Ah, Eurovision, the annual competition that brings together all of Europe to sing songs and have fun. Despite the controversies that happened last year, it’s pretty clear that we’re looking at a cleaner contest this year. Since Switzerland’s Nemo, the first ever non-binary Eurovision winner, won last year with their song ”The Code,” this year’s contest is being held in Basel, Switzerland (As an American, I had not even heard of Basel before this—you learn something new every day folks!). This year, there will be a total of 37 countries participating in Eurovision, with Montenegro returning after a two-year break—it would have been 38, but Moldova pulled out of ESC (Eurovision Song Contest) due to a “lack of funding.” And these contestants are no joke; from two Eurovision veterans, to someone who has collaborated with Charli XCX, to the producer of chart-topping dance hit “I’m Blue (Da Ba Dee),” I don’t even know if I can fit all my favorites on a Top 5 ranking. And yes, that’ll be what I’m doing today.
First, let’s go over how ESC works. To start, there’s two separate groups of semifinals. Heat 1 takes place on May 13, while Heat 2 takes place on May 15. Voting is also split into two separate groups: jury voting, and televoting—voting by the public. The top ten best performing countries from each heat go to the final performance, as well as the host country. This year, it’s Switzerland’s Zoë Më and her song “Voyage,” as well as The Big Five—France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. As to why these countries always get a leg up, I have no clue, but this seems to worsen the quality of the music from those countries (I’m looking at you, Germany and the United Kingdom). At the final, there is one last round of voting from the juries and televotes from the public before a winner is decided. Now, without further ado, let’s move on to my rankings.

• Preseason rankings!!!
  5: Belgium: Red Sebastian—“Strobe Lights”

I’ll admit, the only reason this isn’t higher is the fact that a lot of people don’t see it going that far. I’ve consistently seen it around seventh or eighth out of the 15 in its group, although it is of note that as of writing this (May 8) it’s jumped up to seventh overall in the betting odds. That being said, I really love EDM. “Strobe Lights” is a fun techno song performed by a guy dressed in all red who’s apparently named after the crab from The Little Mermaid. I’ve heard it described as an “ode to rave culture,” and although I’m new to rave, I’ll definitely be checking out the rave scene after Eurovision is over. Regardless of if you love or hate this song, you can’t help but admit that those high notes are impressive.

• 4: Poland: Justyna Steczkowska—“Gaja”

A little bit of background on Justyna Steczkowska: She’s actually a veteran of the Eurovision Song Contest, having first performed in 1995 with her song “Sama.” That was thirty years ago! Feeling old yet, teachers? Anyways, she entered Poland’s national final in an attempt to return last year with her song “Witch-er Tarohoro,” but finished in second behind Luna’s song “The Tower.” And given how badly Luna did, I’m pretty confident that Justyna’s beating last year’s placement. “Gaja” keeps a lot of themes from “Witch-er Tarohoro,” including a bit of chanting in an older Slavic language. Additionally, this song includes themes about nature (how could it not when it’s named after Mother Earth herself?), which really encapsulates the power and grandeur of the Earth itself. Plus, she’s already an icon—just look up “Eurovision Justyna Spinning Meme” and you’ll see why. With the quality of “Gaja” and Justyna’s big reputation, I get the sense that she’s going far this year.

• 3: France: Louane—“Maman”

Now how did a ten-year-old song end up in a contest that only allows for songs that haven’t been performed before last September, you may ask? Well, let’s rewind. Louane originally wrote “Maman” in 2015, a year after her mother passed away in 2014. Ten years later, she revisits the song as a mother herself, featuring more hopeful lyrics such as “J’ai plus peur de rien” (“I’m not afraid of anything anymore”). The song itself is an incredibly powerful ballad, and although I have not lost any family members of my own, it’s still incredibly moving. As for how this will fare at Eurovision, I have no doubts it’ll do well. France has had its highs ever since COVID-19, with Barbara Pravi coming in second in 2021 and Slimane coming in fourth just last year. We just have to hope that the staging’s good enough to give it that extra spark it needs. Personally, I’m hoping she’ll be on a platform hanging from the ceiling like in the music video, but that’s just me.

• 2: Austria: JJ—“Wasted Love”

Never before in my life did I think I would have an opera song on my replay list, but JJ’s “Wasted Love” changed that. At first, this song seems to be your standard pop song, but when the first chorus starts, JJ’s performance immediately goes into an amazing operatic melody. Given that JJ performs at the Vienna State Opera, one of the most prestigious opera houses in Austria, you can imagine how high quality JJ’s singing is. And of course, we can’t forget the crazy beat drop switching the song from operatic pop into techno, bringing on probably my favorite thirty seconds of any song in existence. Not only is JJ’s song amazing, but with Sergio Jaén at the wheel we’ve all but confirmed that his staging will be amazing as well. If you don’t know who Sergio Jaén is, he’s the person who staged the wild experience that was Ireland’s Bambie Thug’s 2024 entry, “Doomsday Blue,” widely considered the best staging of any song last year. With this mix of an amazing song, sure-to-be-amazing staging, and JJ just being an entertaining person overall (check out his Instagram Lives!), I have no doubts this song will go far.

• 1: Sweden: KAJ—“Bara Bada Bastu”

We haven’t gotten an entry from Sweden in its native language since 1998, and now that we finally have one, it’s by three Finnish men poking fun at Finnish stereotypes? Hold up. Back up. Let’s rewind. “Bara Bada Bastu” is written by KAJ, a group from Vörå, a town in Finland where citizens speak both Swedish and Finnish (fun fact: this makes KAJ the second non-Swedish band to represent Sweden in a row, after Marcus and Martinus last year, who were Norwegian). Essentially, the entire song is about chilling in a sauna. That’s not all the funny bits, though. During this year at Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s national final, KAJ was up against former Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw, who won with the song “Heroes” in 2015. Yet, despite Måns doing the thing Sweden always does in Eurovision and attempting to target the jury’s favor with his song “Revolution,” KAJ managed to pull ahead by only a few points with their song. Let’s just say Måns didn’t take that lightly. Sore losers aside, this song is an absolute banger. It’s catchy and lighthearted, and Axel Åhman singing “One, two, three, SAUNA!!!” in Finnish, playing the accordion all the while, is so delightful to me. Also, the dance has been stuck in my head throughout the entirety of AP season and I can’t get it out. Someone help me!

Mid season thoughts:
Overall, Semifinal 1 went as I expected—mostly. Most of the contestants I hoped would qualify did, such as Estonia (Tommy Cash’s song “Espresso Macchiato”), as well as the aforementioned Sweden and Poland. Slovenia (represented by Klemen’s song “How Much Time Do We Have Left”)—my dark horse pick of the semifinal—didn’t qualify, which was a shame, but not unexpected. Cyprus (represented by Theo Evan’s song “Shh”) tanked hard, failing to qualify and absolutely not doing Sergio Jaén’s staging justice. Another big surprise for me was that San Marino (represented by Gabry Ponte’s song “Tutta l’Italia”) qualified, because it seemed like a higher focus was placed on Gabry DJing over the two vocalists. However, to me (and to the majority of the public) the biggest upset was Belgium not qualifying for the finals, and their spot being taken by Portugal (represented by NAPA’s song “Deslocado”). I never expected “Deslocado” to qualify, given it’s a slower, calmer song as compared to “Strobe Lights,” which is more high-energy. That being said, I do acknowledge that “Strobe Lights” is a polarizing song that isn’t really for everyone, but it’s still a bit of a disappointment to me. There was also a nice little homage to Celine Dion, who actually won Eurovision back in 1988 for Switzerland. Bet you didn’t know that, huh?
As for Semifinal 2, it seems like people really didn’t learn from the first semifinal, as almost the exact same problems that happened in the first semifinal happened in the second too. Firstly, most of the people we expected to qualify did, such as Austria, Malta, and Finland. We also got a shock qualifier from Denmark in the form of Sissal’s song “Hallucination,” a song that was incredibly low in the betting odds at first and who barely anyone expected to qualify. However, this came with three incredibly shocking non-qualifiers in the forms of Australia (represented by Go-Jo’s “Milkshake Man”), Czechia (represented by Adonxs’ “Kiss Kiss Goodbye”), and Ireland (represented by Emmy’s “Laika Party”). Both Czechia and Australia had been incredibly hyped up. Both of them were incredibly active on social media during the pre-season, with both of them occurring on Sissal and JJ’s Instagram Live streams. Not only that, but they both had extremely good performances (although one could argue that Czechia’s staging was a bit lacking). Nevertheless, they didn’t make it to the final, to the disappointment of huge numbers of fans.
Also, I have to give a quick shout out to THE ROOP and Gjon’s Tears, two artists who performed at the Semifinal 2 interval performance. They were originally slated to perform at Eurovision 2020, but due to the pandemic, the contest was cancelled. However, they returned the very next year with different songs, and while they did perform really well (THE ROOP placed eighth and Gjon’s Tears got third), I can confidently say that they were robbed, as “On Fire” and “Répondez-moi” are some of the best songs I’ve ever heard.

Before we get into the Final Performance Thoughts, I would like to address the political controversies that were prevalent during the running of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, that being the inclusion of Israel. Israel being included in ESC2025 led to a lot of protests, including multiple pro-Palestinian protests, as well as multiple claims that Israel had rigged the televote. As to not get into any conflicts of interest and to keep a neutral side, I acknowledge these controversies, but will not go into them any further.

ESC Final Performance Thoughts:

If you thought that the last two semifinals were shocking, you’re in for one hell of a ride here. Even after the shocking non-qualifications of Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, and Australia, the results of the final were still all over the place. The only thing that people could have expected was the winner, in the form of Austria and JJ’s song “Wasted Love.” Placing second and third were Israel (represented by Yuval Raphael’s “New Day Will Rise”) and Estonia (Tommy Cash’s “Espresso Macchiato”), which shocked a lot of people, as despite Tommy Cash having been prevalent in the public eye since the start of ESC 2025, not too many people thought his song was that good. Multiple fan favorites fell hard in the rankings at the final, such as the aforementioned Sweden and France who placed 4th and 7th respectively, as well as the huge fan favorites Finland (represented by Erika Vikman’s “Ich Komme”) and The Netherlands (represented by Claude’s “C’est la Vie”), who placed 11th and 12th respectively. One of the most shocking parts to the show was when Switzerland, who had scored second in the jury with 214 points, received absolutely no votes from the televote, knocking them down all the way to a final score of tenth place. But despite multiple fan favorites falling way lower than they should have been, Austria winning was a breath of fresh air for a lot of people, including me, as “Wasted Love” was probably my favorite song out of all of them pre-season.
Postseason Rankings!!!

• 5: Ukraine: Ziferblat—“Bird of Pray”

At this point, who doesn’t expect this? Ever since their Eurovision debut in 2003, Ukraine has been constantly sending hits to the ESC. They’ve qualified for every single final, they’ve won three times in 20 years, and even their non-winners are iconic as heck (see: Verka Serduchka). And “Bird of Pray” is no exception; I mean, hell, it was originally supposed to take the place of “Strobe Lights” in my pre-season rankings before I felt like Belgium had less of a chance to qualify over Ukraine. “Bird of Pray” is a prog-rock song with powerful and beautiful vocals, for some reason it also seems to have a calming effect on me which I can’t particularly describe. The performance and staging seems a bit simplistic, but the song doesn’t really need all that to still feel amazing. I will say, the whole bit with the passing of the lights, as well as the angelic vocalization during the instrumental section, was beautiful, and I don’t understand why people think this song should not have qualified. I mean sure, I don’t think it could have won, but it still deserved its spot in the final.

• 4: Greece: Klavdia—“Asteromata”

To the Greek delegation, you made a huge mistake preventing Klavdia from going to any of the pre-season events. I didn’t discover Klavdia’s song “Asteromata” until right before the first semifinal, and as soon as I heard her vocals, I was immediately hooked. An incredibly powerful song about people who are forced to move from their homes, yet still keep connections to their homeland (specifically assumed to be about the genocide of the Pontic Greeks), the song assures that no matter how far one is from their homeland, they still keep their connections and will eventually find their way back. Plus, the staging of “Asteromata” is exceptionally stunning, with Klavdia standing on top of a big rock, and another dancer standing below, all while displays of burning fire and a swirling whirlpool are portrayed on the led screens on the floor and background. Ever since I first listened to it, I firmly believed that this would score extremely well, and although I would have preferred it over the likes of “Espresso Macchiato” and “Volevo essere un duro” (Italy’s song by Lucio Corsi, which placed fifth), I’m not too disappointed by “Asteromata”’s placement. I do think it could have scored even higher if Klavdia had been allowed to go to all the pre-parties, but that’ll just be a what-if.

• 3: Sweden

Hopefully, you’ve read the first part of the article that talks more about this. To say that I’m disappointed about how this happened is a bit of an understatement. Firstly, there didn’t seem to be too much of a change between KAJ’s performance at Melodifestivalen (Sweden’s National Qualifier) and here. They kept the forest and sauna backgrounds and the backup dancers, but did cut out a bit of the dance, which kind of annoyed me because I did find the dance extremely fun. It still was a good performance though, but how in the world did it deserve fourth??? I was expecting at least second, maybe even third, but the betting odds’ choice falling behind two expected mid-qualifiers was a shock to me. This made “Bara Bara Bastu” the next “fun song” that almost everyone wanted to win to get absolutely tanked by the jury, following in the footsteps of “Cha Cha Cha” by Käärijä and “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” by Baby Lasagna, both of which placed second to a more typical and emotional pop song. ​But despite the song falling hard at the final, to absolutely everyone’s disappointment, I do think this is still an amazing song and performance, and it definitely deserves more points than it got.

• 2: Estonia: Tommy Cash—“Espresso Macchiato”

My, how it has come full circle. “Espresso Macchiato” was the first ever song I had heard about with regards to this year’s Eurovision due to the controversy of making fun of Italian stereotypes, and now, it’s come all the way to placing third. Back during the pre-season, this piece was everywhere. You’d see Tommy Cash doing promos with other influencers, Tommy Cash doing interviews, Tommy Cash selling coffee from a van while Duo the Duolingo owl tried to correct him on his Italian… you get the gist. But despite all the press, not all that many people liked the song. “Espresso Macchiato” is a fun little dance song, which also pokes at Italian stereotypes (not so fun now). A former collaborator of Charli XCX and current friend to former Eurovision alums Käärijä and Joost Klein, Tommy Cash takes inspiration from his former friends, making his song in the style of “Cha Cha Cha” and “Europapa” from prior Eurovision seasons. But it’s precisely the goofiness that made people not particularly like it. Many people felt it was too unserious for the competition, with people calling him out over his use of stereotypes, claiming it was offensive. However, the pre-season hype seemed to have worked, as Tommy pulled out with third place despite everything people said about him, even placing two places above the Italian contestant Lucio Corsi. Let’s just hope no Italians get mad about that.

• 1: Austria

After all the controversy that this season has gone through, I have to admit, this is a very deserving winner for a multitude of reasons. First of all, Sergio Jaen went above and beyond with the staging. The entire thing was lit in black and white, a chilling yet fitting lighting choice given the song’s mood, and JJ was staged on top of a boat made out of crates, with the origami boat from the music video floating around. JJ’s vocals were just as good as the music video, if not even better, and the song’s emotion was really carried out on stage. The beat drop in the third minute went so well live. The waves on the background screen started crashing, the black and white lights started crashing, everything went absolutely wild, and I loved every minute of it. Needless to say, this was a deserved win, and it’s definitely staying in my playlist for at least a year after. Oh, and one last thing. Apparently, this song was written by Teya, who performed in ESC 2023 with the song “Who the Hell is Edgar?” It was predicted to score incredibly high during preseason, but in the final, it ended up getting placed second in the running order, a place which has been notably cursed to do very badly historically. “Who the Hell is Edgar?” ended up placing 15th, so it’s safe to say that “Wasted Love” is a fitting end to Teya’s story.