United by Music

Before you read this post about Eurovision 2026, I encourage you to have a look at my statement on this year’s contest. The 2026 national final season is in full swing, with new Eurovision songs being selected left, right and centre. After a busy ‘Super Saturday’, which this weekend extended to Sunday as well, we now have 12 of our 35 entries for this year’s contest in Vienna, so I think it’s time to recap all the Eurovision news from the last couple of weeks. Firstly, let’s go to Ukraine , where the national final Vidbir was held last Saturday. It is a true testament to the Ukrainian spirit that the country has continued to organise a show every year since the Russian invasion, with the 2023 edition of Vidbir even being held in an underground metro station. This year, the contestants included Eurovision alumni Monokate (the solo project of Go_A’s Kateryna Pavlenko) and Jerry Heil; however, in the end, the clear winner was Lel é ka with the song “Ridnym” . She won the public vo...

The second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held on the 3 rd March, 1957 (still the earliest in the year it has ever been held) in Frankfurt, West Germany. Seeing as no full recording of the inaugural 1956 contest is known to exist, it is here that I have decided to start my review series. At some point I may go back and listen to the 1956 songs, but that will be a different form of review I think. The tradition of the contest being hosted by the previous year’s winner hadn’t yet been established, so it was German broadcaster HR that took on the responsibility after Switzerland declined to stage the event for a second consecutive year. A number of new rules were introduced for the 1957 contest, some of which are still in place today. Each participating country was now represented by just one song, which could be performed by up to two performers. Juries now consisted of ten people who each awarded one vote to their favourite song (not including their own country’s entry)...

Before you read this post about Eurovision 2026, I encourage you to have a look at my statement  on this year’s contest. The Eurovision 2026 season is well underway, with national finals beginning all over Europe and plans taking shape in Vienna for the contest’s seventieth anniversary. As I write, the first semi-final of this year’s contest is exactly 100 days away, so it seems only fitting to take a look back at everything that’s happened up to this point. First of all, Eurovision has a new look! Last August, the EBU unveiled a brand new logo for the contest. This new visual identity will be adapted each year to reflect different host countries, and replaces the previous generic logo which had been in use since 2015. Fans of the ‘Eurovision heart’ will be pleased to see that fixture retaining its place in the centre of the logo, and for this year only, the heart is being featured in the contest’s artwork to mark the seventieth anniversary. The new logo uses the custom font ...

Somehow 2025 is almost at an end. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s absolutely flown by, and it feels like such a lot has happened. As we close this chapter, I wanted to take a look back at the year in Eurovision and give recognition to some of its stars. To do so, I have created my ‘Eurovision Awards’, which I will be using to reflect on what the contest has offered us over this past year. The categories, nominees and winners have all been determined by a panel of one, so there may be a little bit of personal bias present, but I have never claimed to be objective! I would like to clarify that these awards are not in any way related to the official ‘Eurovision Awards’ organised by the EBU’s social media channels. I haven’t seen much about them this year but know that they have taken place in previous years so wish to re-affirm that I alone have chosen these categories and their respective winners.   Song of the Year To be awarded to the best competing entry in this...