Posts

Eurovision 2025: reviews of Semi-Final casualties

Image
Eurovision week has been and gone, and by this point, most of the commentary has understandably been focussing on the... shall we say... nailbiting Grand Final results. However in the week before that, eleven entrants were knocked out in the Semi Finals that took place on the 13th and 15th of May, some of them very unexpectedly indeed. So let's take a look at how their live performances went and whether they deserved being kicked out. Here's a quick recap of my scoring system in 2 parts: first for the song composition itself, incorporating the studio recording. This will be the same as my initial (p)review scoring unless something drastic has changed to the recording used for playback. no stars = if I had control of the playlist I would turn it off or skip ★ wouldn't skip if it came up on shuffle ★★ on my "2025 Eurovision Favourites" playlist on Spotify ★★★ spent my own money getting a digital download; gone digging around their back catalogue for more stuff ★...
Read more

Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 7/7 (San Marino, Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, France)

Image
Here's my final batch of Eurovision 2025 reviews: 5 entries, none of which really inspire me if I'm being frank, but which I wanted to review in the interests of completeness. So with apologies in advance for my lack of enthusiasm, let's get these reviews finished! And remember, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed... (Scoring system recapped at * below) San Marino: Gabry Ponte - " Tutta L'Italia "  ★ This stands out in the competition by being in 12/8 meter (as ever, the vast majority of entries are in 4/4). I quite like the touches of folk instrumentation. It's pleasant enough but quite simple in concept and overall sounds like a football chant. It suffers a little from using the same chord progression in both the verses and choruses (though at least there's a bridge section with a different progression). Gabry Ponte (formerly of Eiffel '65) looking quite... Blue   Honestly, I've mostly had enough of this song at the half-way point. ...
Read more

Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 6/7 (Austria, Georgia, Sweden, UK)

Image
Well, it's been a while - over a month, in fact, since I last posted any reviews. Thankfully that's because my spare time has lately been taken up fulfilling some other Eurovision-related ambitions, namely researching for some of the Overthinking Eurovision content on YouTube and doing some musical arrangement work. There's plenty to say about the 4 songs below and so I've had to self-edit quite a lot in order to make the reviews at least readable. For Sweden in particular, I've got a whole other post (possibly a series of posts) lined up, based solely on things I want to write about but that would turn a song review into an essay. So here goes, 4 of the most interesting 2025 Eurovision entries, subjected to my questionable cultural criticism - GO! (scoring system re-capped below* as ever): Austria: JJ - " Wasted Love " ★ Even though I don't particularly want to listen to it independently, I still admire and respect Austria's entry this year. Thei...
Read more

Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 5/7 (Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Serbia, Denmark, Croatia, Portugal)

Image
We recently reached a big milestone of the Eurovision calendar: as of last week, we now know who and what all 37 countries are sending to Basel! I still have 16 songs left to review, so here's the next batch of ESC contenders: 5 winners of national final competitions and 2 announcements of internal selections. Let's see how they fare when subjected to my patchy musical analysis and peculiar music taste! (scoring system re-capped below*): Germany: Abor & Tynna - " Baller " ★★ Nice work Germany, for choosing this German-language house track which balances dance club energy with relaxed coolness. Abor & Tynna have managed to achieve something difficult which many other Eurovision acts have failed to do: they've managed to make a credible EDM tune that sounds satisfying despite being limited to 3 minutes. This seems to be difficult because dance music in general, and the electronic variety in particular, needs to sustain a groove, a vibe, and let people match ...
Read more

Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 4/7 (Poland, Estonia, Norway, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Italy, Iceland)

Image
We have 8 more selections made for Eurovision 2025, all made in the past week or so and some with plenty of pre-show hype too! Here's what I think of them all (scoring system explained below*): Poland: Justyna Steczkowska - " Gaja " ★★ Polish televoters have emphatically chosen this witchy dance-pop epic from Eurovision veteran Justyna, who's gone a record-breaking 30 years since last representing her country. The song satisfies me mostly because of its deep, brooding EDM production and tough mid-tempo progressive house groove (110bpm or so). This track is coming for you and it will not be hurried, slowed down or stopped. It feels inevitable. "Moje imię Gaja" / "They call me Gaia", sings the Earth mother character in both Polish and English (but mostly Polish). But she is not a  content soul here: "The world drowns in tears / I cradle the lost time in my arms". The music accompanying these words seems to mirror the tension: this version o...
Read more

Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 3/7 (Ireland, Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Malta, Czechia)

Image
Last weekend, 5 more countries held national finals to decide who and what they are sending to Eurovision 2025, with 1 further country having premiered the song for their internally-selected artist. So here's my next batch of reviews! (scoring system explained below*): Ireland: Emmy - " Laika Party " ★ I appreciate a song text which is about a specific theme, avoiding the classic Eurovision "Love, Love, Peace, Peace" lyrical nonsense ( thanks again, Malmö 2016! ). Bonus points too if the act can manage to avoid similarly clich é d sentiments in the "I'm strong" / I'm brave" / "I'm gonna do it my way" vein. Ireland have certainly avoided all those clich és in 2025, by choosing a song about Soviet space dog, Laika , who in 1957 became the first earthling to orbit her planet. Instead of a hyperthermic death after orbiting Earth 4 times, Emmy's song imagines Laika is still alive and partying in space - on the one hand, oddba...
Read more

Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 2/7 (Luxembourg, Greece, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain)

Image
Another batch of countries have decided who and what they are sending to Basel in May 2025! Since I did my last reviews , we've sadly lost one of the more interesting Eurovision countries, as Moldova has dropped out of the contest, meaning we are back down to 37 countries in total. So without further delay, here's my next batch of reviews covering 5 more countries (scoring system explained below*): Luxembourg: Laura Thorn - " La Poupée Monte Le Son " I can't feign a massive dislike over this song: it's not offensively awful: it does try to harness a little nostalgia by using orchestral instruments, and harking back to Luxembourg's previous 1965 winning entry with its title and subject matter. However, I can't award it a single star because the chorus is just so annoying to my ears. The meaningless "na na na"s are obvious, too often repeated and feel trivially tied to the chord sequence (Dm - B ♭ - C - A7) which again is repeated to the point...
Read more