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)
In a change for 2024, the grand final six will now perform in full in the semi-final in which their countries are voting; so Germany, Sweden and the UK will perform in semifinal one while France, Italy and Spain will perform in the second semifinal.
The winner is chosen by a 50/50 mix of viewer votes (you cannot vote for your own country and for 2024, voting will now be permitted from the start of the grand final) 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.
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 2024 will take place in the Malmö Arena on Saturday 11 May with Semi-Finals on Tuesday 7 and Thursday 9 May. The 68th Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted by a Hollywood star and an iconic Eurovision-veteran; Malin Åkerman and Petra Mede will together lead the three broadcasts, live from Malmö Arena. Swedish broadcaster SVT, together with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), will organise the Contest thanks to Loreen’s historic win in Liverpool in 2023. (courtesy and (c) Eurovision.tv)
MALTA: “Loop” by Sarah Bonnici
THE ARTIST
Hailing from a “highly musical family” (so says her Eurovision bio), Sarah Bonnici has been into music for a long, long time.
The holder of a master’s degree in accounting – dad’s a billionaire so no doubt there was the whole “have something to fall back on” conversation – Bonnici competed and came third in Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 when was 10/11, only just failing to get a ticket to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that year.
That super early start, which if you’re paying attention, is characteristic of many a Eurovision entrant, led a win at the fourth L-Għanja Tal-Maltin Song Festival in 2010 and the chance to be a dancer for Nicole Azzopardi, Malta’s Junior Eurovision representative that year.
Do you hear the sweet, rumbling sounds of gathering musical career momentum?
Indeed you do, with a slew of other competitive appearance at international song competitions like Trixie Festival in Bulgaria and the Carpathians Star Festival in Romania in successive years building to the point where the long aspirational Eurovision entrant finally landed the big gig!
But can “Loop”, co-written by Bonnici deliver on all those longhand dreams?
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
Yes … and very much, NO.
While the song is a classic piece of modern chart-topping pop that comes with all the requisite vocal trills and seductive posturing, it lacks the single cut-through presence that would make it really make a mark.
No doubt it will come across well on stage, with some cutting edge choreography and all the LED magic a dancer and singer could ask for but it’s not noticeable enough to really get the country through to the grand final, especially in a semi-final full of songs that are bristling with all the musical brio and x factor you could ask for.
It will be a pleasant enough way to spend three minutes of the second semi final but that’s about it, really.
NETHERLANDS: “Europapa” by Joost Klein
THE ARTIST
Good old Joost Klein is a modern quadruple threat!
Not only able adept as a musician, singer and rapper, he also had a supposedly illustrious past as a YouTuber – it seems odd to have a 26-year-old, who came of age in the digital frenzy of social media be a former anything but the world moves quickly these days – and he’s used all of that musical talents to carve out a buoyant career as a hip hop artist who draws inspiration from electronic music, happy hardcore and pop punk.
The proud creator of eight studio albums, two of which reached the dizzying heights of the Dutch Album Top 100, Klein has played festivals like Lowlands and Pinkpop and has even sold-out two concerts at Amsterdam’s 6000-seat AFAS Live.
If all that success isn’t enough, and honestly when is it ever for any artist, he also won the prestigious Popprijs 2023 which, according to the man’s Eurovision’s bio, “is awarded annually in the Netherlands to the band or artist that has had the most impact in Dutch pop music that year.”
Fresh off a number one hit in Germany, Switzerland and Austria with the 100 million streams-strong song “Friesenjung”, Klein is good and ready to take on Eurovision with his very distinctive style.
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
With a pronounced 90s sound, “Europapa” manages to be both musically catchy and playfully batsh*t crazy.
If it reminds you of certain hamsters or frogs from a couple of decades back, that’s likely no mistake with the song going hard on the whole cheesy novelty song vibe.
And while you might think this would make it wholly unlistenable, at least on repeat, it’s a ridiculous amount of highly danceable, beat heavy fun that will likely do fantastically well on stage.
Rather cleverly the song, which could easily be dismissed as nothing but pointless fluff, has a huge emotional heart to it, ending on a heart shatteringly poignant note that will win him a lot of love, and hopefully, votes.
A surprise package that packs significant emotional muscularity into a poppy little tune, look for “Europapa” to perform quite nicely for Netherlands; who knows it might even win them the whole damn thing!
THE ARTIST
One of the defining trends of Eurovision which persists to this day is the mixing by many national acts of cutting-edge modern sounds with the traditional folk or ethnic music of their country.
In the right hands it can be a winning combo and it certainly is for Gåte who hail from Trøndelag, Norway, and bring together the country’s folk traditions with inviting lashings of metal and electronica.
Comprised of Gunnhild Sundli, Magnus Børmark, Jon Even Schärer, Mats Paulsen and John Stenersen, Gåte released their first rather prosaically-named EP in 2000, following it with a similarly self-titled EP in 2002 – they appear to be great at creating songs, not so much the naming of their collective releases – they went on to release albums, win the the Spellemann Award 2002 for Best Newcomer, have a huge hiatus from 2006 to 2017 (bar a brief tour of Norway in 2010) when they stage a comeback with the EP Attersyn (hurrah an actual name!), followed by the album Svevn a year later.
Temporarily without founder Sveinung Sundli, Gåte stand ready to make some real noise with their Eurovision bio excitedly proclaiming that since their return to the music scene, they have “delivered concerts and new music to some fantastic reception and widespread acclaim.”
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
Sung in Norwegian, “Ulveham” comes with a darkly fairytale-laden set of lyrics about being a maiden with one evil stepmother who gets transformed into a sword and needle and ends up in the woods along having drunk the blood of her brother.
That is a LOT for anyone to handle and no doubt led to a slew of weighty therapy bills assuming folkloric characters engage in that sort of thing.
“Ulveham” has a real presence to it, and will absolutely excel in a live setting, especially on the dramatic stage Malmö has in place for this year’s contest.
Honestly, Norway’s success this year will come down to how well Gåte execute their performance; the song itself, dramatic and captivating though it is, never really goes anywhere in particular and will need the lift that a mesmerisingly staging will give it.
SAN MARINO: “11:11” by MEGARA
THE ARTIST
Who wants mere bands any more? Not San Marino!
What they want and what they get this year is an exclamation mark-clad concept! known as MEGARA who refused to stick to just one genre, happily skipping through rock, pop, metal, electronica and apparently one known, rather dismissively as “whatever!” (and yes the exclamation marks a dubiously welcome return).
Currently comprised of Kenzy Loevett, Vitti Crocutta, Tio Rober Bueno, and Raphaela Tache, MEGARA, according to their Eurovision bio, embrace not just inclusivity (yay big Eurovision vibes!) but “dancers, unicorns and candy” which honestly can’t ever be a bad thing (in an interview, MEGARS said their music is “the perfect mix between the sinister and cotton candy”).
With four albums and an EP to their name – the latest LP, Truco o Trato came out in late 2022 – and a failed attempt to represent Spain at Eurovision via Benidorm Fest 2023, the band is back for San Marino ready to make our lives both heaven and hell in one intoxicatingly bright and sunny but darkly ominous package.
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
Good lord but “11:11” delivers on all the promise of all their genre-hopping promotional hyperbole.
It’s as growly as it is bouncy, a surging mix of danceable intensity and guitar-heavy beats that will have the stadium in Malmö absolutely rocking and rolling and awash with giddy, happy vibes.
The song, and its accompanying video are mischievously playful and yet musically catchy in a way that all but demands a repeat listen, and in the case of Eurovision, that will mean racing into the vocals dark surrounds of the grand final which they should achieve with aplomb.
The brilliance of this infectiously buoyant track is that it ticks the Eurovision box for being a little bit weird and silly while delivering up a first-class song that deserves to do very well indeed and will likely be a firm fan favourite and health vote-getter.
SWITZERLAND: “The Code” by Nemo
THE ARTIST
If you were going to pick an artist that has it all, it’d be hard to go past the winningly lovely Swiss rapper-singer-musician (violin, piano and drums) Nemo, a non-binary music artist who combines the playful with the emotionally meaningful with endlessly likeable enthusiasm.
Another musical prodigy who has played their chosen instruments since they were a small child – and if you want to feel old, that was the early Noughties; you’re welcome – Nemo, so says their Eurovision bio, “became famous overnight” through an appearance at live Swiss rap event, the “Bounce Cypher”, which sees over 80 rappers competing for fame and glory.
Nemo’s appearance went viral on social media and led to the release of two EPs which spawned seven, count ’em, SEVEN songs hitting the Swiss charts and an appearance on second season of The Masked Singer Switzerland in 2021/2022, where the rapper, dressed as a panda, came fifth..
Now writing and producing songs for other artists, and releasing songs in English, Nemo’s work focuses on “themes such as gender identity, mental health and finding one‘s place in this world”.
(courtesy Eurovision.tv)
THE SONG
Nemo’s song “The Code”, which comes with one of the best videos you’ve ever seen, is musically playful with lyrics that cut to the heart of what it means to really discover who you are and your place in the world.
Theatrically rich, “The Code” is all operatic magnificence, moving performances and vocals that don’t merely sing the words but LIVE them.
There’s so much passion, life and beauty in this song which is a danceable joy, a spirit-raising slice of highly original and brilliantly imaginative pop perfection which isn’t just a lot of fun to listen to with all its cleverly meshed musical parts but which really moves you.
Having seen Remo, who wears some incredibly fun fashions through the clip, perform the track live, look for “The Code” and the singer’s talent, to not catapult Switzerland into the grand final but win the whole damn contest for them.
(They are currently battling it out on pre-Contest fan-led voting platforms and in betting odds to win with Croatia and Italy.)
ALL OF EUROVISION IS A STAGE!
Want to know more about all the LEDs and expansiveness? Read “The stage is set for Malmö 2024!”
SEMI-FINAL 2 TOP TEN
Well that’s the second semi done and dusted with glitter and pyrotechnics residue! So which ten acts will possibly get to the grand final for their shot at Eurovision immortality?
ESTONIA: “(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi” by 5MIINUST x Puuluup
GEORGIA: “Firefighter” by Nutsa Buzaladze
MALTA: “Loop” by Sarah Bonnici