What is the Eurovision Song Contest?
Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to all active members of the European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the competition.
Each country is permitted to submit one three-minute song to the contest – a song which is selected by a variety of means, usually a winner-takes-all competition such as Sweden’s renowned Melodifestivalen – which their selected entrant performs in one of two semi-finals in the hopes of making it to the glittering grand final.
Only six countries have direct entry into the grand final
- The Big Five who fund most of the contest – UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain
- The host country (which is the winner of the previous year’s contest); this year that country is Switzerland.
The winner is chosen by a 50/50 mix of viewer votes (you cannot vote for your own country) and a jury of music industry professionals in each country, a method which was chosen to counter the alleged skewing of votes based on political and/or cultural lines when voting was purely the preserve of viewers at home. (This mix applies only to the grand final; voting in the semi finals is purely by popular vote with no jury involvement.)
Past winners include, of course, ABBA in 1974 with “Waterloo” and Celine Dion who won for Switzerland in 1988 with “Ne partez pas sans moi”.Above all though, the Eurovision Song Contest is bright, over the top and deliciously camp, a celebration of music, inclusiveness and togetherness that draws annual viewing figures in the hundreds of millions.
This year’s event
The grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, continuing the theme of “United by Music”, will take place in St. Jakobshalle, Basel, on Saturday 17 May with semi-finals on Tuesday 13 and Thursday 15 May. The 69th Eurovision Song Contest grand final will be hosted by Hazel Brugger, Michelle Hunziker and Sandra Studer while Brugger and Studer will host the semi-finals. Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR will host the event, together with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), will organise the Contest thanks to Nemo’s historic win in Malmö in 2024.
ALBANIA: “Zjerm” by Shkodra Elektronike
THE ARTIST
Hailing originally from Shkodra aka Shkodër in northern Albania, songwriter and producer Kolë Laca and singer and songwriter Beatriçe Gjergji make up the duo of Shkodra Elektronike (no prizes for guessing where that piece of nominal inspiration came from!) whose musical stock in trade is reinterpreting the traditional music of their hometown in a more contemporary style.
Nestled comfortably thus in the very Eurovision style of folktronica, the talented and now Italy-resident duo have made a name for themselves with songs like “Ku e Gjeta Vedin (Where I found Vedi) and “Synin si Qershia (Aim like a cherry)” which were released in 2020.
So successful were these songs that they’ve opened the door for Shkodra Elektronike to perform at a slew of festivals including, according to their official Eurovision bio, Paléo Festival (Geneva), EXIT Festival (Novi Sad), MOST Festival (Veszprém), Pin Music Conference (Sofia), and SoAlive (Vienna).
Next up for the duo is the production of their debut album, featuring the Albanian Iso-Polyphonic Choir (a UNESCO cultural heritage), cellist and composer Redi Hasa and Italian trumpter-singer-composer-arranger Roy Paci, and, of course, appearing at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest for Albania.
(courtesy Eurovision.tv (c) Luca Rossi)
THE SONG
Will “Zjerm” continue their purple patch run of Pan-European success?
There is a very good chance it will at least catapult them into the grand final with the song suffused with an easy, loping rhythm, rich with emotion and a seamless meld of old folk and a burning modern style which sits beautifully with it.
It’s a rich and potent mix, the honeyed and emotive vocals of Gjergji contrasting with impressive effect with the more gutteral spoken word uttering of Laca.
The song will undoubtedly have presence on stage, and if Eurovision has shown us anything, even among the pyrotechnics, dance beats and furious energy of most modern entries that a well-executed ballad the power to hold everyone’s attention.
And who knows – maybe bring in a slew of much-needed votes …
AZERBAIJAN: “Run With U” by Mamagama
THE ARTIST
Formed in the capital Baku in the pandemic-scarred days of 2021, Mamagama – not to be confused with the Asian fusion noodle eatery Wagamama, thought it’s highly doubtful you would – vocalist Asaf Mishiyev, guitarist Hasan Heydar and drummer Arif Imanov have been given the nod to represent Azerbaijan this year.
Drawn from a range of musical ensembles and with some prior success before going together, Mamagama are being hailed, so their Eurovision bio breathlessly informs us, “as one of the most innovative bands in Azerbaijan’s music scene.”
No doubt their ability to push the musical envelope found itself sharpened at the many festivals at which they’ve performed, most notably Kënga Magjike, one of Albania’s premier music festivals (alongside Festivali i Këngës which selects Albania’s entry to Eurovision, with which Shkodra Elektronike are quite familiar).
Like many acts this year, they fuse the contemporary with the traditional, taking the musical folk heritage of Azerbiajan and melding it with indie pop and alternative rock.
It can be a potent brew in the right hands but will it leave a mark at this year’s contest?
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
Starting off with mid tempo beats and a slight sense of inviting foreboding, the song quickly gives into its ’80s influences, the falsetto vocals sitting nicely among a mix of synth pop and traditional beats.
The bridge has an atmospheric edge to it but by and large the song is Michael Jackson-lite, a song that burbles along quite pleasingly without leaving any sort of lasting impression.
It will no doubt provide a pleasant enough diversion on the night, and a song to stream off Spotify , it works quite nicely.
But beyond that it dissipates into nothing the moment it finishes which isn’t a good thing when you’re in the middle of the performance pack in semi final 1 and have to keep in people’s voting minds for another seven songs or so …
BELGIUM: “Strobe Lights” by Red Sebastian
THE ARTIST
Did the hair and the clothing come first or the name?
Hard to say, and no doubt lost in the mists of creative time, but suffice it to say that Belgium’s Red Sebastian loves standing in rouge, cherry scarlet, vermillion and who knows maybe even wine.
Christened by his parents as Seppe Guido Yvonne Herremanm the singer-songwriter from Ostend first hit the public consciousness at the age of 14 in 2013 when he made the final of the second season of Belgium’s Got Talent, after which he studied singing, rather sensibly you might think, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent.
Also a talented pianist (you can thank Lady Gaga for that piece of musical direction), Red Sebastian took inspiration for his stage moniker from, of all things, a Jamaican-accented singing crab from 1989’s The Little Mermaid and he’s run with it, making it as a finalist on TV talent show in 2024 where he was noticed for both his singing and his “remarkable array of outfits”.
That stint on TV garnered him a recording contract and no doubt smoothed way for success on Eurosong 2025 where the artist beat seven other finalists with his tribute to Belgian rave culture, “Strobe Lights”.
Tutored at The Royal Academy of Arts by none other than Belgium’s 2023 entrant to Eurovision, Gustaph, there’s no way you’ll be able to miss Red Sebastian …
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
Wearing the colour red right through the clip, and no doubt his on-stage performance definitely helps in the visibility stakes.
But the song is the thing, even with a giant LED screen behind him, and the question on everyone’s lips is does “Strobe Lights” have what it takes to match the vivacity of the artist’s sartorial choices?
Catchy though it is, and as you’d expect from a rave culture tribute song, there are beats by the metric ton, “Strobe Lights” doesn’t really hit its paces until the final thirty seconds of the song which is leaving it a little late to leave an impression on voters.
It’s a good enough to keep you happy for three minutes but it never really catches fire in any kind of lastingly meaningful way and sitting in the centre of the 15 votable songs in semi final one – Spain, Italy and Switzerland perform in the semi final but only receive votes in the grand final – it needs to be punchier to find success in the wild and unpredictable realms of televoting.
CROATIA: “Poison Cake” by Marko Bošnjak
THE ARTIST
A child of the 21st century, born in 2004, Marko Bošnjak is a Bosnian-Croat singer-songwriter, really hit the big time in 2015 when at the tender age of 11 or so, he won the Serbian talent show Pinkove Zvezdice (Pink’s Little Stars).
That’s a pretty big achievement at such a young age, but fear not, it was not a case of peaking then and having nothing left for the next ten years.
The newly-out out singer, has since laid claim to an impressive array of wards and recognitions, winning, among others, the Porin Award for Best New Artist (the award is a big deal, founded by Croatian Phonographic Association, Croatian Musicians Union, Croatian Radiotelevision and Croatian Composers’ Society).
With a slew of successful singles behind him including “Pjesma za kraj (Ending Song)”, 2023’s “Spokojan (Calm)” and “Nema (There Is No)”, and an all-important win at Dora 2025, which selects Croatia’s Eurovision entry, Bošnjak stands ready to go well beyond his home country’s borders and conquer all of Europe?
But does he have the song to do that?
(courtesy Eurovision.tv (c) Amina Alađuz-Lomigora)
THE SONG
“Poison Cake” certainly has presence.
Presented with a gloriously fun camp theatrical sensibility, and full of an over-emotionality that absolutely works for the song, the song is infused with a memorability that should wedge itself in viewer’s mind.
Not likely to be a darling of a host of Spotify streams – it’s the kind of song that you watch and adore rather than listen to and love – “Poison Cake” should make for one hell of a performance, thanks to snarlingly poetic lyrics, the artist’s willingness to not just deliver the song but to inhabit it, and lyrical imagery that should keep the LED screen working overtime.
It likely won’t win Croatia the contest but it should serve as a fabulous punctuation point in the semi final, just two songs from the end, ensuring it’s still very much top of mind come voting time …
THE ARTIST
Theo Evan is the latest in a long line of Eurovision musical prodigies who began singing and dancing before they could even walk.
To be fair, that’s an exaggeration for Cyprus’s current favoured musical son who kicked off his creative career as a singer and dancer at just seven, singing in his school choir, participating in all kinds of theatre productions and talent shows across the island nation.
A Greek Cypriot singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor, Evan also took to songwriting early on in teens, and after a stint in the U.S. studying with great success at at Berklee College of Music in Boston and even appearing in an episode of the streaming series Euphoria’s second season, he’s back in Cyprus ready to take on the world.
Or at least Europe in this case …
(courtesy Eurovision.tv (c) Nicholas Mastoras)
THE SONG
The song may be called “Shh” but while the opening section of the song is a little quieter, the track wastes no time revving up the pace.
By the time we hit the chorus, it’s all big bursting epic dance sounds and vocals soaring to the sky, imbuing “Shh” with a sense of the epic and the huge which will go down brilliantly at Eurovision which loves a mighty memorable mix of the musical and the operatically visual.
The song has all that in multitudinous abundance, and so look for Cyprus to capture the hearts and minds of voters, swept up in music that soars and soars and SOARS and a theatrical presence that builds to the point where you are swept further and further into the track.
It’s captivating in all the best ways and tailor made for the huge stage of Eurovision where Evan should no doubt do spectacularly well.
EUROVISION EXTRA EXTRA!
So, what is the exact running order for semi final 1, scheduled for Tuesday 13 May? Thank you for asking …
And here’s how the running order was selected …