The National Finals That Got It Right For Copenhagen Written by Ewan Spence on May 14, 2014 | 7 Comments

With close to 10,000 songs submitted across the European broadcasters, there’s a lot of scope to pick the wrong song for your country’s Eurovision Song Contest entry. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get it right. Through the National Finals this year, a number of countries managed to get the perfect song to Copenhagen for the Contest.

Who got it right when they were selecting a song via public vote? Let’s start the debate and find out.

Finland were right to send Softengine

Lordi aside, Softengine’s eleventh place is the best Finnish result since Anneli Saaristo’s seventh place in 1989, and the two ninth place finishes in 1984 and 1985. Looking at the scoreboard it’s clear that the track was ‘Something Better‘.

More importantly, Softengine’s success at Eurovision, and in the domestic music market, has handed the National Final format of UMK a much needed win at Eurovision, and a win with Softengine now signed up to Sony Records and the second single ready to go – in fact you heard it at the EuroClub’s Nordic Party this year.

Spain were right to send Ruth Lorenzo

The return to a multi-artist National Final in Spain threw up a tie-breaker result between ‘Dancing In The Rain‘ by Ruth Lorenz, and ‘Mas‘ by Brequette.

Perhaps the hardcore Eurovision fan base had been listening to the studio version of Brequette’s song, because it did lose a little bit when performed live, while Lorenzo found another gear (marked ‘be careful to not go over the top’). The tie-break rules handed priority to the winner of the public vote, and ‘The Rain‘ was heading to Copenhagen.

Spain reached the Top Ten, it was the top country of the Big Five (the UK was second, in seventeenth place), and Lorenzo matched the tenth place of Pastora Soler. While part of me wishes there had been a way to send Lorenzo with ‘Mas‘, she was a wonderful ambassador, a classy stage show…and she literally blew out the speaker in the press room on Saturday night on the high note.

Hungary were right to send András Kállay-Saunders

Personal views on the subject matter aside, ‘Running‘ stormed A Dal, topping the jury vote and then winning the SMS based runoff with the public. Fast and energetic, bringing a solid drum and bass entry to the Eurovision stage, András was as easy on the eye as he was on the ear.

Hungary certainly benefited from the producer-led running order (singing last in the Semi-Finals, and at the tail end of the golden zone of 18-21 in the Grand Final) but the song deserved this. Fifth place is the best result for the country since the fourth place on their full debut in 1994.

Switzerland were right to send Sebalter

Thirteenth place might not trouble the top of the table, but for Switzerland (like many countries) simply being present on Saturday night was the prize. Reaching the left hand side of the table and beating half of the songs in the Grand Final is just icing on the cake.

It’s a win for Sebalter, who spun his own career out of a regionally-succesful band to launch himself. The Swiss Final in 2014 had slim pickings, and it wasn’t clear that ‘Hunter of Stars‘ was the best of the bunch. Once Sebalter’s rehearsal showed a huge improvement in his diction, the momentum started to build up to what should be regarded as a win.

It’s also a win for the Italian broadcaster in Switzerland. RSI have now provided the winning song for the Swiss in two of the last three years.

Latvia were (probably) right to send Aarzemnieki

This is only a probably, because there is a question mark over how well Dons would have done in the Tuesday night Semi-Final. He would have been in direct contrast to Aram MP3, Andras Kallay-Saunders, Sergej Cetkovic, and arguably judged alongside Axel Hirsoux. Would another male chanson have made it through? Probably not.

And if the Suzy Shake couldn’t qualify, there’s no way that Samanta Tina’s sub-schlager-‘Stay’ would have done any better.

That said, Aarzemnieki delivered Latvia their best result in the Eurovision Semi Finals since ‘Wolves of the Sea‘. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make it to Saturday (although congrats to Jöran and Katrina for sticking around with the circus till Sunday morning), but I’m struggling to justify any other Dziesma contestant doing better…

Sweden were (probably) right to send Sanna

Third place, lifting the curse of last year’s host, and Sanna Nielsen not only reaching her goal of the Eurovision stage but doing so with style, grace, and a potential Top 20…yet only a probably?

Yes, because while Nielsen delivered a result that Sweden should be proud of, it was your typically clinical and well-produced slice of SVT that the hardcore fans lapped up and ensured it did well in every poll and survey there was… but there was a bigger prize on the table. Given the number of songs from other countries that were contemporary, I will always question Sweden’s emotional response of sending ‘Undo My Sad‘ instead of taking a chance with ‘Busy Doing Nothing‘ and turning it into a summer club hit.

We’ll be following up our look at the National Final Winners with our thoughts on the National Finals that didn’t rise to the occasion and sent the wrong songs to the Copenhagen Contest (and that post is live now, read it here). In the meantime, who got it right for you this year?