United by Music

On the day of this year’s Eurovision Grand Final, I wrote that I was approaching the show with “a certain level of dread”. The tension surrounding Israel’s continued participation in the contest, and the distinct possibility of an Israeli victory, was becoming almost too much to bear – I felt like there was a non-zero chance of this being the last Eurovision Song Contest. However, the competition I love lives on, and will see (at least) one more year. Eurovision has produced its most surprising winner in recent memory, but also one of its best. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the riot. Dara won this year's Eurovision Song Contest for Bulgaria. (photo: Corinne Cumming/EBU) It’s been two months since Eurovision 2026 concluded in Vienna, and there is a lot to discuss. In this post, I’ll be recapping everything that went down during the semi-finals and the final itself, and sharing some of my personal highlights of the week. Like last year, I’m planning to do a more detailed anal...

Before you read this post about Eurovision 2026, I encourage you to have a look at my statement on this year’s contest. Well, two shows down and it’s suddenly time for this year’s Grand Final. Before I discuss the competing songs and my predictions for each of them, let’s take a moment to reflect on what happened on Thursday. In my opinion, the production of the show was better than Tuesday’s, though still not great. Michael and Victoria still seem uncomfortable, and the “Wasted Boat” opening act was very awkward. They managed to make “I’m So Excited” distinctly unexciting, and the blatant lip-synching annoyed me a bit. However, I did enjoy JJ’s new single, and am glad to see him continuing to have success after Eurovision. Let’s not forget, though, the sketch that was apparently so tone-deaf that the BBC cut away entirely and just played Look Mum No Computer’s music video instead. Speaking of the BBC, I must say I wasn’t convinced by Rylan and Angela during either of the semi-final...

Eurovision is back! Back with a bang? Maybe not. Even if everything didn’t feel so distinctly off this year due to certain events, the production ORF is giving us feels like a real downgrade from the last few years. Maybe we’ve been spoilt with Hannah, Petra and Hazel in consecutive years (not forgetting the wonderful people who co-hosted with them), but Michael and Victoria are wooden, unfunny and lacking in any chemistry. The production team seem to be trying to cast Michael as the ‘funny one’ (hence all the strange outfits), but it just isn’t working. He’d be much better in a similar role to Jan Smit from 2021. And Victoria just seems so… vapid. Anyway, I might be able to give the hosts a bit of a pass had the rest of the show been better. I will say that I really enjoyed the acrobatic performance we saw, but the Eurovision quiz and the “Opposites” song were both frankly painful to watch. I’d be quite happy to ban all previous Eurovision contestants from coming back as interval ac...