Lessons learned from Eurovision 2025

A few (too many) thoughts

If you were with us in 2023, you may remember some posts we wrote about Eurovision. We started with an overview of what Eurovision is and why it matters. Then Amy checked out and I continued my obsession exploration by asking the question that seems to be at the heart of the contest: what can a song say about a nation? Finally, I made some predictions, which were mediocre in some cases (correctly naming six of the top ten) and way off the mark in others (putting the UK in the top ten … they finished 25 out of 26 entries in the grand final).

2024 Eurovision Recap

Last year, nothing grabbed me so I didn’t write about it. I didn’t even watch. When the weirdest thing about the contest was that there were artists named Baby Lasagna¹ and Bambie Thug², there wasn’t really that much to say (at least for me; plenty of other people had lots and lots to say about it, as always).

Portugal’s entry, Grito³, from Iolanda, earned the country its 12th-ever top 10 finish, clocking in at #10.⁴ Because I didn’t watch, I missed some excitement about an artist being removed from the competition shortly before they were going to take the stage. There was also plenty of tension around Israel’s participation, which just goes to show that there’s nothing in this world that can’t be politicized somehow.

Portugal’s 2025 entry

This year, I tried to get excited about Festival da Canção, Portugal’s three-week-long Eurovision selection process.⁵ I really did. Every time I tried to watch videos of the songs online, though, I got bored. I don’t think I managed to watch a single entry all the way through. Turns out I probably wasn’t the only one, as this year’s Festival limped home with the least-watched final in the last ten years⁶. A glance at the voting results reveals something interesting, though:

There was sharp disagreement between the opinions of the juries of musical experts and the public.⁷ Henka’s I Wanna Destroy U, the public’s first choice, got not a single vote from the juries and Diana Vilarinho’s entry Cotovia got the nod from the juries but came in sixth amongst the public.

While these two entries aren’t quite Phil Collins vs. Metallica, they’re not exactly style-adjacent, either. See for yourselves (30 seconds with each video is enough to get you the idea):

The net net was that Portugal’s Eurovision entry, Deslocado by Napa, was a compromise choice, finishing fourth in the jury voting and second in the public.⁸ Portuguese friends described Deslocado as being “very Portuguese”⁹ on account of the general sense of longing and, well, saudade that pervades the song.

As I pointed out two years ago, a song that represents a niche aspect of a country’s culture isn’t necessarily a great way to win Eurovision. So my hopes for this entry weren’t high.

Eurovision 2025

Because I wasn’t enthused about Napa, my interest in the overall spectacle was fairly low in the weeks leading up to Basel, where the final was held. My news algorithm continued to spit out headlines about the event and I clicked on enough of them to encourage more but I didn’t really engage. I was aware, though, that Malta was forced to tweak their song¹⁰ and that, once again, there was a great deal of controversy about Israel’s participation in the event.

Being in Scotland for the three weeks leading up to the semi-finals, though, definitely made a difference. BBC2 dutifully hyped the event on the car radio; Britain’s entry, Remember Monday’s lively What the Hell Just Happened, got some air time and the show, which the station was airing, was mentioned frequently.

By the time Tuesday’s semi-final rolled around, I had watched a couple of videos online. But a 21h (9 pm) start time and early rise on Wednesday morning along with the prospect of a long drive back to Edinburgh meant I didn’t flip the TV on that evening. I was mildly surprised to learn the following day that Deslocado had made it through to Saturday’s Grand Final; but, as only five out of 15 acts were eliminated, the bar wasn’t exactly lofty.

Thursday evening I decided at the last minute to watch the second semi-final. I called YouTube’s livestream up on my TV just in time for Greece, the 7th act of the evening.

By the time Saturday’s final rolled around, I was mildly disappointed I wouldn’t be able to watch it as we had friends coming over for the evening. Turns out, though, that a couple of those friends had watched both semi-finals and were happy to sneak off with me to view the broadcast while the rest of our group finished their board game.

Lessons learned

Eurovision is way more fun when shared.¹¹ Talking about the acts and watching the performances and results with friends was a blast and something I’d not experienced before.

But there’s a right way to watch: call up the livestream about an hour into the show and then rewind to the beginning. This way, you can skip over all the nonsense between the acts and the results (and there’s plenty of that as they need to give sufficient time for voters to call in and for the ballots to be tallied) and enjoy the performances.

Finally, while I can’t exactly call this a new lesson, the experience reinforced for me that I have no idea how the world of music works. A love song to coffee finished third in the competition? Switzerland finished 10th despite not earning a single point from the public? And, really, who could have expected Deslocado to become a “global phenomenon”¹² after finishing 21st out of 26 entries in the Grand Final?

So, apparently, you really should listen to Deslocado. Who knows, maybe you’ve already heard it on TikTok.

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott

P.S. Fear not, Amy is working hard on a post about our trip to Scotland.

1. He represented Croatia and his lively entry, Rim Tim Tagi Dim, finished second overall.

2. Ireland’s representative finished sixth overall with Doomsday Blue.

3. It means scream, or shout.

4. I can’t pinpoint why it did so well. The stark whiteness of the costumes was maybe memorable. The dancing was ok. There was one, brief, vocal moment. Sparkly eyebrows? Long fingernails? Lack of competition? I’m out of touch with what resonates for people who actually vote? 🤷‍♂️

5. Semi-final rounds on Feb. 22 and March 1 each featuring 15 songs that had been chosen from who-knows-how-many entries from across the nation. Each semi removed nine of the contestants so 12 remained for the final on March 8. The broadcast began at 21h (9 pm) and lasted at least two hours (I don’t know exactly how long, I didn’t watch).

6. Or so say some of the people who always have plenty to say about Eurovision.

7. Or, at least, the public who stuck with it long enough to actually vote.

8. Deslocado finished higher in the public vote than Cotovia and, therefore, won the tie-breaker.

9. As is the band, being made up of three Joãos, a Diogo, and a Francisco.

10. The original entry was titled Kant, which means “singing” in Maltese. Fine, right? The pronunciation rhymes with “punt” and it was preceded in the song by the word “serving.” A broadcaster believed to be the BBC was like, “Um, yeah, we’re not gonna air that.”

11. Then again, what isn’t really?

12. As of this writing, it’s #1 on Spotify’s Global Viral Charts in ten countries and in the top ten in a couple dozen others, including a few in South America - the first of the Eurovision 2025 acts to chart on that continent. Apparently, more than 200,000 TikTok videos have used the song.