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.
In this series, our editors will be looking closely at their Top 3 entries (the ones that got 8,10,12 Points) and will also provide their honorable mentions (a song they really like, but did not make their ESC250 list).
Today, it is Aline’s turn to let you know who they voted for in this year’s edition of #ESC250.
Aline: Celebrating diversity in music styles
As a Eurovision fan, I absolutely love digging into the contest’s interesting history. Documentaries, Wikipedia and ESCRadio helped me a lot to improve my knowledge of the Eurovision Song Contest through my years as a fan.
We all know how hard voting for this list can be. There are too many songs we want to fit in 10 spots. Every year, my goal is to have a mix between older songs and recent ones. My top 5 this year has remained similar to the one I had last year, but I made some changes in the lower part of my top 10.
Let’s take a look at my votes. Here are the first seven entries!
- Lordi – Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland, 2006)
- ABBA – Waterloo (Sweden, 1974)
- Blanche – City Lights (Belgium, 2017)
- Duncan Laurence – Arcade (Netherlands, 2019)
- Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Sweden, 2015)
- Brainstorm – My Star (Latvia, 2000)
- Ruslana – Wild Dances (Ukraine, 2004)
8 points: Edsilia Rombley – Hemel En Aarde (Netherlands, 1998)
1998, the year in which I was born! To get familiar with previous Eurovision editions, I like watching recaps. I do that because I often prefer live versions above studio versions when it comes to Eurovision entries. Especially the ones that still included a live orchestra. “Hemel En Aarde” came across in the recap of 1998, and it immediately grabbed my attention. The mix of Edsilia’s voice and the music melody were a perfect match in my ears. On 15 December 2019, I saw Edsilia performing her two ESC-entries at “Het Grote Songfestivalfeest” and I was impressed by how strong her vocals were even after 21 years. She confirmed that she’s worth this place in my ranking.
10 points: Katrina and The Waves – Love Shine A Light (United Kingdom, 1997)
In my eyes, there is actually no second place in my top. Both my number one and two are worthy winners in this ranking. Love Shine A Light won 23 years ago, and I love seeing how important this song has become in Eurovision history. It’s a real anthem. Entries like these are risky thought, because it is easy to sound way too cliche when singing about love or peace. “Love Shine A Light” is just perfect for me! I admit, the studio track doesn’t do a lot for me. However, the live versions I have heard from the song so far give me that peaceful and heartwarming feeling. This is of course due to Katrina’s vocals which are outstandingly strong. Meeting her in Amsterdam last year was a really special moment for me.
Honourable mention: Rasmussen – Higher Ground (Denmark, 2018)
With a lot of heart aches, this song became my 11th place in this ranking. It might be a rather random choice, but I just keep coming back to the live performances of Rasmussen and his “Higher Ground”. I remember hearing the 30 second snippet and I was already blown away. Love at first listen! Rasmussen’s rough voice, his appearance, the song, the staging.. I didn’t need more to place this as my number one of 2018.
Tip: please listen to the instrumental version of “Higher Ground”, it’s a masterpiece.
12 points: KEiiNO – Spirit In The Sky (Norway, 2019)
There we go, my number one! This holy trinity stole my heart during MGP 2019, one year later I keep stanning them. “Spirit In The Sky” also was a love at first listen-case for me. Not only did I enjoy vibing to this an awfully lot, it also gave me this Nordic vibe. It made me believe that there was some Scandinavian blood streaming through my body. I was just thrilled when they won the televoting of Eurovision 2019. “Spirit In The Sky” and the entire OKTA-album were a great support in this weird year. When I suffered from sad feelings, KEiiNO’s happy songs managed to cheer me up. Thank you for that dear Tom, Alexandra and Fred!
What do you think of Aline’s votes for this year’s ESC250? Let us know! Stay tuned, as Matt will present their votes in the next edition.
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