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

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 of Gaia is more of a bad-ass than a hippie mum, but she's also sorrowful and defiant.

Steczkowska? I hardly knew her!

The music relies heavily on a semitone shift, between A and B♭, that occurs in every bar throughout, with the exception of an atmospheric chord sequence (A - Dm - F - B♭) that's used as both a bridge section and an interlude. The chorus barely exists as a separate musical idea, consisting mainly of the same alternating semitone from the verses, plus some powerful, extended single vocal notes. Though the basic groove doesn't change much through the song, I hear enough interest in the arrangement to keep me engaged: a folk-y violin appears between vocal phrases; the interlude gives Justyna a chance to float a high wordless D6 over the texture; and coming out of the interlude, oddly, is perhaps my favourite part: just 4 bars of that accompanying groove during which I cannot stay still. Not quite enough for 3 stars because it's not breaking any boundaries, but a really decent job.

Incidentally, about Justyna's previous outing representing Poland in Eurovision 1995: This 30-year-old entry is the latest of my pleasant Eurovision discoveries, mixing together a chilled out mood, some folky instrumentation, a solid groove with a double bass providing the foundation, and some genuinely high notes (up to E6 at the climax). Eurovision really is a gift that keeps on giving!

I should say also that Poland in 2025 provided me with another Eurovision first - I found two songs in one national final that I was really enthusiastic about and hence I knew I'd be guaranteed disappointment whatever happened. So here is as good a place as any to give Lusterka by Sw@da x Niczos an honourable mention. I love this so much I'm gonna do an extra batch of reviews to cover this song and any other national final contenders I've loved.

Estonia: Tommy Cash - "Espresso Macchiato" ★★

I think this song might have been even more of an overwhelming favourite to win its national final than Erika Vikman in Finland, which is saying something. I immediately filed this under the same "amusing nonsense" label that I applied to Little Big, a band with whom Tommy has collaborated before. It's got an absurdly cheesy chorus which is introduced straightaway with a tone and style that's so serious it's funny. When the groove kicks in, it's a mid-tempo house feel with tons of bass. On swapping to the verses, the songwriters give us a weird pastiche accompaniment made of oom-pah sounds on a double bass plus a sort-of-but-not-quite jazzy ride cymbal figure, while the vocals become much more chopped up.

As in lots of Little Big tunes, the lyrics are not just silly, they are also grammatically wrong in lots of place. The coverage of this song has focussed on the stereoptypical misuse of the Italian language, but he also feeds his English lyrics into a metaphorical shredder.  It's unclear whether Tommy Cash's character here is (1) genuinely trying to wind up Italians, and perhaps cause the EBU some annoyance, (2) performing a sort of exercise in artistic alienation, or  (3) pretending to be another character, a self-important idiot trying to sound suave and sophisticated by mangling 2 languages at once. My gut initially told me (3), but after another collaboration with Joost Klein was released recently, it's difficult not to think it might be mostly (1). I do like this lovely silly tune, but I could personally do without any associated re-litigation of 2024's controversies.

There's one more significant problem too: listening to him performing live in Eesti Laul, I thought Tommy Cash was literally the worst singer I'd heard so far this Eurovision season (at least until I had the dubious privilege of listening to Armenia's national final livestream the day after!). Unlike Baby Lasagna and Käärijä before him, Tommy's song does actually require control and finesse to make it work. The playful swap in vocal tone and mood between the cheeky verses and the purposely melodramatic full-bodied melody in the chorus was definitely not within Tommy's capability.  Honestly over the next 3 months I think the best we can realistically hope for is no glaringly obvious mistakes.

Norway: Kyle Alessandro - "Lighter" 

Lots of the Eurovision commentariat said this year's Melodi Grand Prix (the Norwegian national final) was looking very weak. I'd say this song is good evidence to support that opinion. I'd nearly awarded it a single star at about the half way point, and then I realised "no, this is it, nothing else interesting is going to happen, is it?". It's got a dembow / tresillo beat with no particular outstanding features, forgettable melody, boilerplate harmony, and a try-hard glitzy pop production style. I think for a moment I was tricked into thinking it was more credible than it is, because of the novelty of a solo male performer singing the kind of diva-esque plastic latino bop typical of so many female Eurovision contestants. The sad thing is that this was predictable from the moment that Gåte folked and metalled their hearts out last year but still placed last in the Grand Final. What are the odds that Kyle Alessandro will present this dud in Basel and place better than Gåte? Depressingly likely, I'd say. Ikke bra, Norway, ikke bra 😞

Lithuania: Katarsis - "Tavo Akys" ★

I appreciate what Katarsis are doing here with their melancholy 90s indie rock sound. It's actually quite nostalgic for me, a 90s teenager, and I think the contest in Switzerland will probably be better for having this style represented. However, to use a well-worn meme, this song is saying to me "we have Radiohead at home" and I'm struggling to see quite why it's such a fan favourite. It's doing nothing I haven't heard before, melodically, rhythmically or harmonically and crucially there's not much variety either (in stark contrast to the performer who came a distant second in the Lithuanian final, Lion Ceccah). As a result this song is perfectly pleasant but hasn't made me want to listen to it multiple times. I think this is at least partly to do with the repetition of "tavo" towards the end, which also fails to introduce anything new musically and frankly doesn't climax as effectively as I think the performers were hoping for. Perhaps Erika Vikman and her team could help them do a re-vamp? 😉 

Azerbaijan: Mamagama - "Run With U" ★

It's an internally-selected song again this year for Azerbaijan, so no national final, just an announcement. And you know what, this isn't terrible. The trio of lads are obviously supposed to be a band based on the music video, however the sound of this composition doesn't match that image. There's some satisfyingly deep bass synth, a disco-funk rhythmic backbone, a few bars of breakbeat which I wish lasted longer, and even a folky-looking plucked string instrument whose name I'm going to have to Google even though I should know it because I've seen Ladaniva use one in concert. Easter egg: Azerbaijan's Eurovision performers from 2023 and 2024 appear in the music video, amongst other things to deliver said stringed instrument which is... * Googles swiftly * ... a saz or bağlama apparently. Not quite coherent or interesting enough a composition to get 2 stars from me, but a respectable job nevertheless.

Armenia: PARG - "Survivor"

What a rollercoaster, Armenia: you give me my clear favourite in 2024 by internally selecting folk geniuses Ladaniva, then in 2025 you stage a national final with frankly appalling sound production and basically no performances that were sung well (I'd guess at least partly because of said sound production and poor monitoring). "Survivor" is the song that won and though I definitely don't like it, I don't thing any of the other 11 contestants deserved it any better on the basis of listening to the competition live while on a long drive home. The lyrics to this song are literally laughable - I let out an embarrassed cackle upon hearing "I'm a survivor / Stay aliver" for the first time and at multiple points elsewhere in the song. The lyrical content here is 100% pure genuine cliché. Musically, there are some mildly interesting things (12/8 time signature, half-time feel in some sections, addition of strings at the climax) but nothing that stops me wanting to turn this off when it comes up on shuffle. If this makes it beyond Semi-Final 2 on 15 May I can only assume the televoters are ignoring their ears and voting with their eyes - PARG is certainly pleasant to look at by all accounts...

Italy: Lucio Corsi - "Volevo Essere Un Duro" ★

Personally I'm glad Lucio Corsi accepted the invitation to represent Italy with this song, as to my taste it's definitely more listenable than the song by the San Remo winner, who declined this opportunity after being given first refusal. Olly's ballad has been replaced by Lucio's relaxed soft rock, delivered with an intentionally old-fashioned style and orchestration, very similar to Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes" from the early 1970s. Unlike Ziferblat's nostalgic sound, this tune doesn't really have any energetic parts, nor change up the mood and style enough for me to want to listen multiple times. But I appreciate it and I do think it could find a niche in this year's contest.

Iceland: VÆB - "Róa" ★★

I didn't know it last week, but what I actually needed in my musical life was a high energy pop sea shanty in Icelandic. There is no way I can justify the 2 stars by cleverly analysing the musical composition but this is firmly on my playlist and that's the criterion that matters. I'm not fond of the phrase "guilty pleasure" but I do know what people mean and for me this would count as one. It's the kind of thing that you personally love but you know it's the opposite of cool and sophisticated and you wouldn't play it out loud if your mates were around. "Róa" is not just vibes though, and does have some musical interest: theres a rollicking 6/8 meter with a fiddle playing over the top during the choruses [UPDATE: I initially said 12/8 but I think 6/8 is more conventional for a folk song]. At the 1min20s mark, the vocals sing in a hemiola rhythm, that is to say singing 3 notes evenly spread across 2 beats in the accompaniment. The lyrics (or at least the English translations I can find) are also non-embarrassing and actually quite wholesome: like so many folk songs, it's superficially about one thing (rowing a boat in the sea) but more deeply about other things (seeking your fortune in the world and perservering in the face of adversity and uncertainty). Best of luck to these energetic Nordic lads and lasses, the contest will be better for having them competing in it.

21 down, 16 more to go...

I'm more than half-way done with reviews now. We still have 7 more national finals to make their selections, and the remaining 9 countries need to announce their internally-selected entries. I suspect early March will be a good time to review another batch of songs, as Denmark, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, Australia and The Netherland will know who (and what) they're sending by the 2nd of March.

After that, I'm probably most excited about the 8th of March, when Portugal have the chance to select a banging metal tune, and Sweden might (just maybe) end up sending a beautifully silly song about saunas. More to follow!

* Scoring system recap:

Remember that at this point my overall my goal is to review the songs themselves in their studio versions. I'm using the same starring system I used from 2023 and 2024, namely:

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

★★★★ bought their entire back catalogue; checking out tour dates