Colm

24 - Spain 2019 Miki - La Venda I completely missed this at the end of the grand final in 2019. I think I just stopped watching after Australia were on and went to make a cup of tea thinking to myself "It's Spain, I'm not going to miss much if I take a break now." It's just absolutely joyful. The brass is magical. Best bit: 0:55 the first chorus.

25 - Cyprus 2018 Eleni Foureira - Fuego It's no exaggeration to say that Eurovision time can roughly be divided into two eras - Before Fuego and After Fuego. Indeed, there are 2 entries yet to come in this list that would not exist if Fuego never happened. I'm not sure I fully appreciated the seismic change that Eurovision girly bops went through during these 3 minutes back in 2018. I do now. Best bit: 2:15. The beat that is missing makes the drop more impactful.

I've been using Udio to make some tunes using loops that I uploaded.

25 done. 25 to go 14 countries left Any top 10 predictions?

26 - Italy 2024 Angelina Mango - La Noi This did nothing much for me last year, even during the contest. I just treated it like yet another fan favorite that I just didn't get. The video might have been part of why that was - hair pegged to a clothes line will do that. 😄. But in the intervening months this wormed its way into my brain through all those Eurovision 2025 reaction videos invariably made by astonished Americans that spring up in the weeks after the contest. It climbed its way from outside my top 15 up to my top 5. Best bit: 1.28 hmmm

Spodic is quite an ugly name but I do like being an Empire.

Yeah. It's gorgeous.

Scotland 2.

27 - Albania 2020 Arilena Ara - Shaj 2020 was the first year that I followed Eurovision from the national selection stage and Albania was the first country to decide their entry. The original version was in Albanian and reminds me of the cold January days when one of my oldest friends was very sick and had been sick for a few months. He passed away on January 22nd and this song brings me back to that strange time between his death and the pandemic. The English version is ok but it's a shame that they didn't just revamp the music and leave the vocals in Albanian. It was treated by reactors as a generic ballad that wasn't going to do much at Eurovision. It will never be that for me. Best bit: 0.13 the first verse holds so many memories for me.

28 - Azerbaijan 2017 Dihaj - Skeletons 2017 was weak. Even some of the few songs I liked back then do nothing for me now. This just managed to grow in the intervening years. This is both my favourite Azerbaijani entry and my favourite entry from 2017. Gorgeous verses and dramatic chorus. Best bit: 2.45 the middle eight with the staccato vocals.

Nothing wrong with being anti-Russian.

My rankings - based on studio cuts Amazing 1 Austria Very good 2 Malta 3 Sweden 4 Spain Good 5 Denmark 6 Greece 7 Cyprus 8 Germany 9 Switzerland 10 France 11 Lithuania 12 Netherlands Decent 13 Poland 14 Luxembourg 15 Finland 16 Albania 17 Iceland 18 Azerbaijan 19 Belgium Ok, I guess 20 United Kingdom Nope 21 Slovenia 22 Ukraine 23 Serbia 24 Norway 25 Ireland 26 Italy 27 Portugal 28 Latvia 29 San Marino 30 Montenegro 31 Czechia 32 Estonia 33 Australia 34 Georgia 35 Armenia 36 Croatia

The studio version is also horrendous.

Jemini is an example of watered down Hear'say (which was already very bland) tedious, melody-less, waste of time.

I did that every day for months. I also watched reaction videos of the song. Some right wing Americans were shocked that the performance could be broadcast at all.

Great 1 Portugal up 5 2 Georgia up 1 3 Italy up 19 4 Belgium down 2 5 Austria down 4 Very good 6 Croatia down 2 7 Ukraine up 4 8 Netherlands up 8 9 Azerbaijan down 2 10 Slovenia down 5 11 Poland down 3 12 Norway down 3 13 France up 7 Good 14 Denmark up 1 15 Czechia down 1 16 Finland up 1 17 Ireland up 4 18 Cyprus up 9 19 Lithuania down 6 20 Serbia down 8 21 Spain down 11 Average 22 Switzerland down 3 23 Albania up 4 24 Armenia up 3 25 United Kingdom down 7 26 Estonia non-mover 27 Moldova down 4 28 Latvia down 4 Please, no. 29 Malta up 1 30 Australia up 2 31 San Marino down 6 32 Sweden down 4 33 Luxembourg down 2 34 Greece non-mover 35 Germany down 2 36 Iceland non-mover

I lost it in 2003. It became horrendous due to televote only finals. I slowly gained interest from 2010 onwards. In this decade it has become properly interesting. The volume of camp detritus has diminished and the number of excellent, innovative songs has increased. This year seems to have been a set back but we still have Lithuania and Austria to challenge us.

I must do a new rank for 2024.

Top 10 for me

29 - Finland 2020 Aksel - Looking Back I really shouldn't like this and I'm quite sure that some people think it's one of the blandest entries ever. I thought that when I heard it first. It sits at 33rd on the community scoreboard - lower than any other song in this list. What's remarkable is that it doesn't have a middle eight at all - which is sometimes the saving grace of a dull Eurovision song. It's just verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus. So, why do I like it? Well, the chorus just grew on me. And I'm sucker for harmonies and it has lots of little harmonies hidden that don't surface at first. Best bit: 2.05 when he modulates the word "high".

Welcome to the thread of BuzzJack Song Contest's most prominent active empire. We thought it was time to take a look back at our first 2 years in the contest. In due course, there will be a discussion on each entry. But for now, please enjoy The Unfolding - the Empire's first 20 entries. Please let us know what your favourite was.

As a person who messes with graphic design, the colour picking was an inspired idea.

You asked for new rankings.

30 - Estonia 2017 Laura & Koit Toome - Verona How did this do even worse than Ireland's horrendous Dying to Try? Eugh. Only San Marino did worse with the jury. Full of melody and sincerity, the 2017 final was all the weaker for not having this in it. Best bit: 1.44 the build

31 - Austria 2023 Teya & Salena - Who The Hell Is Edgar? Austria, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Recently Austria has not only been giving us quality, it has been giving songs that sound like no other Eurovision entries. Including 2025, they've sent 4 crackers in a row. Even after having being burnt by sending a DNQ bop in 2022, they had the perspective to send this in the knowledge that it could be sung by the singers involved and would advance to the final. It's full of addictive hooks but Selena's Gaga-esque vocals are the highlight for me. I could complain about how it didn't do better but that's old news. Best bit: 2:08 joyful and celebratory vocals.