Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Finland.

Country: Finland
Singer: Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman
Song: Look Away
Personal Score: 18 out of 41
My Prediction: NQ

Darude has been making commercial music for the past 20 years and honestly this is a well crafted song that is both surprisingly contemporary for a man who is approaching “old people” territory but it’s also not exactly the world’s most engaging piece of music either. Sebastian needs a few notes on his performance (mostly he has adopted a really confusing power stance) but the performance a whole sold me a little more on the song. I don’t think is a qualifier though because of the dark undertones in the song and the message of environmentalism – as important as that is I’m not a Eurovision audience is really going to vibe with that. I’ve been wrong before and Hungary has gotten a few good turns with “issue” songs that surprised me. The building tension in Look Away isn’t about to make anyone go completely wild on the dance floor but it’s memorable and solid and Finland should be really proud of their choice.