Eurovision week is here. And really, have we ever needed the silliness, the joy and love of Eurovision more?

That said, many will be relieved that – so far – there’s less of the backstage drama this year, although protests about Israel’s participation are still a feature.

The buzz

Malta has played a strong media game, with the controversy about ‘Serving Kant’ (kant = singing in Maltese) featuring on Newsnight a few weeks ago. Yes, it sounds exactly like you think it would when sung. Inevitably the various broadcasters stepped in and now the song is simply called ‘Serving’. But with no jury votes in the semi finals this year, media hype matters to get those televotes up. To that point, Estonia’s ‘Espresso Macchiato’ , a pastiche of Italian stereotypes, has received a lot of coverage. I guess it’s ironic, or something. 

The frontrunner is Sweden’s ‘Bara Bada Bastu’. This is a song in Swedish but by a Finnish band about the Finnish pastime of sauna. This is a crowd favourite in the style of recent runners-up Cha Cha Cha (Finland)  and Rim Tim Tagi Dim (Croatia). In any other year, I’m not sure this would be the winner but there are few standouts in 2025, so maybe the bookies will be right again.

If anyone could catch Sweden, it could be Austria or France. 

With similarities to last year’s winner, Austria is an operatic-vocals number with an upbeat twist. I like it. France has been in a groove of sending simply-staged, beautifully sung, heartfelt ballads recently. This year is no exception and ‘Maman’ might clinch it for them. Listen out for the last word of the song. 

The others

There’s a real mixture of styles this year with healthy amounts of folk/trad influenced tunes, which I always welcome at Eurovision, and a smattering of 90s style techno beats. General lack of key changes all round.

I’m enjoying the Icelandic Jedward-esque duo singing about their rowboats, Irish entry about space-dog Laika, Greece, Latvia, and Belgium’s dance track. And a shout out for Denmark – Sissal says she has a mission to make it cool for a mum to be a pop star. 

The innuendo (though actually it’s more in your face than that) is brought to you this year by Malta (as mentioned earlier), Australia ‘Milkshake Man’ and Finland ‘Ich Komme’. Australia is catchy and might do better than expected. 

And what of the UK?

Positively, the UK has committed to trying new styles and artists at Eurovision over coming years. Remember Monday, who are great singers with a stage background, deliver a solid bop, with hints of country, modern musical and interesting tempo changes. It reminds me too much of Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ but it’s a good performance and very hard to see how the audience at home will react. Anything in the top half would be a good outing for the UK. 

Look forward to seeing everyone’s comments on the night!