I remember being quite fond of Y Así back in 2005, it didn’t deserve to DNQ.

10 Simone - Keine Mauern Mehr (1990, 10th)

There’s a very warm sound to this, especially from the harmonies in the chorus. It’s a joyous and memorable pop rock number that really stands out among some of the stern ballads they sent in surrounding years.

9 The Milestones - Falter Im Wind (1972, 5th)

An absolutely gorgeous folky number here with flutes and guitars and lovely, earnest and passionate singing. It reminds me of “Rainbow” by Marmalade which is one of my favourite early ‘70s songs.

8 Trackshittaz - Woki Mit Deim Popo (2012, DNQ)

Apparently this was written to keep people’s spirits up during the European debt crisis. And a huge pleasure it is too that I keep guiltily coming back to - how can it not get into your head. A hugely undeserved semifinal last place to add to there (mostly more deserved) 7 final last places.

7 JJ - Wasted Love (2025, 1st)

Their 3rd victory which won the jury vote and came 4th in the televote. The concept of the operatic twist wasn’t novel by this point, but I do think it’s a very well written song with the way it switches up, and a brilliant vocal performance.

6 Cesár Sampson - Nobody But You (2018, 3rd)

It was the jury winner but only 13th in the televote, finishing 3rd overall. It’s a very classy and well delivered self written soul ballad. The genre can be hard to make engaging, but this has a memorable chorus that helps it to deliver a punch.

Two amazing songs. The choruses of both are knock out!

5 Conchita Wurst - Rise Like A Phoenix (2014, 1st)

This feels like a huge winner when it comes to cultural significance. It’s a fantastic performance of an excellently written Bond style song. I don’t absolutely love the song - even as a Bond theme it wouldn’t be one of my favourites, but it certainly has all the drama and passion that a great winner should have.

4 Zoë - Loin D’Ici (2016, 13th)

Every bit of this is lovely to listen to, and it has a fresh and timeless quality to it. This didn’t really pop on the stage but I think it has deservedly become something of a classic of the contest, and I’ve heard it in the wild quite a bit more recently.

3 Udo Jürgens - Merci, Chérie (1966, 1st)

After a 6th place and a 4th place he gave Austria their 1st winner with this. His other entries are good too but a bit too similar to this so I left them out of the ranking. I love the rawness of this, as he sits at the piano almost in tears and gives such a sincere and straightforward performance, while the beautiful orchestration does its thing.

Try as I have, I find it difficult to listen to most entries from the 00s. I gave up watching in 2003 because I just wasn't enjoying any of the songs. In the 90s there were at least 3 or 4 each year that I could support.

Wasted Love is my favourite entry this decade. I still remember the first time I heard it. It brought similar chills that Gjon's Tears did. I did feel that the switch the dance part was a bit contrived and an obvious attempt to make it more than just an opera song, hoping it would bring in votes from non-opera fans. I did worry about how they were going to transition to it on stage.

I think Sergio Jaen did an excellent job with the staging. The "lost at sea" camera work was so well done. And it transitioned just fine.

I will say that JJs vocals were a bit shaky in places. Somehow that didn't stop the jury from giving it so many top marks.

Nobody But You is a bit too earnest in the verse but the rest is magical. I wasn't a fan at the time because I didn't hear it until the semi-final. I quickly grew to love it afterwards.

My thoughts on Rise Like a Phoenix are well known.

Loin D’Ici is a wonderful classic Eurovision song in the mould of Poupée de cire, poupée de son.

I found Wasted Love too contrived to enjoy unfortunately, it's like it was a meticulously crafted tick box exercise for jury points. I can't deny JJ's talent though. And the last 30 seconds of the track I enjoy for the switch up.

Conchita was a great winner for the contest, a grand sounding production and an amazing performance. But the studio version isn't exactly a track I rush to play, and I feel this is why it was so low in the odds until the semis. Conchita is the real star in the package and sold it so beautifully.

I didn't get much out of Nobody But You, but I do see why the juries liked it, it's a well sung strong composition.

I really enjoy Loin D’Ici, the juries undermarked this a little I feel.

Just checking some of the stuff I don't know, Keine Mauern Mehr sounds good, I need to go through the 90s contests properly. Falter Im Wind sounds nice too.

I hardly ever listen to Rise like a Phoenix. It's to be watched.

2 Teya & Selena - Who The Hell Is Edgar? (2023, 15th)

Incredible songwriting here, about an incredibly fun and random subject matter. Of course it deserved much better in the competition. I could tell it was going to be lost a little from 1st in the final running order but its televote result was shocking - I suppose the sheer wit and cleverness of it didn’t quite translate on stage. I think it’s still a big fan favourite at least.

1 George Nussbaumer - Weil’s Da Guat Got (1996, 10th)

I think I did watch the show in 1996 but I don’t remember this at all, so I’m classing it as my favourite discovery of the whole project so far. This is exactly what Eurovision is all about - a blind singer and jazz pianist performing his heart out with a gospel choir just because. And then there’s a brilliant switch up in the last minute. It’s joyous and a complete one off.

Interesting top ten and a surprise #1! Loin d'ici could probably even win had it been in the contest now, such a fantastic song.

Country 6: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan have participated in the contest every year since 2008. They had an incredibly good early run, opening with 10 straight qualifications. From 2009 to 2013 they neatly and impressively finished in each position from 1st to 5 once. However recently their fortunes have totally reversed, and they are now on a 4 year DNQ run.

Generally I’m not a huge fan of their stuff - they seem to pursue the commercial lane with flashy visuals rather than the culturally strong line. However there is enough strong material to create a very decent top 10.

For me, I think it’d be Always but Mata Hari would probably run it close.

I was team Drip Drop over Satellite at the time but that feeling definitely hasn’t aged well and the latter has undoubtedly stood the test of time better.

Not a country I am fond of particularly but agree that Always was a deserved hit and I did like Drip Drop, I actually feel that underperformed and deserved a place or two higher.

Hold Me is the true baffling hit for me, second place??????! But then it will have been due to antics anyway. The 2013 full results remain unpublished to this day.

Edited Saturday at 11:313 days by gooddelta

Honestly, I’m not too mad about Azerbaijan obviously having engaged in voting shenanigans and finishing high in 2010s because the quality of songs was actually quite high.

2011, however, was a huge slap in the face. This would’ve finished 20th max without any vote tampering nowadays. Dreadful song with charisma-free performers who can’t hold a note to save their grandma’s life.

So disappointed that Cleopatra didn’t end up participating because it’s by far my favourite Azeri entry. Mata Hari was amazing as well but going the year after Cleopatra, it didn’t seem like the most original concept for me to root for.

My notes:

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points	Notes
2008	Elnur and Samir	"Day After Day"	English	8	132	6	96	An interesting debut with operatic vocals in a rock track, but I don't especially enjoy it
2009	Aysel and Arash	"Always"	English	3	207	2	180	Top 10
2010	Safura	"Drip Drop"	English	5	145	2	113	Top 10
2011	Ell and Nikki	"Running Scared"	English	1	221	2	122	One of the weakest winners of recent times: a rather insipid ballad not inspiringly performed
2012	Sabina Babayeva	"When the Music Dies"	English	4	150	Host country		Top 10
2013	Farid Mammadov	"Hold Me"	English	2	234	1	139	Top 10
2014	Dilara Kazimova	"Start a Fire"	English	22	33	9	57	Only qualified thanks to jury votes and it isn't a very exciting track
2015	Elnur	"Hour of the Wolf"	English	12	49	10	53	A strong performance but the song doesn't quite go beyond ordinary for me
2016	Samra	"Miracle"	English	17	117	6	185	This is catchy but quite standard, with dubious vocals
2017	Dihaj	"Skeletons"	English	14	120	8	150	Top 10
2018	Aisel	"X My Heart"	English	Failed to qualify		11	94	Their 1st DNQ with one of those dance pop songs with uplifting lyrics that I don't especially enjoy
2019	Chingiz	"Truth"	English	8	302	5	224	Top 10
2020	Efendi	"Cleopatra"	English	Contest cancelled				Top 10
2021	Efendi	"Mata Hari"	English	20	65	8	138	Top 10
2022	Nadir Rustamli	"Fade to Black"	English	16	106	10	96	Top 10
2023	TuralTuranX	"Tell Me More"	English	Failed to qualify		14	4	The twins are sweet but the song is far too safe and lacking oomph
2024	Fahree feat.Ilkin Dovlatov	"Özünlə apar"	English, Azerbaijani			14	11	Top 10
2025	Mamagama	"Run with U"	English			15	7	Quite a classic soul style song but I think the performance sank it
2026	Jiva	"Just Go"	English, Azerbaijani			15	2	I don't think this deserved to do quite so badly, but it doesn't quite manage to be memorable

I think my favourite Azerbaijan performance is between 'Drip Drop' and 'Hour Of The Wolf' (this one is so well sung), they haven't done anything noteworthy for me for ages and were only sporadically good when they did well but they used to be really good at occasionally providing vibes and now they're even bad at that, 'Just Go' was like a pale shadow of what they've done before.

Interesting choice of winner for Austria, I agree with your assessment of it, that's the sort of track we love to see occasionally giving us a ton of fun in the contest, Teya/Selena and Zoe easy highlights as well.

Austria were intermittently amazing in the 10s. Very obviously, winning the jury twice with Conchita and Cesár, and the gorgeous Loin d'ici.

But, my the lows were low. Walking on Air is so mid that even Ireland would have rejected it. And to go from Nobody But You to Limits in 2019 was quite a comedown.

Vincent Bueno might as well not have turned up in 2021 with Amen. It was just charmless and self-conscious.

But that all changed in 2022 with Halo. It's certainly not the best thing they've ever sent but I liked it a lot. There was a ring of Marina and the Diamonds to it and I'm always up for that. Of course, it was doomed due to the shambolic live rendition. But dance music is generally not a strong performer at Eurovision, even when done well - see also Czechia 2022, Sweden 2026 so there was a limit to how well it could have done.

That failure didn't deter them because they then entered their "Ireland in the 90s" era, submitting 3 absolute crackers in a row, all of which spent time as my winner.

Edgar is utterly unique - what more can I say? We Will Rave is textbook retro dance heaven for me. Wasted Love is one of my all time favourite entries..

That leaves them firmly my favourite country at Eurovision. I don't anticipate having to score 7 notable songs many times in this thread - apart from my home country.

Notable songs

Loin d'ici ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Halo ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Who the Hell is Edgar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We Will Rave ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nobody But You ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wasted Love ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rise Like a Phoenix ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Edited Sunday at 07:572 days by Colm

2011... a contest to forget with a scoreboard to forget. Quite a lot of great songs, but Popular aside they all tanked.

Running Scared is - at best - a 15 point DNQ. I have no idea how it won with such ropey vocals and with nothing going for it.

Miracle would have made my top 10 over Hold Me (and I still don't love that) but other than that I agree.

10 Ansel and Arash - Always (2009, 3rd)

I really like the Asian instrumentation and this certainly set a template and brought a well earned 3rd place, but most of the song I find quite pedestrian

9 Farid Mammadov - Hold Me (2013, 2nd)

Despite the dubious circumstances surrounding this coming 2nd I do think it’s quite a nice and well performed song, though certainly not remarkable

8 Safura - Drip Drop (2010, 5th)

A strong performance and the song has a really nice flow which creates the sense of endless dripping, but it’s still quite standard pop

7 Dihaj - Skeletons (2017, 14th)

I think this could be excellent if it had a stronger chorus - it does have really good atmosphere and artistry

6 Nadir Rustamli - Fade To Black (2022, 16th)

This has a really intense build and I like the dark and hopeless feel to it

Such an odd country in the contest, They sent nothing that interested me until 2017 when they manged to send my favourite entry of the year. I love Özünlə Apar and really like Fade to Black also. Although Fade to Black's studio version is offensively pitch corrected in places and the lyrics are terrible.

Notable songs

Fade to Black ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Özünlə Apar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Skeletons ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Edited Monday at 12:581 day by Colm