With the announcement of this year’s Eurovision Top 250 results shortly, we really want to tell you all who our all time Eurovision favourites are. Over the last few weeks we’ve been sharing our #ESC250 votes with you. In the first edition we heard from Tim, Costa, and Julian. In the second edition Sami, Nick and Tom R shared their favourites.
In this third edition, we’ll have a look at the songs Tom O, Oliver, Vincent love. Make sure you click through all the pages and tell us what you think!
In the articles, our lovely editors will be looking closely at their Top 3 entries (the ones that got 8,10,12 Points) and will also provide their honourable mention (a song they really like, but did not make their ESC250 list).
Tom O: A complete rethink
This year I revisited my list and mixed it up a bit. Gone are some of the upbeat songs that, while I still enjoy listening to, don’t have quite have the best impact when I watch the Eurovision performances. These new choices are ones where watching back felt extra special. Great voices, strong emotions and subtle quality staging.
- Love Shine A Light (UK 1997)
- Only Teardrops (Denmark 2013)
- A Million Voices (Russia 2015)
- Is It True? (Iceland 2009)
- Mercy (France 2018)
- 1944 (Ukraine 2016)
- Hold Me Now (Ireland 1987)
8 Points: Arcade (The Netherlands 2019)
Recency bias is likely at play here but it’s certainly one of the top entries from The Netherlands and worthy of a winner. It seemed like everything the country had learnt over the past years of qualifying had brought them to this moment.
10 Points: A Monster Like Me (Norway 2015)
A song that gave me winner vibes on first hearing the song and seeing that music video. The dramatic music video that first presented the song was amazing and did leave me wondering how they’d replicate it on stage. It’s a beautiful song and there’s that whole mystery over what the character in the lyrics did to make him a such a ‘monster’.
Honorable Mention: Anouk – Birds (The Netherlands 2013)
When Anouk was announced the artist I did my usual thing of looking at previous songs to get a idea of the kind of artist Anouk was. I was hooked on her music straight away and was excited to find out how she would approach Eurovision. I didn’t know what to expect with her mix of rock and soul over the years. ‘Birds’ came as a surprise but worked perfectly with it’s simplicity. But above all Anouk must be credited for making The Netherlands a contender again after so many poor results. Take note United Kingdom.
12 Points: Calm After The Storm (The Netherlands 2014)
A masterclass in how you take song that doesn’t stand out initially and lift it up with brilliant staging. Ilse and Waylon are pros, showing their experience of performing on stage and TV. Those little looks to the camera do it for me. I’m a Country Music fan so I liked the song anyway, but I never expected they’d turn it into something to compete with Conchita for the top spot. It’s thanks to this I know the music of Ilse Delange – now one of my favourite Country artists.
