Bonjour, vilkomen, ciao and welcome to my Eurovision Song Contest blog for 2025!
I can’t quite believe that it’s just over a year since I last blogged with you and shared my thoughts, feelings and memories on all things Eurovision. Longtime readers will know that I’ve been doing this blog for Edge Hill University since I first attended the Contest in the host city of Belgrade in Serbia, way back in 2008. Back then, and over several years, I travelled to the host countries. These days (and this year), I’m watching from home with drinks and nibbles to hand.
Welcome to any new readers. Hopefully I can add a little something to your Eurovision experience in 2025.
This year we head to Basel in Switzerland, following Nemo’s win with their song The Code in Stockholm last year.
There are 37 participating countries this year, which includes the ‘Big 6’ who are automatically qualified for the Grand Final. This means that in each of the two semi-finals, ten songs from each will join France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and hosts Switzerland to contest for the crown this year.
The semi-finals are on Tuesday 13 May and Thursday 15 May, with the Grand Final on Saturday 17 May. In the UK, all television broadcasts are via BBC1 and BBC iPlayer, as well as the live feeds from eurovision.tv.
I feel slightly more prepared this year, as the Contest is happening a week later, and I’ve been listening to the songs and doing my Eurovision homework. As with the last couple of years, I won’t see any performance footage until the live television broadcasts. What sounds good now might look and sound lousy on the night, as much as what sounds pants now might look brilliant and therefore sounds better. Let’s see!
What’s great about the ESC every year is as Terry Wogan used to say, it’s “the great unpredictability of it all”. Whether that’s your favourite song winning – or not, or a song coming from nowhere and surprising everyone and upsetting the betting odds.
Sweden have been locked-in as favourites to win for months now. If they win this year, they will have won eight Contests and that would take them clear of the joint seven victories they have, along with Ireland. More on their potential/probable success on the blog in the days ahead…
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So, all eyes turn to Switzerland as the host Country for ESC2025. Eurovision really is the history book on the shelf that’s always repeating itself, in some ways. Switzerland hosted the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, in Lugano. Not only that, but they also won the first Eurovision Song Contest with the song Refrain, sung by Lyss Assia.
Aah, the beautiful chanson stylings of the mid 1950s. As I say to my students when I’m teaching ESC related lectures, when we look at archive footage, this was the pop music of the day, even if it looks and sounds a bit old fashioned now.
I had an encounter with Lyss Assia at the Grand Final of my first Eurovision in Belgrade in 2008. For whatever reason, before she went on stage to do a link with the presenters, she was standing in the aisle next to my seat. Seemingly abandoned by whoever was looking after her, with them perhaps not realising who she was. Leaving a Eurovision legend standing in the aisle seemed a little impolite, so my friend Milija offered her his seat. And so it was that for a few minutes I was sitting next to, and chatting to, Eurovision royalty. I so totally wanted to take a selfie! I thought better of it. I’ve got the memory of chatting to the first winner of the thing that I care so deeply about – that’s the ESC, not Lyss Assia! It’s a special memory that always makes me smile… and because the producers left her standing in the aisle!
I have another story about being in a queue my dear friend Ruxandra at a conference behind Jürgen Habermas. But that’s for another day…
My earliest memory of the ESC is when Brotherhood of Man won in 1976 with Save Your Kisses For Me. At the time I was five years old. For many of us, our earliest ESC memories are from watching with family, and so it was for me.
People often ask me when Eurovision took a proper hold on me. Well, it was ESC1988 and the climax of the voting (see below). With one jury left to vote, the United Kingdom were five points ahead of Switzerland. If we got eight points or more the UK would win, anything less…
https://youtu.be/OKbWsaQb11w?feature=shared
Céline Dion won the Contest for Switzerland for the first time since 1956, pipping the UK’s Scott Fitzgerald by ONE POINT – quelle dommage!
Céline was a largely unknown (beyond Canada and French speaking territories) French Quebec singer. And now she is unquestionably one of the greatest female vocalists of all time. Blimey, you can hear her pipes in this vocal in 1988 – just brilliant, although the less said about the outfit the better 😀 …
Why we ever forgave her… well yeah, that voice will forgive anything! And I’m team Céline all the way, but maybe not that night or the day after!
Fast forward to 2024 and Switzerland won for the third time. For both performance and vocal it was a deserving winner on the night – although I can’t say it’s been a song I have listened to much since…
Kudos to Nemo for bringing the ESC back to Switzerland for 2025!
(this was the confirmation of Basel as host last year)
As always, we’re in for a treat for the eye and the ear, and the staging is looking fabulous…
There is lots for me to guide you through over the next few days here on the blog, but in the meantime you can get your euro-party started with…
The non-stop Euovision playlist
and
The Winner’s playlist
Plenty for us to look back on and look forward to as the blog is back for all things ESC2025!
Thanks for reading along (again). I will be back on Monday with my preview of the first semi-final which takes place on Tuesday 13 May at 8pm on BBC1 (UK time).
In the meantime – on y va!
😀
xx