In all the years I've voted and listened to the ESC Top 250,
this is the first time I've said...
WHERE'S LOREEN?
I've been writing in this blog since 2013 and playing music on the radio since 2018, and in all that time Loreen has always been #1 in the end of year poll ESC TOP 250, excellently collated now by songfestival.be and played by escradio. 2022 is different - a new artist at the top of the table that brought a tidal wave of surprise when "Euphoria" was read out as #2 on New Year's Eve:
Here is this year's top ten - Chanel and "SloMo" are now not only Spain's best finisher at Eurovision since 1995, she is now the first Spanish #1 in this chart by a long, long way. Every year there has been a challenger to Loreen and all have fallen short - not in 2022! If there was one national group of fans to get their act together and push another artist to that #1 spot, it would be the Spanish fandom - well done them for having the determination to back their Turin singer who brought them their best result for 27 years. It was the 12 pointers that did it - the other marks between Chanel and Loreen were not that far apart and those two were miles ahead of #3 Cornelia.
In much the same way as Sam Ryder and Chanel coming #2 and #3 in Turin has rejuvenated those nations towards how they see Eurovision, having someone OTHER than Loreen at the top on New Year's Eve will, in my opinion, reinvigorate this chart in 2023. Chanel kicked off this week's show - the other entries played celebrated the big positive movers in the chart this year, plus you also got to hear my top ten. Have a listen...
And the playlist?
"SloMo" (Eurovision Dancebreak Edit) - Chanel
"Ne Brini" - Mija Martina
"Teenage Life" - Daz Sampson
"Keep Me In Mind" - Mike Spiteri
"'T IS O.K." - Harmony
"Marcel" - Heidi Brühl
"Let Me Love You" - Tamara feat. Vrčak & Adrian Gaxha
"I Love The Little Things" - Matt Munro
"Uh, Jeg Ville Ønske Jeg Var Dig" - Birthe Wilke
"On Again... Off Again" - Julie & Ludwig
"Eu cred" - Mălina Olinescu
"Fulenn" (Karaoke Version) - Alvan & Ahez
"Jack In The Box" - Clodagh Rodgers
"Tule luo" - Katri Helena
"Miért kell, hogy elmenj?" - V.I.P
"Colorado" - Xandra
"Runner In The Night" - RYDER
"De Eerste Keer" - Maxine & Franklin Brown
"Yom huledet (Happy birthday)" - Eden
"Due grosse lacrime bianche" - Iva Zanicchi
"Bad Old Days" - Co-Co
"La Noche Es Para Mí" - Soraya
"Lass' ihn" - Gunvor
"World" - Lindita
"Let Me Be The One" - The Shadows
Just to confirm who I voted for this time:
Why such an unusual batch of entries? Last year, the whole chart was published - not just the top 250, nor the top 500 as was done on the interactive website (you can click on the column headers and find out the order by contest, number of 12s etc - link below)...
Previously, this was admittedly on a Google spreadsheet in Dutch but it still gave a lot of information for every entry that got at least one point. There were still about 120 that got nothing at all - no love from any fan that voted in 2021! Tweater adru (@adruprses) did the hard work with all the entries and grouped them all in years, listing all entries with their positions and points. From this, it was relatively easy to see which entries got no points...
And I decided to pay homage to those this year!
Sixteen of those entries were in my 'Eurovision From The Start' long list, that playlist having been prepared by watching/listening all 1684 entries to date - the ten above were the top ones of those. To be honest, none of them would ever get near my favourites but I found it sad that nobody would give them at least one point! I was going to let you know where that put them, but as the organisers have indicated that the 500 released so far is as many as we get, I cannot say where my ten ended up. Chances are it wasn't 501-510 and it also means that I won't be using that method of choosing my ESC Top 250 Top Ten ever again. Having said that, I change my method each year to keep it interesting anyway. In the end, the overall list of winners now looks like this:
"Euphoria" is no more - long live "SloMo"
(Until the chart on 31st December 2023 - maybe!)
Back to normal for Show 231 - Belgium will be well into the process of selecting their entry for 2023 next week. Unfortunately, due to the way the selection process is designed, I will not be able to play their National Final entries on the show before Eurosong 2023 chooses the actual Belgian entry for Liverpool. What will be on LET ME BE THE ONE next week is not only all the news from around Eurovision that is picking up again after Christmas and New Year, but there should be some Eesti Laul tracks plus this big news:
Did somebody say Melodi Grand Prix 2023?
Hopefully you'll hear the entries from SF
on next week's LET ME BE THE ONE!