As the 70th edition of our beloved Contest draws to a close, it's time to wrap up my second year of ESCNation blogging with some questions and reflections for your consideration.
Let's start with revisiting the Grand Final predictions I made Friday night after the Jury Show. I highlight if I got the countries' placing category right (✔️) or wrong (✖️) and if they ended up higher (⬆️) or lower (⬇️) than I thought.
1-5: Australia ✔️ / Bulgaria ✔️ / Finland ✖️⬇️ / France ✖️⬇️⬇️ / Israel ✔️
6-10: Greece ✔️ / Italy ✖️⬆️ / Moldova ✔️ / Romania ✖️⬆️ / Ukraine ✔️
16-20: Belgium ✖️⬇️ / Cyprus ✔️ / Malta ✔️ / Norway ✖️⬆️ / Sweden ✔️
21-25: Austria ✔️ / Germany ✔️/ Lithuania ✔️ / Serbia ✖️⬆️ / United Kingdom ✔️
I was very wrong on France and think its televote result is a travesty. Romania and Denmark notably exceeded my expectations. I'm happy for a) overestimating Finland and b) getting Sweden right, also as a borderline qualifier.
I haven't been this excited about a winner since Salvador Sobral and even though I never really considered Bangaranga up until the Jury Show, I'm truly so delighted it won a much-deserved victory.
It's important to highlight I think how 'historic' in ESC terms this victory really is. For the first time since, coincidentally, Salvador Sobral in 2017, juries and televoters agreed on a favourite, a hopeful signal in fragmented times. Bulgaria also scored the highest average score from the public vote since Ukraine in 2022. Its lowest televote score, 4 points, also came from Ukraine.
And now, questions and reflections.
1) You want more?
Of this, no:
Now for the second year running, the question was not who would win, but rather if Israel would not win. If nothing changes, sooner or later, this will happen. I currently don't expect things to change.
How can they at this point? We are at the exact same stalemate as a year before, with the EBU allowing Israel to use Eurovision as a geopolitical platform to whitewash their atrocities.
2) Hello, my friend, is it the end?
The boycot of five nations, I'm very sorry to say, appear to have not changed anything meaningful in the grand scheme of things. Up until the second screenshot, everything in the Stadthalle, in Vienna and in the media centre was surprisingly calm and smooth.
A journalist I know who observed the public vote reveal within the arena saw sights of relief among EBU staff as Bulgaria was announced as winner. One cannot blame them.
Yet again: nothing meaningful will change unless more broadcasters band together and do something. Welcome to the riot!
3) Oh, what's the point of it, point of it?
But: the EBU and ORF did a terrific job of carrying on as if it was all business as usual. They did so good a job in fact that it makes me wonder if maybe it simply is business as usual and this is the new reality that we have to expect remaining a recurring thing. The next question, then, is to which extents broadcasters, fans and ESCNation bloggers alike will continue to live with this. The jury's still out on that one for now.
4) Miten tunteet vois jäädyttää?
(How could I freeze the feelings?)
I genuinely had a great time in Vienna, as weird as it may sound - I'm typing this blog from a laundromat near my hotel as I will continue my journey after this and I always travel with hand luggage only. This is a part of my life that I thoroughly enjoy, as weird as it may sound. I had a lovely week with wonderful people from the media centre, some of whom I by now call my friend.
I still love everything around the actual Eurovision Song Contest (see, of course, also our beloved Message Board), but I feel that my love for the real deal is slowly fading away, bit by bit, year after year. Maybe it's because I'm getting older. Maybe it's because I didn't enjoy watching Miriana Conte butchering Dhenghis Khan and I can't comprehend how anyone thought this was a good idea to fill air time during the world's largest entertainment TV show. Or maybe it's because yet again the political dimension has overshadowed such a vast part of the Eurovision experiences.
Over the past few weeks, I have been hearing from a few people that they increasingly refer to themselves as 'legacy fans', enjoying and rewatching old editions and geeking over them, while engaging less or not at all anymore even with the current editions. I'm nowhere near that stage now - but I feel that it's getting there, slowly but surely.
5) Kur po vjen, moj nan?
(When are you coming, my child?)
'My child' being the results.
I was critical about the semis but do think the Grand Final was actually solid television for a big part. The opening ceremony was gorgeous and I thought the pacing of the songs was better too. Victoria and Michael were less annoying, probably helped by giving greenroom host Emily more screen time. Her calmness was a breath of fresh air.
But four whole hours is such a terribly long time. We did not need a dj performing a song. We did not need a cover of Billy Joel's Vienna. Increasingly, I find the Grand Final becoming a total drag. We've seen all performances already at this point, so having to endure them once again feels more like a burden to me. All I want is the scoreboard (which I really liked this year actually) and the spokespersons announcing their douze points.
6) Da l' vas noću bude iz kolijevke krici?
(Are screams from the cradle waking you up at night?)
Seriously, how this managed to get more points from the professional juries than from the public vote in the final is total lunacy.
Bonus question: Where was Auri?
I asked the same about last year's hideous mascot - but we had previously established that I actually really like Auri. And in all efforts to make the ESC a more family-friendly show, incorporating the mascot that is very clearly geared towards children at some point in the liveshow would not be that far-fetched.
So why weren't they? Was Emily too worried to share coffee duties? Did Boy George chain them to a radiator? We'll never know.
***
Lots to think about and discuss, but for now, let us please just take a moment to enjoy Bangaranga again!
This concludes my ESCNation blogging for 2026. We'll see what 2027 brings and who will be where doing what. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed doing this again. Thank you all for the comments and feedback. Regardless of agreement, I found them all relevant and useful. Tack och godnatt!
