Eurovision’s Heart is Beating – If You Know Where to Look
Let me be honest: like many in the Eurovision Song Contest community, I wasn’t sure I’d be watching this weekend’s National Finals. For the last few months, the music of the Song Contest has not been top of many people’s agenda.
But there are many levels to the Contest. As a community, we all know that Eurovision is the tip of an iceberg. That week of televised shows in May is not the only week; it’s the sum of many weeks and many more stories.
This weekend saw two stories continue, while others faded into a distant playlist.
National Finals? Second Christmas
While Albania and Montenegro’s National Finals have come and gone, this weekend felt like the proper ‘curtain up’ moment on Eurovision 2026.
Think ‘Super Saturday part one, and Christmas part two. That’s how I’d always felt about the season starting. Thinking back to when I got into National Selections in the first place (which was not very long ago, granted), spending evenings trying to keep up with every broadcaster’s selections was the highlight of my winter.
If you’re reading this, I reckon you’ve played screen Tetris trying to watch four or five of these shows at once. It’s a rite of passage.
This is where you’d find me in January and February. Wrapped up warm while my window-panes mist up in the cold. We both know this is where Eurovision really starts. But was I really ready for this in 2026?
Unsure, I fired up my laptop and began the journey. It began in Chișinău, Moldova.
Moldova: A Relationship Reset
That’s more than fitting. After a 2025 National Selection the Moldovan broadcaster TRM felt was so subpar that it was better to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest completely than face the shame of competing, the return of Moldova’s Selecția Națională was a chance for a fresh start.
Around 5,000 people, including ESC Insight’s very own Ben Robertson, descended on the Arena Chișinău on the outskirts of the nation’s capital. They came for a National Final – they saw a country’s relationship with the Song Contest reset.
While I can’t talk to what it was like on the arena floor – and I eagerly await Ben doing so – what I saw on the TV feed told me a clear story. Moldova’s National Final has been totally and utterly transformed.
From a production perspective, TRM has moved light-years ahead in less than twelve months. Selecția Națională was held in a TV studio as old as Eurovision itself. Now, the old Selecția Națională has simply vanished. They’ve moved from five cameras to nineteen, upgraded to one of the country’s biggest arenas, and completely redefined their National Final with what its broadcaster says is only a small increase in budget and sponsorship revenue.
That increase has been multiplied many times over on screen. The team behind this new show approached it with serious ambition, and they pulled off a broadcast with good music, solid staging and genuine heart. When I saw people in the crowd doing conga lines or rushing to the artists in the green room during the voting, I was slapping my sofa and saying: “This is the Eurovision I remember! This is it!”
And that’s before the one lightning-in-a-bottle moment which, for me, defined Moldova’s return to the Contest. That moment? The three minutes of ‘Viva, Moldova!’, the deserved landslide winner on the night from Satoshi, helped by Moldovan Eurovision legend Aliona Moon. It looked less like a concert than an explosion. An outpouring of joy that seemed to say we’re back – and here to stay.
Again, that National Final will be Ben’s story to tell from the ground. But I will volunteer that it feels rather apt that, for a country that’s had forces pulling it both westward and eastward, almost everyone there voted for a song that was just happy to be about Moldova.
Malta: Two Journeys Collide
While Moldova’s show felt like the start of a new story, Maltese broadcaster PBS’ snappily titled Malta Eurovision Song Contest was a culmination of several others.
As another of the Song Contest’s smaller nations, Malta has begun to punch well above its weight. Their National Selection this year was held in just one part of a humongous convention centre in Valletta that gave it a proper sense of scale. It was a grand setting for a grand duel between two men who’ve been trying to make it to Eurovision for years.
The Contest is like one of Malta’s many castles – the view always looks better from the top. But look below, and you’ll find artists like Matt Blxck trying to scale the castle walls.
He’s entered MESC in two of the past three years and, while the songs have been different, none of them could even remotely work without the cult of personality in the middle of them. His 2023 entry ‘Up’ placed third, and his 2024 follow-up ‘Banana’ was the Maltese public’s clear favourite – but a voting system where 78% of points came from the juries meant Sarah Bonnici took victory.
This year’s attempt, ‘Ejja lejja ħdejja ‘l hawn (The Flute)’, was a riff on ‘Ekko inni meg’ from Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix a few years ago. And, once again, the Matt Blxck cult came out in droves. The party anthem took 200 points from the public on the night, leading the televote. With Malta using a 50/50 voting split this year, this was surely the moment for Matt to go international.
But lightning struck twice as Matt was denied by the juries. This time, they voted en masse for a song that couldn’t be any more different, and an artist that couldn’t be more similar. Aidan Cassar, who won on Saturday with the ballad ‘Bella’, has also had his fair share of near misses.
His 2022 entry ‘Ritmu’ was a runner-up to Emma Muscat, despite becoming a fan favourite around Europe. The following year, he was tipped to win with ‘Regina’ – until Malta’s broadcaster PBS disqualified him from the national final over unauthorised social media posts, a decision that angered Aidan to the point of threatening legal action.
Aidan has said Eurovision has been his dream since the age of seven, and his victory will feel like it’s been a long time coming. For Matt, who has been the ‘people’s champion’ twice and fallen short both times, you sense that time has to be coming soon. Coincidentally, Aidan’s song was co-written by Sarah Bonnici. He must feel like he’s stuck in a loop.
The reason I enjoyed watching Moldova’s final was the happiness and the joy. It wasn’t to do with the voting; “Viva, Moldova!” had the win sewn up as soon as they pressed play. What Malta had was something different: a sense of narrative. A tense voting sequence, unpredictable until the end, and all the excitement and stomach butterflies that come when two into one just doesn’t go.
For Aidan, his dream has been realised. For Matt, his narrative will go on.
I must also say it was a delight to see ‘My Sweet Angel’, Mychael Bartolo Chircop’s entry, take a surprise third place. My friend Daniel Stridh actually worked on the song’s LED content, so I was biased, but hearing just how happy they were when the points came in was a reminder of Eurovision’s power to move people. If Moldova’s show was about a nation’s story, Malta’s was about the stories of everyone who made it.
The Countries We Meet Along the Way
They dropped the confetti on Aidan in Valletta just after midnight here in the UK. I closed the laptop lid, feeling like I’d rediscovered what my Eurovision Song Contest can do.
I stayed up chatting with friends about the shows. We chuckled about how long Malta’s ad breaks are (and how much longer they used to be). We started speculating and pontificating on just how well both ‘Viva, Moldova!’ and ‘Bella’ might do when they get to Vienna (this year’s new voting rules may well benefit both in different ways). And I couldn’t help but think to myself: this is the Contest I fell for.
It isn’t hard right now to find people telling you how the Song Contest has lost its way, or how they’ve lost their way with it. Those feelings are valid. But in countries all over Europe, it isn’t hard to find the magic this Contest can cast on you.
When it comes to what Eurovision means to people, nobody has a controlling stake. Everyone gets to decide that for themselves. The heart and soul of the Contest, however abstract that may be, is not defined by the skeleton surrounding it. It’s defined by us – and the nations, individuals and travelling fans whose hearts beat for it this weekend.
Eurovision’s heart is still beating, too – if you know where to look. Last Saturday night, I’m glad I took a peek.