Here are the results of the global pop music jury. More eclectic songwriting, production tricks and ear-catching ‘what was that?’ moments in Eurovision 2025? Yes please!
That’s the highly satisfactory and toothsome musical finding of PA Media, which has taken a deep dive into this year's line-up of songs to analyse just what kind of attention-grabbing salvos the Euro class-of-2025 will be launching in order to take the top prize in Switzerland this Saturday night.
And it looks like the continent's songwriters are really pulling out the big guns to secure victory in Europe.
First out of the locker is that old favourite the key change. Very much a dying art, it’s been years since the likes of Westlife literally ‘raised me up’, teaming both musical uplift with the exiting of a bar stool. But the key change is back for Eurovision 25, with five of the songs on display featuring a multi-semitone switch-up, not least the current favourite to win, and grand final maker from last night’s first semi-final, the Euro-hoedown of Bara Bada Bastu from Sweden.
That’s five times as many songs featuring the move as last year, when only one contender in the final line-up dared to deliver the goods.
Likewise getting a reboot are time signatures which, after the inevitably ‘oompah’ nature of early '70s Euro efforts, settled down into a more conventional and globally more palatable 4/4 four-on-the-floor format. In fact, EVERY song in last year’s final had four beats in the bar. And that’s hardly an outlier. It’s a disappointing sixth time that this has happened since 2000.
The good news for 2025, however, is that there’s some new thinking in town, as more countries grasp their musical heritage and take our ears on a new journey.
Throwing the eight-sided dice this year is Israel’s entry, New Day Will Rise, performed by Yuval Raphael, being a sombre 6/8 waltz that’s part Seal, Kiss From A Rose and INXS's Never Tear Us Apart, while melodically paying homage to Noel Harrison’s Windmills of Your Mind…
Even more dramatic (while also dialing in that 6/8 time sig) is Czechia’s Kiss Kiss Goodbye by Adonxs, a song that’s part Bond theme but with a pre-chorus lift direct that calls to mind Coldplay’s The Scientist. And make sure you stick around for that 4/4 pop-rave breakdown jackknifed in for a bridge. Bold.
And special respect to Ukraine’s Bird of Pray by Ziferblat. This may appear to have four beats to the bar, but each beat is actually a group of three quavers, meaning the track is actually in 12/8 time [doffs Ukraine-appropriate kuchma].
But top pop marks for timing has to go to Georgia’s entry, Freedom, by Mariam Shengelia, which features verses that are an authentically localised five beats per bar, a chorus that has three beats per bar, and an off-the-chart middle eight with no beats at all…
Boom bada bing!
And lyrically, the contest is having a bit of a ‘25 reboot, too.
Ever since Spain’s entry Massiel first busted out the “La La La” lyric trope in 1968 (holding Cliff Richard’s Congratulations to the number two spot) the phrase has been a Eurovision staple. In fact, in both 1969 and 1970, an incredible 25% of finalists featured “La La La” in their lyrics, with the phrase still featuring in 17% of songs as late as 1982 before mercifully falling off entirely since 2000.
Well, this year, the nonsense “La” lyric is back! You’ll find it in the Netherlands’ C’est La Vie by Claude, while Luxembourg’s La Poupée Monte Le Son by Laura Thorn mods it to a more 2020s friendly “Na Na Na”. Meanwhile, Ireland goes full retro with 24-year-old Norwegian ringer Emmy Kristiansen's song Laika Party proudly floating a “Ba Da Dum Bum”.
So what else can we tweak? What’s the 2025 trend for tempos, for example?
Yup. Speed-ups and slowdowns are the new boom-bang-a-bang, it seems, with Austria (Wasted Love by Johannes Pietsch), Finland (Ich Komme by Erika Vikman), Switzerland (Voyage by Zoë Më) and the UK (the Billy Joel, My Life-like, What The Hell Just Happened? by Remember Monday) all getting fast and loose with the pitch slider.
Blame Chappell Roan’s slip-sliding global smash Good Luck, Babe!…
Keys to the kingdom
And while bright and cheerful major keys were once a steadfast staple of Eurovision output, the fashion in more recent times has been to turn to the dark side, with minor key songs increasingly prevalent following 1961’s first minor-key winner – Nous Les Amoureux by Jean-Claude Pascal for Luxembourg.
In fact, the proportion of songs in a minor key topped a quarter in 1965, passed a third in 1979 and accounted for 50% of the final’s songs in 2002. Since 2005 more than half the songs have been in minor keys before passing 75% of all finalists in 2023, and in 2024 every song in the grand final was in a minor key for the first time.
Things are set to change for 2025, however, with six songs making the finals in a major key.
Though it’s worth remembering that – for all the spirit of competition and “may the best song win” decency – five countries automatically qualify for the grand final each year thanks to the size of their financial contribution in putting the show together. They're the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, Italy plus last year’s winner, Switzerland.
As to what magic formula of trend-bucking innovation will finally come out truly victorious from Saturday night’s final, who can tell, but so far the strategy is working…
Of the 10 songs that made it through from last night’s first semi-final, all of the songs we’ve picked out above made the cut, with the five acts being eliminated not employing any of the strategies outlined.
All eyes will now be on Thursday’s second semi-final to see if such similar trend-setting seduction will work for a second time…
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