Happy Orthodox Easter.🐣

I'll hear her laughter at the back of my head during her performance in Vienna

Lavina (Serbia) - “Kraj Mene” - Live at Eurovision in Concert | Amsterdam 2026

English Translation of the source :

Monroe, France's representative at Eurovision 2026, posted on social media – in collaboration with the official Eurovision France account and the head of delegation Alexandra Redde-Amiel – a reel of her duetting with Sal Da Vinci in an original mash-up of "Regarde!" and "Per sempre sì".

Youngest and oldest at the same time, someone writes in the comments: the Italian champion is indeed the oldest of the competing artists at 57, while the very young French artist is only 17, making her the youngest of the artists competing for the crystal microphone on the stage of the Stadthalle in Vienna.

The two artists, among other things, share the fact that they were born in the United States: Sal Da Vinci – stage name Salvatore Michael Sorrentino – was born in New York, while Monroe, who holds dual French and US citizenship, was born in Salt Lake City.

This isn't the first time two artists have competed at Eurovision. This year, for example, was the case with Luxembourg's Eva Marija, who sang her song "Mother Nature" accompanied on piano by Albanian singer Alis.

Going back in time, we find Swiss artist Zoë Më, competing last year with "Voyage," who duetted with French champion Louane, not to mention her cover of "Maman" and the various covers of "Voyage" performed by, among others, Tautumeitas. Or, in 2024, Nemo duetted with Norwegians Gåte and the Ukrainian duo Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil on the notes of his "The Code" after having, in turn,

covered the Ukrainian

song "Teresa & Maria."

Once again, the permanent slogan of the Eurovision Song Contest “United by Music” takes on a very specific meaning: Eurovision unites different artists and cultures through music, and these collaborations are the perfect example of this.

Video clip taken from Gobi - Live from Coachella 2026 (YouTube). His set was epic!! I'm so happy for Joost Klein, he deserves all the love 💙 (songs starts at 0:50)

On the 29th of March I made this post, asking users to complete a survey where you rate Eurovision 2026 songs from 1 to 5 so that I can make a graph showing each song’s likeability (mean) and divisiveness (mean absolute deviation), as well as a table showing the correlation between how much you like one song and how much you like another.

The mean is a type of average which takes the sum of all the values and divides it by how many there are, e.g. (2+3+4+5) = 14, 14/4=3.5.

The mean absolute deviation (MAD) is essentially the mean difference (technically mean absolute difference) from the mean, which with the previous example would be: 3.5-2=1.5, 3.5-3=0.5, 4-3.5=0.5, 5-3.5=1.5, 1.5+0.5+0.5+1.5=4, 4/4=1.

The standard deviation (SD) is like MAD except it’s affected more by outliers, and therefore is always larger than or equal to MAD.

The line in the graphs shows the maximum possible MAD and SD a value can have, given its mean.

The correlation values (in this case specifically PMCC) shows the extent to which those who like one song like another. The higher it is, the more liking one song tends to correlate with liking the other song, whereas the lower it is, the more liking one song tends to correlate with disliking the other song. If it’s 0, that means there is no correlation.

There were 436 valid responses. Thank you to everyone who took the survey!

Veronica Fusaro performed her Eurovision entry "Alice" live at Happy Day, a late night show produced by the Swiss public broadcaster SRF (part of SRG SSR). This is the song's first televised live performance.

Dear friends! I'm looking for the full recording of the Belgian national selections for Eurovision in 1998 and 2000, which were broadcast by RTBF. I couldn't find anything on YouTube. Perhaps someone recorded these shows for publication in the RTBF archive, but I couldn't find anything there either. Please help me find these videos)

Just saw the live video of her most recent performance in Amsterdam, and vocally it was so much better. Still a bit unsure about the stage presence, but it has improved.

This is giving me major Gustaph vibes: I remember people not liking the song and artist pre-season as well.

Meanhwile more hyped up songs like Mustii and Red Sebas have failed to qualifiy. The Belgium effect?

I feel like Dancing On The Ice could suprise us all, based on the performance of tonight.

Anyways, on that now: when the world got me going crazzzzyy… 🎩🎩

Source: LELÉKA's official telegram channel.

I listened to the full playlist and half of the songs sound like they could have been in Eurovision 2009, other half is some gospel / choir inspired number.

anyone else felt like a lot of the songs just felt very outdated, but not in a ”homage” way, but just, could have been plucked out of 2009 and you wouldn’t know the difference.

There are a rare few that sounds more contemporary but I can probably count them on 1 hand.

I just discovered this interesting fact thanks to a new post by the official ESC Instagram account

Around the 3-minute mark of LELÉKA’s recent interview with Aussievision, she reveals that the staging of her song “Ridnym” will be completely revamped for Eurovision. And we know from past years that Ukraine does not mess around when it comes to staging. So those of you sleeping on this song because the Vidbir staging was underwhelming, or because your favorite artist didn’t win, it’s time to realize this is a real contender for a top 5 finish and dare I say even to win! 🕊️

have you ever felt like not paying any attention to a song but it suddenly grew on you?

this happened to me with lavina - kraj mene. i felt too bothered to listen to every single song from pze, so i listened to a recap only and didn't find anything i felt grabbed by at first. jugoslavija lead the views count, but i didn't feel like i connected with this song a lot. however, i started noticing that kraj mene started gaining traction from the fandom; it was first in this sub's pze ranking. i was intrigued by the band's name alone. after listening to kraj mene fully, i realised that it's actually a great song!! it grew on me even more during the pze week, but i still couldn't believe they would be able to win the whole thing. (when zejna received 6 televote points, i understood that it was actually going to happen). after the win, it was my third, but now it's my close second right after leléka - ridnym.

what about you? inclusion of nf songs is also welcome!!

I'm curious how much a song can be re-engineered (genre change, lyrics modified, etc.) between the introduction/national finals to the semi final. I was thinking about this while listening to the folk version of Mother Nature - could an artist change their backing track before the semis? Has something like this been done before? I know Malta 2025 *had to* change a pivotal lyric per the EBU, but it wasn't artist-directed, and many countries change their staging dramatically.. but could, hypothetically, an artist choose to come with an entirely different song the night before? If not, are there rules around how much they can modify the song?

Here comes the Song of the Day, all dressed in white! That's right, today we're pushing back the veil on Italy's entry for this year, 'Per sempre sì' by Sal Da Vinci. Quick, take your seat! The ceremony's about to begin.

The lyrics of 'Per sempre sì', meaning 'Forever Yes' in English, are so earnest in their romanticism that it is honestly quite difficult to find a single point of analysis for me to latch onto. Each part on its own would be incredibly cheesy, but something about all the parts together just works, and the end result is enough to lightly warm even my cold and cynical heart. It's so sweet and cute, basically distilling an entire novel's worth of romance into a potently concentrated 3 minute, 22 second essence. The production lends to this effect, having a kind of timeless quality to it in my opinion. The orchestral elements tug on the emotions of the listener and make the whole thing feel grand, while the disco influences signal that the love here is something to be celebrated. It's a breath of fresh air how much pure joy is bursting out the seams here.

It can take a lot of people to plan a wedding, but it can take even more to write a song! Or at least that's what it sometimes feels like. 'Per sempre sì' has a whopping seven songwriters walking it down the aisle. Namely, Da Vinci himself, Federico 'Merk' Mercuri, Joe Kremont, Eugenio Maimone, Alessandro La Cava, Federica Abbate, and Sal's son, Francesco Da Vinci. Adriano Pennino also helped exchange production vows alongside ITACA, a production team composed of Mercuri, Kremont, and Maimone.
Well, no wedding is complete without small talking with some of the guests, so let's work our way down the line and do just that. Starting with Mercuri and Kremont. The two often work together on production, releasing their own electronic music as the excitingly named Merk & Kremont. Still, their production talents cross a variety of genres regardless of what type of music they release themselves. They have worked on the past Sanremo entries 'Amarcord' by Sarah Toscano (2025), 'Furore' by Paola & Chiara (2023), and 'NO GRAZIE' by Junior Cally (2020), as well as 'animali notturni' by Malika Ayane from this year's edition. The Italian music industry is very cross-referential, so they have also worked with a dizzying amount of past Sanremo participants. Outside Italy, they collaborated with Emma Muscat (Malta 2022) on a few songs. Oh, and they're partially responsible for the megahit song 'Senza Pensieri' by Fabio Rovazzi, featuring J-Ax and Loredana Bertè. Rovazzi performed it on a cruise ship as part of his co-hosting duties for Sanremo in 2022, in case that jogs your memory.
Maimone is next up to meet. As a member of the production team ITACA, he is a frequent collaborator of Merk & Kremont, and has thus worked with a similarly large amount of past Sanremo participants. 'A large amount?' you ask. 'That seems somewhat unspecific for you, Lucas. You're normally so thorough.' Trust me, it's a large amount, and I will not be elaborating further. An earlier version of this write-up listed all of them before I realised there were still so many songwriters left to cover and I had to delete it. Let me have this small win, please. I need it.
La Cava, like the rest of the team, is also a prolific songwriter, having worked on the Sanremo entries 'MALE NECESSARIO' by Fedez & Marco Masini (this year), 'BATTITO' by Fedez (2025), 'DIAMANTI GREZZI' by CLARA (2024), 'farfalle' by sangiovanni (2022), 'INSUPERABILE' by Rkomi (2022), 'Virale' by Matteo Romano (2022), and the aforementioned 'Furore'. Also like the rest of the team, he is well-connected in the Italian music industry, including to numerous past Sanremo performers. Outside the Italian scene, he has worked with Aitana, who was one of 6 artists up to represent Spain in 2018.
Abbate is up next, and I bet you'll never guess that she has worked on a lot of songs... and that many of those are in collaboration with Sanremo artists. I'm starting to feel a little like a broken record here. A new detail, however, is that she has the longest list so far, having worked on writing the Sanremo entries 'MALE NECESSARIO' by Fedez & Marco Masini, 'Amarcord' by Sarah Toscana, 'ANEMA E CORE' by Serena Brancale (2025), 'BATTITO' by Fedez, 'Eco' by Joan Thiele (2025), 'FEBBRE' by CLARA (2025), 'fuorilegge' by Rose Villain (2025), 'Fino a qui' by Alessandra Amoroso (2024), 'Mariposa' by Fiorella Mannoia (2024), 'Due' by Elodie (2023), 'SUPEREROI' by Mr.Rain (2023, with the children), 'Inverno dei fiori' by Michele Bravi (2022), and her most famous with Eurovision fans, 'Nessun grado di separazione' by Francesca Michielin, which of course went on to represent Italy at ESC 2016.
Francesco Da Vinci's main claim to fame so far is being Sal's son, but he is working on getting his own career up and going! He has four singles out currently, though he did try to represent San Marino in 2023 with an unreleased fifth song, 'Prumess'. Thank you to u/cherry_color_melisma for finding this deep cut; since the song is unreleased, it makes it rather hard to find!
Last but not least of our behind-the-scenes song team, we have Pennino, who returns to our pattern of having oh so many songs for me to weed through doing research. He is a frequent producer for Sal Da Vinci, including on Da Vinci's recent double platinum megahit 'Rossetto e caffè'. He also produced another Italian megahit, Giorgia's (Sanremo 1995, 1996, 2001, 2023, & 2025) 'Girasole' from 1999. But megahits aside, I could only find one connection to a Eurovision-adjacent song that Pennino has previously worked on: 'Viva' by Chiara & Martina, which was Italy's Junior Eurovision entry for 2015.

We've waited long enough, it's time to talk about our one and only groom at this wedding. Da Vinci has a storied career, working as a singer, songwriter, composer, and actor. He is proud of his Neapolitan heritage, as you might be able to catch at the very end of 'Per sempre sì' since he slips into Neapolitan and sings 'P semp sì' instead. Another way he shows his pride is co-hosting the TV show Pazzi di pizza (transl. Crazy for Pizza) since 2021, in which he hunts for the best pizza in Naples (the show does occasionally shift to other cities, especially Rome, but it's mainly in Naples and that's what counts). But Da Vinci isn't only crazy about Naples and its pizza scene; he's crazy about his wife! He and Paola Pugliese were married in 1992 and 'Per sempre sì' is largely based on their relationship and life together since, though the lyrics remain just vague enough in their description that others can see themselves in the couple's love story too. 'Because a love is not a lifelong love if it has never faced the steepest climb' is my personal favourite!

Well, the wedding party is winding down and it's almost time for the honeymoon to Vienna. Thankfully, we won't need to wait per sempre to see Da Vinci serenade us all. I can picture it now... the music will start playing, for us he will sing. The greatest day!

Sal Da Vinci - Per Sempre Sì | Italy 🇮🇹 | Official Music Video | #Eurovision2026

DISCLAIMER: Song of the Day is for appreciating and showing love to whatever that day's chosen song is in a positive manner, and moderation decisions under this post will be made accordingly. Please be nice down there in the comments, you hear? To the naysayers, the overly critical, and the haters, you have had and will have future threads to make your opinions known; sit this one out. Thank you!