Big Blue Flash

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...

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...

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...