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Jannik Sinner has accepted a three month ban. That means he's going to miss Indian Wells, the Miami Open, Monte-Carlo and Madrid when it comes to big tournaments. The Italian Open is the next tournament he will be eligible to play in.

Yep Estonia coming to have two dreadful entries in a row :(

Agreed that this week feels hard to predict. I sadly don't really expect Dolly Style to get anywhere even though it's my fave, I think it'll only do well with the youngsters and get tanked by the older age groups. Life Again got stuck in my head after a couple of listens, really liking that one and I'd guess most likely to go direkt as Annika has the familiarity of taking part last year, and having a better entry this time. I wouldn't be surprised if people end up really disappointed with Malou's result. It's better than Bananas, but I'm not totally feeling the hype.

I don't know what will happen to this song before May, whether they get her to pronounce "Kant" more clearly or get the Graham Norton's of the world to specify that "this may sound like something else, but she IS singing KANT", but I am SO happy that Malta took this chance after three NQs. "Heaven Sent" was fine but really overrated, "Kant" is what I needed to win a NF more than any song ever. As someone with tickets to the SF2 live show, the choices of the past 24 hours or so have all gone perfectly *.*

Will do this now that we have an entry that I'm REALLY behind 01 Ireland: EMMY - Laika Party 02 Spain: Melody - Esa Diva 03 Slovenia: Klemen - How Much Time Do We Have Left? 04 Luxembourg: Laura Thorn - La poupee monte le son 05 Albania: Shkode Elektronike - Zjerm 06 Belgium: Red Sebastian - Strobe Lights 07 Montenegro: Nina Zizic - Dobrodosli 08 Greece: Klavdia - Asteromata

Love how the international contestant missed out on the 12 from the international jury whilst getting it from the public vote and national jury :lol: Really hope this is another qualifier for them, even without Norway to support them through the semi-final. Instantly my favourite of the year so far as well (though maybe not by the end of the weekend if Malta decide to serve KANT)

Have had a couple of plays of Klara's entry, it's strong and I love the final minute in particular, but it's not quite matching "Run to the Hills" for me. Looks like she's bringing staging too, though I'm not sure it sounds like something that Sweden would send to Eurovision.

I think this is a very sweet and emotional entry, and it's going to be underrated by fans right up until May. It's qualifying, and getting enough jury support come the final to achieve a better result than Joker Out and Raiven.

It's not Irish x

Simona Halep has decided that since she can't seem to win a match without drugs, she's retiring.

Ouch, how much did 'Saturday Night' flop if it didn't even make the top 15? I know SNL isn't really a thing over here, but there's at least some awareness of it and a good critical reception of the movie, so I wouldn't have expected it to do that badly. What makes me laugh about the poster for 'Flight Risk' having seen it last week, is how only Mark Wahlberg is featured, when Michelle Dockery has the most to do :lol:

It's mentioned on the Radio 2 schedule for Wednesday.

Reveal dropping on the Scott Mills breakfast show on Radio 2 on Wednesday!

Linnea being bottom two feels like a bit of an upset, but whilst it was nice, we did have the right songs in the top 4 for me. Was torn in that 'finalen or bust' as they were my favourite two, in the moment I was rooting for Upp i luften as the one I wanted to experience live in Stockholm, but it's true that we've heard the exact same song before from Medina, Samir & Viktor, Panetoz, Anis Don Demina etc. Not that Kamikaze Life is original either, but it's an anthemic bop and more unexpected for her to get through, so I'm very pleased for Maja.

^don't forget that only 3rd place in each heat is getting a second chance this year! Although it doesn't look like format changes have been mentioned in this thread - I've heard that they've also scrapped the age group vote reveals, and we're back to a 'finalen or bust' moment between the songs that are 2nd and 4th in each heat. Liking "Upp i luften" and "Kamikaze Life" most on first listen, that's going to be a fabulous start to Melfest 2025. "Hush Hush" is also rather good (though the first time that a song co-written by Dino Medanhodzic won't be going direkt?) and John Lundvik is a step up from his last entry. So thankful that they're releasing the songs in advance, as heat 3 is the only heat that I'm able to watch live this year :drama:

Feeling quite meh about this choice right now, it was only about my sixth favourite of the night. Evangelia came so close :( Not this one coming last with 0 points - I guess the victory for her was even being in the selection at all :lol:

France 2025 Louane maman

"Uh nana" is a bop, even if she's giving H&M to Chanel's...well, Chanel. Kuve was also fun. Lachispa is nowhere near as unlistenable as "Eaea" was, but when it comes to Saturday, Spain do need to be looking at that 2023 result and learning x We do not talk about the man.

Sonia y Selena did not get through last night These are the four qualifiers nUkiDagePX0 mGZIm6okTP4 jbgw-9fQz_c Ri1BPHd8sYc

Yeah it was a lot more speedy than normal! I've ended up with afternoon preview for semi 1, and live show for semi 2 (which if the stars align, could have "Ich Komme" and serving KANT in the same half), flying back on the Friday to avoid what I'm assuming will be the most expensive part of the week for accommodation.

1. Emmy - Laika Party (so random that this is in here, but Norway's loss is Ireland's gain) 2. Adgy - Run Into the Night (bit lowkey but quite enjoy the chill vibes and the hook is catchy enough I guess) 3. NIYL - Growth (there is a catchy hook in there and I'm placing it here in my ranking based more on thinking it would grow on me to be in this position) 4. Bobbi Arlo - POWERPLAY (I listened to this on the day it was released and hoped what I was listening to was just a bit low quality, but listening today, nope. The hook is quite underwhelming and I hate when Eurovision songs don't make use of the full 3 minutes that they're allowed -_-) 5. Samantha Mumba - My Way (takes a long time to get going, once it does there are catchy elements but it also feels like the vocal is getting overwhelmed by the music?) 6. Reylta - Fire (finding this quite nothing-y and forgettable) "Laika Party" is SO far ahead of everything else for me, and the only one that would keep me on board the Ireland train, but would they vote for someone with no connection to the country :( oops, looks like my ranking is almost an entire reversal of uhsting's :kink:

1. Tone Damli – Last Song (very instantly catchy, and if Norway send this, they are playing a blinder to get given a good spot in the running order :kink: Would love for Tone to FINALLY get her chance on the Eurovision stage) 2. Nataleen – The Game (not as good as "Run to the Hills"/"Queen of Kings" but those are two excellent songs, so of course something with those influences is still rather strong) 3. Bobbysocks – Joyful (very catchy, yes it's dated but let me just enjoy whilst pretending it's from an 80's contest) --- 4. Nora Jabri – Sulale (something about this feels familiar, I'm liking the vibes of the hook) 5. Ladybug – Hot as Hell in Paradise (kinda catchy but I felt it took too long getting to the 'hot as hell in paradise' hook) 6. LLL – Parasite (quite nothing-y, not enough to the 'parasite' hook, but I quite enjoyed the last minute which pulled this up for me) 7. Kyle Alessandro – Lighter (was disappointed when the drop came in) 8. Sondrey – Vagabond (was a bit forgettable even whilst listening to it) 9. Wig Wam – Human Fire (nothing on "In My Dreams", let's not tarnish the legacy) The overall quality isn't amazing, but Tone and Nataleen are both better than "Ulveham" and "Damdiggida" for me, fight me (although last year should've been a chosen between "My AI" and "Oblivion")

Apparently the planned announcement was scrapped last minute after some negativity from Olly Alexander on the Graham Norton show (I didn't watch it but I'm told he was asked what advice he'd give to our next entrant, and he said "get therapy") :thinking: But I'm not sure how much I really trust this or the earlier 'clues' to the act

A solid entry, I don't think it'll be up there as one of my favourites once we have all the songs this year, but a big step up from "Fighter" for me.

Draper making it to the 4th round to face Alcaraz and then going out was best case scenario for me really. Personal best for Draper in Oz, but I'm really rooting for Alcaraz to win and complete the career grand slam (and to have ticked one off over four consecutive years) Loving the stat that married couple Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina both took out the fourth seed, in order to reach the fourth round!