Eurovision Song Contest Basel 2025

Yet another International Political Song Contest; this year's, sadly, was about as bad as it could get. This was truly an abysmal couple of hours. It has to change; it cannot carry on in this format. The dividing line between politics and the 'song contest' has gone way too far; it no longer seems fit for purpose.

Here in the UK, the first piece of news was that Dr. Who himself, Ncuti Gatwa, wasn't going to appear. It's well publicised why. As I said earlier, it's too political; why work for the BBC if that's the stance?

The voting again follows the usual routine, but I will applaud the fact that it's only the 12 points that are announced. The UK has nothing to gripe about; the song was terrible. It's not Eurovision; the same applies to last year's monstrosity too. Talented singers, but the song was dire.

Israel received boos, and protestors attempted to disrupt the act. Again, it's just become too political. I didn't like the song personally; it did incredibly well. I'd suggest for political reasons.

It's the first year I've ever watched it sober, not something I'll ever do again. The performance from last year's winner actually made me feel sick, it was disturbing, uncomfortable and definitely not family viewing, I felt like I was watching some form of breakdown.

I would suggest the UK would have done better with the Dr. Who Dugadoo song.

The one highlight, the Finnish mashup from the two acts that should have won their respective competitions. I will never tire of seeing Käärijä in that sprout outfit.

2/10.

It is well known that a certain country spends billions of dollars to buy votes every year.

This is an attack on the Eurovision's values and art platform.

Martin Österdahl and the management are killing this contest. I'm glad you guys make money with Moroccan Oil and Televotes. Soon you will have no fans to watch this show.

Fake cheers, avoiding voices from the arena, turning off the microphones early so the singers can not say anything. These are all normal realities of the current show. I am genuinely sad to see one of the greatest things we made in Europe is completely ruined now because of this attitude of supporting one country and keeping it.

Justice for Eurovision.

Apparently Peacock is the sole broadcaster for Eurovision in the United States. What could have been a great introduction to new music from around the world is ruined by the horrible audio quality in the Peacock broadcast. Center channel audio is dropped making it sound muffled and just bad. For a musical competition this is unforgivable. Viewers are unable to hear the lyrics and while the choreography is impressive at times, this is ultimately a music competition. It is also edited poorly with some performances being cut off with commercials. There is no commentary so we learn nothing about the performers, the music selections, or the competition itself. Very disappointed in Peacock for cheating American audiences out of what looks to be amazing musical performances from around the world.

I was very angry after Croatia was defeated last year. They had the best song. Not Switzerland. I expected Austria to win this year. Because they had the best song and voice. They won too and I think it was a good decision. But a few problems happened again. First of all, Israel got a lot of points from the public vote. It was close to winning. Good thing it didn't. Their songs were very good, but not as good as the second place. Turning off the singers' microphones quickly was also a bad decision. Switzerland did their best as hosts. It wasn't bad. There were better host countries. The songs were generally weak this year. You get used to it after listening to it a lot, but when I first listened to it, I said there were very bad songs this year. The best of this year were Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Albania, Denmark, Finland and Latvia in my opinion. Ukraine sends good songs every year, but this year their songs were terrible and for obvious reasons they made it to the final and again got high points from the public vote. Eurovision falls out of favor every year with such problems. I hope there will be a more fair competition in the future.

It's that time again.

Eurovision 2025 reached its Grand Final (though I can't say I ever watch the Semi's anyway) and offers all of the glitz and glam and high camp that we've come to expect from it.

Bucks Fizz with their whipping off of the skirts certainly seems rather tame these days.

Did the UK really stand a chance? Probably not. Does it ever really stand a chance again? Unless we can bottle whatever was achieved in the 'Sam Ryder year', probably not.

I thought there were some good performances here, some that didn't get the recognition they deserved, and some downright bonkers ones.

Same old, same old then...