It may mean nothing to you, but this year’s context is underway in Vienna.
5 songs down so far, 20 to go. Israel’s song passed without incident and also without leaving any impression at all, so I don’t see it as a contender. I’m always wrong with my predictions though, which is part of the fun.
My wife has turned it off, despite usually enjoying it.
This is as close as I’ll get to it. Mrs Pyramid is watching elsewhere in the Pyramid with 2 of the grandkids.
Ukraine strongest so far, memorable for the singer holding one note for about 25% of the song’s length.
Sadly just can’t watch this year
Delta Goodrem treats us to a mid-song piano solo and belts out a strong one for Australia. Best one so far.
One of the reasons why I gave the ESC a swerve in favour of an amusing French film about a woman who wasn’t sure if she was a lesbian or not is the endless shouty ads for it on SBS featuring Delta G.
Laibach and think of Serbia. One of those death metal-type ones.
This kind of entry is as cliched as wearing a sparkly top hat and tap dancing with jazz hands to 42nd Street. Yawn.
Have a backstage view.
⬆️ Australia and Denmark
⬇️ Albania and Ukraine
(After 10 songs)
I’ve always enjoyed it, and usually try to find at least one song I like and one song that I think will win (these are very rarely the same song).
So far, my favourite is Albania’s ode to mums, with the big choir sound, but it probably has very little chance compared to Australia, which just screams Eurovision.
One bit of trivia I’ve learnt: that Volare was originally a Eurovision song. I had no idea.
Also, I must praise Graham Norton, who’s on top form. I’m paraphrasing: “She describes it as dark pop. There are other descriptions. At least she’s got a job as a dental assistant” and “He’s got 60 pairs of sunglasses and even wears them in bed… I *know*.”
Yes – I didn’t know that either re Volare. Also, they said Save all your Kisses for me sold more records than Waterloo. Thank God punk was just around the corner.
“Remember that most of these songs made it through a semi-final… There are songs that didn’t” 🤣
Croatia elicited a “yikes” from Mrs BC. I thought it was quite impressive.
The first one to split domestic opinion here. I liked it, The Light did not.
I’m with you. It might be my new favourite so far.
Good to see Kenny Everett’s been resurrected for the GB entry
No, I think it’s a poor man’s Andy Bell of Erasure without any of the charisma. I’m not often right about such things, but I’m predicting nul points.
I’m enjoying it. Banger from Bulgaria and top nonsense from Greece are my favourites so far.
Enjoyed Sam Battle with the UK comedy entry. Nul points or the winner – who knows.
France of course follows on with something dignified and classy.
Viva Moldova! And the first Cossack-dancing “heys” of the evening. Great.
I loved the fact that it was about the country and how triffic it is.
Dramatic violin playing from Finland and I’m here for it.
Do you think those flames are how she lost her eyebrows?
Blonde eyebrows though. Not the most assertive of the facial hairs.
Lithuanian singer is entirely covered in silver paint. Amusingly, the “relaxing in Vienna” tourism introductory video sequence, has him in full silver makeup too.
I had a flashback to Klaus Nomi but then I realised he was channeling the Silver Surfer (possibly hoping for the silver surfer vote).
I like Sweden’s one.
Cyprus performed really well. I don’t know how they achieved some of that. She’s singing alone and 4 dancers appear from nowhere – and then she’s on a platform a nano second later. The song wasn’t much cop though.
We seem to be in the old-school Eurovision section now, with Cyprus and now Italy.
Indeed. Italy’s could have been an entry from 1972.
With a few exceptions, including Cyprus, there is a noticeable lack of staging dependent on female flesh this year. Rather unexpectedly I’m finding that refreshing.
Norway has to return his waders after the show to the fishing tackle shop.
I’ve been told to brace myself for Romania. Here goes.
Liked that a lot,
“BRACE BRACE BRACE”
Echoes of the Queen of the Night which is where we came in.
Just my cup of tea: like Within Temptation, Nightwish, Tarja, and similar acts. Great stuff. I was thinking that this year’s show has been a bit sub-par, but they have rescued it for me.
My support probably means that it is now doomed.
Austrian performer, Cosmo, has been watching Stacia, clearly. And why not.
The ones I liked were Sweden, Romania and Moldova.
I think Australia will win though.
Delta might as well pack her bags now.
yes reckon Oz in with a strong chance. Croatia might do it though. Thats Eurofodder at its finest
Bulgaria for the win – we’re in agreement so it must be so.
Who should win: Romania.
Who will win: Australia or maybe Ukraine.
Who should not win: UK, because then we’d have that gimp turning up all over the media for days to come.
I think the Swedish entry is a proper banger but didn’t have the live impact of other performances. Romania came up with something entertaining, kept my interest throughout, compelling even. Quite a few alike efforts, many sculptured bodices generally, and too many pseudo operatic moments with bombastic finales. Too much that got tedious quickly. Not that I expected more.
That has been a shortage of the usual madness that often makes me think “This is why I like Eurovision.” A man dressed as a cat scootering down the stage is not good enough when compared to some of the weird-yet-memorable creativity of previous years.
Nobody wandered onstage with an accordion either. Not once.
Except now and no zither though.
Electro Swing and Busby Berkeley what’s not to like.
Hurrah the voting is “Same procedure as every year.”
Presenter made a Freddie Frinton reference there. She said “same procedure as every year”.
I saw Freddie Frinton in panto
I saw Freddie’s pants in Frinton.
Was that the incontinent pants?
I give Serbia’s voting douze points, I thought their presentation was the best. Don’t know who they voted for.
God lord! After the jury votes my top 4 is the same as theirs, and the same order.
Good lord! (again)
I was wrong about the UK – they didn’t get nul points from the national juries – they got 1
Hurrah.
great uncle Bulgaria!
Worst lot of entries in (at least) 20 years…
I televoted (once) for Lithuania…sue me, but I enjoyed the silver man the best…but any other year he would have been in my meh pile.
After hearing the Swedish entry at least three times a day on radio for what seems like months, I was very over it by now. Lots of hype for Finland before the final, I admit I found it extremely boring.
The winner was inoffensive but very lightweight. I’m glad it beat Israel, although I think their entry actually was a fairly good tune, if very conventional.
There seemed to be loud boos in the audience when Israel were winning but I honestly don’t think their song was very good. Congratulations to Bulgaria!
There were also screams of “Israel! Israel!” whenever they were mentioned (and boos too – apparently they didn’t block boos this year unlike last year).
The song was honestly totally unremarkable. How on earth did they get such a high public vote?
Australia will never win. Won’t get the audience votes as far as I understand the system.
Not I’m fussed as our participation is just plain silly. Is Australia the competitor furthest from Europe ?
Either Australia or the UK 🙄
I’ve always assumed Australia’s involvement to be a goodwill gesture after many years of (mainly but not limited to) high engagement with Australia’s multicultural and gay communities. I’ve never really heard it discussed this time of year with my more ‘civilian’ friends. Certainly not playground chat in the schools I’ve taught.
I don’t know for a fact but I’ve assumed that Australia would never win because of the time difference – it’s got to be a ratings bummer for European countries to get up at sparrows fart to watch it. And, were Australia to win, staging the whole thing here the next year would be…kinda odd?
Still, always good fun at my place. The kids love it.
if Australia were to win the title, it would need to nominate a European country to carry the baton.
My suggestion is Austria as it is contained in the name Australia though as one of their signs says “There are no kangaroos in Austria”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYZ1vB8ttAF/?igsh=eHM2MWRyOGNiaW1z
You will not be surprised that I rather enjoyed, CHANGABANGA, Bulgaria’s winning song.
Joyous, bouncy and full of fun with splendidly nonsensical lyrics. A pleasant contrast to some of the more po-faced entries which took themselves very seriously.
If it doesn’t prove to be a floorfiller, all over Europe, I’ll be very surprised..
All the Swedish toddlers at dagis discos from Dalarna to Djursholm will be delighted.
The Beeb did their homework. The song is inspired by the ancient kukeri of Bulgarian shamans who travelled from village to village and drove away evil spirits. Big hair jackets, lots of cowbells and bizarre wooden masks. Here’s a short film of a kukeri festival. I can’t help but be reminded of the Krampus parades in the Tyrol.
You haven’t seen a Krampus festival? You haven’t lived.
I certainly prefer a song inspired by Bulgarian kukeri than a song inspired by Bulgarian cookery.
Not sure why the BBC treat is as something of a joke and insist on submitting novelty songs….the last serious entry , Spaceman, unsurprisingly actually did well….perhaps they think that’s cheating in some odd way?
Damn right @bargepole. The BBC just have no idea on how to choose a winner.
What a contrast to Swedish TV who go to enormous trouble to find an artist and a song that can win. This year was a miserable failure for them but their track record has been impressive.
Many countries choose an artist who is already popular on the domestic market. Australia did that this year and did very well as a result.
If you’ve represented your country at the ESC, that’s an enormous career boost in most places. In the UK, you’re probably down at the Job Centre the week after.
The UK is one of the BIG FIVE and automatically gets a place in the final.
Take away that safety net and they might try a little harder.
Yes, here it seems to be viewed as a bit naff and a credibility-killer for performers, so we usually end up with non-entities completely lacking an existing fanbase of potential voters.
Most European countries, on the other hand, send relatively major artists who have millions of streams/downloads, hit singles and albums, and hence very high profiles. I read that the Bulgarian winner has already had 10 or so hit singles, while several other acts are massive on social media, which is probably where most voters find new music. A recent German entrant, Lord of the Lost, have had eight Top 10 albums in their homeland, including a No 1 (they entered with what I think is one of their worst-ever songs, so did terribly with voters, but hopefully the point about their pre-existing success and profile still stands).
With the best will in the world, before Eurovision how many people had heard of Look Mum No Computer (awful name, by the way) in his home country, let alone in Europe?
I was with my son and girlfriend on Friday they’d seen Look Mum No Computer at a festival.
LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER is also a popular YouTuber – and across social media he has 1.4 million combined subscribers and followers, with over 85 million views for his music videos and incredible inventions.
His more eccentric musical inventions include an organ made from Furby toys, a Star Wars Droid Orchestra, and his very own Synthesiser Bike.
Boy, am I out of touch. I thought the song was awful, but kudos to him for amassing such a following.
My apologies, too @hubert.rawlinson. LOOK MUM clearly does have a fan base.
And I enjoyed his ESC song which deserved a better score.
BUT…
He’s clearly a talented hyper creative artist in his field, and knows what he is doing with his socials and all power to him. But Eurovision is an entirely different kettle of poissons. You have your singalonga bangers like the Bulgarians and while our chap had a chorus cunningly designed to appeal to Euroaudience, he forgot to have a half decent song, a nagging earworm quality or just even the mawkish sentimentality that’s a ‘douze points’ magnet.
Also, we told Europe to get lost 10 years ago, no surprise they don’t have much time for us now.
“Also, we told Europe to get lost 10 years ago, no surprise they don’t have much time for us now.”
That doesn’t explain why we came second in 2022 though.
Having worked in an art college where students made stuff like a car door harp or an organ using drainage pipes and a vacuum cleaner, I like it that he makes things to play.( I also like Thomas Truax who makes his own instruments Mother Superior being an analogue drum machine).
I read that Israel ran an advertising campaign to get people to vote, they were censured for this. This could explain why they ended up in second place.
Yes, good point re 2022., I assumed that the residual aftertaste of Brexit had scuppered any goodwill towards us.
I understood that Israel was censured for doing this last year and new measures had been put in place to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. Certainly though, something seemed to be going on – theirs really wasn’t an exceptional song at all.
I think I speak for all of Europe when I say that it is generally accepted that the UK is the best at pop music and if the UK actually entered their best acts, then the UK would win easily every year. This relaxed, easy-going, good-natured humility is is part of the reason why the British are viewed with such affection and respect across the continent.
This also goes for the England football team. The game was invented to be played on muddy pitches in freezing, horizontal rain. England have happily competed in major FIFA and UEFA tournaments despite the clear disadvantage of playing on well maintained pitches and in warm weather. Again, the England team and their boisterous and lovable fans have made friends across Europe by selflessly allowing these tournaments to be competitive. To the English, these summer tournaments are like exhibition games, or indoor football. They don’t really take them seriously.
If they lose, it’s taken with a chuckle and then they have a cup of tea and then move on, with no hard feelings. If the FIFA World Cup tournament was in November in Grimsby, I think we all know who the winners would be!
You are a wag, @black-celebration. I was guffawing so loudly and heartily on the Metro that my Swedish fellow travellers feared I might need attention from a nurse!
I was on tenterhooks at the end of the voting when it all came down to a stand-off between Israel and Bulgaria.
What a howl of joy there was in the arena, and all over Europe I suspect, when Dara was announced the winner.
Thanks for your kind words above, KFD :-).
Imagine the absolute nightmare of having Israel host the tournament! They certainly, er, dodged a bullet there.
This NY Times article had a few interesting points to make.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/arts/music/eurovision-poland-israel-ukraine.html?campaign_id=346&emc=edit_wor_20260521&instance_id=175931&nl=the-world®i_id=104571562&segment_id=220179&user_id=2625e84bb1ddce5d8e8835038b42b03c
In 1969, Austria boycotted the contest because the host nation, Spain, was under a dictatorship.
In Poland, two politicians expressed similar dismay with the outcome, saying that they were surprised to see that Ukraine had awarded their country’s act zero points. (Poland finished 12th.)
“If I were in Ukraine’s place, I would consider whether to appreciate Poland for helping them maintain their independence,” Przemysław Czarnek, a right-wing politician, told reporters during a news conference.
And this Aussie article from THE CONVERSATION was excellent and very informative. The numbers for Bulgaria’s win were interesting.
https://theconversation.com/eurovision-2026-a-win-for-bulgaria-fourth-for-australia-and-continued-controversy-for-broadcasters-282252?shem=rimspwouoe,
Bulgaria’s win is the first time since 2017 the jury and public sentiments have been aligned. One tense moment during the voting saw Israel rise to first place thanks to the public vote, resulting in audible booing in the arena. However, Dara soared to the top of the board with 312 public votes to add to their 204 jury votes.
Bulgaria’s total of 516 points put it 173 points ahead of runner-up Israel, in the largest gap between first and second place in the contest’s history.
They should have Itamar Ben-Gvir next year, his dancing really is something.