It’s the day of the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final. It’s the day when the wider world steps into our space and those journeys that started with hundreds of the most dedicated fans checking every song in a Lithuanian heat expand to a reach tonight likely of over a hundred million. It’s our Christmas, and we are hosting so the Continent can come over to our house.

We are missing five guests this year. Not just any guests, some of those most loyal and integral part of all of us who come every year. Those from Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland and Ireland, stalwarts of our Song Contest, are not here in Vienna for the celebration. When they announced their departure from the Song Contest in December, those withdrawing broadcasters made clear statements to explain their absence.

Part of that is regarding the aggression of the state of Israel, and the “20,000 children who died in Gaza” as a result of that conflict.

But the reason Eurovision has felt these issues more strongly than any other international collaboration is that it directly impacts the EBU member broadcasters. All the participating broadcasters at Eurovision have independent news journalism. “The continual denial of access to international journalists to the territory” was one of the complementary factors that led these broadcasters to withdraw, as Israel’s actions on the ground limited the freedom of their news departments to cover the events in the conflict.

It goes even deeper and more personal to our community than that, as “Israel’s use of the Contest for political purposes” in recent years left these broadcasters finding Israel’s presence in Vienna incompatible with their own continued participation. This is even with new rules to strengthen the integrity of Eurovision voting, described in December as being “insufficient.”

We all, those following the Song Contest at its closest, should remember these things today.

Some people may distance themselves from Europe’s biggest celebration today. Some may find it a challenge to feel as festive because their own morality may be questioned. Some may be thinking about absence of those friends that would usually be here alongside them.

We understand and feel that too. The point of this article is not to preach about your moral position. That is yours and belongs to you only.

Instead I want to champion stories here that are in Vienna that are doing everything we celebrate Eurovision for as a power of good. I am not going to let the cloud of geopolitics tarnish the experience of artists today, delivering on stage the biggest performance of their life for us.

And I’m going to start with a geopolitical story, because you cannot separate Eurovision from politics. But politics does not need to a force ripping us apart, but one uniting a nation and eventually a continent.

Moldova On Duty

Look no further than Moldova to see how politics at Eurovision can be a force for good.

There is no denying that Satoshi’s ‘Viva, Moldova!’ is a call to political action. It takes Moldovan culture and firmly places it on a Western trajectory, looking towards the European Union rather than East towards Russia. But this isn’t folk-pop wrapped in traditional clothes, this is modern, frantic, stadium-ready rap-rock from a commanding, experienced and commercially-friendly young artist.

To understand why this matters, you have to look at what it took to get Satoshi to Vienna. Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) does not operate with the deep pockets of Western broadcasters, they operate on a shoestring with an annual €10 million budget. Yet this January, TRM completely reimagined their selection, stepping out of the tiny TV studios of the past and into the massive Chișinău Arena to give the country a true Eurovision-esque spectacle. To do so, TRM committed roughly 2% of their annual television budget just to ensure Moldova could return to the contest this year, allocating a further 0.5% directly as prize money to Satoshi for staging and promotion. These are sums that larger broadcasters could sneeze out without noticing, yet TRM has leveraged them to create a package that looks as polished as any on the Wiener Stadthalle stage.

The nation responded with unprecedented unity. Under a strict “one SIM card, one vote” system designed to protect the integrity of Moldova’s televote, Satoshi secured the biggest public landslide in any National Final in the history of the Song Contest, drawing a gap over 15.2 times larger than the second-place finisher. No nation has arguably ever been behind their act as much as Satoshi is.

When he takes the stage, the performance delivers an electric hit of nostalgia for the community, too. Standing with him on stage is Aliona Moon, retracing her steps from her iconic 2013 performance. It’s a beautifully judged throwback that brought the house down all week long, the kind of Christmas present with nostalgia that warms your heart. It isn’t just all the joy of Moldova, it’s all the joy of what Eurovision should be as well.

Satoshi may not wear the badge of an official diplomat, but he has become the face of a modern, forward-facing Moldova. In a world where this nation more than any other is defined by its Eurovision footprint, this is a masterclass in how the Song Contest can use political identity not as a wedge to divide us, but as a celebratory roar for togetherness.

It Bangs, It Rangs

I have to express complete, unadulterated joy for the three minutes of absolute stage-craft that Bulgaria has brought to Vienna, fronted by DARA.

Unsurprisingly, for 37-year-old me who’s been around this block long enough that some people in this press centre call me Gandalf, ‘Bangaranga’ was not a song I understood during the National Final season. Frankly, I’m not entirely sure I understand it now. It is bonkers in a way that pushes modern pop music to its absolute extremes of tempo, of production, of creating a never-seen-before vibe. But that is precisely what I want from my Eurovision entries. I have argued for years that the Song Contest shouldn’t be a trend reflector, it should be a trend setter.

What DARA and her delegation have achieved on this stage is a masterclass in modern creative direction. For years, we in the press have critiqued entries that try to replicate a music video format on stage, usually because it leaves the live audience disconnected and feels clinical. ‘Bangaranga’ flips that critique on its head. It delivers a performance good enough to be dropped into the MTV VMAs, and DARA is a star capable of living up to such a stage. The marriage of the concept to the song, punctuated by absolute “gag” moments of choreography, is bold, breathtaking, and should be a true inspiration to many watching for what music can be.

This is exactly the kind of entry that tests the modern identity of the Eurovision jury. If the EBU’s push for younger jurors, choreographers, and more broad music industry professionals in the voting rooms means anything, it should mean rewarding this level of fresh, risky originality that is not just current for the industry, it is the future of the industry.

If I were sitting in that jury room tonight, looking down at my criteria sheets for originality, for overall impression, performance on stage, I would have no choice but to award this my top ranking. It is a boundary-pushing triumph, and I want every broadcaster, songwriter, and delegation in the future to look at what Bulgaria did here and be inspired for the future of music.

Fiery Determination

Then there are those who show us how to build an empire.

Finland’s ‘Liekinheitin’ is currently tipped as the entry to beat tonight in Vienna. We’ve had musicians involved at Eurovision before, but with Linda Lampenius taking centre stage as the dominant figure in Finland’s fiery, emotion-laden, pop-rock track, Finland once more is coming to Eurovision with their A game.

When speaking to ESC Insight, Finnish Head of Delegation Matti Myllyaho described his role as being “half Excel, half imagination.” That blend of clinical data analysis and artistic bravery is exactly how Finland unlocked this option where Linda Lampenius will make headlines, and re-write Eurovision history, by playing her violin live. Only the Finnish team would comb through the staging rulebook to find exactly how far they could stretch the boundaries of what was possible.

But Finland’s status as a modern Eurovision superpower wasn’t built overnight. This is the culmination of six years of relentless, strategic hard work. The renaissance began in 2020 with ‘Cicciolina.’ Year after year since, Yle has systematically grown Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) into a cultural juggernaut, moving to the Nokia Arena, recruiting the finest minds in the industry, and creating a highly creative sandbox that actively attracts top-tier artists who want to push boundaries.

Finland’s UMK isn’t just there so somebody does well at Eurovision, they completely believe in finding a way so every national finalist can be defined as a winner and every national finalist is coached to produce the most fantastic three minutes of their career. While traditional powerhouse neighbors like Sweden arrive in Vienna with relatively modest, mid-table expectations at this Grand Final, Finland has officially overtaken them as the Nordic beacon of inspiration. They possess a fierce, burning desire not just to win, but to cultivate a vibrant fan culture, to push the limits of what televised musical entertainment can achieve, and to proudly welcome Europe back to Finland next year.

That team and all they have done with Eurovision in recent years within Finland would be well worthy of victory. And the nation of Finland that has embraced Eurovision so fondly in recent times have been waiting for this moment.

Since Käärijä in 2023, the entire Finnish nation has unified behind their Eurovision footprint. They’ve been waiting for a win that they feel they deserved three years ago. If it is Finland tonight, I will not begrudge them at all, and look forward to their creative energy influencing Europe’s huge celebration in 2027.

Reclaiming Our Song Contest

At its heart, this is a story of ownership. Who owns today? The feeling at Vienna today can feel like them vs us if you let it. Them, be it the EBU and their democratic processes and those making decisions about the Contest’s future. Them being the delegations with a history of instrumentalising the Song Contest. Them being those that would want to threaten this feeling of United By Music which we’ve been doing it for 70 years with or without a slogan.

Or is it us. Us the community that works with the Contest, that follows the Contest, that celebrates the Contest and invites today the entire world on Saturday night primetime (sorry Australia) to be a part of our party. With our values, not theirs. With our artists, our songs, and our sense of inclusive community.

Eurovision does not belong to any governing body, nor does it belong to any corporate boardroom and rebrand. It belongs to us. It lives in our stories, our shared history and identity, and the collective rush of emotion we feel when the beat kicks in, the key change soars, or the dance break slaps.

It is entirely possible to sit with the weight of this year’s heavy Eurovision Song Contest, to remain deeply aware of those who are absent from Vienna, and to respect the principles that led them to stay away. But I refuse to let the hard work of those who are here today, way more than the three examples I have highlighted, be minimized or belittled or instrumentalised any more. Not for these four hours tonight.

Tonight, I want to celebrate the very peak of our craft. I want to champion the artists, the songwriters, and the brilliant creative minds who are the true heroes of this evening. They deserve their moment in the spotlight, and they deserve a community that stands fiercely behind what they want to deliver. I don’t want them to lose us, and I certainly don’t want us to lose this.

Or lose the new word that is going to be synonymous with our community from today onwards. A word nobody will ever be able to take away from us.

Tonight, Vienna, Viva la Bangaranga.