Jan Jan especially and Qele Qele were highlights for me, but generally I'm never a huge fan of what Armenia send. Apricot Stone was a nice one too, and I liked Not Alone at the time (while also not quite getting why it was the odds favourite) but the dubstep production has not aged too well.

Snap was wildly overrated commercially for me, it's the definition of 'ok' - I wasn't exactly shocked by its low finish at Eurovision, there were no signs it was about to become a global hit based on that imo.

Snap becoming a huge hit after the contest was a bit of a surprise but I didn’t exactly feel that myself as I’m not on TikTok, and presumably it was mostly popular there and in the US (?). The staging was really good and the hook is catchy but the whole thing was mid for me.

I cringe a bit at how Not Alone hasn’t aged well too, but I barely remember it now so I guess I didn’t like it that much 12 years ago either. He definitely caught the end of the dubstep wave that era.

Yeah, I think Not Alone was an accidental favourite in the end. After all it did come 4th, but is probably one the most forgotten top five hits in the contest since the 00s.

Sanna was second favourite but I don’t think anyone really expected Sweden to quite get over the line with Undo. So it did feel like Armenia could do it, even though the track didn’t sound like a winner particularly.

Conchita/Common Linnets didn’t come alive in the odds until both delivered brilliant performances and staging. I think based on studio version alone they were deemed dated/too subtle to contend, but they both really wowed live, along with Sanna and her brilliant performance and vocal, so Aram MP3 (not a great artist name too) quickly faded away from view on the final week and actually did well to come 4th after that.

Edited Monday at 21:225 days by gooddelta

5 Ladaniva - Jako (2024, 8th)

Despite the enormous streaming figures for “Snap” this is in fact their only Top 10 finish of the 2020s so far. I love the pace of it, and how it takes a traditional folk melody and manages to make it feel up to date.

4 Artsvik - Fly With Me (2017, 18th)

This is much more subtle than the likes of “Jako”. I find it quite hypnotic and compelling, but still with an authentic sound to it.

3 Brunette - Future Lover (2023, 14th)

Another subtle one that was never going to really set the scoreboard alight. This is pure art though and a top notch example of its style. The switch up into the rapped section is marvellous - I was lucky enough to see it live in Liverpool and it was a great performance.

Qeleee, Qeele!!!!!!!

2 Iveta Mukuchyan - LoveWave (2016, 7th)

This is such an exciting song that feels like it had the potential to do even better. The way it builds up to the euphoric chorus and then lets go is quite thrilling.

1 Aram MP3 - Not Alone (2014, 4th)

Sorry Rich and Pav - I still love this. The dubstep style is not quite like anything else that’s been seen at Eurovision. The gentle Iano intro, the build of the strings and then how it explodes at the climax still give me the feels every time. Would be interested to hear what @Iz様 🌟 makes of this.

Armenia, they're a country that I often wish would give me something to stan, I don't think I have a clear favourite of theirs, it's between 'Jako', 'LoveWave' and 'Apricot Stone' I think, I think those capture the very beautiful image of their country that they have available to them, one of the countries I can easily forgive going balls-out nationalist with, and all have a good bit of excitement between each of them.

'Not Alone' I think is quite good in studio and I agree, it has a great buildup. It's not one I've returned to all that often, although perhaps a bit more than the average Armenian entry, certainly it's better than 'Snap', which is the real one I've never understood, a faceless chart pop song interrupting the vibes, Armenia's a country I expect something solidly decent from a lot of the time.

(afraid I don't have a single Andorran entry I think I care for)

Jako grew on me quite a lot with the live performance, which was really energetic and magnetic, a great act to watch.

LoveWave was a strong entry too, 2016 was a very high quality year in terms of songs and staging.

Dubstep could be found in a couple of other entries in 2014 too, albeit to much lesser success than Not Alone. Lithuania's Attention was one. Eurovision is said to be 2-3 years behind musical trends, so it figured that dubstep showed up 2-3 years after its commercial peak.

Edited Tuesday at 20:034 days by gooddelta

Dubstep in Eurovision I don't remember much, but I remember the bass beat deep house production like Duke Dumont - Won't Look Back turned up in Eurovision in about 2015 in at least one entry.

Edited Wednesday at 14:563 days by TheSnake

Lovewave felt like overwrought, style over substance. Future Lover is their best, for me.

The only other dubstep entry I remember was the incredibly underrated and best Montenegrin entry by far - Igranka. Didn't it also finish safely top 10 with the voters but get murdered by the juries?

Country 4: Australia

Australia originally participated in the 2015 contest as a one off, but ended up staying and have entered every year since, so there are 12 songs to review here. They got off to an incredibly strong start with a 5th place followed by a 2nd place, and 2 more 9th places followed in the next few years. However their form has dipped in the 2020s with several DNQs, though they managed a 3rd 9th place in 2023 and now they’ve just had a 4th place, their 2nd best result.

So 6th top 10 finishes in 11 contests that went ahead is a pretty stellar record, for all of the talk of them being frustrated at the recent DNQs. I do think they potentially have the same difficulty as the UK - how to stand out when your underlying pop culture is quite vanilla.

18 hours ago, pavi said:

The only other dubstep entry I remember was the incredibly underrated and best Montenegrin entry by far - Igranka. Didn't it also finish safely top 10 with the voters but get murdered by the juries?

That's right. Also Cezar's It's My Life for Romania was another 2013 example, quite a heavy dubstep breakdown in that.

We could have had a dubstep breakdown a year earlier from Sweden in 2012 if Danny's Amazing had beaten Euphoria in Melodifestivalen, which I actually feared could happen at the time as he was such a huge name and at the time she wasn't.

Edited Thursday at 08:532 days by gooddelta

I can't say I am a fan at all.

I did love Zero Gravity and Eclipse is fine.

Notable songs

Eclipse ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Zero Gravity ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sound of Silence and Zero Gravity are good. Otherwise, Australia is one of the most boring ESC countries but appreciate the devotion to return year after year.

It was tough but I’ve managed to narrow it down to a top 10. 😝

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points	Notes
2015	Guy Sebastian	"Tonight Again"	English	5	196	Automatically qualified		Top 10
2016	Dami Im	"Sound of Silence"	English	2	511	1	330	Top 10
2017	Isaiah Firebrace	"Don't Come Easy"	English	9	173	6	160	Top 10
2018	Jessica Mauboy	"We Got Love"	English	20	99	4	212	Top 10
2019	Kate Miller-Heidke	"Zero Gravity"	English	9	284	1	261	Top 10
2020	Montaigne	"Don't Break Me"	English	Contest cancelled				Top 10
2021	Montaigne	"Technicolour"	English	Failed to qualify		14	28	Top 10
2022	Sheldon Riley	"Not the Same"	English	15	125	2	243	The song doesn't have any flow to it for me, and the message about not fitting in is a little tired
2023	Voyager	"Promise"	English	9	151	1	149	Top 10
2024	Electric Fields	"One Milkali (One Blood)"	English, Yankunytjatjara	Failed to qualify		11	41	The nod to Aboriginal culture is nice but I find the song has no oomph to it
2025	Go-Jo	"Milkshake Man"	English			11	41	Top 10
2026	Delta Goodrem	"Eclipse"	English	4	287	3	222	Top 10

Australia has had my favourite entry three times in 12 years! All have made your top ten.

My bottom two would be Not The Same and Don't Come Easy, although the latter was much worse live than studio. I appreciate what Electric Fields were trying to do but they didn't quite pull it off with that song so it would be 10th for me.

Not The same is awful. Sorry.

It's just a series of longer and longer notes.

10 Jessica Mauboy - We Got Love (20th, 2018)

This type of uplifting doesn’t tend to do a whole lot for me, but it’s a competent effort.

9 Isaiah Firebrace - Don’t Come Easy (9th, 2017)

Their 3rd entry and 3rd straight top 10 finish, this is nicely performed but the song doesn’t have very much flow.

8 Montaigne - Technicolour (DNQ, 2021)

I like the artist and this has some very nice elements but I find the “techni-techni-colour” quite clunky and I don’t think it comes together overall

7 Guy Sebastian - Tonight Again (5th, 2015)

A 5th place debut with an entry that oozes polish and competence and Bruno Mars - it just isn’t very inspiring

6 Montaigne - Don’t Break Me (2020)

This is the Montaigne song the Australian public actually voted for and it’s much more cohesive - shame it wasn’t the one that made it to the stage

Don't Break Me was solid and almost certainly would have been a finalist. I like Technicolour but get why it missed out, it's a bit like a budget Marina track.

I quite like Tonight Again, would rank it the same. It's nice they opened their account with such a big local name.

We Got Love was actually my top entry in 2018, but only 18th in my end of year chart, which is extremely low (a Eurovision song almost always ends up in the top three). But the studio version is better, Jess seemed a little bit frantic in places in that performance.