THE RIDE OF MARCH

Today is the 1st of March. As well as being pancake day it also means we have just under two weeks to go until the Heads of Delegation meeting. 12 artists and 19 songs in a little under a fortnight. Here we go…

ARMENIA 🇦🇲

Armenia are back in the fold and as of today, we know nothing. This is, in all fairness, in keeping with their previous efforts as when they internally select it’s usually a March release date. Athena Manoukian of Chainsaw Ewe fame would be a fan favorite but that remains to be seen.

AUSTRIA 🇦🇹

Lumix is the first of two artists in this year’s Eurovision that sounds like a smartphone. We know the song’s called Halo and it’s believed to lean more towards banger territory. It’s bee a banger-light year thus far, who’d have thought it would Austria coming to our rescue!

AZERBAIJAN 🇦🇿

After two years of the historical figure-based batshittery, it seems Azerbaijan has returned to a more subdued tone with Nadir Rustamli. Still, if there’s any country that can find a way to throw both literal and metaphorical fireworks at it, it’s Azerbaijan.

BELGIUM 🇧🇪

Jérémie Makiese was announced to represent Belgium on 15th September last year. Since then, we haven’t heard a thing. Not a rumour, not a leak, nothing! The Belgians went early before going below ground. Who knows what the goalkeeping singer has in store for us.

CYPRUS 🇨🇾

Well haven’t they been quiet thus far, eh? We’ve normally at least had the artist announcement by now. Tamta & Elena had both been announced in the December prior so this all feels very late. Either they’re struggling to put something together or they’re expertly playing the hype game. One hopes it’s the former.

DENMARK 🇩🇰

DMGP to follow this Saturday. You, I and all of Europe need Fuld Effekt at Eurovision.

FRANCE 🇫🇷

After months of radio silence France finally unveiled their songs for their national final a few weeks back. Whilst there are none quite hitting the heights of Voila it’s still a sweet wee seleciton. SOA’s Seule would be my pick of the bunch.

GEORGIA 🇬🇪

Who are Circus Mircus? What is Circus Mircus? Why is Circus Murcis? I am very much looking forward to hopefully getting answers to these questions.

GERMANY 🇩🇪

On Friday Germany will pick one of six inoffensive songs to underwhelm in Turin. I’m not putting any more effort in writing them up than they did in putting together their line up.

GREECE 🇬🇷

Although not quite as bad as Belgium, Greece has also been suspiciously quiet. They announced Amanda Tenfjord in December and then…silence. Why are all these delegations so obsessed with the month of March!

ICELAND 🇮🇸

Songvakeppnin is underway and thus far no artists have fallen whilst suspended above the stage (Hi Esotnia!) and no explosive boat parties. One semi down, one to go and hopefully a wildcard placing for Haffi Haff in the final!

MONTENEGRO 🇲🇪

We know it’s Vladana and we know it’s Breathe, but what that will look and sound like remains to be seen. Though one can expect the music video to feature a brand new fleet of cars. They gotta get their money’s worth now.

NETHERLANDS 🇳🇱

The second of the two mobile phones featured on this list, we know the Dutch will be represented by S10. We also know that we’ll hear here song for the first time on Thursday. After navigating their way through Covid cancellation and Contest I’m sure AVROTROS will be happy with an top 5 entry…just not top 1!

PORTUGAL 🇵🇹

Portugal just keep Portugalling. The FdC lineup 2022 is yet another eclectic jazzy mix that would not find anywhere else other than Portugal. I’m rooting for Pepperoni Passion as that’s my usual Domino’s order. If any other NFs wanna chuck a wildcard for a band called “A Tub of Ben & Jerrys” I will fully back them for the same reason.

ROMANIA 🇷🇴

No dino drummer? No point.

SERBIA 🇷🇸

New NF for Serbia with Pesma za Evroviziju taking place this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Bloody hell, this is a long list. How is there still this many songs to be confirmed???

SWEDEN 🇸🇪

Once they’ve got “not Andra Chansen” out the way we’ll finally have our Melfest final lineup for next Saturday. Sweden wants Anders Bagge, Eurofans want Cornelia Jakobs…surely this just confirms the victory for Klara Hammarström no?

SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭

Until this morning it had all been very quiet for the Swiss. We now that we’ll have their entry in one weeks’ time. Given the fact we already have a fair few weepier numbers, I’m hoping they go more for a She Got Me than a Tout-Univers.

UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧

We’ve not even had an announcement of the date of the announcement of the date of the press release that will tell us when we’ll hear our own entry yet! Jesting aside, now would be a really great time for us to TaP into our quality music industry.

So, in sumarry we have 8 national finals to conclude, 2 countries with artist & date confirmed, 4 countries with their artist but no date, 1 with a date for both date & song and another 3 that’s given us absolutely nothing. Pretty straightforward, huh?