Monica Sandu '24
Production Editor Emerita
It has become tradition at this point for me to write an article every spring giving my thoughts on the upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. As this is my last year writing such a review for the Law Weekly, I would like to take you all on a deep dive into that colorful, wonderful, and often absurd world that is Eurovision: a Europe-wide battle of the bands where culture and creativity come together on a global stage.
Overview
The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956 as a “technical experiment in television broadcasting,” i.e., a live music competition.[1] Only seven countries—the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Italy—participated that first year. Since then, Eurovision has been broadcast every year except for 2020, with fifty-two countries having participated at least once.[2]
Eurovision is the origin of many iconic acts throughout the years, including Domenico Modugno with “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu,” better known as “Volare,” in 1958; ABBA, who won in 1974 with “Waterloo”; Riverdance, the interval act for Eurovision 1994 hosted in Dublin; and Epic Sax Guy, part of the band Sunstroke Project, whose song “Run Away” represented Moldova in 2010.
How Eurovision Works
Every year, countries whose national broadcasters are members of the European Broadcast Union (EBU)[3] choose a song and artist to represent them, either internally selected by the broadcaster itself or through a national song competition. The chosen act, which must be no longer than three minutes, will go on to represent their country in a three-day music festival composed of two semi-finals and the Grand Final. Participating countries, with the exception of six automatic qualifiers (the “Big Five”[4] of the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France, along with the previous year’s winner), are divided by random draw into one of the two semi-finals.
Each semi-final is a massive concert, broadcast to millions of viewers, where each act performs their song live on stage, one after another. Viewers in the participating countries vote for their favorite songs by text or online. You can only vote in the semi-final in which your country competes, and you cannot vote for your own country. Each country gives out twelve points to the song that got the most votes from viewers in that country, ten points to second place, eight points to third place, and seven to one points for the fourth through tenth place. The top ten countries within each semi-final advance to the Grand Final, though qualifiers are announced in random order to avoid bias.
The Grand Final follows a similar format. Following a random draw placing them in either the first or second half of the show, each of the twenty-six finalists will be assigned a running order number and will perform in that order. Viewers from all participating countries, both finalists and non-finalists, may vote in the final. Additionally, each country also has a five-member professional jury who rank the songs from one to twenty-five (excluding their own country.) Each jury’s set of twelve to one points is allocated based on the aggregate ranking of the jurors. Jury points count for half of a song’s total score and are announced by a representative of each country’s jury, one country at a time. Once all the national juries deliver their votes, the hosts will announce how many public points each country got from all of the other countries’ televotes combined, in order of lowest to highest jury score. The winner of the jury vote is the last person to receive their public vote, resulting in a tense split-screen between them and the current front-runner. The country with the most points wins!
Eurovision 2024
Although Eurovision is typically hosted by the country that won the previous year, 2023 was particularly unique following Ukraine’s record-breaking victory in 2022. As the contest could not be safely held in Ukraine, the United Kingdom, who placed second, hosted the show in Liverpool, in a collaboration between the BBC and Suspilne, Ukraine’s national broadcaster. At the end of the night, Sweden took home the Eurovision trophy for a historic seventh time, becoming only the second country in the Contest’s history to do so, tying with Ireland for the greatest number of wins overall (though Ireland remains the only country so far to have won three times in a row.) Singer-songwriter Loreen won with her song, “Tattoo,” becoming the second person (after Ireland’s Johnny Logan) and first woman to win the contest twice, having also won for Sweden in 2012 with her song, “Euphoria.”
Eurovision 2024 will be hosted in Malmö, Sweden! 2024 will see thirty-seven countries competing, with Romania’s withdrawal due to financial difficulties and five-time winner Luxembourg making a long-awaited return after last participating in 1993.
My Ranking
1 point to France! I always love a good French ballad, and this year is no exception. Slimane steals the show in “Mon Amour” with his incredibly powerful voice, filled with longing, vulnerability, anger, and even self-deprecation as he begs his love to return to him and to remember what they shared together.
2 points to Serbia! Serbia’s Teya Dora brings us “Ramonda,” a beautiful, heart wrenching ode to finding hope even in one’s darkest hour. The Ramonda is a small purple flower that grows in mountainous areas with rocky soil and is often very difficult to find.[5] Strikingly, the Ramonda is able to revive itself with just a small amount of water even after being completely dried out. Because of this ability, it became the symbol of the Serbian people’s suffering and endurance during World War I, in which Serbia lost 28 percent of its population.[6] Calling out for her lilac Ramonda, Teya Dora’s struggle throughout the song ends with a glimmer of hope as a single flower blooms like a phoenix from the ashes.
3 points to Austria! As the name would suggest, “We Will Rave” is a pure Eurodance party where Austria’s Kaleen sings about curing a broken heart through raving. It’s just an overall excellent EDM dance bop that I can’t help but listen to on repeat!
4 points to Italy! “La Noia” juxtaposes an energetic, Latin American-inspired dance beat with lyrics about the monotony of life and the stiflingly restrictive nature of gender norms. Comparing her life to a cumbia—a style of Colombian folk music characterized by a strong, repetitive rhythm–singer Angelina Mango nevertheless dances her “cumbia of boredom” to find reprieve, as she would rather try to escape and fail than never try at all.[7]
5 points to Belgium! Something about this song and its composition totally captivates me. Mustii’s “Before the Party’s Over” is a rich, brooding piece of music that reflects on the brevity of life and the importance of living authentically while you are still able to do so. It’s intensely atmospheric, nearly abstract, and has one of the most unique song structures of the year. Instead of the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus form, the song continually builds until it reaches its musical zenith in a final explosion of desperation and determination.
6 points to Spain! Spain’s Nebulossa sings “Zorra,” playing with the double meaning of the word “zorra” (either a female fox or a vulgar term for a promiscuous woman) and aims to reclaim the word as one of female empowerment. With instrumentation and vocals that call back to the Spanish pop scene of the 1980s, it’s a great time all around!
7 points to the Netherlands! Wonderfully upbeat and surprisingly heartfelt, “Europapa” is a love letter to Europe and to finding one’s own identity. “Europapa is about an orphan who travels throughout Europe (and beyond) to find himself and tell his story,” artist Joost Klein explains. “At first, people don’t recognize him, but he goes on seizing any opportunity he gets to let himself be seen. Europapa is a tribute to my father. When bringing me up, he passed to me an expansive view of the world.”[8] Behind its quirky façade and earworm refrain lies an emotional mixture of nostalgia, wanderlust, and the bittersweet feeling of accomplishing your dreams in honor of loved ones who have passed.
8 points to Norway! “Ulveham” (meaning “wolfskin) by Gåte is a folk rock-metal combo song featuring a traditional herding call with lyrics based on a thousand-year-old Scandinavian ballad about a young maiden who is transformed into a wolf by her evil stepmother and must break the curse. Combined with the return of the Norwegian language to the contest for the first time since 2006, what’s not to like?
10 points to Armenia! Armenia’s song “Jako,” by French-Armenian duo Ladanvia, is everything I love and exactly what I want to hear in Eurovision: a supremely fun folk fusion that’s an explosion of pure color and joy, bringing modern flair to a blend of traditional sounds. Singer Jaklin Baghdasaryan and multi-instrumentalist Louis Thomas make up the duo whose musical style is inspired by Armenian folklore, traditional Balkan music, and maloya from Réunion, to name a few.[9] “Jako” is Jaklin’s childhood nickname, and the lyrics are a call to all young girls in the world to be their “real, wild, unapologetic selves.” [10] Overall, Jako is a beautiful showcase of Armenian language and culture that makes you feel like getting up and dancing!
12 points to Croatia! This song has perhaps the greatest backstory of the year. Marko Purišić (aka “Baby Lasagna’) initially intended for his song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” to be a filler track on his debut album until a friend suggested he submit it to Dora 2024, Croatia’s national selection. It failed to make the initial cut but was kept as one of four backup songs. When one of the artists withdrew the next day, Baby Lasagna was chosen to replace her. He then went on to win Dora with 247 public points, ten times more than second place and more than all of the other twenty-three acts combined.[11] Croatia skyrocketed in the betting odds, reaching first place as the most likely song to win the contest, surpassing even longtime leaderboard dominator Ukraine.[12]
Rim Tim Tagi Dim combines techno, heavy metal, and rock to tell the story of a young man from the Croatian countryside who is leaving his village to pursue better opportunities abroad and faces extreme anxiety about leaving everything–and everyone–behind. With iconic lyrics like “Meow, cat, please, meow back” and costumes based on traditional Istrian dress, Rim Tim Tagi Dim manages to entertain while also addressing serious topics in contemporary Croatian culture–the “brain drain” of the countryside, the uncertainty of immigrants integrating into new lands and wanting to bring at least some traditions with them, and fears of young people who must choose between their home and their future.
In 1989, Yugoslavia won Eurovision for the first—and only—time, with the song “Rock Me” by the Croatian band Riva.[13] Because the entry was from Croatia, which was at the time one of eight Yugoslav federal units, the 1990 contest was held in Zagreb.[14] Were Croatia to win Eurovision this year, it would be their first victory as an independent country.
Eurovision 2024 will take place on Tuesday, May 7 (Semi Final 1); Thursday, May 9 (Semi Final 2); and Saturday, May 11 (Grand Final) in Malmö Arena and will be broadcast in the United States on Peacock. Let the Eurovision Song Contest
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ms7mn@virginia.edu
[1] Origins of Eurovision, Eurovision.tv (last accessed March 11, 2024).
[2] Eurovision Song Contest, Wikipedia (last accessed March 11, 2024).
[3] Plus Australia, which has participated since 2015 as special guests of the EBU. While they have yet to win, they placed second in 2016 with Dami Im’s “Sound of Silence.”
[4] The “Big Five” are the EBU’s five largest financial contributors and help make the contest possible.
[5] Ruxandra Tudor, “The world is on fire, every flower too”: Teya Dora seeks hope amid struggle in the “Ramonda” lyrics, Wiwibloggs, Mar. 22, 2024.
[6] Ramonda (song), Wikipedia (last accessed Mar. 11, 2024).
[7] Ruxandra Tudor, “I die without dying” — Angelina Mango dances cumbia to slay boredom and gender expectations in the “La Noia” lyrics, Wiwibloggs, Mar. 16, 2024.
[8] Ruxanra Tudor, “Europapa”: Joost Klein releases his Eurovision 2024 song for the Netherlands, Wiwibloggs, Feb. 29, 2024.
[9] Ladaniva, Wikipedia (last accessed Mar. 24, 2024).
[10] Antranig Shokayan, “I will dance and you will watch”: Armenia’s Ladaniva sings about embracing who you are in “Jako” lyrics, Wiwibloggs, Mar. 20, 2024.
[11] Rim Tim Tagi Dim, Wikipedia (last accessed Mar. 13, 2024).
[12] Odds Eurovision Song Contest 2024 – Who will win the Eurovision Song Contest 2024?, EurovisionWorld.com (last accessed Mar. 13, 2024). Odds change regularly, so it’s possible Croatia will fall out of first place by May.
[13] Riva (band), Wikipedia (last accessed Mar. 13, 2024).
[14] Yugoslavia participated in Eurovision for last time on May 9, 1992, in Malmö. That same month, on May 30, 1992, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 imposed sanctions against Yugoslavia barring, among other things, their participation in “scientific, technical and cultural exchanges and visits.” United Nations Security Council resolution 757, Wikipedia (last accessed Mar. 19, 2024). After declaring independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia’s former sub-national broadcaster became its national broadcaster HRT. HRT sought to participate in Eurovision in 1992 but was denied for lack of EBU membership. However, with HRT’s acceptance to the EBU on January 1, 1993, Croatia participated in Eurovision as an independent country for the first time in 1993. Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, Wikipedia (last accessed Mar. 19, 2024).