BillyH

Hoo boy some of this is going to be controversial based on some of the answers above, but here goes - starting with least favourite… Jamala - 1944. I was really happy it won as Ukraine deserved some good news at the time (especially given what we know the future held), and the message behind it is a powerful one, but the song itself just isn’t one I think I’ve ever revisited over all the years since. Netta - Toy. Nice to have an upbeat winner again, and fun to listen to for a bit after the contest, but again this just hasn’t carried on into songs I still listen to today and I still feel like Cyprus would have been the more worthy winner that year. Loreen - Tattoo. Which sucks as I really liked Euphoria which may be my favourite winner ever still, but this leaves me so cold in comparison. For how big and well-loved 2023’s contest is for many, it’s only really ‘Cha Cha Cha’ and randomly ‘Solo’ that have stuck with me from then. Kalush Orchestra - Stefania. Really the definition of ‘mid’ for me in that it’s ok, and was in my top ten that year, but this will always be The Song That Stopped Space Man and unlike 2016’s win, it felt like they could have literally sent anything that year - even three minutes of total silence - and they’d have still won. Nemo - The Code. Onto the song that stopped Baby Lasagna’s deserved win in a year with so much uncomfortable backstage drama it’s hard to revisit now, it’s also one I don’t mind listening to if it plays but I don’t go out of my way to listen to it. Also the moment I realised I was getting way older than many Eurovision contestants as I’d already started watching the show before this dude was born. JJ - Wasted Love. Honestly really similar to the above, but this one edges above it for the fast bit at the end which felt like what made ‘Shum’ so good was finally getting its moment. Dara - Bangaranga. This has the huge potential to be a grower but being #4 already is a great start, incredible shock winner and just a great package of performer, song and staging all round. Maneskin - Zitti E Buoni. So many people say 2021 was the show at its utter peak and I really can’t argue with that, so many entries that year would have a chance of being on this list had they won. This was a wonderfully high energy winner and seeing them live in London a few months after their win, when just being at a gig again was so fresh, was a hell of a moment. Duncan Laurence - Arcade. It’s normally a bit of a shame when the odds favourite wins but I was more than happy this did, incredibly emotional song that had a deserved social media comeback while we were waiting for the next contest. Meaning, yeah… Salvador Sobral - Amar Pelos Dois. Ok, look, I know this one pissed a lot of people off and that ‘disposable music’ speech etc etc, but hearing this live in Kyiv, especially with those extra high notes at the end, reduced me to an absolute blubbering wreck. It stood out so much among the competition, beat an odds favourite (Italy), was my 12 points that year and the whole crowd in that arena were chanting for it. I loved it and still love it today. Going back another ten years, as mentioned ‘Euphoria’ would top all of these, ‘Only Teardrops’, ‘Fairytale’ and ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ would all do well, and sorry ‘Believe’ and ‘Satellite’ but you’d be joining the bottom of the list I think.

Called it nine(!) years ago!! And sort of predicted ‘Think About Things’ as well, had 2020 happened 😂 Genuinely overjoyed for Bulgaria tonight, they were my second favourite after Delta but I assumed they’d do a Norway 2019 and get destroyed by the jury - then as the jury votes came in and to my utter amazement they were doing really well in them, I had this horrible sinking feeling we’d have a Sam Ryder situation and the public vote gets in their way. What an incredible comeback for a country who at one point didn’t seem like they were ever returning, and at last we have an Eastern European Eurovision again so it’ll be cheap for once next time…right?? In general that was the best voting in years, a far cry from a year like 2024 where I slowly found myself falling asleep in my seat as Switzerland got 12 points over and over again - the points were super spread out and most of my faves did well, I genuinely jumped up in the air when Romania’s public vote came in as that was also one I adored tonight - felt very early-mid 00s Evanescence/Within Temptation at points! My only big misfire was Sweden not doing as well as I hoped, but I just adore that 00s dance sound and appreciate it’s not for everyone and let’s face it they need a break from hosting for a while. As for the UK…Sam seems really lovely, and took everything with a great sense of humour, but wow, ‘trying too hard’ were the words I kept thinking when watching his performance. It had Dustin the Turkey vibes in that it looked like a comedy act/pisstake of an entry rather than something people might actually want to listen to and vote for, but I do massively respect it at least when our acts try something different rather than the late 2010s nadir years of just utter blandness you forget about seconds after they’re done, although Lucie Jones and SuRie at least tried their absolute best with the material. After Liverpool I feel like the UK have had their ‘turn’ for a generation now and I’m not expecting anything truly great from then at least the next decade, which I will happily apologise for if we do get a shock win at some point before I turn 50. As for me, I watched it at home this year so as great as it is to see live, I don’t miss the scrum out and being squashed onto trams or trains at stupid o’clock getting back to a hotel. I really thought I was done with it all, but Sofia 2027 could coax me back into it if the prices are right…

ABSOLUTELY these two, to the point where I briefly got confused seeing this as I thought it was me posting it! I'd also add Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts to the above two.

Mad to think of a world where the Spice Girls were still releasing songs until late 2006, and going on an indefinite hiatus after their big Spring 2007 tour.

Pretty sure it was someone on here who referred to Girls Can't Catch as Girls Can't Chart 😆 This I thought would be the first #1 of 2010, it got a lot of music channel airplay back when that was still relevant, so for it to just sneak in at #20 felt like a disappointment. Annoyingly the radio/CD edit of the song cut all the best bits out of the video edit below: Going further back to 2005, I was totally ready for this to be a huge smash and it peaked just outside top 40:

That Now 55 playlist is a dream to 14 year old me who wasn’t sure whether to buy that or Hits 56 at the time, and ended up getting neither until they were a pound each at charity shops years later 😂 You can just feel the hot summer sun from that year even by just reading the tracklist!

Everyone at work is talking about Lily's new album, which genuinely threw me as I also thought her music career was basically over after her 2018 comeback fizzled out quickly. I think it's a combination of the early-mid 2000s becoming 'cool' with a generation of people who were either born then or were kids, and the fact that her well-publicised ex was Jim from Stranger Things which is big enough that even if you weren't too familiar with Lily or her music before, it's likely you'll know who David Harbour is. If my theory is correct, watch a battle-scarred Katy Perry return sometime around the year 2030 and have a colossal comeback as if she never went away, at the same time the next young generation are wearing shutter shades, filming 'retro' stuff on early iPhones and getting really into the lore over the 2008 global recession.

If it's the same one I'm thinking of, in the very early days of YouTube (2006-07) the main upload of it had the Roadblock sample, back when it was just random people uploading whatever video or audio copy they had to hand. It still seems a bit mad that there was ever an issue over half a second of someone going "Heyy!" repeated a few times. But yeah, I haven't heard that version for ages, it's usually the one without the sample that was issued later.

Technically 26 years old (System F - Out of the Blue, 1999) but my favourite version is the remaster of it they did 15 years ago, using all the same instruments and arrangement but sonically beefed up - was such a revelation when I first heard the remaster it was like hearing it new again! 30 years for my #2 and #3 of Pulp - Common People and N-Trance - Set You Free 😊

SuRie did an interesting tweetalong when they replayed this contest on YouTube in 2020, about her experience at that infamous final and what happened afterwards. Her team wanted her to leave the arena immediately after she’d done the song and not return, in case the invader was trying to attack her for whatever reason and if there was anyone else connected to it who could still be around. The only reason they stayed is because someone apparently heard a rumour that there’d been this huge, colossal surge for the UK vote to the point that she might have won, which sounds really bizarre and I’m not sure if that was someone making it up to make SuRie feel better, or just someone reading a few Tweets praising her and getting carried away with the idea that an unexpected voting landslide was about to happen. Even then she didn’t get to enjoy any post-ESC parties as the moment the votes were over they got her out of there as quick as possible under heavy security. I was in the arena when it all happened and because initially my view was blocked by a load of heads in the standing bit, I thought the invader’s voice was actually some pre-recorded announcement they’d played in error, not properly realising what was going on until I saw him get wrestled off stage. During the break that happened after the song where they did an emergency green room interview, all of us in the crowd are trying to work out what the hell just happened(!) and whether she’d have to perform it again. The song is perfectly pleasant, but yeah, totally overshadowed by what shouldn’t have taken place than what was meant to.

I am fascinated by that brief couple of years in the early 00s that predated the big “Europe hates us!!” excuse that started with a bang after Jemini, when we sent two songs in the form of Nicki and Lindsay that got shockingly low results compared to the country’s history in the contest before that, and the UK public didn’t really connect with either song or contest then either - 2000 got I think the lowest ever ratings for the show at the time (only beaten since by 2010) and 2001 wasn’t much better, I’m wondering if the move of the song selection show to a very off peak Sunday afternoon slot had to do with that? It’s amusing reading early internet comments still around from then, some suggesting the bad results are because we might not be joining the Euro! 2002 probably had a boost from both Pop Idol fans wanting to see how Jessica did, and hype over the song actually being quite good that year, and from then on the contest has hovered around the same amount of viewers each year, outside of the occasional high (2023) and low (2010). I don’t mind either No Dream Impossible or Embers in studio form, both feel like they’re five years behind their time but far from the worst attempts we’ve sent. As for poor Josh, I genuinely wonder if Pete Waterman didn’t do any new writing at all for the contest and just grabbed a reject album track from 20 years earlier from the bottom of a draw, job done and thanks for the money. We moan about Remember Monday not doing as well as hoped, but I still think we’re in a much better place than years in the recent past.

Verka charted higher (even in the pre-Spotify and early-ish download days of 2007) and seems widely remembered by both fans and casuals alike almost 20 years later, so nah, I’d say Verka was bigger than Tommy.

That’s the same amount of Eurovision songs as last year (three top 40, two more top 75), except Remember Monday have done better than Olly Alexander who missed top 40 last year, and that’s the lowest chart position for a Eurovision winner (JJ) since all the way back in 2017 when Portugal won! 2019’s winner (Duncan Laurence) initially also only peaked somewhere outside the top 40 in Eurovision week, only to have a TikTok revival two years later and belatedly go top 30 in early 2021. It’s still a far cry from the dark days of the second half of the 2010s when nothing charted top 40 here from ‘Heroes’ in 2015 (the winner from Sweden) and, well, sort of ‘Think About Things’ in 2020 but of course the contest never happened that year, so counting actual contests it’s Duncan and then Maneskin in 2021.

I’ve heard this said a lot and I wonder if some of it was due to the muted audience, which psychologically makes it sound much less epic and lower scale than before.

I want to say that 2016-17 drop is also due to the loss of the Russian audience (2016 they were favourites to win, 2017 they didn’t take part) but then it doesn’t massively recover when they’re back, so I’d add other countries slowly dropping out over recent years bringing the total down. Highest total in four years then for 2025, hope the slow upward trajectory continues.