Tag Archives: eurovision 2026

Obligatory post on Germany’s selection for Eurovision 2026

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Here are my thoughts on my country’s entry for Eurovision 2026, “Fire” by Sarah Engels:

It’s generic and beige radio pop with zero personality that sounds like something I’ve heard hundreds of times before and proves the German Eurovision team has learned nothing. This is exactly the kind of song I wanted Germany to stop sending. The national final was overloaded with songs of this type so it was inevitable that would happen. Not a single one of these songs gripped me or inspired me, but I would have been at least somewhat happy if they sent one of the two German-language songs, because I feel very strongly that Germany needs to stop pretending their language doesn’t exist. But I’ve said that like a million times in my Eurovision blog post series.

Yes, I pasted this paragraph from my review of the 2024 selection. The only change I made was replacing “NDR” with “the German Eurovision team”, because this year SWR organized the selection instead, but the lineup of songs is just as dull either way. And yes, as with 2024, the selection had only nine songs in total and only two were in German. Also, in the above paragraph, when I said none of the songs gripped me or inspired me, that was a lie. There is one entry in this selection I do really love, and I’ll save it for the end of the post.

I should note that I didn’t actually watch the German selection live, though I did see a few snippets of past German-speaking contestants (Paola del Medico and Michael Schulte) talking about their experience in Eurovision, as well as Hazel Brugger being Hazel Brugger (I mean that in a good way). To those that don’t speak German, Hazel’s sections probably just seem like a bunch of yapping, but I can promise you her humor is even funnier in her native language. On that day (February 28) I instead watched Finland’s national final which consisted entirely of bangers. It was pretty obvious “Liekinheitin” would win but I loved the show anyway.

I’ll give the German producers this: they put a lot of effort into staging each song as good as they can. I suppose that’s part of Germany’s approach these days, making the staging sell the song as good as possible even if the tune itself is widely regarded as “meh”. It worked with “Always on the Run” back in 2024—it’s crazy how much fans turned on that song after Isaak performed it in Malmö.

The song lineup though, it is just so beige it hurts. One entry in this selection is my favorite by far, but I’ll save it for the end of this post. “Jeanie” by Dreamboys is a radio pop song that is pleasant enough to listen to and has decent harmonies but doesn’t quite manage to grip me. “Wonderland” by Laura Nahr starts off slow but is decent enough once it picks up the pace, but the only part I really like is the slightly dissonant “wonder-wonder-wonderland” bit. “A OK” by Milo “Myle” Hoelz is without a doubt the most boring song of the lineup, basically a total non-event.

None of the songs I just talked about made it to the superfinal, and neither did the two songs in German. “Herz” by Bela is a decent enough boybop in German with a swing beat similar to our last winner “Satellite”, but it doesn’t have quite the gripping factor “Baller” by Abor and Tynna has. I’ll dedicate a bit more time to the token joke entry, “Ciao Ragazzki” by Ragazzki. I’ve never been totally able to make my mind up about that song, but Marti and David’s enthusiasm on stage makes me feel absolutely gutted that they didn’t win or even make it to the superfinal. Marti Fischer released several YouTube videos in German promoting his song and it’s very clear he wanted to go to Eurovision with this. He clearly designed the song with the thought of “what is the most Eurovisiony song I could possibly write?” The chorus is so repetitive and the rapping is too talk-singy, but their excitement on stage makes me somewhat like it. I think I have a soft spot for two goofy guys having the time of their life on stage—see also Jedward and Væb. Unfortunately the candidates for the superfinal were chosen completely by juries, which doomed this song’s chances.

Of the three songs that made it to the superfinal, I already discussed the winning song “Fire”—it’s an ultra-generic overchoreographed girlbop and total Fuego clone, a very disappointing choice for Germany in the contest. “Optimist” by Molly Sue is the token gloomy sadgirl ballad every recent German selection seems to have, and I admit it’s one of the better songs, mainly because Molly really feels the lyrics and they have a good theme to go with them. “Black Glitter” by Wavvyboi is also one of the better songs and I would’ve preferred it to go to Eurovision over “Fire”, since it’s a major key rock song with a fair bit of personality and gains a decent rock beat once it gets going.

Eurofans whose countries do national finals often say that with other countries they want their favorite entry to win, but with their own country they want the entry best suited for Eurovision to win. I’m very much this way with German national finals. In 2024 none of the songs felt particularly suited to the contest, in 2025 “Baller” was very clearly the best choice for Eurovision, and in 2026 with the return of juries to semifinals, “Ciao Ragazzki” might have actually gotten a decent result. But it sure as hell isn’t my favorite entry this year: that would be “When I’m with You” by Malou Lovis. It’s relaxed and just a tad jazzy, and it makes for excellent casual listening. It’s nice to have a romantic song that’s just plain wholesome and positive for a change, instead of all those bitter breakup tunes. It’s got sweet romantic lyrics, it’s quite interesting compositionally, I can put it on whenever I need to unwind after a long day, what more could you ask for? I’ll gladly forgive Malou Lovis for not singing in German, because if a song is good enough it doesn’t matter what language it’s in. This was obviously not going to win the German Eurovision selection—the only way it would have is if the juries and televoters were all replaced with clones of me.

So yeah, the German selection actually had a few decent songs and one that I surprisingly love. But the winning song is exactly what I feared would win, and I am just so disappointed in my country for choosing it. Or rather, in my country for letting the international juries (of whom not a single one was German) advance it to the superfinal and allow the televoters to pick it as their favorite. All of this means that this year, I just have to root for other countries. I won’t spoil too much on my tastes, but as of right now my two biggest favorites are Greece and Denmark.

My plans for posts about Eurovision 2026

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Hi everyone, I haven’t posted on this blog in a little while! I just wanted to give you an update on how I plan to cover Eurovision 2026 on my blog.

I’ve decided after a lot of thinking that I will in fact watch Eurovision 2026. There are already quite a few great songs selected and I just won’t be able to resist watching them live, plus it’ll be a fun thing to do with online friends (and maybe some family members on the final if I can convince them). I cannot say I’m excited for the next Eurovision because of the elephant in the room, but I do still want to watch it live and try to enjoy it as much as I can. The one thing I’m not sure about is whether I will vote in this year’s contest, because as a rest of the world voter I’m pretty sure my money would go to directly to the EBU. I’ll see how I feel when the show happens.

My plan is to release four blog posts about Eurovision 2026. They’re as follows:

The first post will be a discussion on the German national final for the year. I won’t actually be watching the German selection live this year, because it’s on the same day as Finland’s selection which is a fest of bangers, not a fest of dull radio pop. But writing a blog post about the German selection has become a tradition for me so I intend to continue that. As with the 2024 selection, I’m really disappointed the song lineup is so bland and has so few songs in German, so I’m preemptively disappointed for whatever my country will send.

Now for the second post: I’ve been watching lots of national finals this season, but I won’t make any posts reviewing a full national final this year. Instead, in March I’ll write a post listing a few hidden gems from national finals that didn’t make it to Eurovision.

And finally, after I watch Eurovision 2026 live, you should expect a pair of posts reviewing the show after the week is over. Rest assured, it’ll include plenty of ranting about what incompetent fuckbags the EBU are. But it should also include some of my usual analysis of what makes a song great.

Iceland is skipping Eurovision 2026; here are my thoughts

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Today, Iceland became the fifth country to quit Eurovision 2026 over Israel’s participation. They were on the fence about it for a few days, but now they’ve made their choice, helped no doubt by all the protesters outside the RÚV headquarters. There was just no way the Icelandic public would want their country participating in Eurovision during these circumstances.

And that’s actually so fucking sad. I mean, I’ll give a heartfelt takk to RÚV for doing the right thing, but it’s sad that it had to come down to this. All the countries that love Eurovision the most are leaving. The Netherlands and Spain both have massive Eurovision fanbases, and while I don’t know much about how popular the contest is in Slovenia, I do know the country has a knack for sending fan favorites even if they don’t score well on the night, and that a lot of the country’s best-known musicians took part in the contest. I know from my trips to Malmö and Basel that the Irish are absolutely obsessed with Eurovision, and I can tell the Icelanders are just as obsessed if not more. Most of Iceland’s recent entries have been great, interesting songs, even some I wasn’t too kind to in my blog posts. “Með hækkandi sól” from 2022 has massively grown on me the past few months, and even the fan unfavorite “Scared of Heights” from 2024 is growing on me because a friend of mine frequently mentions how much he loves it (hi if you’re reading this!).

Iceland is the country many fans believe would’ve won in 2020, and even the country where much of the Eurovision movie was filmed. Till this point, they had never missed a Eurovision year except in 1998 and 2002, which was just due to the relegation system. The fact that a country that loves Eurovision this much is leaving the contest is not fucking normal. It proves that the EBU has made a shamefully wrong decision. Why is the EBU doing this? Why the FUCK is the EBU doing this??? WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE TO LOSE BY JUST BANNING ISRAEL ALREADY LIKE THEY DID WITH RUSSIA? Answer: they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. But nooooo, they want to do everything the hard way. I don’t fucking understand why they prioritize keeping Israel in over four, now five other countries.

I mean come on, even Eurovision legend Johnny Logan thinks Israel should be banned from the contest, because he’s actually a sensible person unlike those fuckhead idiots at the EBU. Noa, one of the singers of “There Must Be Another Way” from 2009, also believes her country should skip the next contest in solidarity with all the suffering civilians. That’s exactly what I wanted Israel to do since late 2023. That’s exactly what they should’ve done and Eurovision would’ve never been constantly on the brink of disaster. No one would have thought the worse of Kan if they decided to just read the fucking room!

Maybe there’s no point in me ranting about this, since I’m sure plenty of other people are doing the same. But as someone who became a massive Eurofan since 2023 and made a lot of great friendships thanks to the contest, I need to get these thoughts off my chest. The EBU can’t just fucking spam the phrase “United by Music” everywhere and pretend everything’s OK. It was a great slogan at first but now the EBU just uses it to rationalize their shitty, cowardly decisions.

I genuinely did not think it would be possible for any Eurovision year to be a greater trainwreck than 2024. I was wrong. Eurovision 2026 is still five months away and it’s already turned into a worse shitshow. The next contest is going to be an absolute fucking disaster and then the EBU will either have to REALLY change things or face even more countries dropping out. Will future Eurovision contests recover from this? I don’t fucking know. The best thing I can hope for is that Eurovision 2026 is just an ultra-dark spot in the contest’s history and the EBU will then have no choice but to get their shit together. But I don’t know how on earth the contest can regain the trust of fans after all these blunders. We’ll just have to see what happens.

Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. I can’t say it enough times. Fuck the EBU.

My thoughts on the EBU’s decision on Israel participating in Eurovision 2026

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Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Just imagine me repeatedly saying that a hundred times. Or more, if you like.

Today, the European Broadcasting Union made the immoral decision to allow Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026, even though that country is still bombing the shit out of Gaza, even though they manipulated the televote with some help from their government in both the past two contests, and even though four broadcasters (RTVE from Spain, AVROTROS from the Netherlands, RTÉ from Ireland, RTVSLO from Slovenia) said they would withdraw from the contest if Israel is allowed in. And these four countries did indeed quit the contest for 2026.

Muchas gracias, RTVE. Dank je wel, AVROTROS. Thank you and go raibh maith agat to RTÉ. And najlepša hvala to RTVSLO for being the first broadcaster to threaten to withdraw. You guys have so much more spine and integrity than the EBU. Fuck the EBU, by the way. Fuck the EBU. Israel’s broadcaster Kan are incredibly fucking selfish as well, to insist on participating in the contest despite how much of a shitshow it would be for everyone else.

I’m at a loss about this decision. It is so obviously wrong on so many levels to do this, and I am pissed off and disgusted at the EBU for doing this. Even if I had a full-time job that could pay for it, I will not go to Eurovision 2026. Not just because the EBU made an immoral decision, but also because I believe there will be a huge amount of protests against Israel participating in 2026, and I would not feel safe being surrounded by so many. I don’t think there will be quite as many protests as there were in Malmö 2024, since Malmö is such a Muslim-heavy city, but there will be a lot nonetheless. I felt very unsafe surrounded by all those protests when I went to Malmö and I’d much rather not go through a repeat of that in Vienna 2026. There would simply be no way to ignore the elephant in the room if I go to the next contest. I have no idea yet if I will even watch the show at all. Maybe I’ll just watch the songs and rank them on my own, and not engage with the Israeli entry at all.

Honestly I’m starting to question why I even went to the contest in 2024, when I knew ever since October 2023, when the war in Gaza began, that Israel participating would turn it into a massive shitshow. I don’t regret going there—I’m glad I got to see all the entries from that contest live (semifinal 1 in a rehearsal, semifinal 2 the live show), and I’m glad I got to meet and make a handful of friends there, except for one person I spent most of the trip with who was a complete asshole to me. I’m similarly glad I went to Eurovision 2025, which was a much happier experience for me, despite the show ending on an extremely sour note where the country that should’ve been banned almost won.

The EBU has such a fucking obvious double standard it’s unreal. Back in 2022, they were quick to ban Russia when only two broadcasters (ERR and Yle) outright said they would not participate if Russia is allowed in. To be fair, there were more that made it clear they felt Russia should not be allowed in, but still, the EBU has a big double standard and is willing to bend backwards to keep Israel participating even if it causes four other countries to leave the contest, probably because they’re scared that if they don’t do that they’ll be called antisemitic.

I’ll say it a few more times: Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU.

Fuck the EBU.