. Nemo’s win was the result of placing 1st with the international juries and 5th in the televote – the combined score was enough to pull Switzerland ahead of televote-winning Croatia (as of…
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Final Predictions – Semifinals 1 & 2
This year is so packed and competitive, I don’t expect to replicate last year’s nearly flawless prediction record (19/20) but it’s a tough job and someone’s gotta do it!
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Rehearsals Roundup – Big 5 + Sweden Reaction
The Big 5 and our host took to the stage to rehearse! Who impressed us the most?
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Rehearsals Roundup – Semifinal 1 Reaction
Here’s what we thought of the second rehearsal clips for Semifinal 1!
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ESC Etc. Episode 21 – I Basically Prolapsed (ESC 2024 The Big 5 + Sweden)
What’s that? On the horizon. That loud, sparkly thing right over there? It’s Eurovision, y’all! Duh! Anthony and Cesco are so excited that they have no time for small talk. They dive directly in to the final batch of songs from the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, including the Big 5 (Italy, Germany, France, the UK,…
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Semifinal 2 Predictions (Pre-Rehearsals)
More predictions based on absolutely nothing but who cares! It’s fun!
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Semifinal 1 Predictions (Pre-Rehearsal)
Rehearsals kick off in two days, so it’s time to commit some official predictions to the ether. Granted – we haven’t seen any of these staged yet (although we have seen a number of these performed in their respectine national finals and/or pre-parties), but last year I went 19/20 in terms of predictions over the…
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ESC Etc. Episode 20 – The Cream That You Were Hoping For (ESC 2024 Semi 2, 2nd Half)
Cesco and Anthony are back for more EuroShenanigans, trust and believe, y’all! First off, though, they discuss Lisa Frankenstein and earthquakes. Unrelated. Unless the universe just wanted to punish us for how we neglected such a rad movie. Anyhoo. Then they dive into the fourth batch of songs from the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. They…
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ESC Etc. Episode 19 – Mother is Mothering (ESC 2024 Semi 2, 1st Half)
Anthony and Cesco are thirsty. Oh. Wait. I mean, Anthony and Cesco are thirsty to chat about the songs competing in the first half of semifinal 2 at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024! But before they do, Anthony exposes his trailer trash country boy side and they chat about the simple joys of playing board…
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ESC Etc. Episode 18 – Bitch, There’s a Didgeridoo (ESC 2024 Semi 1, 2nd Half)
You know Cesco and Anthony’s bodies were ready to dive back into the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024! They chat about the Nickelodeon tell-all docuseries Quiet on Set and the new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs. the World before they turn their attention to the second half of the first…
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ESC Etc. Episode 17 – Night of a Thousand Twinks (ESC 2024 Semi 1, 1st Half)
Anthony and Cesco are back, bay-bee! They are gay and seated for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 season! After catching up on their lives and chatting about some of their favorite movies from the first part of the year (Poor Things, yay! Oppenheimer, meh!), the boys start digging into the songs competing in the first…
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Semifinal 2 Running Order Analysis
Can we say we have two semifinals of death this year? I confidently believe we can. ESC 2024 is such a competitive year, we will be losing a couple of great songs from each semi no matter how we spin it, and it almost feel as though the running order was engineered to contain the…
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Semifinal 1 Running Order Analysis
We finally have the running order for our 2024 ESC semis! I’m not going to lie – I love dissecting this stuff almost as much as I love dissecting the fandom’s conspiracy theories about it. Because…there are no conspiracies! All these producers care about is putting together a good, dynamic show and expediting the logistics…
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2023 vs 2024: The ESC Smackdown Part 3 (Netherlands to United Kingdom)
Eleven countries left with 2024 leading 16 to 7. Is the 2023 lineup toast? Shouldn’t we want every year to be better than the previous one anyway?! Let’s continue!
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2023 vs 2024: The ESC Smackdown Part 2 (France to Moldova)
Twelve more countries! Part 1 of the Smackdown ended with the 2024 roster comfortably leading 8 to 4. Is this lead going to extend? Will the 2023 entries be able to catch up? Let’s find out: France: Évidemment vs Mon amourThis is a really solid back-to-back showing for France. I liked their 2023 track just…
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2023 vs 2024: The ESC Smackdown Part 1 (Albania to Finland )
How does our 2024 roster compare to 2023? Is it really the strongest ESC line-up of all time? Well, I’m not a scientist, but here’s how this is going to work!
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Azerbaijan 2024 Review: “Özünlə Apar” – Fahree feat. Ilkin Dovlatov
Donate to ArmeniaFund: Link Inside
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Armenia 2024 Review: “Jako” – Ladaniva
Armenia will never give you the same song twice, and I don’t know that you can say that about many countries at ESC. It doesn’t always work, and sometimes it works months after the contest and it becomes a worldwide viral hit (although for the record – I liked SNAP right from the get-go while…
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Georgia 2024 Review: “Firefighter” – Nutsa Buzaladze
Starting in 2017, Georgia has been on the worst current NQ streak (tied with Latvia) at ESC. Some of it (2018/19/21) falls squarely on their shoulders and the weakness of their selections, but I genuinely liked their 2022 entry, and last year Iru had quite a number of vocal supporters, even though in the end…
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Israel 2024 Review: “Hurricane” – Eden Golan
How to help civilians impacted by the Israel-Gaza conflict: Link Inside
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Our Last National Final Saturday! Sweden (Marcus & Martinus) and Portugal (Iolanda) Reviews
And with that, we’re done! Our ESC National Final season has gone as fast as it came, and all we have left now is a handful of internally selected acts (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Israel) who will be revealing their songs in the coming days. I have discussed both these entries as part of their national…
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Greece 2024 Review: “Zari” – Marina Satti
The art of the ESC internal selection is a hard one to hone and master. If you announce your act and song too soon, you have to keep the buzz alive for the whole season. If you announce late, you need to live up to mounting expectations nearing the end of said season. Then there…
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Australia 2024 Review: “One Milkali (One Blood)” – Electric Fields
When I think about Electric Fields and ESC, there’s an overwhelming sense of unifinished business. This goes all the way back to 2019, when the duo entered Australia Decides with 2000 and Whatever, one of the best songs of the year or arguably the decade and not just at Eurovision, immediately becoming the runaway favorites…
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Another Busy Saturday!!! Iceland (Hera Björk) and Serbia (Teya Dora) Reviews
Iceland’s been on a journey this ESC season already. When news about Bashar’s participation broke out, Iceland momentarily shot to #1 in the odds, eventually settling somewhere in the bookies’ top 5 when the actual song was released. Regardless, Söngvakeppnin remained a hotly (and often disgracefully) debated topic, with fans praising the broadcaster’s anti-Israel stance…
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Melodifestivalen 2024 – Ranking All 12 Finalists from the Swedish National Final
We made it, y’all. 5 heats, 30 tracks, a (disastrously conceived) second chance round, and Sweden has picked the 12 songs that will be vying to represent the current titleholder at ESC on their home ground. I have OPINIONS – some good, some not – but I would like to briefly discuss each entry in…
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Leap Day Madness! Switzerland (Nemo), Netherlands (Joost Klein), Cyprus (Silia Kapsis), Austria (Kaleen), and UK (Olly Alexander) Reviews
February 29 was an onslaught! Five countries with internal selections finally released their tracks!
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Croatia 2024 Review: “Rim tim tagi dim” – Baby Lasagna
“THERE’S NO GOING BAAAAAACK.” Croatia gone done the thing. I’m not one to overanalyze coincidences much, but there’s something to be said about February 25 slowly becoming a momentous date in ESC lore – Cha Cha Cha won UMK on February 25, 2023, the same exact day Loreen officially debuted Tattoo at Melodifestivalen, and exactly…
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San Marino 2024 Review: “11:11” – Megara
Full disclosure: I more or less decided to boycott this national final after it was announced they would team up with an AI startup and fast-track an AI-generated song into the final (not gonna link to it or name it – if you’re curious, it came in 7th in the final ranking). I’m very disappointed…
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Belgium 2024 Review: “Before the Party’s Over” – Mustii
Mustii was one of the very first acts announced for this 2024 ESC season, in keeping with the fact that the Wallonian broadcaster, which alternates yearly in the Belgian selection process with the Flemish one, has historically avoided national finals in favor of internal selections. This approach has paid off handsomely in some cases (2015…
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Poland 2024 Review: “The Tower” – Luna
After last year’s shitshow of a national final, where incomprehensible jury voting led to the overwhelming televote favorite to flop and to rumors of bribing, fixing, and other shenanings, Poland had the presence of mind to just say, let’s take a step back and regroup and maybe hold an internal selection. You gotta love the…
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Super Saturday!!! Estonia (5MIINUST and Puuluup), Moldova (Natalia Barbu), Denmark (Saba) and Lithuania (Silvester Belt) Reviews
Not to pat my own back BUT all countries choosing winners today picked acts I had singled out and analyzed in each of their respective national final reviews. I will also say that I really like (three of) these songs, leaving Germany and Finland as the only two countries to have really screwed the pooch…
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Germany 2024 Review: “Always on the Run” – Isaak
Oh, Germany. Germany, Germany, Germany. Germany has been bottom 5 in seven of the last eight contests. So that’s where we’re starting from. Germany’s current goal at ESC is not winning. It’s not coming Top 10. It’s getting out from last place. In a lineup leaning fairly heavily on the side of indie pop, Germany…
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Eurovizija.LT 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 2 Songs from the Lithuanian National Final
In contrast to the 2023 contest, which featured three of my favorite tracks of the whole ESC season (Rūta MUR, please forgive us and come back), the 2024 Lithuanian national final that is about to crown a winner tomorrow has probably been the biggest disappointment of my ESC year so far. It is partly my…
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Three More Countries Dropping Songs!!! Italy (Angelina Mango), Latvia (Dons) and Finland (Windows95man) Reviews
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…
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Sanremo 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 15 (!!!) Songs from the Italian National Final
OK. So. I can say this because I’ve been watching Sanremo for about 40 years: this is the strongest line-up we’ve ever gotten in my lifetime. Sure, we had years where a few songs went on to become classics and standards of Italian musica leggera, but I cannot recall another year with no fewer than…
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More Countries Dropping Songs!!! Spain (Nebulossa), Ukraine (Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil) and Norway (Gåte) Reviews
I figured a combined post might be warranted here because we got no fewer than 4 national finals this past Saturday, with some heavy hitters finally selecting their 2024 representatives. Since I already reviewed two of the winning songs from this weekend, why not take a more holistic look?
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Malta 2024 Review: “Loop” – Sarah Bonnici
I have to commend Malta for trying something new this year, focusing on fewer songs and more of a staging effort in the final, especially compared to last year’s more chaotic approach which also ended up involving Aidan’s preposterous disqualification. What this year ended up lacking then is perhaps a bop like Reġina – a…
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Söngvakeppnin 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 4 Songs from the Icelandic National Final
Everyone who is a die-hard Eurovision fan will tell you they want to see Iceland win this thing at least once in their lifetime. Not only is Iceland the second most successful ESC country yet to win the contest (trailing only Malta), but ESC is deeply embedded in Icelandic popular culture, and no country embraces…
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Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 2 (?) Songs from the Danish National Final
I put a question mark in parenthesis in the title ’cause, Denmark…what are you doing, Denmark? There was a lot of talk after last year’s missed qualification (the third one in as many years) that Denmark might come back with a real contender to represent them in Malmö (which is about 45 minutes away from…
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Festival da Canção 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Portuguese National Final
This is probably the first year I made time to listen to all the FdC entries and I fully own that – historically this has been a selection I struggle with not because the songs aren’t good (they are) but because they’re generally representative of a musical landscape that is at large not for me…
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Luxembourg 2024 Review: “Fighter” – Tali
When I wrote about the Luxembourg Song Contest, the newly established national selection to welcome Luxembourg back to ESC after 30 years, it was with a mix of excitement and concern. I’m overjoyed to have them back – duh – but I guess I was a bit let down by the selection of songs that,…
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Pesma za Evroviziju 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Serbian National Final
I’ve done it. I’ve waded across the 2024 Serbian selection of approximately 7469563842 entries and lived to tell my story. Now – I do love Serbia at ESC. I do. Few other countries have managed to entertain us with such a mix of ethnic and mainstream over the years, effectively going on to become one…
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Ireland 2024 Review: “Doomsday Blues” – Bambie Thug
Ireland had one job. Faced with an abysmal qualification record these past 10 years (only two placements in the grand final), a national broadcaster who couldn’t give half a s**t, and the growing frustration of the fandom, the Irish delegation (read: Michael Kealy) knew they needed to hit the reset button. But how? You can’t…
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Das Deutsche Finale 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 2 Songs from the German National Final
So…yeah. I sat on this piece for a few days while I played and replayed these DDF songs trying to find three tracks I could justifiably discuss as viable options for Germany. Sometimes it takes multiples listens for a song to really come into focus, you know? Well…that didn’t happen. These aren’t bad entries, to…
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Slovenia 2024 Review: “Veronika” – Raiven
When news broke out that Slovenia had internally selected Raiven to represent the country at ESC, the Eurovision fandom more or less entered a state of euphoric meltdown. An eternal fave, Raiven had previously attempted to represent Slovenia at ESC on three different occasions, finishing 2nd, 3rd, and finally 2nd again. This time around, the…
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Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Finnish National Final
It’s fair to say that there was an unprecedented level of buzz and anticipation around UMK this year after the outstanding 2023 national final and Käärijä’s, well…everything he was and did at ESC. I remained wary but hopeful – I wasn’t sure how the new lineup would stack up against last year’s, and I have…
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Vidbir 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Ukranian National Final
Ukraine needs no introduction when it comes to ESC – the only country to still have an immaculate qualification record since the introduction of the semifinals, peppered with three wins all in the 21st century (so far the only country to have done so). This exceptional track record (only Italy and Sweden have managed to…
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Eurosong 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Irish National Final
Let’s make one thing clear – there are good songs and great artists in Ireland. The reason behind the country’s recent abysmal qualification record (one qualification to the final in the last 9 years) lies squarely at the feet of RTÉ – the national broadcaster in change of selecting acts for ESC – who has…
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Supernova 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Latvian National Final
Latvia currently has the longest ongoing non-qualification streak at ESC (alongside Georgia) having now failed to make the cut for 6 consecutive contests (and really, Sudden Lights deserved last year and we collectively failed them). So, when it comes to Supernova nowadays my main concern isn’t really re: does Latvia have an ESC-winning song or…
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Luxembourg Song Contest 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Luxembourgian National Final
Let’s be exceedingly clear: we’re all happy Luxembourg is back. Ecstatic, as a matter of fact. At a time in which, for a number of well-documented reasons, ESC has been losing entrants, any country making a comeback is to be welcomed with open arms (and wallets). That said…after hearing about the record number of submissions…
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Dora 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Croatian National Final
Dora gone done it this year. Not only does this roster feature the most eclectic and current lineup to recent memory, but Croatia’s got the track. I have reviewed several national finals so far featuring strong, oustanding entries, but here we’re looking at the first one that legitimately screams potential ESC winner. And it almost…
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Etapa Națională 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Moldovan National Final
If you’ve listened to our podcast at all, you probably know I have a huge soft spot for Moldova at ESC. No other country knows how to elevate poor to middling entries to bonafide Top 10 contenders like Moldova does, and that’s a fact. Every year the staging for Moldova’s act will get the most…
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Melodi Grand Prix 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 3 Songs from the Norwegian National Final
There’s a moment in Ulrikke’s Honestly (one of the 2023 MGP entries), around 0:55, where after a second of brief silence the orchestration suddenly drops all at once alongside a booming choir, punctuating the song’s soaring, thumping chorus in a burst of unadulterated pop deliciousness. I wanted to mention that because every year in the…
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ESC Etc. Episode 16- I’ll Eat a Pig in a Blanket (Junior Eurovision 2023 Recap)
Your favorite EuroDaddies, Cesco and Anthony, are back to help brighten up that gloomy part of the year between Christmas and the New Year with a new episode! It’ll give you something to listen to while you recover from food comas or shop the post-holiday sales. You’re welcome, kiddos. They chat about some of their…
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Albania 2024 Review: “Zemrën n’dorë” – Besa Kokëdhima
It took four gruesome nights (still one less than Sanremo will inflict on us) marred by poor audio, amateurish hosting, baffling interval acts, questionable judging, and more of the same accusations of vote fixing and corruption that have been plaguing Festivali i Këngës for a number of years now, but we have the Albanian representative…
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Benidorm Fest 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 4 Songs from the Spanish National Final
The Benidorm tracks are here and can I just say…this is how you establish a national final from nothing: you set up a music festival and feed it and let it grow organically into a competition that would exist as a standalone event that is first and foremost meant to celebrate the musical landscape of…
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Czechia 2024 Review: “Pedestal” – Aiko
After a week-long online vote open to the Czech public as well as international fans across the world, Aiko has emerged as the winner of ESCZ 2024, narrowly edging out Elly, and will now represent Czechia in Malmö. Aiko swept the international vote but only came in 5th place in the Czech one, compared to…
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ESCZ 2024 – All 7 Songs from the Czech National Final Ranked by ESC Etc.
Czechia debuted their seven competing entries at Club Roxy in Prague earlier this week and as well know by now…it was an unmitigated disaster. Ghastly stage production, catastrophic sound mixing issues, vocals obtained under torture…I don’t recall another national final turning into such a huge dumpster fire in constrast to absolutely passable to great studio…
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Eesti Laul 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 4 Songs from the Estonian National Final
There’s just something about Estonia kicking things off in December that hits differently – it’s like ESC season is officially on. Eesti Laul released the 20 songs that will go head to head to represent Estonia at ESC 2024. 5 acts are fast-tracked to the February 17 final, while the other 15 will compete in…
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Melodifestivalen 2024 – All the Artists, All the Heats: Who Will Advance?
Melodifestivalen 2024 – Heat 1 LINEUP ARTIST SONG Adam Woods Supernatural Elisa Lindström Forever Yours Lisa Ajax Awful Liar Melina Borglowe Min melodi Samir & Viktor Hela världen väntar Smash Into Pieces Heroes Are Calling This is a stacked line-up. There’s a lot of buzz about Smash Into Pieces, who came in third last year…
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MESC 2024 – ESC Etc. Top 5 Songs from the Maltese National Final
4 semifinals, 36 tracks – I listened to all the songs vying to represent Malta at ESC 2024 so you don’t have to! Actually, no – listen to every song. There is a national final for you out there, I promise! That said, this wasn’t it. On balance, I found Semifinal #4 to be exponentially…
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Will the ESC Class of 2024 Deliver? Part 4
We’re wrapping things up at least until the EBU releases the finalized list of competing countries – hopefully soon!
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Will the ESC Class of 2024 Deliver? Part 3
10 more! LUXEMBOURG Luxembourg is back after a 31-year hiatus and that was, in many ways, the story of the ESC 2024 pre-season. It’s always exciting to have a country return after a long time, and it generally signals renewed interest for the contest at home which, in turns, likely means we’ll be getting quality.…
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France 2024 Review: “Mon amour” – Slimane
France went and dropped their 2024 artist and track pretty much on the same day, much earlier than anyone could have anticipated (this is the earliest a country has released their entry in I don’t even remember how long).
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Will the ESC Class of 2024 Deliver? Part 2
More countries! More hot takes! FRANCE I miss the days of Destination Eurovision and Eurovision France, c’est vous qui décidez! that gave us my favorite song of the 2018 contest, a second place finisher at ESC 2021, and other various little musical masterpieces of different genres and ilk (this one still makes me cry, and…
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Will the ESC Class of 2024 Deliver? Part 1
As of this post, 35 countries have confirmed their participation to Eurovision 2024. We are still waiting to hear back from Armenia, Australia, North Macedonia, and Romania – four countries that are facing unique challenges not necessarily related to the contest. Armenia is currently experiencing a staggering refugee crisis which has further escalated tensions with…
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ESC Etc. Episode 15- A Tour of Europe’s 2024 National Finals but Mostly Scandinavia (Don’t Yuck My Yum)
Welcome to ESC etc. season 2! As the fog rolls out on Samhain, Anthony and Cesco are back to bring some Eurovision shenanigans to your spoopy season. They catch up on what they’ve been up to since we last met and extol the cozy virtues of autumnal vibes. They then talk about their hopes for…
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ESC Etc. Episode 8- Big Gay Explosion (ESC 2023 Recap)
The boys get ambitious and discuss all 37 songs from Eurovision 2023! From San Marino to Sweden, they discuss each country’s entry and how it performed at this year’s ESC.
ESC Etc. 