Eurovision season is back. A lot of songs have been decided either as contestants in the national final or from internal selections from the network. This season, there has been a lot of news of all the disqualifications that have happened. I think this is the Eurovision season with the most disqualifications or the most replacements. All I can say is Eurovision and the various national finals are prone to having similar ugliness to that in the music business. It doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the winners like we always do.
Eurovision 2025 is set to be in Basel, Switzerland. The 12,400-seat St. Jakobshalle will be the venue for all the action. The two semifinals will be on Tuesday, May 13th and Thursday May 15th with the Grand Final on Saturday May 17th. This year, thirty-seven nations will be sending entries to compete. Moldova could have made it 38 but they backed out when the network felt their songs or entries were substandard. No debuting nation but the only returnee is Montenegro in what is only their second entry in the 2020’s.
To start things off, here are my reviews of entries from three Eastern European nations:
CZECHIA
Song: Kiss Kiss Goodbye
Performer: Adonxs
For its thirteenth entry in Eurovision, Czech broadcaster CT held an internal selection to find its submission for the Contest and decided upon Slovak singer Adonxs. Adonxs, whose real name is Adam Pavlovcin, He has experience in both singing and dancing from a young age. Before starting a solo career in 2022, he sang for the British alternative band Pace.
His song is about a good love gone bad. His song has a bluesish type of feel with a dramatic vibe to it. It’s interesting that the middle of the song has a fifteen-second techno dance bridge in it that doesn’t hurt the song at all. Another unique trait of the song is where he aims for the high notes near the end. I know the Contest is two months away but already, I feel it’s a song that gives a lot to like.
ESC CHANCES: Czechia has participated in twelve Contests and qualified for the Grand Final five times. In the 2020’s, they’ve had two qualifications and a Top 10 finish. I’ve seen blues-ish number do well in Eurovision, but as long as they’re done right. His song has a lot of potential to it. It’s already ranking high in the odds at Eurovision World. I can see it qualifying and even placing well in the Grand Final, but it will need the right staging. I don’t think it has to be like the video but it should have something that works well.
POLAND
Song: Gaja
Performer: Justyna Steczkowska
This year, there are only two nations that submitted a returning entry to the Contest. There’s Montenegro and there’s Poland. In recent past years, Polish Eurofans have been very unhappy about not having a national final to decide their entries. Their anger on social media has become some of the ugliest towards their own nation’s entries. This year, TVP organized a national final to decide: Wielki finaĆ polskich kwalifikacji. Their national final was held on February 14th and their winner was decided to be Justyna Steczkowska with her song “Gaja.” Justyna was Poland’s second-ever contestant in the Contest finishing 18th in 1995 with her song “Sama.” Another short title! Her thirty-year gap is a Eurovision record for the longest gap ever for a returning entry.
She’s not only a popular singer but she’s also an actress, a violinist, a clothing designer and active in humanitarian causes. Those who remember 1995’s “Sama” will remember it was an out-of-the-ordinary song that mixed cultural music with hip-hop and jazz and Justyna hit a lot of high notes. “Gaja” is a very different song as it mixes dance beats with mystical pop and salutes Gaia: the personification of Earth in Greek mythology. Her song is about hurt, anger and eventual triumph. It creates the right mystical feel and Justyna’s vocals capture the feel of the song well. Her violin playing adds to the feel of the song too. Those who don’t understand Polish can sense the feelings as she sings. Two things it has in common with “Sama” is the inclusion of culture in the song and she again hits the high notes and hits them well.
ESC CHANCES: Back in 1995, there were no semifinals and the jury completely decided the results. That may explain why many in the years since feel “Sama” deserved to finish higher. By the sounds of this song, Justyna is well-aware that her qualification to the Grand Final is completely decided by popular vote. The song itself has a lot of qualities to excel. I’ve seen her national final performance and the staging has a lot of great elements. It could also add an element or two. It’s up to her and the set designers to make the right changes to qualify.
UKRAINE
Song: Bird Of Pray
Performer: Ziferblat
Three years of war won’t stop Ukraine from sending entries to Eurovision or even stop them from having a national final to decide it. Vidbir 2025 was used to decide Ukraine’s entry for Basel and the winner was the band Ziferblat with the song “Bird Of Pray.” Ziferblat is a band consisting of two brothers, Danyil and Valentyn Leschynsky, and drummer Fedir Khodatov. They’ve been playing together for ten years, on the Ukrainian music scene since 2019 and this is their third consecutive attempt at trying out for Vidbir.
For the third straight year, the theme of the war is thematic in the song. Despite the sound of the title, the song “Bird Of Pray” is about the motive of those insecure of not seeing relatives during the war. As a messenger bird, it offers a hopeful message. As a song, this definitely does not sound like your common Eurovision song. Even for a rock song, it offers sounds one would not commonly expect from a rock performance. It delivers on the soft opening, the high energy vibe throughout the song and returning to the softness in the end. I found myself not liking it at first, but it’s growing over time. Most Eurovision songs are a case where it takes time to grow on you.
ESC CHANCES: Ukraine and Italy are the only two nations that have achieved a Top 10 finish in every Grand Final of the 2020’s. There have been mixed reactions to this song. Some like it while some feel it’s a dud and may become Ukraine’s first-ever non-qualifier. Even some that have started liking it over time just like me. It can go far but it will need better staging than what it had during the national final. Those who saw the performance will notice Danyil annoyed with the flowers and grass in his way during his opening entrance. Even without the grass and flowers, a song like that needs stage imagery to fit the dynamic mood of the song. The staging came off as boring. Hopefully things will be fixed up in time.
And there you have it. This is my first blog of reviews of songs for Eurovision 2025. One thing I noticed of these first three songs is there are a lot of moments of the high notes. There are lots of songs with high notes this year. Every year, there’s at least one standout quality shared by many of the songs in the Contest. Could Nemo’s win from last year have something to do with this?
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