gooddelta

I actually quite like this, it's got an interesting melody for me. Was expecting worse based on what I'd heard.

Amazing 01 Finland: Erika Vikman - Ich Komme 02 Albania: Shkode Elektronike - Zjerm Great 03 Latvia: Tautumeitas - Bur men laimi Serving kant 04 Malta: Miriana Conte - Kant Good 05 Luxembourg: Laura Thorn - La poupee monte le son 06 Belgium: Red Sebastian - Strobe Lights 07 Ukraine: Ziferblat - Bird of Pray Ok 08 Greece: Klavdia - Asteromata 09 Slovenia: Klemen - How Much Time Do We Have Left? 10 Ireland: Emmy - Laika Party 11 Spain: Melody - Esa Diva 12 Montenegro: Nina Zizic - Dobrodosli A bit mixed at the moment, but yay for having two really strong entries to root for so far. And lovely to see Tautumeitas in for Latvia <3 I'm a bit conflicted on Kant, I think she's great and it's catchy and funny as a meme but a lot of the track feels cheap and tacky to me. Still clears a lot of the current field though.

I think probably U2, not a favourite of mine from them and on balance I still would probably hear Photograph. This is a really strong bunch mostly.

A good result for Fragma as it’s hardly seen as a classic even though I love it. Going for Killers again.

Pogues

I'm pretty gutted for Heaven Sent, that's a fantastic song with an incredible vocal and would have I'm sure done very well for Malta, especially with juries. But Kant could well end up being a viral moment, and the Maltese public probably cottoned onto that prospect. I still think that if they have to change it, don't swap it for another word, keep the word silent and get the crowd to sing 'Kant'. People will get the message without any rules being broken. The EBU can't stop the crowd singing, unless they play out a second of canned applause over each 'Kant'.

Definitely feels to me like Dressed Crab is far too good not to easily win. I've not been taken by Wolf either much. Bear was more entertaining and versatile for me.

Love them both but Évidemment and Occidentali's Karma definitely lacked the studio magic live at Eurovision. Not sure what happened with La Zarra but a lot of French entries that aren't ballads/chansons don't translate live that well for whatever reason. Occidentali's Karma had quite a bad three minute edit for Eurovision too but even so, I didn't think he would have any trouble in being top three in the final, and sixth was quite a surprise. I really disliked the staging. Heroes I still love, I think it's very anthemic and gets stick for being a generic winner but it's a well produced song, a charismatic performer who sang it well, cool staging, contemporary (in 2015 anyway), I get why it won for sure. Never been into Loco Loco or their 2020 entry.

Confirmed with something just so typically me. I love love love the lyrics and video for this, so I'm fully hoping it does better than the last two!

I'd be surprised if it actually is country, I'm definitely feeling it will be more like OG3NE/Wilson Phillips, but will wait and see. I fully expect to like this entry (OG3NE was my favourite entry of 2017 in the end) but for it also not to be competitive.

Really happy about this, nice to be able to stan Latvia. I sent them to BJSC in 2019 and they were a DNQ, I don't think this will happen in Eurovision though!

Woot! Amazing track, performance and artist. Finally got there after losing in 2020 (not that it would have made any difference ultimately). I think the juries will stop it winning and not convinced it's a televote winner either - it's not going to be as big as Cha Cha Cha on that metric, but hopefully 200-250 points. Definitely a safe top ten!

Ehhh, annoying that Nomi Tales went straight out, I really like that and think it's a strong grower too. Surprised that Erik was the first DTF, it's decent enough but definitely not wowing me. But I'm happy for him to get a solo finalist 16 (!) years after he was there with EMD. Glad Klara got the second spot though anyway, although the fact it wasn't the first qualifier suggests it won't be contending. We definitely don't have the winner yet in these four finalists so far. Hush Hush probably has more chance than all of them :lol:

Ouch at some of the sequencing on that Gold album, it almost looks like it's ordered randomly in places. The Killers to Noah Kahan, Neil to Sophie to Dexys, Gloria to Natasha. It's a very uninspired release with nothing I don't own already so I'll pass.

Kaliffa was second in the audience poll last night, basically neck and neck with Klara and way ahead of Erik in third. Nomi Tales going straight out will be a bit annoying for me but she will probably be third or fourth I guess so could go either way.

I'm not very keen on this choice sadly. I like fun Europop generally (loved the studio of We Will Rave last year but not the live) but found this one quite annoying. The reception I've seen online from the general public (outside the fan community) is generally mixed to positive though and the feeling is that Ireland sent the best song/performance on the night. To me it feels a bit like the product of asking AI 'make a song about Laika the space dog with production from 1997', but maybe its simplicity, retro vibe and innocence is its charm. It could Q, it depends what else is in the semi with it, I'm sure by May it will be a more complete package and it's probably catchy enough for the televote to remember it, especially if it opens the semi. UK will donate a decent amount of points I'm sure. Some strong female pop in the second half of the semi could affect it though depending on what Finland, Malta and others go for. Maybe 7-12 area in the semi. All six songs lacked something for me to make any of them a surefire qualifer in Basel. Fire was my favourite by far, but the chorus was weak and repetitive by the end and the panel unfairly killed it off a bit despite Reylta turning in a good performance by saying Irish traditional music is done in the contest. I don't believe that would be the case with a special, magical Irish song, which Fire isn't but it's certainly better than Dervish who were terrible live and an unfair comparison. Samantha Mumba was good but this song was not, and the staging was messy, and I think Bobbi Arlo would have been a great representative but the track was not quite there for me and possibly not hooky enough on the first listen to make it into the final. NIYL was really good, I definitely think that could have been polished into a striking entry and I'm not surprised he came second on the public vote. Adgy was again decent but not strong enough.

Isn't It A Wonder is probably Boyzone's worst single for me, I'm surprised it sold so well but they were huge I suppose. Nice that Gina G got another decent sized hit, the first verse melody of that has always reminded me of Faith by George Michael. Was that PSB songs one of the first to dive out of the top 40 after a top 10 debut? Good track though and shame that episode was skipped. Not really a vintage few weeks for new entries generally though.

Klara's entry is really good, quite a schlager move to have that sudden slowdown towards the end before it ramps back up. Very catchy track. Talking of schalger, Don Juan is quite the Waterloo pastiche. Very early 00s Melfest Kikki, Bettan & Lotta vibes too. Top marks from the older voters at least. Instantly loving Nomi Tales, feels quite leftfield pop as far as Melodifestivalen goes, but super catchy. Salute sounds pretty good, all these uptempo party anthems pretty much fade into one and the same but this has more of a football/carnival vibe so it could do well. Wasn't super sold on Erik's song, he's had better in the past I think, and The Heart of A Swedish Cowboy could be a surprise vote winner with the middle aged voters, it's not massively my cup of tea though. Predictions: DTF: Klara, Nomi Tales Second chance: Kaliffa or Fredrik Out: Kaliffa or Fredrik, Erik, Schlagerz

Aiming for a return to top 41 glory this time.

Only a live version, it was on their 2008 hits album. I really found this documentary an eye-opening watch, crazy the lies that were spouted about them by the press. No Matter What was everywhere in summer 1998 but I do prefer Picture Of You of their signature songs. I also have a lot of time for All That I Need. They were mostly just a covers band though with their biggest hits. I actually think their 2008 and 2010 top ten hits were really decent too, Love You Anyway and Gave It All Away, as was Love Is A Hurricane which was very much like an early Ronan solo track.

Oh I have a great track I’ve been saving for when this theme was used *.* Confirmed!

Quite an average selection of basic pop as usual, but Hallucination I really like, the synths hit hard in a trance-lite way and it could be a borderline Q. The Unluckiest Boy Alive felt quite fresh and catchy too to me. The rest are fine to middling.

Also, it's not like Gaga doesn't have form in writing classic soft rock ballads, the A Star Is Born soundtrack contains at least three or four brilliant examples, and Joanne before that, so it's hardly a stretch that she would have had a major role in writing Die With A Smile?

Going for The Pogues, as it has been in this plenty and I like all these songs to some extent.

Close but The Killers for me.