Our #ESC250 votes – Part 2: Vincent, Riccardo & Sami

With the Eurovision Top 250 voting now closed, we really want to tell you all who our all time Eurovision favourites are. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll share our #ESC250 votes with you! In this second edition, we’ll have a look at the songs Vincent, Riccardo and Sami love. Make sure you click through all the pages and tell us what you think!

Vincent : Everlasting piece of arts

There are 1523 Eurovision songs, so those I see as the 10 best must be very good on the four criteria that matter to me : the lyrics, the music, the performance, and how I genuinely like the song.

#10 – 🇮🇹 Toto Cutugno – Insieme : 1992 (Italy 1990)

I rediscovered this song a certain day of 2016, and found that it is the perfect European Anthem : not too political (even though it is about the EU), rooted in its language (c’è una canzone italiana per voi = there is an Italian song for you), but still singable by everyone (Unite Unite Europe!). The Ode of Joy is far too elitist : this has a flavour, an authenticity. And the live performance grows stronger from the begining to the end, in only 3 minutes.

#9 – 🇨🇭 Lys Assia – Refrain (Switzerland 1956)

Once again, a song that I rediscovered. Listening to this the night of Lys Assia’s death, I fell in love. I especially love the end of the bridge, both musically and lyrically : “J’aurais voulu que tu reviennes comme jadis, porter des fleurs à ma persienne, et ta jeunesse en mon logis.” (I wished you would have come back like in bygone days, to bring flowers to my shutters, and your youthfulness to my home.), it has a sweet maturity. I could not find the actual competing performance, unfortunately.

#8 – 🇮🇹 Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro – Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente (Italy 2018)

2018 was an impressive year, but this is, retrospectively, my favorite. It’s not the most melodic one, but it doesn’t have to be : it is rough, not afraid to be serious and authentic, lyrically and musically, and tackles the most intimate aspects of terrorism and victimhood very well. And the performance was great : I originally disliked the staging concept with the translations onscreen, but the final made me like it and admire the clever timing of each translation.

#7 – 🇫🇷 Amina – C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison (France 1991)

The song that should have won in 1991… Amina owned the stage with far less efforts than the actual winner, and showed an incredible, bewitching, intriguing voice and presence, especially with her non-spoken singing. And the song itself is gorgeous. Ending second in a tie-breaking rule is truly one of the sadest thing that ever happened to us.