2025 Eurovision Song Contest

[dryrunguy]

They debuted this at a football event? The French are so weird.

And it's a ballad, no less.

[dryrunguy]

So, now that we have the songs, now it a good time to remind everyone what happens next. That would be the two semifinals that will select 10 songs each to advance to the final. But first...

The Big 5 and last year's winner do not have to qualify and automatically advance to the final. They are:

France
Germany
Italy
Spain
United Kingdom
Switzerland (last year's winner)

The following countries (15) will compete in the first semifinal on Tuesday, May 13:

FIRST HALF
Sweden
Ukraine
Slovenia
Iceland
Estonia
Poland
Portugal

SECOND HALF
Netherlands
Azerbaijan
Albania
San Marino
Belgium
Cyprus
Croatia
Norway

Only these countries and Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the Rest of the World (people in countries not competing) will vote in the first semifinal.

The following countries (16) will compete in the second semifinal on Thursday, May 15:

FIRST HALF
Austria
Lithuania
Armenia
Montenegro
Greece
Ireland
Australia
Latvia

SECOND HALF
Czechia
Israel
Malta
Finland
Denmark
Luxembourg
Georgia
Serbia

Only these countries along with France, Germany, UK, and the Rest of the World will vote in the second semifinal.

Tomorrow, I will try to make a point of sharing some overall thoughts on the lay of the land--because there are a lot of interesting things to point out.

[skatingfan]

[dryrunguy]

Hi, everyone. I have not kept up with this thread. Eurovision is already here. Here are the qualifiers from last night's first semifinal in the order in which they were announced:

Norway
Albania (my personal favorite this year by a mile)
Sweden (my predicted winner of the contest and personal second choice)
Iceland
Netherlands
Poland
San Marino
Estonia
Portugal
Ukraine

The shock non-qualifier of the night was Belgium. It wasn't a shock last year. But yes, this non-qualification was a significant shock for a song that once (early on) led in the odds and was the predicted winner for a lot of folks. I thought the performance was quite good except for the first minute where it just seemed to take too long for the song (and the vocal) to kick in. But chances are it was much simpler than that--Europe simply didn't like the song. Techno is a hard sell. No one has really done the genre well since Ukraine in 2021. The presence of Cyprus in this semifinal, another techno track, didn't help either.

[Suliso]

This thing is happening in my town this year. We're mostly avoiding areas where visitors might congregate, though.

[dryrunguy]

This thing is happening in my town this year. We're mostly avoiding areas where visitors might congregate, though.

Will you change your mind if Switzerland wins (again) on Saturday? It's not outlandish. We got to see Zoë Më's staging for the first time last night. Other than a few glitches with the hand-held camera (which creates a very intimate feel for a very intimate song), it's radically different than anything else in the contest. And it's a downright beautiful song (sung in French). People are seriously talking about her as a potential winner--at least top 10. It genuinely harkens back to Salvador Sobral's win for Portugal in 2017 (but perhaps even better as an overall package).

[dryrunguy]

The Semifinal 2 qualifiers for Thursday were (in the order they were announced):

Lithuania (my personal favorite in this group)
Israel
Armenia
Denmark
Austria (a potential popera winner)
Luxembourg
Finland (all power to the female orgasm!)
Latvia (my #2 personal favorite in this group)
Malta
Greece

[Suliso]

This thing is happening in my town this year. We're mostly avoiding areas where visitors might congregate, though.

Will you change your mind if Switzerland wins (again) on Saturday? It's not outlandish. We got to see Zoë Më's staging for the first time last night. Other than a few glitches with the hand-held camera (which creates a very intimate feel for a very intimate song), it's radically different than anything else in the contest. And it's a downright beautiful song (sung in French). People are seriously talking about her as a potential winner--at least top 10. It genuinely harkens back to Salvador Sobral's win for Portugal in 2017 (but perhaps even better as an overall package).

Forgot to answer... It's not that the contest is bad, we watched some on TV and I wish all the luck to both Switzerland and Latvia. The reason we're not going anywhere in person is because we don't like large crowds much + everything is even more overpriced than usual this week.

[dryrunguy]

Okie dokey. The Grand Final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest begins just under 3 hours from now.

Here are the latest odds: https://eurovisionworld.com/odds/eurovision

If I were a betting person, I'd give Switzerland a serious look. But the winner will probably be Sweden.

Here is how I plan to allocate my 20 Rest of the World votes:

Albania=9 votes
Poland=4 votes
Sweden=3 votes
Switzerland=2 votes
Lithuania=2 votes

I really wish I had more votes left for Latvia and Greece. But Albania needs me.

If you watch, enjoy!

[Oploskoffie]

Okie dokey. The Grand Final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest begins just under 3 hours from now.

Here are the latest odds: https://eurovisionworld.com/odds/eurovision

If I were a betting person, I'd give Switzerland a serious look. But the winner will probably be Sweden.

So far, as you're probably watching as I type, you're quite right about La Suisse Sweden increasingly in need of some very kind public voting later on. Also having a little look through the reactions on BlueSky; the Italian mouse caused... mixed emotions "Was about to tell the Italian voting mouse to **** off then it gave us 12 points so it can stay. #Eurovision"

[Oploskoffie]

The difference between jury and public for Switzerland... Damn...

[dryrunguy]

The difference between jury and public for Switzerland... Damn...

I've never seen anything like that before in my life. Second with the jury. Zero points from the public. I can't wait to pour through all of the voting data later tonight.

Albania finished 8th. I'm very happy for them getting their best ever result.

[dryrunguy]

And here are the final results of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.

Eurovision 2025 Final Result.jpg