From May 4 to 12, 2024, I went on my big trip of the year: a trip to Sweden and Denmark to watch the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in person, hosted in Malmö on the southern tip of Sweden. It was my first time going to both countries, my first time going to the contest, and my second time following it live. As an American, I naturally got tons of questions as to how I got interested in Eurovision. The long answer is rather complicated (I explained it in this post, skip to Dancing Lasha Tumbai), so the short answer is “an Australian friend got me into it” and that’s good enough for most people.

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Before the show started (May 4-6)

I was originally going to visit two cities on this trip: Copenhagen (where I’d be staying) and Malmö (where the contest took place). But after arriving at the Copenhagen airport on May 5, I added a third city in the trip: Gothenburg, where I met up with my Swedish friend Liv. She’s exactly as nerdy about Eurovision as me and this was also her first time visiting Eurovision, but unlike me she’s a lifelong fan. After arriving in the Gothenburg train station, I hugged Liv and we had a long excited conversation about what all we’d do together, then we explored some of her favorite places in the city. I wish I had taken more pictures of Gothenburg: it’s a delightful homely city and I’d love to visit again sometime.

Liv and me by Scandinavium, the building in Gothenburg that hosted Eurovision 1985.
We hummed the postcard music from that year while passing by that building. Every postcard that year had the same damn background music.

All three cities I visited had a very different personality, despite being in the same region. As I described in a message to my mom:

Gothenburg: Quaint and honest, full of community, always something under construction. Very homely for anyone who lives there.

Malmö: More of a work and immigrant city. Professionally designed, always ready to host international events.

Copenhagen: A biking haven full of little stores to explore at the streets. Feels small and intimate in scale, you can’t help but look around.

It’s not hard to see why Gothenburg hasn’t had the opportunity to host Eurovision in so many years. Malmö and Stockholm are far ahead of it in infrastructure and design, whereas Gothenburg is more of a work in progress. I can only hope that someday, Gothenburg catches up and gets their second chance to host! Sweden has won too many times already, but then again, they’re better at putting a good show than anyone else.

Terry Wogan felt the same about Ireland hosting in the 1990’s: he even said in an interview that Ireland should host every year because they put on the best shows. Of course he was biased because that’s his home country. I couldn’t help but do a few Terry Wogan impressions when we discussed the 2024 entries. “Now the Croatian entry is called… Rim Tim Tagi Dim! (cracks into laughter) Now now, don’t ask me what a rim tim tagi dim is. This is one of the big favorites this year, and I’m sure Serbia and Slovenia will give it douze points. Personally, I don’t think it stands a chance against the United Kingdom, but this is Eurovision—the best song never actually wins.”

I arrived in Copenhagen on May 6, then for the rest of the trip alternated between Copenhagen and Malmö daily. I got a good taste of both cities, but spent more time in Malmö overall. One of the first things I noticed in Copenhagen is a quintessentially Danish image:

This image would make for a nice jigsaw puzzle, now that I think of it.

Semifinal 1 (May 7)

I had two tickets for Eurovision 2024: the first was for the afternoon rehearsal of semifinal 1, six hours before the show started. Some people told me that watching the rehearsals in person is just as exciting as the live show, but I strongly disagree. Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome getting to see all the performances live, but I was thoroughly aware this was just a test run, so there wasn’t much investment at stake. And plus, I have bad issues with sensory overload, so I was not exactly thrilled about having to watch all this a second time, and I didn’t want to skip the live show entirely. Still, I met some lovely people at the rehearsal pictured below. Here’s a German family I met in the arena. I unfortunately didn’t get their contact info afterwards.

Some people say that Germans don’t care at all when a foreigner speaks their language, or will switch to English.
But if you’re actually fluent in German, they will be impressed.

I also met a pair of Lithuanian fans named Agnė (left) and Rokas (center) in the arena, and had dinner with them afterwards. They’ll show up again later!

When meeting Eurovision fans in person, a nice icebreaker question is “what’s your favorite Eurovision song from your country?”
(Mine is Dschinghis Khan.)

I wanted to watch the first semifinal in Eurovision Village, which this year took place in Folkets Park. But when I got there, I found out that for some reason, this year only the final was broadcast there. My phone was low on battery and I needed it to get back home, so I went inside a bar to charge it as the semifinal was going on, then I scrambled to the apartment I was staying in.

At least I made it in time for the qualifier reveals, which are the exciting part. Unfortunately I didn’t get to vote in time, but as a voter from the rest of the world, I was allowed to vote in both semifinals. It was zero surprise that Croatia qualified—they were without a doubt the highlight of the semifinal. But I was pleasantly surprised by the slow-paced native language songs from Serbia and Portugal making it through. And Portugal has now qualified four years in a row! They’re no longer an underdog country. I’m also pleased that Ireland qualified for the first time since 2018, even though I’m in two minds about their song. The day prior, I had met a crowd of Irish fans in a pub (duh, they’re Irish), and they were in high spirits about “Doomsday Blue”. Turns out their optimism paid off!

Semifinal 2 (May 9)

Now this was the really exciting day: I got to see the show live in the Malmö Arena! To avoid repeating the mistake I made two days prior, I decided to use a perk that I had as a rest of the world voter. This year, fans from non-participating countries were allowed to vote for 24 hours before each show began, so in the morning of May 9, I gave five votes each to Greece, Armenia, Norway, and the Netherlands.

Tip for anyone going to Eurovision live: it never hurts to get in line as early as possible! While waiting in line, you’ll meet fans as zealous as you from any country or background you could ever imagine. Before entering the arena, Liv and I met a British-Greek kid who was about 10 years old and knew everything about Eurovision trivia. He and I quizzed each other on Eurovision facts, and Liv even said he reminded her of herself when she was a kid. I could see him growing up to be the next Eurovision YouTuber. I’m happy for this kid getting to go to Eurovision at such a young age. Liv is a lifelong fan and didn’t get to go until this year!

Left to right: Liv, me, Vlad from Ukraine (one of my blog commenters), Frank from the Netherlands who runs the YouTube channel Eurovision OLD.

I had a few other friends who were also watching the second semifinal in the arena. Before we went off to our respective seats, the four of us met on a bench inside the arena. We were mostly seated in different parts of the bottom floor, but Liv and I got neighboring seats. And god damn, we really lucked out with our choice of seats! Shoutouts to Frank for pointing out this opening of seats a few weeks before the show. This wouldn’t have been possible without him! The two of us got seats right in front of the stage with a perfect view of the hosts and contestants. It was a little awkward to see the postcards on screen so high above, but seeing the stage is more important anyway.

I don’t know about you, but I think this photo kicks ass.

It felt so unreal to watch Eurovision live directly from the arena, just over a year after I became a fan. The arena had over ten thousand people, yet I heard the songs and hosts crystal clear, and even exchanged remarks with Liv between each song. My entire field of vision was Eurovision 2024, not constrained within a rectangular screen. I experienced the crazy lighting effects firsthand, and even got a sensation of fire during all the pyrotechnics. I never would have guessed pyrotechnics could replicate the feel of fire, not just the look! Every single song was a joy to watch live.

This year had an amazingly strong lineup of songs and I think almost all of them would’ve reached the final in 2013 or 2014, the last two years I reviewed. The only song that I’d call a dud was “Scared of Heights” from Iceland (semifinal 1). The addition of the Big Five and host performing in the semifinals meant that I got to see all 37 songs live from the arena. I won’t discuss much about particular songs here. Every song had something special about its performance, so that’s better saved for my full review of 2024, which will be after I review all prior years.

Just know that after I saw Nemo perform “The Code” live on stage, I predicted that Switzerland would win. The performance had the right kind of appeal to both the jury and televote. Professional, slick, eye-catching, perfect vocals. And I knew from the many Swiss fans dressed as Nemo that this song would get lots of televote support. The Netherlands, Croatia, and Switzerland had the most fans dressed up in support of their songs, so I figured they’d get the most televote points.

Almost doesn’t feel real that I was in here.

My mom even got into the hype of Eurovision this year, because she wanted to see if she could find me on screen. I believe it was her first time watching Eurovision live since she moved to the United States, which was before I was born. She was in Germany during my trip, so she watched the second semifinal live with her friends on ARD One. She told me that her favorites were Switzerland, France, Armenia, and San Marino (who didn’t qualify). She mentioned France made her want to cry and Armenia has the kind of oriental beat she loves to dance to. I can actually see her liking San Marino: she loves this type of alternative rock. My mom didn’t care for all the songs, but she was blown away by the show and kept telling me how much she loved it. She mentioned the eye-catching stage, the humorous hosts who spoke many languages, and the surprise performance of “Cha Cha Cha”. If we’re both at home during Eurovision 2025, maybe I could watch the grand final with her.

The qualifier reveals were amazing to watch live. I was so shocked when Latvia was the first, but pleased they broke their unlucky streak! It always feels amazing when one of your favorites makes it through, doubly so in the arena. When the last qualifier was revealed, I was sure it would be Armenia whereas Liv thought it would be someone else, like Belgium or Malta. We cheered and hugged when Armenia was the last qualifier, because we both absolutely adore their song.

Bonus photo the day before the final featuring SchlagerLucas from Sweden. He got to watch the grand final from the arena.

Grand Final (May 11)

Midway through the day of the grand final, I learned about one of the most controversial events in Eurovision history. Joost Klein, singer of the fan favorite entry from the Netherlands, was disqualified due to being under police investigation.

It pisses me off so much that he was disqualified, both because his song is my winner of 2024, and because it was unfair to rob him of his lifelong dream. I don’t know the full story of course, but to me it seems like the EBU didn’t give him private time when he needed it, then overly punished him for lashing out. Participating in Eurovision was a big emotional moment for him, so the camera crew could have totally respected his wishes not to be filmed. Or at least, he could have had a lesser punishment. Then we would have been able to see him get 300-some points in the televote, and fans would have cheered. But instead, his disqualification caused a chain reaction of broadcasters, fans, and other contestants being angered at the Eurovision staff. It’s a completely disproportionate penalty and will remain a stain on the contest’s history.

Left to right: me, Liv, Rokas, Agnė, Vlad.
Vlad left to watch the final outdoors. The rest of us stayed in the bar.

But I was willing to ignore this drama for the sake of the grand final. Many fans who didn’t get to go to the arena wanted to do it in Eurovision Village, but I didn’t want to watch it outdoors because it got so cold at night. Instead, my new friends from Lithuania offered for me to go to the Kappa Bar in Malmö for a Eurovision quiz night, then stay there to watch the final. I brought Liv along and in the quiz, she and I did most of the work. Have a look:

We got full points! And a coupon at the bar as a reward.
(This is Liv’s handwriting, not mine.)

I should bring bigger flags next time. (Photo from here)

The four of us watched the grand final live on SVT 1, on the TV next to our table. There was another TV by a different table whose color quality was so much better, which was a bit annoying. My mom watched the final with her German friends, and we messaged each other about it after the show. I liked watching the show in the bar because it’s lively and energetic, but still respectful to my sensory overload problems. Do most people not get insanely exhausted after spending four hours in a huge noisy crowd? I have no damn clue.

People in the bar cheered the loudest when Croatia was about to perform, so it makes sense they got the most points in the televote. Since the bar had a stable Internet connection, I voted after the songs were over. I love everything about “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” and thus gave Croatia 10 of my 20 votes. The others were 5 to Armenia, 3 to Greece, and 2 to Lithuania. In the semifinals I normally vote for which songs I think need the most support, whereas in the final I vote for which songs I want to win. The televoting results were a joy to watch; they’re the second most exciting part of Eurovision behind the qualifiers. I absolutely love getting surprised in the show.

A few thoughts about the results: First, I didn’t think Germany’s attempt at winning the jury’s favor would actually work. Their national selection was very obviously an attempt at jury bait and I didn’t care for any single song from it, but I’m relieved Germany ended with a respectable 12th place instead of yet another last place. I hope this motivates Germany to try sending a televote-friendly song next year, or encourages them to bring back their language. A German-language entry is the number one thing I’ve wanted since becoming a Eurovision fan.

Next time I go on a trip like this, I’ll bring a proper camera.

I didn’t vote for Switzerland, but I’m happy with “The Code” as a winner. It’s full of winner energy, to quote a phrase I often use in my blog. What else, let’s see… I considered Croatia second most likely to win, so it makes sense they got second place. I’m pleased for France and Ireland getting high results, a resurgence of their glory years. Portugal got respect from the jury, Armenia got respect from jury and televotes, and I was so shocked when the televoters gave the UK zero points. I’d love it so much if Germany and the UK tried televote bait next time. Enough with all that radio pop!

I’m relieved that for the first time since 2013, the last place isn’t a Big Five or host country. This means that the last place in the grand final doesn’t feel like a last place at all, but rather a 25th place. Still, I think Norway deserved a better result than the bottom and if I was Norwegian I’d be salty.

I was totally exhausted on the train ride back to Copenhagen and could barely stay awake. Still: worth it.

My overall experience

Honestly, not everything in my Eurovision trip went as I hoped. I got exhausted from being around people for so many hours of the day, I hadn’t prepared all the technology I should have, and the drama (not just involving the Netherlands) left a REALLY sour taste in my mouth. At the Copenhagen airport, I met an American couple who were also on their way home from Eurovision. They were exhausted from the drama and told me the contest was so much more peaceful in Liverpool last year. I almost wish I had gone to last year’s Eurovision instead, but there’s one advantage of Malmö: there are a lot fewer Swedes than Brits and the arena has more seats, so getting tickets to the arena was way easier this year.

It took a few days after arriving home to recover from all this madness, but now I think I’ve recovered well enough. I’ll cherish the good memories I made in this trip for the rest of my life. I don’t think I will go to Eurovision 2025; I can’t use any vacation days till March of next year and I’d rather my next trip be something more relaxed. But two or more years from now, if I feel up for it I could go again. After all the nasty drama, I can’t say I would love to go to Eurovision again. But if the controversy clears up in a future year, I could see myself returning.

Regardless of all the drama, I think every Eurovision fan deserves the opportunity to visit the contest in person at least once. You’ll get to share your nerdy interest with fans from any place you could imagine, and that’s what really matters, is it not?

Special thanks to all the friends I met during this trip. You are all awesome. And to my mother for suggesting I go to the contest in person.