God, I hated Fade To Black. And it should never have been anywhere near the final with quite literally ZERO televote points from the public in its semi. That and Boys Do Cry are two of my least favourite songs of the decade, I’d say, both dragging down 2022 significantly.

57 minutes ago, RobBot said:

God, I hated Fade To Black. And it should never have been anywhere near the final with quite literally ZERO televote points from the public in its semi. That and Boys Do Cry are two of my least favourite songs of the decade, I’d say, both dragging down 2022 significantly.

I can understand why you would hate those 😄

Boys Do Cry is one of my favourites of 2022.

What I hated was Not the Same

Edited Monday at 14:331 day by Colm

5 Fahree featuring Ilkin Dovlatov - ÖzünlƏ

Apar (2024, DNQ)

I can see why this wasn’t competitive and wouldn’t grab viewers only listening once in a televote only semi. Howeber it has a very beautiful, gentle and authentic atmosphere to it, and I love the backing vocals that seem almost like a call to prayer.

4 Chingiz - Truth (2019, 8th)

Outside their 5 year golden period this is their only top 10 finish to date. It’s a very slick and well put together pop song with a really strong falsetto chorus, with shades of Jacko and Timberlake.

3 Efendi - Cleopatra (2020)

Like other 2020 entries this possibly suffers from the lack of a competition performance to really make it pop. I do prefer her other song overall, but this is a really great, dynamic and very ethnically authentic track.

2 Efendi - Mata Hari (2021, 20th)

Some of the returning artists in 2021 struggled to produce a song as good as their 2020 one,

but I think this is even slightly sharper than the already really good previous effort. The backing “ma ma ma ma” in the chorus reminds me of “Poker Face” and the “Mata Hari” cry is really effective. The song uses a traditional wind instrument called a zurna and a folk drum called a naghara. I’m not sure why it didn’t do better in the contest but it’s another one that still gets played and appreciated far more than its placing would suggest.

1 Sabina Babayeva - When The Music Dies (2012, 4th)

This is already the 2nd, and quite likely not the last, winner from 2012. It’s quite ironic that between their two top 2 finishes in 2011 and 2013, one of which wasn’t deserved by the song and the other of which was highly suspicious, there sits this gem that if anything is under appreciated. There’s a strong Azerbaijani folk element in the backing which adds to the intensity. It’s a very emotive and excellently performed ballad that builds to a beautiful climax.