Category: Review
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
ESC Etc. 