PeteFromLeeds

Uruguay outside the top 20 10 year-old me decided that they were my favourite country ahead of the 2010 World Cup having never heard of them before - a good year to pick to support them! But they haven't quite lived up to that since, especially with not making it out of the groups last time round.

Yeah Egypt always seem to be more highly ranked than their World Cup performances would suggest! Let's see if they can make it good this time round.

I was thinking similar about Italy - I'm clearly out of the loop of what catches on, but as much as I liked their songs from the last two years I thought both of them had single-digit points written all over them when I first heard them - and then they both ended up inside the Top 5! I have no explanation for it although the suggestion above around it being the Italian language is a fair shout.

On another note - the UK's score ended up being very much an aside with the fears being at the top of the leaderboard but it is a real shame it didn't catch on across Europe. I think it shows just how hard it is to predict whether a song will do well - taking Austria as an example, I thought they ticked every possible box for being a smash and yet it only got 6 points. I suppose that's shown by how no countries consistently qualify unless they have other political situations or they're Sweden - and even Sweden finished surprisingly low this year for a song I thought could have contended for the win on first listen.

Israel's televote total has decreased each year for the past couple of years (323 -> 297 -> 220), hopefully it will continue to?

More points in the public vote than Israel as well - certainly didn't see that coming!

And breathe!

Just need one of the five remaining countries to get 200+ now...

😬

My top 10 on first listen (excluding UK) - things usually change quite significantly in the following days though! Ukraine Czechia Australia Austria Italy Cyprus Norway Belgium Malta France

The UK song is absolutely what we needed, and the staging was fantastic. Whether it catches on across Europe is completely down to chance, but even if it does do badly hopefully we can see this as the avenue to go down rather than the jury-fodder we've had in recent years.

Ah I can see why Australia are tipped to do well! Interesting to hear that was co-written by Jonas Myrin - I know him best for his controbutions to Christian worship songs.

Ooh I like Ukraine's song! New favourite so far.

Belgium is my favourite of the opening five! The lyrics for Albania aren't really helping, I'm still not sure what the song is about! Is the idea that his mum is dead?

Well they look like an interesting array of characters! Interested to hear the songs.

I'll be watching - I've managed to avoid hearing much about the contest over the past week so all a surprise for me!

Some more from the Top 25 era: Matoma & Becky Hill - False Alarm (6 weeks) Offaiah - Trouble (4 weeks) Kideko et al - Crank It (3 weeks) I also remember the massive sigh of relief when Tilted by Christine & The Queens got to #20 during that period when they were only playing the Top 20 and thus received its sole chart play

Austria have had fairly decent performances at the last few Euros so let's see if they can translate that to the World Cup! Ghana often punch above their weight at the World Cup so could easily happen for them again.

1 [2] Tors - Time (ft. Jade Bird) 2 [1] Dan Stirling - Bones 3 [9] Kodaline - We Were Only Young 4 [4] Jonathan Ogden - Again And Again 5 [3] Lukas Graham - To Know A Girl 6 [7] Jonathan Ogden - Remember 7 [5] Living Again - Dive Into 8 [8] Ásgeir - Against The Current 9 [6] U2 - Yours Eternally (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia) 10 [10] Twenty One Pilots - Drag Path 11 [14] NEEDTOBREATHE - Strangeness Of It All 12 [11] Antytila - ВІДКОЛИ 13 [12] Dermot Kennedy - Funeral 14 [18] Jonathan Ogden - Day By Day 15 [15] The Fray - A Light That Waits 16 [13] Booshle G. - Not Alone 17 [17] Mumford & Sons - Badlands (with Gracie Abrams) 18 [16] U2 - Resurrection Song 19 [19] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - Milarrochy Bay 20 [20] Rend Collective - Do It All Alone 21 [25] NEEDTOBREATHE - Say It Now 22 [22] The Temper Trap - Giving Up Air 23 [24] NEEDTOBREATHE - Take Me Dancing 24 [21] Jonathan Ogden - What If 25 [27] DI-RECT - Won't Fall 26 [23] The Snuts - Summer Rain 27 [32] Jonathan Ogden - Running 28 [31] Seafret - Desert Heart 29 [29] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - All Roads 30 [33] Jonathan Ogden - In The Light 31 [35] Rend Collective - Salt And Light 32 [26] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - The Tide 33 [34] Seafret & James Morrison - Driftwood 34 [36] Jonathan Ogden - Forever & Always 35 [30] Seafret - Signal Fire 36 [42] Limoblaze - God Did It 37 [28] Civilized Creature - Think I'm Ready 38 [38] Muse - Be With You 39 [41] The Red Clay Strays - Demons In Your Choir 40 [43] Jonathan Ogden - Brighter Day

16 May 2026 1 [2] Tors - Time (ft. Jade Bird) 2 [1] Dan Stirling - Bones 3 [9] Kodaline - We Were Only Young 4 [4] Jonathan Ogden - Again And Again 5 [3] Lukas Graham - To Know A Girl 6 [7] Jonathan Ogden - Remember 7 [5] Living Again - Dive Into 8 [8] Ásgeir - Against The Current 9 [6] U2 - Yours Eternally (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia) 10 [10] Twenty One Pilots - Drag Path 11 [14] NEEDTOBREATHE - Strangeness Of It All 12 [11] Antytila - ВІДКОЛИ 13 [12] Dermot Kennedy - Funeral 14 [18] Jonathan Ogden - Day By Day 15 [15] The Fray - A Light That Waits 16 [13] Booshle G. - Not Alone 17 [17] Mumford & Sons - Badlands (with Gracie Abrams) 18 [16] U2 - Resurrection Song 19 [19] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - Milarrochy Bay 20 [20] Rend Collective - Do It All Alone 21 [25] NEEDTOBREATHE - Say It Now 22 [22] The Temper Trap - Giving Up Air 23 [24] NEEDTOBREATHE - Take Me Dancing 24 [21] Jonathan Ogden - What If 25 [27] DI-RECT - Won't Fall 26 [23] The Snuts - Summer Rain 27 [32] Jonathan Ogden - Running 28 [31] Seafret - Desert Heart 29 [29] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - All Roads 30 [33] Jonathan Ogden - In The Light 31 [35] Rend Collective - Salt And Light 32 [26] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - The Tide 33 [34] Seafret & James Morrison - Driftwood 34 [36] Jonathan Ogden - Forever & Always 35 [30] Seafret - Signal Fire 36 [42] Limoblaze - God Did It 37 [28] Civilized Creature - Think I'm Ready 38 [38] Muse - Be With You 39 [41] The Red Clay Strays - Demons In Your Choir 40 [43] Jonathan Ogden - Brighter Day 41 [37] The Sherlocks - In Your Hands 42 [39] Smash Into Pieces - Hollow 43 [51] Son Mieux - Dark Before The Dawn 44 [40] Jamie Pritchard - Surprise 45 [46] Indochine - No Name 46 [54] Theresa Phondo, Esther Chungu & Tio Nason - Daily II 47 [NEW] DMA'S - Heatin Park 48 [44] Praise Lubangu & Briana Bene - i can see ur progress from here 49 [57] John Michael Howell - Missing Piece 50 [NEW] Johan Asgarde - Rebirth Mark 51 [47] Stephen Stanley - Change 52 [45] Calvin Harris & Kasabian - Release The Pressure 53 [61] De'Borah Powell & The Benefactors - Never Far 54 [50] De'Borah Powell & The Benefactors - Open My Eyes 55 [48] Jonathan Ogden - My Safe Place 56 [NEW] Kadzoura - and then? 57 [NEW] Kensington - Livin' For 58 [49] Jonathan Ogden - Circles 59 [56] Hot Chip - Devotion 60 [NEW] Stanleys - Pass The Time 61 [52] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - Islay 62 [NEW] Sheppard - Sayonara 63 [53] Harry Styles - Aperture 64 [64] Zac Carpenter & FOAN - Always Make A Way 65 [60] Lion of Judah - Keep Your Love 66 [71] Rosellas - Beautiful Lonely 67 [55] The Black Keys - No Rain, No Flowers 68 [65] Druckluft - Karnevalsmaus 69 [NEW] Stephen Stanley - Never Mine 70 [58] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - The Wedding 71 [63] LUNA & Russo - Voorbestemd 72 [59] Strings & Heart - eyes on Him 73 [78] Dan Stirling - Bruised / To Be With You 74 [69] Tom Speight - Buzzing 75 [62] Strings & Heart - ily anyway 76 [67] Pegasus - Next Day 77 [70] Alok & Zeeba - Dive Into The Ocean (ft. Portugal. The Man) 78 [81] Living Again - Let Me Be Yours 79 [76] Sam Hibbard - Runnin' Back 80 [66] Ibibio Sound Machine & Village Cuts - Anyone Like You 81 [75] Kate Flanders - Different Light 82 [74] Steph Macleod & Philippa Hanna - Heroes 83 [68] Dan Stirling - Balm 84 [72] Praise Lubangu - White Flag 85 [73] Walk Off The Earth & Ryan Mack - Where Would I Be

Vingegaard making himself known with a win on the queen stage - Felix Gall finishing impressively close though, he's certainly still in the running!

Niceland have made a last-minute decision to enter! Whether I'll regret giving myself the task of listening to 50+ songs in two weeks when I already feel busy is yet to be seen but let's give it a go

An interesting day yesterday with a hunch of breakaway riders gaining 5+ minutes on the main GC contenders! Interested to see how long they stay at the top.

Didn't remember In My Head from name alone but it's coming back to me listening to it. Beautiful Monster... existed, I remember it being a thing but whilst I don't actively dislike it I have no desire to listen to it again!

Yeah having not gone through qualifying I don't have much to go on for Canada! Their last World Cup performance wasn't amazing but they are in probably the easiest group of the lot.