Preface:
As I mentioned in a previous post (Random Thoughts Thursday: Eurovision), I’m going to start reviewing and making my predictions for ESC2022 as countries begin to name their artists and release their songs.
Over the past 30 days, I have been doing this 30 Day of Eurovision challenge. Folks who follow me on Instagram probably have seen this challenge on my IG stories. For this challenge, participants had to make selections based on the daily topic.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the challenge:
Now that all of the songs have been selected and the Eurovision preparties, here are my top 10 (the rankings for all 40 songs are a the end of this entry. The preparties were an opportunity for the artists to perform their songs at various concerts. I believe there were five preparty concerts, which were held in Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, and Madrid.
Day 1. Best Central Europe: Poland ๐ต๐ฑ – Ochman’s River (Youtube vid: ***). Originally, this went to the Czech Republic ๐จ๐ฟ, but the WE ARE DOMI’s lead signer vocals have been pretty off during the properties.
Day 2. Best Nordic: Sweden ๐ธ๐ช – Cornelia Jakobs‘ Hold Me Closer (Youtube vid: ***). At first, this song bugged the hell out of me (I think because of her vocal fry style of singing), but it has grown on me and is inching its way into my top 10.
Day 3. Best Pop Song: Spain ๐ช๐ธ – Chanel’s Slo Mo (Youtube vid: ***). I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I think Chanel and her booty hypnotic will give Spain its best placement in a very long time. Random trivia: the main writer of the song originally wanted J Lo to record it, but she declined.
Day 4. Best Non-European: I guess this one is between Israel and Australia, but I gave this spot to Israel’s ๐ฎ๐ฑ Michael Ben David’s I.M (Youtube vid: ***).
Day 5. Best Western Europe: Spain ๐ช๐ธ – Chanel’s Slo Mo (Youtube vid: ***).
Day 6. Best Ballad: Poland ๐ต๐ฑ – Ochman’s River (Youtube vid: ***).
Day 7. Best Male Vocal: Poland ๐ต๐ฑ – Ochman’s River (Youtube vid: ***). Since I’ve mentioned Poland a few times, my best male vocal runner ups are Sam Ryder’s Space Man (the UK ๐ฌ๐ง; Youtube vid: ***) and Jรฉrรฉmie Makiese’s Miss You (Belgium ๐ง๐ช; Youtube vid: ***).
Day 8. Best Female Vocal: Greece ๐ฌ๐ท – Amanda Tenfjord’s Die Together (Youtube vid: ***). Until recently, it was Montenegro’s ๐ฒ๐ช Breathe by Vladana; however, Vladana has had a couple disappointing performances, and I’m not sure if she can really sing live.
Day 9. Best Caucus: Armenia ๐ฆ๐ฒ – Rosa Linn’s Snap (Youtube vid: ***). While the music video reminds me of the movie, Up, this song a steadily crept into my top 15. I’m not a huge fan of the other songs from the Caucus countries (Azerbaijan and Georgia).
Day 10. Best National Song: N/A, because I did not watch all of the national finals.
Day 11. Best National Final: See Day 10.
Day 12. Your Last Place: Switzerland๐จ๐ญ – Marius Bear’s Boys Do Cry (Youtube vid: ***). I’m sorry, but this song does nothing for me. Actually, I take that back a bit. While the song is not horrible, it’s just not as good (IMO) as the other 39 songs. Of course, this all could change depending on how he performs the song during Eurovision week.
Day 13. Worst Vocal (man some of these categories are kind of mean): Georgia ๐ฌ๐ช – Circus Mircus’s Lock Me In (Youtube vid: ***). Thinking about this, I don’t think the band has the worst vocal, but the song is not really my cup of tea.
Day 14. Best Lyrics: Sweden ๐ธ๐ช – Cornelia Jakobs‘ Hold Me Closer (Youtube vid: ***). As someone who has been in a relationship that he should not have been in, this song really hit home.
First Verse:
No need to apologize
‘Cause there’s nothing to regret
Well, this is not what I wanted
Guess all the good things come to an end
So baby, bye, bye
Wish you the best
But most of all, I wish that I could love you less
Well, maybe you’re right, I’ll find someone else
You say it isn’t me, but when did that ever help?
Chorus:
Hold me closer
Although you’ll leave before the sunrise
I’ll be bleeding, but don’t you mind, I’ll be fine
Oh, it kills me
I found the right one at the wrong time
But until the sunrise
Could you just hold me tight?
I know I have to let go, but just give me the night
‘Cause tomorrow will hurt
Hurt really bad
‘Cause I’m about to lose the best I ever had
Day 15. Potential Shock Non Qualifier: Ukraine ๐บ๐ฆ – Kalush Orchestra’s Stefania (Youtube vid: ***). While the song is not horrible, I think this group will receive a lot of sympathy votes . . . and I’ll leave it at that.
Day 16. Potential Shock Qualifier: Iceland ๐ฎ๐ธ – Systur’s Meรฐ Hรฆkkandi Sรณl (Youtube vid: ***) While I love this song, the fact that it is a very slow ballad and will be sung in Icelandic may not resonate with ESC audiences. That said, I hope I’m wrong because I would love to see this group in the final. If they make it to the final, I have a feeling that they will be in the bottom five.
Day 17. Potential Dead Last: Bulgaria ๐ง๐ฌ – Intelligent Music Project’s Intention (Youtube vid: ***). I gave the group this position because it seems as if 90% of the ESC fandom hates this song. To be perfectly honest, I do not think the song is THAT bad because it has made it onto a couple of my running playlists. However, I will agree with folks saying that the song is a bit generic and dated. Being that this song was the first released for the new ESC2022 season, I feel that a lot of folks wanted an amazing song to kick off Eurovision’s national section season.
Day 18. Potential Last in Final: Skipped because how can I pick who is going to be last in the final unless I know who is going to be in the final.
Day 19. Best Big Five: the UK ๐ฌ๐ง – Sam Ryder’s Space Man (Youtube vid: ***). I will say that the Big Five really brought their A-game to Eurovision this year. Actually, I take that back. The Big Five with the exception of Germany brought their A-game; Germany brought its C minus-game. Remember the Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) are the countries that contribute the most financially to the contest.
Day 20. Potential Winner: Poland ๐ต๐ฑ – Ochman’s River (Youtube vid: ***). Krystian’s vocals have been on point in the various pre Eurovision parties. While I think he is the best signer technically, I feel that he might have some issues connecting with the audience during his live performance.
Day 21. Biggest Disappointment: Georgia (again) ๐ฌ๐ช – Circus Mircus’ Lock Me In (Youtube vid: ***). While the song is not a huge disappointment, I think they were doing too much without really bringing anything to the table. A few reasons: A) This seems to be a group that tried to be secretive in order to gain more interest, but I think it’s backfiring; B) Releasing a “video” with a black screen as a sign of protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (kind of weird because the group that’s representing Ukraine released a video for its song); and C) The video that they released was pretty lame.
Day 22. Biggest Surprise: Ukraine ๐บ๐ฆ – Alina Pash’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Youtube vid: ***). The surprise was her withdrawal from the contest because she illegally traveled to Crimea a few years back, which is a no-no for Ukrainian citizens. To be perfectly honest, I think this song would have performed very well in the contest even without sympathy votes due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since Alina had to withdraw, Kalush Orchestra took her spot because the group came in second place in Ukraine’s national final. Random thought: I wonder if the folks from Kalush Orchestra told some Ukrainian official about Alina’s travels to Crimea. ๐
Day 23. Opinion about the Logo: Um, I do not really have an opinion. Actually, I do have a couple of opinions. 1. Why is the sponsor’s branding just as large as the contest’s logo? 2. Did they get the inspiration for the contest’s logo from Efendi’s (Azerbaijan ๐ฆ๐ฟ) staging for Mata Hari from last year’s contest?
Day 24. Best Eurovision Country: Based on historical data, I will have to go with Ireland ๐ฎ๐ช because they have the most wins with seven victories. In fact, Ireland won the contest three years in a row back in the 90s. Not to be a complete hater, I think most of those wins can be attributed to the old rule that countries had to sing in one of their official languages, and Ireland always submitted songs in English. Not saying that a song sung in English will give a country a win, but I think songs in English and French definitely have a bit of an advantage (at least in the old days).
Day 25. Most Staging Potential: The UK ๐ฌ๐ง – Sam Ryder’s Space Man (Youtube vid: ***). Word on the ESC streets says that there is a massive staging plan for Ryder’s performance. In fact, his staging will have to travel by ship from the UK to continental Europe and by cargo truck to Turin, Italy.
Day 26. Best Native Language: Serbia ๐ท๐ธ – Konstrakta’s In Corpore Sano (Youtube vid: ***). You have Serbian and Latin in Eurovision. What more can you ask for? Well, maybe Azerbaijan sending a song in Azerbaijani ;). Word on the street is this will be the first time an ESC song will contain a verse in Latin.
Day 27: Best Band: Moldova ๐ฒ๐ฉ – Zdob ลi Zdub & Advahov Brothers’ Trenuleลฃul (Youtube vid: ***). Just because Moldova always brings something zany and fun. Also, I like the folk/polka/rock fusion aspect of the musical arrangement even if the lead singer sings the song like he’s calling BINGO numbers. There’s even a viral dance for the song (Youtube vid: ***)
Day 28. Worst National Final: N/A because I did not watch any of the finals.
Day 29. Best Solo Artist: Albania ๐ฆ๐ฑ – Ronela’s Sekret (Youtube vid: ***). This is a tough one because I did not want to make this selection purely on singing ability. That said, I gave this spot to Ronela because she seems to have it all as a performer – a decent vocal, a catchy/pop-friendly song, a great stage presence, a nice personality, and that “je ne sais quoi”. If Eurovision had a Miss/Mr. Congeniality award, I would be shocked if she did not win it.
Day 30. Your Winner: At this point, I guess that it is pretty clear that I hope this will go Poland ๐ต๐ฑ – Ochman’s River.
My complete rankings:
Social Media Plug:
Run There, Drink That 
You have done this so wholeheartedly, I have to salute you. I might even watch this year though it’s always a bit painful as a British person! I might just support Spain if they get through! As well as Iceland, of course …
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I’m telling you, I think the UK is going to peform well in this year’s contest (fingers crossed). LOL a few weeks ago the hubby wanted to watch an old Eurovision 90s. I forget the year, but Spain came in second place that year. The Youtube video of the contest that we viewed was from the UK/BBC’s broadcast. I do not know who the commentators were, but they were so sassy . . . and I LOVED it.
Commentator #1: Country X has never won or hosted a Eurovision before.
Commentator #2: Well, after that performance Country X will NOT host next year’s contest.
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