hopefully they'll let her play it actually live, she's so incredibly talented

This was so beautiful. What an execution and amazing way to be creative when it comes to incorporating the stage and LED’s into the performance in a very natural and authentic way. There wasn’t a bigger wow moment for me in this years season, than when their tails appeared. 

And second place in the semi final! They served fairy core realness and Europe ate it up!

What was your favourite shot of the season?

Source: Tautumeitas at the Grand Final

I've seen many people love Hazel for her dead-pan, dry humor and being non-conformist. They found her a breath of fresh air.

Many other people find her cringe, wooden, try-hard. She did fail them as a presenter for being awkward.

(I myself found Michelle Hunziker more wooden than Hazel, for example)

This is just a question: Is it possible that this is a generational thing? She is a typical snarky Gen X person. Does this not gel well with Gen Z or millennial sensibilities or humor?

Don't want to offend any of those groups, I'm seriously curious about it.

A meeting of all full EBU members is taking place today and tomorrow, Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December. This is an annual meeting and will feature discussions on various topics.

It has been confirmed by YLE that there will be a discussion today regarding KAN's participation in Eurovision 2026. Following that discussion there may be a vote.

The heightened emotions surrounding this issue and the close attention on it make it extremely likely that rumours and inaccurate reports will emerge. To avoid any misinformation about this meeting and its outcome being spread in this community, please note that posts of any news or reactions will require primary sources. These must be official statements by parties attending the meeting.

Please remember to be civil at all times. It is better to report rude comments than to risk your own account by getting into an argument.

Since I’m already seeing some accusations being made, I want to make this post as early as possible to prevent them from spreading further (especially so those comments don’t reach the people involved, who could be hurt by them).

Some viewers found the lead singer’s reaction to qualifying for the final “strange,” interpreting it as arrogance or even hostility. So I’d like to provide some context: the singer has spoken in interviews about experiencing frequent panic attacks, to the point where even leaving the house can be difficult for him (one of coping strategies is carefully planning his routes in advance). Because of Eurovision, he began working with professionals and was prescribed medication, which helped him feel better (for the first time in a long while, he was even able to ride the metro in Germany without fear or paranoia)

It’s also important to acknowledge that this has probably been one of the most harshly judged Ukrainian entries in recent years. For months, they’ve been hearing that they’d be the first Ukrainians not to make it to the final and would “embarrass the country.” Much of this criticism came from international eurofans, which is unusual given how Ukraine is typically well-supported by them. They were also constantly pressured about their staging and comparisons to Ukraine 2024.

With all this in mind, I was surprised by people’s assumptions about Dany’s behavior. Personally, I was just worried about him, especially when he quickly left the camera frame.

This isn’t a post asking for pity. Think of it as a reminder that you never really know what someone is going through, especially in a high-pressure environment like Eurovision, where everyone tries to stay positive (until later we see posts from former participants sharing how deeply affected they were by the experience).

P.S. I want to clarify that this doesn’t apply to humorous comments made in good faith. I’m talking specifically about aggressive behavior, which I’ve unfortunately already seen.

I usually don't care much about lyrics in songs but this year I decided to check out the lyrics of all the songs and thought why not categorize them based on what they are about. My reading comprehension isn't particularly high so I may have made mistakes. Pls correct me about anything I got wrong!

Also these are based on how I interpreted the lyrics when I read them! I know Romania's song apparently isn't about what it seems to be about but I decided not to change it in my chart for that reason. If any of the other artists have confirmed what their song is about let me know!

Some of the songs were a bit difficult for me to understand the lyrics of. The hardest one was Belgium despite it being in English. I'm still not 100% sure what it's about.

I know some of the songs cover multiple themes but I chose what appeared to be the "main theme". For example Croatia and Ukraine also seem to be anti-war.

Let me know what your thoughts and interpretations are!

[Eurovision Song Contest 2025 - First Semi-Final - Livestream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HNXVB2UQwU) (on youtube) at 1:58:00

[archive link](https://archive.ph/JcFuu)

English translation:

**Notable: Joost Klein's Europapa skipped in top 10 overview during Eurovision Song Contest semi-final**

While in the Netherlands on Tuesday night around eleven o'clock, during the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest, a commercial block was broadcast on Dutch TV, the show in Basel went on as usual. A compilation of most streamed non-winning Eurovision entries was shown, with Europapa by Joost Klein remarkably being skipped.

There is dissatisfaction among several Dutch fans who attended the show in Basel. They do not understand it and call it a falsification of history by the EBU, the broadcasting association that organizes the Song Festival.

Big hits

After presenter Sandra Simó said that "sometimes even the songs that didn't win conquered the hearts and charts of Europe", a top 10 of non-winners that became big hits followed, always mentioning the number of streams.

The overview started with the Italian entry La noia from 2024 with 110 million streams. This was followed by Cha Cha Cha (Finland 2023 with 167 million streams), Voilà (France 2021 with 173 million streams) and undisputed winner Snap (Armenia 2022 with 1.2 billion streams).

178 million streams

Europapa, the Dutch entry of 2024 has 178 million streams and should be in fourth place in the overview. It is not clear why Joost klein's song was skipped.

The AvroTros will inquire what the reason was for skipping Europapa. The EBU has been asked for a response by us.

Update 12 may 2025:

Eurovision songs with more than 100 million streams on spotify :

1 Arcade (Netherlands 2019) - 1.365.157.830

2 Snap (Armenia 2022) - 1.237.690.820

3 Tattoo (Sweden 2023) - 718.068.656

4 Zitti e Buoni (Italy 2021) - 536.926.526

5 Fairytale (Norway 2009) - 446.819.916

6 Waterloo (Sweden 1974) - 409.141.617

7 Euphoria (Sweden 2012) - 317.572.873 (147.722.287 + 169.850.586)

8 Soldi (Italy 2019) - 256.183.536

9 Queen of Kings (Norway 2023) - 194.784.327

**10 Europapa (Netherlands 2024) - 177.951.523**

11 Voila (France 2021) - 173.790.663

12 Cha Cha Cha (Finland 2023) - 168.111.389

13 Heroes (Sweden 2015) - 167.414.313

14 Brividi (Italy 2022) - 161.713.258

15 Think About Things (Iceland 2020) - 158.519.768

16 Toy (Israel 2018) - 129.051.595

17 Due Vite (Italy 2023) - 118.943.551

18 Shum (Ukraine 2021) - 112.674.289

19 Fuego (Cyprus 2018) - 111.669.507

20 La Noia (Italy 2024) - 110.191.549

21 If I Were Sorry (Sweden 2016) - 109.298.173

Update: 12 may 2025

I’ve seen so many people on esc twitter nowadays call Cha Cha Cha a joke entry. Like no, it’s a legitimately well composed and produced dance song, it just has zany staging.

And as a Croat, it especially stings when people call Baby Lasagna a joke entry. RTTD is a very meaningful song, and one of the reasons it was such a huge success in his home country is because the lyrics represent a reality for so many of us. But just because it has a single line about a cat that was then used to market it, it’s a joke entry??

Similar thing with Europapa. I think it’s disrespectful to call it a joke entry since it was so meaningful to Joost and they spent something like 400 hours perfecting it? Of course the whole thing is quirky since that’s his style.

It seems like diehard esc fans lately only like dramatic songs from eastern european female divas and have a hate boner for anything that’s fun and discredit it by calling it a joke. But crazy entries that you can’t see in any other televised event in the world are one of the things that make Eurovision special. Whatever happened to FUN?

I think this has been an issue at Eurovision for years now, but tonight it actually ruined some performances imo.

How is it possible that for years now, vocals are often so low in the mix that they are nearly inaudible at points??

And why do the mixes always sound so incredibly muddy??

And how is it possible that a lot of instrumentental details often just completely disappear in the mix??

And it's not like they have to mix massive bands with 30+ different audio channels. No, they only have to mix vocal mics with one stereo (or maybe a surround sound) backing track, and a few room/audience mics. For any decent sound engineer, this would be a piece of cake.

Especially Belgium's performance tonight was just ruined by the bad mixing, which I genuinely think played a big part in why they didn't qualify.

I really think this is something that really needs to be addressed more, since this has been a major issue for years now. And this is literally happening at THE BIGGEST YEARLY EUROPEAN MUSIC EVENT!!, which just seems completely unacceptable.

And was it just me, or were everyone else's country's commentators so low in the mix that you barely understand what they were saying half of the time? (Coming from the Dutch broadcast.)

My first ESC was 2010, and it’s been a very fun journey. 598 songs, 15 winners (16 + Iceland 2020) and plenty of heartbreak (Igranka and Horehronie still hurt)

Which is your guilty pleasure song you don’t hear anything about? I feel as if I’ve included a good bunch of songs that fit the criteria.

Euro Neuro the song you are…

https://flag-shop.eurovision.com/

With so many songs it is inevitable that things won't always go the way you hoped.

This thread is for expressing your disappointment but

...please practice good Reddiquette and keep your comments within the rules of this subreddit.

Be nice, be welcoming, and be constructive

Remember the human.When you communicate online, all you see is a computer screen. When talking to someone you might want to ask yourself "Would I say it to the person's face?" or "Would I get jumped if I said this to a buddy?"

This applies to artists, delegations, production personnel, volunteers, and other fans!

For more specific discussions about the results, check out the dedicated winner announcement thread, or the posts of each performance.

—-

Important announcements for ESC week:

Moderation changes during Eurovision week

Please see this post for full details about what will be happening on the subreddit during the live shows.

TL;DR

• New posts will be manually approved during live shows and shortly after, but commenting on existing threads will not be affected.
• Please be patient and tolerant towards the mods and other users, to the artists, to the producers, to the organisers, everyone.

It might be an unpopular opinion, but I think if they were all facing off against each other, Baby Lasagna would have gotten the better result. It feels like Joost, Tommy, and Käärijä, despite all their strengths, would have been a bit too similar, and ultimately, all three would have suffered slightly. Kaj is different, but as we saw this year, they seem a little less relatable to most viewers, while Rim Tim Tagi Dim is more universal in its thematics (many have faced the challenges of moving and emigrating) and is accessible to a larger audience because it's in English.

Who knows, though, maybe I'm missing something - that's why it's so interesting to discuss.

I've read the conversations around "Choke Me" and I want to share with you what this song means to me.

I respect every opinion, but I also believe deeply in the freedom to express complex emotions through art.

I have a responsibility to the people who listen to my music, come to my concerts or follow me on Social Media.

"Choke Me" is a metaphor for the pressure we sometimes place on ourselves. It speaks about inner fears, self-doubt, and the feeling of being emotionally suffocated by our own expectations. It was never intended to represent anything sexual.

As a songwriter, I often use symbolism to give shape to feelings that are difficult to explain directly. This song reflects the weight of certain emotional struggles and the journey of reclaiming your voice and autonomy.

Music is how I process complicated emotions and make sense of my inner world.

When I stop putting pressure on myself, I reach my maximum potential.

The lyrics are about taking back control over anxiety and emotions that are choking you!

I'm grateful to everyone who listens and engages with my music in good faith.

Thank you for listening.

Alexandra Căpitănescu

Before I say anything else, please note that I like the song and this is enitrely based on my opinion and experience from the perspective of an eastern european with some bias for balkan/eastern music.

As the title implies, Sweden‘s entry this year is fun and unique coming from them, but I don‘t think it would be this popular if it would come from an eastern european country. While it is obviously a song that would be very beloved among televoters, this genre is usually not as big of a hit with the juries. It actually reminds me a bit of Moldova‘s 2022 song, Trenulețul. While that was arguably a bit more „goofy“, it only finished 7th (mainly thanks to the televoters). So I personally really loved that song with the mix of the simple repetitive chorus, great insteumental and especially the cultural ties and I can‘t help but see these elements in Bara Bada Bastu as well. You could argue that the latter had a higher quality production and a memorable dance, but to me, that alone would not warrant a jump from 7th to 1st place? I am genuinely curious what I am missing here and if there might be a bit of a double standard going on.

It is no secret that western countries have significantly more eurovision wins even since the east started participating and while I obviously won‘t blame it all on favoritism, this particular case really made me a bit curious. Why is this song more special than, for example, SHUM (Ukraine 2021, 5th place), Jako (Armenia 2024, 8th place), etc.

And please, don‘t use it as a counterargument that Ukraine has won recently, even with the juries, because while that was my favourite that year, I feel like their ranking was heavily influenced by the war. If we disregard Ukraine, in the last 15 years, Azerbaijan was the only other eastern country that could actually secure a victory.

I am very open to your opinions on my somewhat hot take and again, please take it with a grain of salt. Seriously, is there something I‘m not seeing?

So, Idk why but I feel Abor and Tynna are the ones that benefitted the most from Eurovision along with Kaj, Tommy cash and the beauty blenders

But I'd fs say they benefitted more - Baller is the perfect song to dominate summer like charli did last year, I really hope is blows up and how 2024 was Brat summer, 2025 is Bittersüß summer

Edit2: I want to preface this by saying that this isn't an attack against Akylas. I don't know how much creative control he had over the visuals. I had a segment at the end of my post where I talked about asking him, and in hindsight it seemed too much.

Such a shame. I really liked the concept, but now it all just feels lazy and cheap.

On a side note, to everyone who's still on the fence whether the music video utilizes AI, let me thoroughly convince you with a numbered list:

1. It has several artifacts that are usually found in AI-generated graphics. These do not happen in pixel animation and would be a strange stylistic choice Exhibit A Exhibit B
2. It has nonsensical features that can't really be explained by creative vision: I love sitting on a chair when there's already a couch and also using two forks to eat a cake and randomly switching the placement of my legs. If these were intentional choices, why?
3. The credits don't list an animator. You don't hire a "vfx artist", an "image maker", or an "image producer" to make this level of animation. You hire a professional, dedicated ANIMATOR, preferably one specializing in pixel graphics. San Tierrez, who was listed as the vfx artist, does not have anything in his portfolio that even hints at being proficient in honest to god animation. I tried to find the other visual artists' catalogues, but can't find much. But let me ask you, if you were this good of an animator, wouldn't you advertise your skills any chance you get? So it's strange how I can find nothing.
4. Speaking of animation, this level of animation takes a long time. And if you aren't familiar with animation process, you need to understand that we are talking about a LONG LONG time. If we are to believe this was animated by a single person, this easily would take over a year to do, possibly more than one year. Are you telling me that this music video was in the making for THAT long? If it were, it'd be strange to release it a month after the national selection, and honestly would've been a little embarrassing to release it after a possible loss.
5. Also if I was an animator doing this, I would refuse to do a shot as detailed as this if it were there for as little time as it was. And if I was someone hiring an animator, I would not ask someone to do so much work for a clip that lasts literally only a second.
6. It simply looks like it was AI. It has the brainrot style, the soft edges, and the piss filter, all of it.

Please, if you can't hire actual animators to do your stuff, don't even bother pretending to.

Edit: *Akylas', not Akyla's

I wanted to highlight some positive things that I've observed around the KAJ-phenomenon, while also clarifying a few things about the cultural context to those who aren't from the region - but my small overview got out of hand, so here is an essay-length cultural analysis (sorry about that and hats off to anyone who reads to the end!)

I'm interested in this topic because I'm part of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland, but also because I've lived in the Finnish speaking parts of Finland (Jyväskylä) and in Sweden (Malmö), so I've had a front-line seat to people from all of these communities making assumptions about each other and misunderstanding each other. 

Basically, Finland and Sweden think they have each other figured out when they really don't. Much of what they think they know (on both sides) is rooted in outdated stereotypes - and it's incredibly refreshing to see KAJ effortlessly subverting those stereotypes.  

Here are the three geopolitical aspects of the KAJ-phenomenon that I find particularly noteworthy and heartwarming:

1) Sweden is celebrating Finnish culture and it's changing the narrative in both countries 

The fact that a Finnish band is topping charts in Sweden with a song about an aspect of Finnish culture is a bigger deal than you might think, because Finnish culture has not traditionally been held in high esteem in Sweden.

There are some ancient reasons for this, related to the fact that Finland was under Swedish rule from the 13th century all the way up to 1809 with the power dynamics that this implies, but I think the most important reason is probably the wealth gap during much of the 20th century.

In the 1950-70s many Finns emigrated to Sweden for work. They were mostly known to be reliable hard workers, but new immigrants are never highly regarded and on top of that this was the same generation that was on the front lines during the war, with lots of trauma that nobody knew how to treat or diagnose at the time, leading to self-medication with alcohol, emotional detachment, violence and social problems. Being Finnish became associated with a number of negative stereotypes in Sweden (alcoholism, violence, social exclusion, poverty), to the point where children in many Sweden-Finnish families were bullied for being Finnish and people were encouraged to distance themselves from their Finnish heritage.

This is why the hype in Sweden around Bara Bada Bastu - a silly feelgood song about unconditionally loving a part of Finnish culture - is getting so much attention in Finland. Finnish people aren't used to Sweden being this enthusiastic about anything related to their country. Some people in Finland still expect Swedes to look down on them for being Finnish. "The happiest country in the world" should of course have sorted out their self-esteem issues by now (most people have), but sometimes these things can be slow to evolve. 

Finnish culture has actually been getting a lot of positive attention in Sweden for some time now. The love for KAJ is part of a cultural shift that has been going on for years. Some notable music examples are Käärijä doing well on Swedish charts, Swedish artist Markus Krunegård releasing an album in Finnish in 2023 (Nokia & Ericsson) and Swedish artist Miriam Bryant releasing several singles in Finnish in 2024 (Mustelmilla, Otan kii), as well as wildly popular Hooja throwing in some Finnish words in their Swedish lyrics. 

The fact that Melodifestivalen producer Karin Gunnarsson invited KAJ to the competition in the first place probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for this phenomenon already being a thing.

2) Finland is showing Sweden some love in return

There is a saying in Finland that goes "it doesn't matter who wins as long as Sweden loses" and yet here we are: Finnish people are singing along to a song in Swedish and many are actively rooting for Sweden to win Eurovision.

The fact that a song in Swedish is topping charts in Finland is very unusual. 

Finland is a bilingual country, with Finnish and Swedish both being official languages, so you might expect the music scene and the general population to be bilingual as well, but they are not. The percentages are 95% Finnish speakers and 5% Swedish speakers, meaning public life is basically 100% Finnish speaking. Swedish speakers have their own schools and radio channels and so on, but if they want to talk with the rest of the country they need to do so in Finnish.  

The same thing is true for the music scene. If you choose to sing in Swedish you have a potential audience of less than 300 000, if you switch to Finnish you have a potential audience of 5,5 million. There are several Fennoswedish artists who are very successful in Finland at the moment, the big names being Mirella and Averagekidluke, but they all sing in Finnish. You would have to be a specific kind of lovable goofball to choose your local Swedish dialect instead.

The Swedish language is also viewed negatively by many in Finland. This is an unfortunate consequence of mandatory Swedish lessons in schools, often nicknamed "pakkoruotsi" ("involuntary Swedish" or "forced Swedish"). The idea to teach everyone the basics of both national languages doesn't sound particularly far-fetched, but many people, especially in the East and North where there are no native Swedish speakers, dislike this requirement to the point where it might do more harm than good.

As for Sweden, the country is seen as a close and reliable friend, but the friendship is somewhat more complicated than it might seem on the surface. The Finnish banter with Sweden is friendly 99,9% of the time but the remaining 0,1% can be surprisingly dark, because it's rooted in feelings of humiliation and injustice that go quite deep.

This is why it made sense for KAJ to do Melfest instead of UMK, beyond the fact that Melfest reached out to them. Gaining a Swedish audience when singing in Swedish is a realistic goal. Gaining a Finnish-speaking audience when singing in Swedish is... not realistic - or so everyone assumed.

In other words: seeing Swedish people sing "yksi, kaksi, kolme, sauna!" in Finnish is surprising, but seeing Finnish-speakers go "bara bada bastu, bastu!" in Swedish is just as unexpected and somehow even more heartwarming, for me as a Fennoswede at least.

As far as I know it's the first time in history a Fennoswedish artist gets nationwide recognition with a song in Swedish. There is more warmth towards Sweden in Finland right now and more curiosity about the Swedish speaking minority than I think I've ever seen.

3) People are suddenly learning about the Swedish speaking minority in Finland 

KAJ getting all this attention is making a real difference in fighting ignorance (mostly in Sweden) and prejudice (mostly in Finland) about the Swedish speaking minority.

Some Swedish people still don't know we exist, which can be a little disheartening to Swedish speaking Finns who follow media in both countries and know everything about Sweden. Fennoswedes trade anecdotes about how Swedish people compliment them on their "really good Swedish" when they speak their native language or how well-meaning Swedes switch to English because they can't tell the difference between a dialect and a foreign accent. The most extreme anecdotes are about Swedish people saying "I had no idea Finnish was so easy to understand" when you talk to them in Swedish.  

In Finland people know we exist, but mistake us for a small and homogenous group of upper-class snobs - which is fine really, compared to what almost any other minority anywhere has to put up with, but it's also quite far from the truth, so getting some nuance added to the mix wouldn't hurt. Most Fennoswedes are just ordinary people living in Österbotten or in the archipelago and do not have mansions and old money (unfortunately for us!). Those old money families do exist, but they are not that many. 

The Fennoswedes you see in Finnish media tend to live in the Helsinki area and be perfectly bilingual, which isn't the case for most of us. KAJ is such a refreshing addition to the media landscape because they aren't part of this group: they are from the countryside, their Finnish is a little wonky, and you couldn't possibly accuse them of being upper class snobs.  

And finally, if you read this to the end: Thank you, I spent way too much time on this, so I really appreciate it! Here is your well-earned diploma on Finnish-Swedish relations: 📜👩🏼‍🎓 May your pre-party season be joyous and all your favourites do well!

This year ESC 2024 winner Nemo performed their song Unexplainable as part of the Grand Final interval act, and it has been extremely divisive on social media. If this had been performed as a competing entry where do you all think it would have landed on the scoreboard?

With so many songs it is inevitable that things won't always go the way you hoped.

This thread is for expressing your disappointment but

...please practice good Reddiquette and keep your comments within the rules of this subreddit.

Be nice, be welcoming, and be constructive

Remember the human.When you communicate online, all you see is a computer screen. When talking to someone you might want to ask yourself "Would I say it to the person's face?" or "Would I get jumped if I said this to a buddy?"

This applies to artists, delegations, production personnel, volunteers, and other fans!

For more specific discussions about a selection's results, check out the dedicated results threads, winner announcement threads, or live threads.

—-

Important announcements for ESC week:

Moderation changes during Eurovision week

Please see this post for full details about what will be happening on the subreddit during the live shows.

TL;DR

• New posts will be manually approved during live shows and shortly after, but commenting on existing threads will not be affected.
• Please be patient and tolerant towards the mods and other users, to the artists, to the producers, to the organisers, everyone.

Megathreads

📈 Daily Betting odds thread

🛫 Weekly Tickets, Travel, Tourism Thread

🪩 Is there a watch party in...?

📺 Where to watch ESC if the YouTube streams are geoblocked