We’ll open our show with a sweet callback to last year’s event in Basel, where defending champion JJ keeps his trophy intact (unlike his predecessor Nemo), but misplaces his trademark paper boat! The boat slowly but surely makes its way to Vienna, due to the helping hands of friendly folks along the way. We then join JJ (as well as a troupe of dancers, aerialists, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra), for a medley of Mozart’s Der Hölle Rache aria from The Queen of the Night with JJ’s new song Unknown, and, of course, Wasted Love.
The flag parade itself has a very theatrical feel, with the first batch of contestants emerging from behind a red curtain, as opposed to just stomping down the runway. In a city known for opera, ballet, and theater, this elegant callback to the host city’s musical heritage is a very warm welcome.
Who’s Not Here?
One of the major talking points that’s been hanging over this year’s Contest is the notable absence of Spain, the first since their debut in 1961. We’ve also lost the potential of what fellow boycotting nations Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia could have presented, had they qualified. Despite that, we’re all thrilled over the returns of Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria, all of whom have qualified for tonight’s Grand Final.
It’s interesting to note that none of the three nations of the Caucasus region (that is, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) have made it out of their semifinals. This is the first time that we’ll miss all three on a Saturday night since 2018, when Qami, For You, and X My Heart all fell at the final hurdle. On the other hand, we’ve got all of the participating Nordic nations in the Final, although that’s happened as recently as last year.
When it comes to the songs in tonight’s line-up, the vibe is going to veer from high-energy bops from the Balkans to French popera to Polish r’n’b to an introspective Lithuanian robot to a mad scientist from the UK. Needless to say…
This place has everything!
Our very own Ben Robertson has done a deep-dive on the running order, and how it may affect the flow of the show, and possibly the results tonight.
A Wide Choice Of Language
Linguistically, this will be a very diverse program this evening, with only ten of the twenty-five acts being performed entirely in English. Four acts combine English with an additional language or two, eight are being performed entirely in a non-English language, and three (Greece, Moldova, and Lithuania) combine so many languages, jumping from phrases in Greek to Spanish to Japanese and Romanian to Latin to Hawaiian that it’s probably just easiest to describe them as “alphabet soup”. Check off your Bingo cards, everyone!
Familiar Faces Return
This being the 70th running of the Contest, it’s only natural that a few familiar faces show up to shine a light on some Eurovision history. In tonight’s interval, Max Mutzke (Germany 2004), Ruslana (Ukraine 2004), Lordi (Finland 2006), Alexander Rybak (Norway 2009 and 2018), Verka Serduchka (Ukraine 2007), Kristian Kostov (Bulgaria 2017), Erika Vikman (Finland 2025), and Miriana Conte (Malta 2025) all return to the world’s most famous musical festival to sing a medley of beloved hits.
Later, we welcome DJ Parov Stelar for a bit of locally-sourced electro-swing flair, and Austria’s 2018 representative Cesar Sampson will serenade us with a version of Billy Joel’s classic track Vienna, featuring a recorded message from the legendary songwriter himself.
The familiar names won’t stop there, as the reveal of each national jury’s scores will be a who’s who of alumni. We’ll check in with Dami Im, Sandra Kim, We Are Domi’s Dominika Hašková, Sissal, Getter Jaani, Klavdia, Aurēlija from Tautumeitas, Lukas from Katarsis, Nina Žižić, Elisabeth “Bettan” Andreassen, Jakob from KAJ, and Daniil from Ziferblat, with more names to be revealed as we get closer to the competition.
Of course, as we look fondly at the Contest’s past, we look towards its future. It was just announced that this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Malta this October, and we’ll also take a brief look at the plans for Eurovision Asia, which will be in Bangkok this November.
Time To Keep Score
And then there’s the televote, expected to be the emotional climax of the night. Of course, I can’t tell you what to expect from this portion of the show; that’s up to the viewers around the world. James Stephenson’s “The Model” may shine some light on what could happen this evening. As usual we can expect the unexpected.
Whatever happens tonight, we here at ESC Insight are so grateful that you’ve decided to spend your time with us. If you’ve been perusing our editorial content, looking for facts and figures, listening to our podcast work, or just simply satisfying your curiosity, we’re glad you’ve joined us for a little while.
We’ll see you on the other side of musical history!