Category: Review
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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?
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
ESC Etc. 