Don’t leave everything to the last minute. That could be the motto of my life, seeing as I have a tendency to get things done and out the way long before they need to be. So when names for Eurovision start dropping nice and early, I’m all for it.
A Win for the Artist
Think back to August when Mustii was announced as the representative for Belgium. What happened? Well, the Eurovision community went nuts online and then headed over to their streaming service of choice to check out his back catalogue.
Considering Eurovision is seen as a platform for promoting artists, this strategy of ‘here’s the artist, you’ll get the song later’ is smart, as it gives us time to get to know the artist better, and discover their music and style. Their previous releases act as a sort of appetiser, a chance for me to get to know the artist before May. No matter the result in May, being discovered by everyone in the community is already a win.
When artists are announced during this relatively quieter period, they get more of our attention. We’re more likely to dig deeper into their story and music than say in the middle of February when multiple national finals are on our mind.
Plus, it will also bring a bit of extra money in the way of royalties for the artist and their team, and who doesn’t want a bit of extra cash these days?
A Win for the Fans (Well, Some)
Some fans are more than happy to take the National Final season off to touch some grass and rediscover what normal people do on a Saturday night, rather than enjoy three different shows in three different languages all at once on a single laptop,
But others, like myself, don’t stop. While it’s been nice to revisit some older Song Contests and experiment with different types of content over the summer, I got to the point where I was resorting to ranking ‘Eurovision: You Decide’ entries out of sheer desperation and struggling to come up with things to do. It’s good to finally have some new material to get stuck into and help me look forward to Malmö in May.
The Problem with Holding Out
There is a problem for some countries in particular that rumours on who the artist may be can get out of hand—case in point, Rina Sawayama for the United Kingdom in 2023. Delegations will undoubtedly have their reasons for not announcing the artist sooner, but when speculation is clearly going off in the wrong direction and the people in the know sit back and silently watch the chaos unfold, it does beg the question as to whether the strategy of giving us a double-serving of artist and song as late as possible is the best move.
Of course, every broadcaster can’t stun the Eurovision fandom with their artist in the height of summer, but steering the online discussion with periodic updates does seem like one of the options open to build up excitement in the community.
I’d love to see us get the artists sooner rather than later, where possible. Give them their moment to shine. Give us time to digest and explore their music. And when their Eurovision song arrives, I’ll be waiting,