We’re well in to the swing to Eurovision season so it’s time to look around and have a couple of hot takes on every countries songs.

This year instead of individual entries for each song I’ve split the songs into half of the semi finals so there will be first posts all together and instead of getting too in depth I’ll just jot down some thoughts on my first(ish) impressions. I might do a ranking and/or prediction post later on but this is just a barrel of thoughts for now. Since allocation hasn’t happened all the entries are in alphabetical order for fairness.

Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy “Grow”

I like this from an art stand point. That being said, I have absolutely no one idea how this will translate to a mood on stage or if it will translate at all. I’m not sure I’ll be listening to this outside of Eurovision but I actually do really like it and Jeanugu’s voice is really quite beautiful and has such a lovely cadence to it. We all know that no country wants to win twice in a row but I at least feel like The Netherlands didn’t completely throw this artist under the bus as this piece is at least really beautiful and well crafted just…wildly misplaced. I’ll be checking out this artist in the future though.

France: Tom Leeb “The Best in Me“

How much money did France throw at this tire fire? There’s a real lesson in this song about too many cooks in the kitchen or how Swedish sound could only sustain the top of the hill for so long or maybe its just a lesson about how something created in a studio will always sound fake to some degree but France is going to learn all of them. This song is DATED and BAD and CRINGE in a way that almost no other song this year has managed to accomplish and in some ways it is because France is presenting it. If Serbia sent this song I would just sigh and move on but France had been delivering interesting, good, modern songs for years and now we have this. Augh. Next.

Germany: Ben Dolic “Violent Thing”

If he can do this voice live it’s basically bound to get a good result. I don’t think I necessarily like anything that is happening in this song in a particular way but it’s done well and it’s current and it’s enough of a beat to dance to. This is a solid song for Germany and they might sneak up to the right side of the board but I wouldn’t really imagine much more that that.

Italy: Diodato “Fai Rumore“

I was really curious to see how Italy would be able to cut their song down to 3 minutes because the structure of this song is kind of interesting but then they submitted the full 3:48 track and…I don’t know. I absolutely love this song. Diodato’s vocals are clear and beautiful and emotive, the lyrics are beautiful (and I think Italy is finally figuring out they should show the translation of their songs), and the song has enough of a hook to stick with you but this could easily become a mess when 45 seconds are chopped from it and it’s impossible to tell which way it’ll go. I see a top 5 as the best case and a disappointing 10-15th place as more likely when the structure of the song gets interrupted and it has to go head to head in vocal prowess with Switzerland and Malta.

Spain: Blas Cantó “Universo“

I was genuinely impressed with the live version I saw of this song. Blas has a beautiful voice and a shining personality on stage. Like Miki from last year he kinda made me wanna get up and dance. This song, however, is not doing anything for me. I feel pretty confident is saying that this song was written for someone else and the mismatch grates on me in a strange way where I never get invested enough in the song to really want to hear it but I like the singer enough that I feel he was cheated. Since Spain generally skimps on the staging don’t be shocked when this is a bottom 5 despite a talented singer with a good personality.

United Kingdom: James Newman “My Last Breath“

This is my guilty pleasure of this year. Is this a good song? Well, it’s alright. But I like this way more than is reasonable. I think on stage the “breath” part of the song will be evened out a little to be less…cheesy but even if it’s kept in it feels like the right amount of cheeky in an otherwise very well crafted song. I have nothing be joy for James’ voice and the song is quite sweet as well.

Also if someone could please deliver me a mash up of this and Denmark’s “Yes” (I’ll give you my last…yes?) I’d really appreciate that because it would take the cheese level to the highest of heights.

And that’s what you missed on Glee Eurovision! (Next up are songs that didn’t make it but that I like better than some of the songs that did!)