2 Shkodra Electronique - Zjerm (2025, 8th)

It’s really a wrench to not give this first place and I’m sure I’ll prefer it to many of my country winners to come. Everything that’s great about Albania at Eurovision came together on this truly electrifying song, right from the distinctively Balkan opening riff. I love the melody, the vocals, the beat and the darker spoken section. It achieved a good overall result of 8th though was dragged down from 5th in the televote by the juries ranking it 16th. Just what objective criteria were they marking it down on, as it’s flawless to me?

1 Rona Nishliu - Suus (5th, 2012)

Rona wrote this herself based on an Albanian folk ballad. It’s an unusually structured song with a bridge of taking the place of a second verse. Most pop vocal parts sit relatively low in the female voice, but here the chorus is very high and the bridge even higher. Rona belts out this chorus with every fibre of her body and you can hear the crowd almost gasping as she reaches the climax. And who needs frivolous things like staging when your performance is this arresting, her unusual outfit and hairstyle being the main visual elements. It’s still Albania’s best result, though even the 5th place didn’t do this masterpiece justice, and I doubt we’ll ever see anything quite like it on the Eurovision stage again.

The music is just as ravishing as the vocals. Incredible.

I really like Albania from 2008.

Suus was never one I enjoyed on a personal level but I do admire it, the vocal and the performance.

Zjerm is epic in every way and I have no idea what those juries were doing with it. I believe many individual jurors actually ranked it last (why would you, how was it the worst song objectively last year?) which dragged it down a lot.

I have a soft spot for Identitet as I said before, nice to see it top five, it's very melodic I think with good production and vocals.

4 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Suus was never one I enjoyed on a personal level but I do admire it, the vocal and the performance.

Zjerm is epic in every way and I have no idea what those juries were doing with it. I believe many individual jurors actually ranked it last (why would you, how was it the worst song objectively last year?) which dragged it down a lot.

I have a soft spot for Identitet as I said before, nice to see it top five, it's very melodic I think with good production and vocals.

I think the jury always consists of people who can be manipulated, honestly, especially this year’s results showed me that. So…

Zjerm clears >>>

Country 2: Andorra

Poor Andorra - the only country never to appear in a final. They participated from 2004 to 2009, and gave up after 6 straight DNQs. I can’t help feeling that they joined and left at just the wrong time, starting just as the semis came in and then leaving shortly after the chances of qualifying became much better.

I only became a big Eurovision geek in 2011 so these songs were all new to me. Overall I don’t think we missed out a great deal by not having Andorra in the finals sadly, although I do think one of their entries comfortably outclasses the others. I also appreciate the number of times they performed in Catalan.

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points
2004	Marta Roure	"Jugarem a estimar-nos"	Catalan	Failed to qualify		18	12
2005	Marian van de Wal	"La mirada interior"	Catalan	Failed to qualify		23	27
2006	Jenny	"Sense tu"	Catalan	Failed to qualify		23	8
2007	Anonymous	"Salvem el món"	Catalan, English	Failed to qualify		12	80
2008	Gisela	"Casanova"	English	Failed to qualify		16	22
2009	Susanne Georgi	"La teva decisió (Get a Life)"	Catalan, English	Failed to qualify		15	8

La mirada interior is their best song, although it’s still only a 7/10. They have joined at a very awkward semifinal transition time and never stood a chance lol

I still listen to Jugarem a estimar-nos all the time, great pop imo, with a lovely bridge and middle eight melody.

Anonymous were pretty robbed - not my cup of tea but clearly popular and nearly made it out of that ludicrous semi.

6 Marta Roure - Jugarem A Estimar-Nos (2004, DNQ)

Sorry Rich - this one really doesn’t do it for me. I find it quite basic musically and the bridge section goes rather out of key on the live performance.

5 Jenny - Sense Tu (2006, DNQ)

This is a little more interesting stylistically and she has a nice tone. The song is nowhere near strong enough though.

4 Gisela - Casanova (2008, DNQ)

An accomplished performance and catchy song. There isn’t enough to it though so it grates after a few listens.

3 Anonymous - Salvem É Mon (2007, DNQ)

The closest they came to qualifying and it is fun. The style is so similar to Busted that I can’t truly take it seriously but it is at least a memorable package.

The studio is far better from Marta Roure, the live version is off I agree and the sound levels are all over the place, I hadn't recalled it sounded this poor. Maybe that was an issue with the 2004 contest as a whole, I'll have to compare to other performances.

I don't really care for Sense Tu, I did like Casanova at the time but it's super basic and sounded dated by 2008. I think 2007 had a touch of Blink-182 with the lower register vocal in the chorus that reminded me of Mark Hoppus. It rode the mid 00s emo trend well and it probably did deserve a slot in the final.

Taking only 10 songs through in a semi of 28 was grossly unfair, especially when you hear some of 2007's autoqualifers (2006 was even worse for that, the first third of the final was almost wholly awful).

I honestly don't know any Andorra entries. I don't feel like I'm missing out.

2 Susanne Georgi - La Teva Decisió (Get A Life) (2009, DNQ)

It’s a sweet song well performed. Nothing that stands out but a charming swan song from them.

1 Marian van de Wal - La Mirada Interior (2005, DNQ)

As @pavi said this is by some distance their best entry. I’m not sure it will make my all time list but I do really like it. It has a proper atmosphere and style to it and the interaction with the backing singers works very well. It deserved more.

Country 3: Armenia

Armenia have participated since 2006. They missed 2012 when their arch enemy and neighbour Azerbaijan were hosting, and 2021 even though they had entered a song for 2020. That means there are 19 entries to review in total.

They started off incredibly well with 5 consecutive top 10 finishes, and have added a couple more since. However a podium spot has eluded them, and two 4th places are the best they’ve managed.

They don’t pare it back like Albania, instead going for tracks with big and bold production.

However the quality of their entries is generally very high indeed, and it was difficult to narrow the 19 entries down to 10 for this ranking.

The participation overview with comments for those missing my top 10:

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points	Notes
2006	André	"Without Your Love"	English	8	129	6	150	A very well performing debut and it's catchy but I find it a little like something from a Disney film
2007	Hayko	"Anytime You Need"	English, Armenian	8	138	Top 10 in 2006 final		This also did remarkably well but it seems a rather standard romantic ballad to me
2008	Sirusho	"Qélé, Qélé" (Քելե, Քելե)	English, Armenian	4	199	2	139	Top 10
2009	Inga and Anush	"Jan Jan" (Ջան Ջան)	English, Armenian	10	92	5	99	This would be 11th: I really like the bridge part and the instrumental but the rest slightly less
2010	Eva Rivas	"Apricot Stone"	English	7	141	6	83	Top 10
2011	Emmy	"Boom Boom"	English	Failed to qualify		12	54	Their 1st DNQ: I like the retro style of it but the chorus becomes annoying quite quickly
2013	Dorians	"Lonely Planet"	English	18	41	7	69	The 1st of only 2 that I dislike: very trite lyrically and uninteresting musically
2014	Aram Mp3	"Not Alone"	English	4	174	4	121	Top 10
2015	Genealogy	"Face the Shadow"	English	16	34	7	77	The other that I dislike: a shambles of a song with too many lead vocalists
2016	Iveta Mukuchyan	"LoveWave"	English	7	249	2	243	Top 10
2017	Artsvik	"Fly with Me"	English	18	79	7	152	Top 10
2018	Sevak Khanagyan	"Qami" (Քամի)	Armenian	Failed to qualify		15	79	Nicely performed but quite a forgettable package overall
2019	Srbuk	"Walking Out"	English			16	49	Quite a powerful break up song but the performance has nothing to make it stand out
2020	Athena Manoukian	"Chains on You"	English	Contest cancelled				Top 10
2022	Rosa Linn	"Snap"	English	20	61	5	187	Top 10
2023	Brunette	"Future Lover"	English, Armenian	14	122	6	99	Top 10
2024	Ladaniva	"Jako" (Ժակո)	Armenian	8	183	3	137	Top 10
2025	Parg	"Survivor"	English, Armenian	20	72	10	51	This has some good elements but the chorus is far too Imagine Dragons
2026	Simón	"Paloma Rumba"	English	Failed to qualify		14	49	Top 10

Qele Qele, LoveWave and Jan Jan would probably be my top 3. Jan Jan remains unbeatable though

Oh SNAP the mega hit you are! Still baffled how it did that badly in the final.

Edited Sunday at 06:123 days by Sour Candy

10 Athena Manoukian - Chains On You (2020)

A dynamic and engaging song - shame she never had her moment.

9 Simón - Paloma Rumba (2026, DNQ)

I couldn’t leave this high octane mess out of the top 10,: I can see why it didn’t quite land but I really enjoy it.

8 Sirusho - Qélé, Qélé (2008, 4th)

Their joint best result - I don’t absolutely love it but it’s very catchy and authentic sounding.

7 Eva Rivas - Apricot Stone (2010, 7th)

I really enjoy the lyrical theme here which has a sense of mystery to it, and it’s a rather lovely song.

6 Rosa Lynn - Snap (2022, 20th)

I’ve always really liked this and thought it has a simple charm to it, but I don’t think it’s billions of streams good and I’d put its huge streaming success more to chance.

I became a fan of Armenia this decade and really though they were on a good trajectory and possibly might win soon. Parg was a bit of a dip in quality but at least it qualified. I don't know what they what they were doing sending Paloma Rumba.

Notable songs

Chains on You ⭐⭐⭐

Jako ⭐⭐⭐

Not Alone ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fly With Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Snap! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Future Lover ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Edited Monday at 19:152 days by Colm