I only really got back into Eurovision in 2018 after a few years away from it so I missed 2017. Going back to youtube coverage of reactions and predictions from various bloggers, there was an overwhelming prediction that this would be the run away winner like Eurphoria or Fairytale. What the hell happened? This is astounding. No City Lights though.

 

I think the problem there was the staging. It borders the line between weird and charming. In Sanremo it was simple and effective and it managed to charm Italy, however their staging in Eurovision just came across weird - too dark and the gorilla looked random. Shame as it's a very good track and surely deserved more than 6th place!

It's hardly weird in Eurovision terms.

I think what Vülker says is definitely true and one factor in it. There's also something Lex was saying at the time, Sanremo is quite early on in the selection season so this was an early stand-out/favourite that people latched onto and then couldn't see past no matter what else was chosen. And on the night, there wasn't a shortage of fun entries near the top of the scoreboard with Moldova and Romania too - turns out the public were more here for the return of Epic sax guy.