Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia and Spain

Portugal – MARO: Saudade, Saudade

Beautiful voices, excellent harmonies, transcending melodies in a stripped down delivery. Consumed in isolation, this is great, but wedged between similar arrangements (think Iceland’s Systur trio) and highly explosive pumping beats with outrageous onstage shenanigans (e.g. Norway’s banana wolf), I fear that Portugal’s lovely song will be forgotten.

Review by Mariella Herberstein

San Marino – Achille Lauro: Stripper

San Marino is really shaking it up this year and I love it! Rock legend Achille is here to shock with his references to sex toys and strip clubs (well, maybe 20 years too late, but I am sure it sent shockwaves through San Marino). Still, the rock and roll performance will shake up the audience as will his confident and captivating charisma! Definitely the finales for me!!

Review by Mariella Herberstein

Slovenia – LPS: Disko

This adorable high school band promises us Disko, but falls way short. I hope they can get a refund on the tuxedo rental after the semis.

Review by Mariella Herberstein

Spain – Chanel: SloMo

With more legs than Beyonce’s All the Single Ladies, and some high octane latin pop, Chanel is set to thrill the audience! This could easily be the crowd-pleaser of the finales! How all this booty will go down with the voting grandmothers of Eurovision land, is less predictable.

Review by Mariella Herberstein

Lithuania, North Macedonia and Poland

Lithuania – Monika Liu: Sentimentai

With a pair of excellent shoulders and the best bowl haircut in the whole competition, Monika is probably the most elegant performer in Turin and deserves points just for that. The song however is a modern version of the ‘tuba-piano accordion-drum’ axis of evil. Probably more suitable for a beer festival somewhere in the Baltics.

Review by Mariella Herberstein

North Macedonia – Andrea: Circles

What an excellent start: gritty, edgy with a smokey deep voice expressing what we are all thinking – let’s have a conversation and fix this situation. Sadly, the chorus just lacks the emotional (and musical) explosion we were hoping for, leaving Andrea behind in the semis.

Review by Mariella Herberstein

Poland – Ochman: River

Ochman’s excellent voice paired with the solo piano helps us forget that the lyrics were written by a heartbroken 15 year old, aspiring to become a poet. Still, one of the better entries we have had from Poland over the years (remember the milk maids?). I am sure Chris Isaak also doesn’t mind the plagiarism either Definitely the finals.

Review by Mariella Herberstein