Those who'd like to go straight to
the previews and predictions can skip this preamble below (or preramble, if you
will) and begin reading the next blog post.
Hi, hello
It's been a while. In fact, since
last year's omnishambles Eurovision season. Last year, I said I might move to
video for this year instead, but life has thrown other priorities my way. Not
making any promises this year.
For those just reading this blog for
the first time: this is my English-language blog that I keep a bit separate
from the rest (I'm a Dutch-language writer of fiction,
non-fiction, poetry, opinion pieces and a bit of a general language creative, but I also hold an M.A. in English
language and literature and started learning English when I was 8). I am from
and still live in Belgium.
Eurovision, you and me
[abridged]
As I was born in 1983, my Eurovision
memories go back a pretty long time. The first Eurovision song I can remember
hearing is Johnny Logan's 'Hold me now', which he won the contest with in
1987. Because the live-event took place quite late in the evening, the first
Eurovision show I was allowed to (partially) watch was the 1992 edition. At the
turn of Dana International's 'Diva' winning the ESC in 1998, I
actively began enjoying the increasingly campy nature of it.
I lost interest until Lordi's 'Hard rock hallelujah' firmly entrenched ESC's modern
era as a spectacle full of outrageous performance, thickly-applied camp and
diversity in 2006. I've never skipped an edition since.
I believe that the past decade has
been a new Golden Age for ESC. After maybe overdosing a little too much on the
irony and weirdness (I'm looking at the rogues gallery here of Jedward, “Woki
mit dem Popo”, “Euro Neuro”, Eurovision Kahl Drogo, Dustin the Turkey, a long
list of utterly embarrassing British entries, gratuitous appeal to sleaze,
and Zdob și Zdub's first entry), the Contest eventually self-corrected.
This coincided with the poptimism movement and the advent of music streaming,
which tore down the walls of genre pigeonholing, elitism and allowed genuine
artistic intent to become part of the ESC mix once more.
Where are we at now?
Not only do most participating
countries take ESC seriously again, a whole online community has sprung up that
also takes it seriously, but always with a tongue firmly in cheek. For
casual viewers, it’s still a family event and has been come entrenched in most
people’s minds as a totally camp event. Which it is. But is also a lot more.
Are the songs any good this year?
I would say it is a slightly weaker year overall. On the upside, there is no widely predicted winner instead and it also isn't the two-horse race that was 2023 and (to a lesser extent) 2024.
Why is Israel still allowed
to participate in the 2025 Contest?
If the Contest and its parent
organisation, the European Broadcasting Union, was as left-wing as some
conservatives and reactionaries like to think, there is no way in hell Israel
would be allowed to participate. The EBU and the ESC are sort of milquetoast-y
liberal in the loosest sense at best.
Yes, they've included some
guardrails to stop repeating Israel's harassment of contestants critical of its
genocide in Gaza, but they continued their sponsorship deal with MorrocanOil
(which is oddly an Israeli company) and they're doing nothing against Israel's
social media attempts to garner public support for their song with the
Jewish/Israeli diaspora and right-wing ghouls who normally hate the ESC.
If I was the EBU's CEO, Israel would
be banned in an instant. Read more in my analysis (not an analysis of this
year's Israeli entry further down).
The reason Russia and Belarus were
so quickly banned after the start of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine was
because the broadcasters who comprise EBU demanded it. As those broadcasters
are state-owned and almost no European political leadership outright condemns
Israel's actions, neither do the broadcasters.
Here's YouTuber verilybitchy:
If you’re so against Israel
participating, why aren't you boycotting the ESC?
Calling for boycotts mostly seems to
come from people who never watched or didn't like the ESC anyway. Pretty easy
to boycott something you never liked in the first place, right? That won’t
change the viewership much, which is what the boycotters are aiming for so it
would force the EBU to take action. Instead of throwing away the baby with the
bath water, I’ll discuss every entry except Israel’s.
As a sidenote, it is not on me to
take responsibility for the EBU’s terrible decision-making. I reliably vote for
parties that call Israel’s genocide for what it is and I use what little
influence I have on my blogs and in my literature to educate others.
We’ll see how the 2025 ESC goes.
Why is [COUNTRY]
allowed to participate?
Any country that pays fees to the
EBU and has a national broadcaster is eligible to compete. Said country doesn't
physically have to be in Europe (in fact, all national broadcasters from
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East are eligible as per the EBU’s charter).
So that's the formal answer. To delve into specific countries:
Australia
Australia is allowed to participate
because it pays to do so and the country's been ESC-crazy since forever.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan did their own little ethnic cleansing in the Armenian enclave of
Artsakh in 2024. While that is a plausible argument, it blurs the lines and
would create lines of argumentation to ban a whole lot more countries. That
would ultimately divide us between ethically purist views and "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who's to say
really?" centrists that only serve to obfuscate Israel's extremely
obvious and ongoing war crimes. But feel free to have your own point of view.
Cyprus
Geologically, Cyprus is not in
Europe. But its internationally recognised government and people are
Greek-speaking, it is a member of the European Union, and hell, before Türkiye
withdrew from ESC, you could argue the entire island was well within the
European cultural and political sphere because half of the island speaks
Turkish.
Why does [COUNTRY] not
participate (anymore)?
Some (former) EBU members
participated in the past, but not anymore.
Algeria, Egypt, Iran,
Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, Syria
Believe it or not, all of these
countries are either EBU members or associate members. Libya is currently
suspended, and all the others either have major political upheaval going on
(which is putting it lightly) or are dictatorships whose values are completely
inimical to ESC participation.
Andorra
Andorra actually participated six
times between 2004 and 2009. It never qualified and it withdrew after the 2009
edition, publicly citing financial reasons (although I’m not sure how much of
this is true, since participation fees depend on population size and I can’t
imagine Andorra being much poorer than San Marino). But never qualifying
probably didn’t help.
Belarus
Belarus was banned from the EBU
itself after being considered a cobelligerent on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
in 2022. The dictatorship was already on shaky grounds with the Contest after
attempting to send an entry in 2021 that was a thinly veiled exhortation for
the Belarusian public to obey their strongman, or else.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bosnia-Herzegovina participated 19
times in the ESC between 1993 and 2016. After the semi-final system was
introduced, it managed to qualify every time except the last time it
participated. Since 2018, its national broadcaster was suspended from the EBU because
of unpaid debts, and since institutional and financial deadlock has kept the
nation in its grip, the situation hasn’t changed.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria fell off the Eurovision
wagon in 2023, after a run of 14 appearances starting in 2005. In the past
decade, it actually did pretty well, coming 2nd in 2017, and some
predicted Bulgaria would be able to win in the near future. That sadly didn’t
materialize and they finally withdrew in 2023, citing, and say it with me,
financial reasons.
Hungary
Hungary was among the wave of
Central- and Eastern-European countries that entered the ESC in the ‘90s. It
participated 17 times, its final run ending with an NQ in 2019. No official
reasons have ever been given for their withdrawal but it’s a public secret they
withdrew because the ESC is “too gay” and that doesn’t fit into the bigoted
worldview of Orbàn and his cronies.
Kazachstan
Some people will be surprised to
find Kazachstan on this list. It never participated in ESC but did participate
in JESC, and technically its westernmost territory is geographically part of
Europe. It is unlikely to ever enter the ESC though. Dictatorships or
near-dictatorships also tend to not do very well in the Contest because wouldn’t
you know, state broadcasters of countries like that are pretty bad at making
relevant art.
Kosovo
Kosovo has never participated either
and it’s unlikely it ever will until several EBU member states (most notably
Serbia, but also Spain) recognise it as a sovereign state. One could argue
Türkiye and Cyprus also participated side-by-side without much of an issue, but
Türkiye has never claimed Cyprus isn’t a country – they just recognise only
half of it.
Lebanon
Lebanon’s ill-fated attempt to
participate in 2004 is its only one thus far, and it was dead on arrival
because its national broadcaster didn’t want to show Israel’s entry. It’s
against EBU rules to not show all the songs, and it makes me wonder why the
Lebanese broadcaster didn’t realise this sooner.
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein has never participated
in the ESC. Like clockwork, every few years the microstate makes some noises
about considering a participation, and every time the rumours turn out to be a
nothingburger. If having the show right next door in 2015 and 2025 didn’t
convince them to come out, I think nothing will.
Moldova
Moldova withdrew in 2025 even after
it had already selected its song. The country was honest enough to say that
while finances were part of the reason, they also thought their current
selection just wasn’t good enough to warrant spending money on. While that’s
painful for the artists to hear, it was also probably true. Many fans hope they
find a way to come back, because their run includes some true classics and
their delegation is known for its resourcefulness in doing a lot with little.
Monaco
Monaco used to participate from 1959
until 1979 and briefly came back from 2004 to 2006. It even won the ESC once in
1971. It withdrew after 2006, saying that “regional voting patterns” make it
impossible for the microstate to qualify. While there is truth to the fact that
microstates get little love from the public, it isn’t impossible for tiny
countries to qualify and do well. Especially considering Monaco is insanely
wealthy, their reason can’t help but sound like there’s some sour grapes mixed
in there too.
Morocco
Morocco participated in the ESC only
once, in 1980, when Israel didn’t participate (taking a break from two
back-to-back victories), so now you know the reason why it never came back.
Even if Israel was kicked out or left the EBU, I’m not sure if Morocco would even
want to come back.
North Macedonia
Between 1996 and 2022, North
Macedonia participated 21 times in the ESC. Since the inception of the
semi-finals it greatly struggled to qualify, which is all the more remarkable
since their culturally similar neighbours Serbia and Bulgaria managed to get a
solid run. It withdrew in 2023 on account of, you guessed it, finances.
Slovakia
While Slovakia first appeared in the
ESC in 1994, its attendance record was spotty, totaling only 7 participations
until they threw in the towel in 2013. Ever since, Slovakia has sometimes
teased a return, sometimes cited financial reasons for not coming back, but the
ESC has never been particularly popular with the Slovak public, and its current
Viktor Orbàn-style government is pushing it even further away.
Romania
Romania withdrew in 2024 after a
remarkable run that had some insiders speculate they might actually win the ESC
sometime soon. Their 2023 entry was an omnishambles that they used as an excuse
for their withdrawal, but in reality it was likely a combination of financial
issues (Romania’s participation fee was quite high on account of its
population), delegation incompetence and internal politics.
Russia
Russia was expelled from the EBU
after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Before that, they were one of
the Contest’s powerhouses and pulled their 1st and only win in 2008,
totaling 23 appearances as well as many top 5 rankings. I don’t think Russia
will be readmitted into the EBU anytime soon, and honestly, as their entries
grew considerably more schmalzy and saccharine in tandem with the nation evolving
into a full-blown fascist dictatorship, I think few people miss Russia.
Türkiye
Türkiye is a former power player in
the ESC, with 34 participations starting from 1975 until 2012, including their
1st and only win in 2003. Ostensibly their withdrawal was due to
“the rules of the competition” (the introduction of the 50/50 jury-public
vote), but like with Hungary, it’s an open secret the country’s increasing
moves towards authoritarianism also played a significant role. Like I said in
the Belarus part, perhaps it’s for the best they’re staying away, as
authoritarian nations tend to send dull entries anyway. It’s a pity though,
because Türkiye used to be such a great wellspring of creative participations.
Vatican City
Although the notion of a Vatican participation in the Contest is very amusing, there is no reason at all for the Holy See to ever come to the ESC unless as a publicity stunt of sorts (which I don’t think ardent Catholics would even enjoy, so who would it be for?). I’m not even entirely sure if the EBU would allow it, because Vatican City is such a strange entity in terms of statehood.
