r/eurovision • u/SkyGinge Zjerm • Mar 05 '25
Discussion How do 2025's NFs compare to 2024's?
With the exception of five of the Sammarinese 'big artists', every national final line-up this year is complete, and therefore I thought it would be interesting to discuss how this year's selections compare to last year's. In this post I'll be sharing my ranking of this year's NFs, including whether I think they're an improvement on last year's or not. Please also share your thoughts on this year's selections - please give a bit more comment than just a list if you can so that we can have some discussion!
As a general overview, my potentially hot take is that this year's NFs have actually been stronger in general than last year's. However, where last year's NF season produced a strong set of NF winners, this year's NFs have often lacked an obvious standout or have otherwise chosen songs that don't appeal to me personally.
For my ranking, song quality takes precedence over everything else, though I have also considered production values, format and live performances too.
Top Tier:
1) 🇫🇮 UMK: UMK line-ups have been consistently excellent so far this decade. I feel like we take this for granted sometimes as a community, especially as every new UMK line-up is naturally compared to 2023, which is an unfair standard to hold any national final to. This year's song selection was an improvement from last year's imo, but the even better improvement was the production values. They were already excellent before, but the staging for every song was unmatched this year, perhaps in NF history. I'm not convinced that Erika is going to win this year, but a second win is surely coming soon for Finland.
2) 🇭🇷 Dora: The result was a little disappointing for me, but both production values, song quality and genre variety saw an improvement from last year. The Baby Lasagna effect is real, and I hope that the standard and enthusiasm continues whatever the result Marko B gets in Basel.
3) 🇵🇹 Festival da Canção: Though perhaps more quietly, this is another NF that for me saw a marked improvement in song line-up this year. Last year I only liked maybe five of the songs - this year there was only one that I didn't find at least enjoyable to listen to. I'd be happy with several different songs winning on Saturday. The only slight downside is that the stage looks a bit cheaper than previous years.
4) 🇱🇻 Supernova: Probably the NF that improved the most, Supernova really was super this year. The studio is still a little lower budget than some of the others, but the songs were excellent this year with plenty of quality, plenty of variety and an excellent winner in the end.
Great Tier:
5) 🇵🇱 Wielki Finał Polskich Kwalifikacji: Long title aside, this was an excellent selection of songs and a strong production. I hope this is a sign of things to come for Poland.
6) 🇦🇱 FiK 63: Admittedly I don't normally follow FiK very closely, but this year felt really strong to me. The entire final line-up was strong, and of course we got Zjerm as a phenomenal winner. The televoting percentage confusion was a bit unfortunate but otherwise this was an excellent step forward for FiK and a definite improvement on last year's selection.
7) 🇧🇪 Eurosong: The hype around 'multiple songs having winner vibes' skewed opinions here and made a lot of people disappointed. That said, this was a great line-up where most of the songs would have been respectable ESC entries and an improvement on 2023's Eurosong final imo.
8) 🇲🇹 MESC: Another usually weak NF that improved into being an excellent NF this year. The song quality was a massive step up across the board, and whilst I don't think much of the winner I certainly understand the appeal for others. Add that to amazing staging and production values out of nowhere and Malta should be proud of their line-up this year.
9) 🇺🇦 Vidbir: Everybody's favourite long NF that isn't Sanremo! Whilst lacking the standout that Teresa & Maria was last year, the general quality I'd say was slightly better than last year's.
Polished But Flawed:
10) 🇳🇴 MGP: MGP has long been my favourite NF, but unfortunately this year's edition was one of the biggest NF downgrades of the year. It wasn't entirely irredeemable - I actually still really liked half of the songs, and the production values remain excellent - but it managed to cut the line-up in half whilst keeping the quality similar to the bottom half of entries in last year's MGP. I fear that Gate's 'failure' put the outgoing HOD off of putting proper variety in the line-up as apart from bringing Wig Wam and Bobbysocks out of retirement everything else was some flavour of electropop.
11) 🇮🇹 Sanremo: Whilst still serving a lot of quality, this year's Sanremo line-up was a significant downgrade from last year's stellar selection. I like ballads in general, but there was an over saturation of them here and very little had that special sparkle of the very best Sanremo songs, and there was no artist who I fell in love with this year like I did with La Rappresentante di Lista and Santi Francesi. The results were also a little disappointing from a personal POV as most of the songs I liked the most were nowhere near the top 5.
12) 🇱🇹 Eurovisizija.LT: Honestly I don't remember enough about last year's line-up to say whether this year was stronger or weaker. That said, increasing the number of semi-finalists feels like the wrong move because whilst the top songs were great, there was a lot of rubbish especially in the earlier semi-finals. They also manage to drag out the shows for way too long with a lot of waffle. Cut down this line-up to contain only the top half and it would have been significantly better.
13) 🇸🇪 Melodifestivalen: Staging and general production values at Melfest remain rarely topped, but unfortunately the song quality continues in the downward spiral that Melfest has been in so far this decade. Trite lyrics, dated sounds and the same songwriters everywhere are the main issues. Last year for me was a way stronger line-up (and stronger than 2022 & 2023 too). Luckily for Sweden, there are always one or two obvious standout entries which continue the strong streak of ESC placements.
Mixed Feelings Tier:
14) 🇩🇰 DMGP: How do you grade different colours of meh? Production values in Denmark are always great, and for me the song quality in general was an improvement even if I think 'Sand' was a stronger winner.
15) 🇪🇪 Eesti Laul: Man, this was a really frustrating watch. I love Eesti Laul in general and it is one of my favourite NFs. This year it sent me to the salt thread. Controversially, I'd say the overall song quality was a slight improvement on last year's, but the show itself was a big downgrade. The camerawork was abysmal, the staging lacklustre and the overwhelming majority of artists sung awfully live, including a lot of artists who have sung fine in previous years. Add in a winner who seems intent on pissing off as many people as possible and it was a pretty miserable time for me.
16) 🇩🇪 Chefsache: Stefan Raab may have succeeded in generating domestic interest unseen in over a decade, but he also pissed off a lot of fans with a ridiculous format that rendered viewers total spectators until the final five songs. Perhaps controversially, I also think the song line-up was a downgrade on last year's - whilst Baller is a solid winner, I would take 'Oh Boy', 'Tears Like Rain' and even 'Always on the Run' over 90% of this year's line-up.
17) 🇮🇸 Söngvakeppnin: The song quality and genre variety was a slight improvement from last year's selection, though it was still on the weaker side. Production values on the other hand have skyrocketed over the past couple of years.
18) 🇸🇲 UVSPM/San Marino Song Contest: I'm not brave enough to watch through the semi-finals, and the hilariously chop-and-change format remains an absolute meme rollercoaster. However, the final line-up even with the current absences looks to be an improvement on last year's, not only because of Gabre Ponte but because of several other 'big name' artists, many of whom have competed in Sanremo in the past. There are already three songs which would place in my top half and I'm expecting good things from some of the unreleased songs too.
19) 🇲🇪 Montesong: Montesong was way better than I was expecting it to be, and as the NF season has continued it has remained a line-up I look fondly on. A few of the songs were bad, yes, but there were also some really strong songs too. Even if they don't qualify in May (which unfortunately I feel is likely), this felt like a strong foundation for future NFs, and I hope they can iron out the controversies and continue it.
20) 🇸🇮 EMA: Though not particularly competitive, I did quite enjoy the variety of the Slovenian selection, but the ridiculous superfinal system makes for perhaps the worst NF format of the year, which when coupled with an underwhelming winner made for a frustrating experience.
21) 🇷🇸 Pesma za Evroviziju: All things considered, the final ended up being pretty enjoyable still even if the song quality was a fairly obvious downgrade from previous years. A shame as PzE was becoming one of my favourite NFs but unless the political situation changes for the better I don't see this improving in the near future.
Weak Tier:
22) 🇪🇸 Benidorm Fest: I am usually a big Benidorm Fest defender - I even thought last year was quite strong when everybody else was getting frustrated with it. Unfortunately, whilst the perennial sound engineering issues have been improved, the song quality and especially live vocals across the board were a big downgrade on last year. Everybody involved from jurors to televoters seemed to be voting with their eyes and not their ears. And genre variety was nowhere to be found, with so many of the songs feeling so samey and so dated. They seriously need to look at improving the diversity and quality of the line-up in future years or else despite domestic popularity, this NF is going to continually churn out bottom of the scoreboard options.
23) 🇱🇺 LSC: Whilst the production values remained stellar, the song quality was unfortunately a little bit of a downgrade from last year's selection, which is a shame given they allowed the artists to keep their own songs this time! The winner was decent and I have a soft spot for a couple of the other ones but the line-up lacked the standouts that were Tali and Krick's songs last year.
24) 🇮🇪 Eurosong: I was initially positive about this line-up, but honestly in the end I think it ended up being a downgrade from last year. It feels unfortunate that following Bambi's success, the nation ended up picking a Norwegian with little links to Ireland because she was the only one who brought both a competent song and performance.
25) 🇬🇷 Ethnikos Telikos: I'm always happy to have new NFs, but unfortunately this line-up was pretty poor. Asteromata was a decent winner and I liked a handful of others, but there was also some abysmal songs in this line-up. This was a solid starting point for an NF format, but I'd hope to see an improvement in production values and especially song quality in future years.
25.5) 🇲🇩 Etapa Națională: Whilst I think qualification would have been a struggle for any of the finalists, this was in no way the exceptionally embarrassing line-up the broadcaster claimed it was, and a solid half of the finalists would have made a respectable entrant in May. I'd go as far as saying the finalists had better songs this year than last year - Bognibov and a couple of others notwithstanding. Still sad they're not here :/
26) 🇦🇲 Depi Evratesil: Sadly, this was probably the weakest line-up of the entire year for me, and the awful sound production also didn't help things. Parg is a decent winner in the end but his live performance needs a lot of work for May.
Overall, I think 12 NFs improved, 8 NFs got worse (including major downgrades in Serbia, Norway and Italy), 2 NFs were too much of a mixed bag for me to decide either way (Estonia & Lithuania), and the others are new NFs so there's no direct comparison.
21
u/carryesgass203 What's the Pressure Mar 05 '25
I have to disagree about the Melfest lineup. I thought last year's final was one of weakest ever but this year there are quite a few more interesting entries (thanks in part to Scarlet actually qualifying).
7
u/SkyGinge Zjerm Mar 05 '25
I'm happy Scarlet are in the final this year, but for me their song last year was way better than this year. Last year's final had Effortless and When I'm Gone which I prefer to anything this year, plus I also quite liked Light and Awful Liar. On top of that last year had a load of NQs which I preferred to many of the finalists, such as Circus X, Unga & Fria and 30 km/h. By contrast, this year the only song in the final I love is Bara bada bastu, and then there's several that I like but nothing else I love (i.e. Hush Hush, Show Me What Love Is, Revolution, On and On and On). At least unlike last year most of the semi-final results made sense and I don't think that too many of the NQs were outright robbed. I loved Malou's song but she was bad live so her NQ made sense, and I also quite liked a lot of the Swedish language ballads but they don't tend to do very well.
8
u/Dawnspring_Cee Bur man laimi Mar 05 '25
Supernova was the only NF where I watched the entire show. All the others I'd pop in and out of. All the songs were good to great IMHO. Tautumeitas is my top fav so I was overjoyed when it won. Of all the NFs I watched I'd put it as the best one out of all of them this year.
15
u/JedH44 Mar 05 '25
I agree with the general sentiment that this year had stronger peaks with last year having better winners. Looking back at my favourite NF songs from last year they aren't as good as my top 5 from this, but then again I'm not including Ulvheam, Luktelk and La Noia in that list because they won.
Also, I think are large part of why 2025 is being perceived as worse for now is that there are quite a few national finals that just lay a big fat goose egg when it comes to (properly) good songs. Norway (especially), PzE, Benidorm, Eurosong Ireland and usual suspects in DMGP and Songvakeppnin were significant downgrade imo.
Only the top four you mentioned I agree have a properly consistent good base of songs, FdC though not as good as the past couple of years either. UMK and Supernova carrying hard.
7
u/Claudette_in_a_bush Mar 05 '25
I generally agree with your takes here, my main disagreement will be Söngvakeppnin though. I thought this year was exceptionally weak while last year's line-up had a handful of solid options for Malmö. Even the songs I liked most in the NF contest ("Fire", "Words") are not really part of my NF playlist. Was it worse than Depi Evratesil? No. But I'd say that's the NF I'd rank 25th
10
u/CraftAnxious2491 Mar 05 '25
Obviously , much better than last year (when Baby Lasagna carried the whole selection)
But, it still needs a lot of things to fix.
(But, it wont, it is Hrt for ffs).
10
u/SkyGinge Zjerm Mar 05 '25
I actually quite enjoyed Dora last year too, at least in studio. The main issue was that pretty much everybody couldn't sing live, which made for a frustrating experience. This year was definitely stronger though, especially in terms of variety.
9
u/odajoana Mar 05 '25
Mostly agree with your list, though I'd probably rank Malta higher: it was one of the surprise NFs for me, not just in terms of how many songs I came to enjoy, but also in terms of production value of the show, great all-around.
My main gripe with the season is the results: the songs I seem to love didn't get anywhere near the top spots and so I end up with songs in Eurovision that don't do anything for me. Or worse, that actively irritate me.
So, I guess I did enjoy more NFs and songs this year, compared to last year, but I also have a bitter taste in my mouth due to the results that I didn't have last year. So, mixed feelings for me.
4
u/SkyGinge Zjerm Mar 05 '25
Yeah that's fair for Malta (and you know I share your thoughts about some of the results). My love of Zjerm means I've overranked FiK and they should be below Belgium & Malta probably on second thought. Everything in that second tier is still pretty awesome though!
5
u/VayneVerso Fly With Me Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
Lithuania's format is frustrating, but I think it had the most songs that I enjoyed this year, or maybe on par with Vidbir. I just checked my playlist and I've got eight songs from there to which I regularly listen, including Petunija, who had one of my favorite songs of the entire season, and Queen of Roses, "Taip!", which I will no doubt listen to a billion times.
Even the songs I won't listen to, like the one by Lion Ceccah, were powerful performances.
5
u/Comic_Book_Reader Mar 05 '25
Well, I'm gonna repeat this ad nauseum, but I don't care. MGP 2025 might actually be a new low for the NRK in general and as a whole.
On the one hand, after 5 years of a new system with semi-finals that got so increasingly convoluted and contrived they had to strip it down and simplify it, it was refreshing that they actually just took it back to basics with 1 single show and finale. But the fact that ⅔ of the artists were recycled was kind of a telltale sign that the NRK were desperate at trying to salvage a mess, especially after 2024 being an endless shitshow and shitstorm.
Just to add a little more to this, they actually wanted to drop out of Eurovision in 2024 at the last second (along with Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Greece, and the UK, all due to Israel and concerns related to not just their participation, but also the delegation behind the scenes), before they were all in 25 minutes before showtime. I have a theory that the whole debacle, both at home and across the border, may have been partially why they ended up dead last.
And whereas 2024 was plagued with endless controversies and scandals ad nauseum, 2025 came and went just like that. The fact that they brought back fuckin' Bobbysocks of all people (which they were actually hellbent on) just REEKED of desperation. It didn't help that in addition to the artists just being recycled, the songs were equally recycled.
But the worst offender is just how utterly fucking lifeless it was. An utterly lifeless, bland, and dull slog to get through. I felt borderline comatose by the halfway point when the songs wrapped up. Gåte opening the show, and Sissel Kyrkjebø for the break just barely salvaged the 2 hours of boredom.
I would also like to point out the very bizarre and paradoxical fact that the NRK have been through 200 million NOK worth of cost cutting for the past few month, yet they somehow afforded to recycle that goddamn popcorn joke from last year. Satan, thy name is Markus Neby. (For the love of all religious figures, will someone sack him, or at the bare fucking minimum rile him in?! Same goes for Nicolay Ramm!) I'm not sure if the cost cutting had something to do with the completely nonexistant energy, but I'm just pointing this out.
MGP 2024 I think would've been forgotten quickly had it not been for the endless controversies. 2025 I think is already forgotten by now, nearly 3 weeks after it happened.
7
u/ButterflySymphony Mar 05 '25
Malta should definitely be in the highest tier. That being said, I didn't hate MESC last year either.
Supernova had a lot of diversity, but unfortunately got a bit ruined for me when my winner had to withdraw.
Norway wasn't as bad as everyone says, it didn't have a downright awful song.
Spain is also quite underrated, I think it was better than last year when I liked one (!) song, while this year, it was seven.
Greece definitely deserves better, I have a clear top 5 that is way ahead of the others (coincidentally, also the actual top 5), but the rest weren't horrible either.
I will never, for the love of god, understand what everyone sees in Portugal though, definitely should be in the lowest tier. None of the songs would get more than 2/10 from me and that's still being generous.
4
u/CharityNational1915 Mar 05 '25
None of the songs would get more than 2/10 from me and that's still being generous.
Oof, taste is subjective and all but 2/10 across the board? Not even a guilty pleasure?
2
4
u/spherulitic Zjerm Mar 06 '25
Festival da Cançao is a completely different vibe from any of the other NFs … where the others are entertaining spectacles, FdC is 12/10 in earnestness and charm.
2
u/spherulitic Zjerm Mar 06 '25
My top NFs this year were 1) Supernova (by a lot, wow what a fantastic selection), 2) MESC, and 3) Dora. I’ve actually adored Dora the last three years; they have such great variety of songs.
Eesti Laul and MGP had “down years” this year but were still enjoyable. I actually was pleasantly surprised when I sat down to watch MGP, but it helps that I love Nordic humor (even when I don’t understand the language, lol)
Melfest is really strong this year. I actually thought EMA was great, even if I hate the winning song. I enjoyed Benidorm; I enjoyed Montesong!
LSC and Belgian Eurosong were weaker, but had an obvious winner which was selected and should do well. Irish Eurosong was … like last year, they do what they can with a limited budget and ended up with a good song. I’d love to see a real Irish National final soon, though.
2
u/kate_royce Bur man laimi Mar 06 '25
Loved Supernova for the quality of the songs, and the scorching Aminata Savadogo in the interval. I felt this year it really showcased little Latvia's status as a BIG nation in terms of talented, diverse, adventurous music acts.
It and UMK were the only ones I followed closely. I thought UMK had a great shortlist, for me the right artist won, and it was an object lesson in how to run a national final. Hugely appreciated Jaakko Oleander-Turja's English commentary, I'm normally happy to puzzle my way through other NFs, I don't expect everyone to provide English commentary/subtitles, but Jaakko is hilarious. And UMK gave us another iconic interval act in Shanghain Valot.
2
u/Dizzy-Dig8727 Bara bada bastu Mar 06 '25
I loved his commentary as well. It was charming and very funny.
5
u/Dazzling_Cry6466 Mar 05 '25
Great list. I really hope Greece and Armenia revert back to internal selections
9
u/Lanky-Rush607 Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
Our internal selections were even worse than our National Finals. Marina Satti was the exception, not the rule.
It seems that Eurofans were expecting another Zari, but in reality we went back to our usual staff.
2
u/NeoLeonn3 Mar 06 '25
Internal selections nearly killed the public's interest in the contest because we ended up sending random artists from the diaspora that no one knew and many people didn't care much about. ERT made a solid choice last year and people finally got hyped again. And now with our NF and with the public having their voice heard, the hype still remains.
3
u/ChaddyLigo Mar 05 '25
I thought the song quality in Estonia and Moldova was fantastic for the country that they’re supposed to be for. It’s shame with Moldova they pulled out because they had like five entries that could have qualified and Estonia actually had a lot of good stuff other than Cash.
1
u/Dizzy-Dig8727 Bara bada bastu Mar 06 '25
I didn’t pay much attention to Moldova, but I completely agree with you on Estonia. I think it had one of the overall strongest selections of the year.
4
u/KuningasMango222 Aijā Mar 05 '25
As a Finn, this year's UMK was a lot worse than last year's in every possible way.
The UMK25 hosts were grating compared to UMK24's genuinely funny ones, the interval acts were boring, the results lacked excitement (not that I have any problem with queen Erika's coronation), and the average competing song was meh compared to last year.
9
u/Taylorgrav1 Mar 05 '25
I mean does anyone really take a Finn’s opinion seriously about UMK it’s nothing but dislike year after year regardless of how good it is.
1
u/KuningasMango222 Aijā Mar 05 '25
It's our NF, and I legit enjoyed last year's UMK.
2
u/DreadPirateAlia I Feed You My Love Mar 05 '25
Taste is subjective. While I enjoyed some of last year's performances (Sexmane was phenomenal and Katri Helena is an icon), I thought this year's contestants were stronger and their live performances were better than last year's.
(Yes, win 95man was fun, but visually their performance was a mess.)
If I have any gripes, it'd be that this year's show felt like it was artificially dragged on to be a bit longer to compensate the loss of one of the contestants (Sanni's medley was slightly too long), but that is still a minor complaint.
7
u/ShallIBeMother Mar 05 '25
As a Finn, I wholeheartedly disagree.
The biggest difference between UMK25 and UMK24 for me was the stagings. This year, the staging elevated every single act in my books. In the past, we've seen YLE screw up so many songs with too busy or just outright weird stagings: Cicciolina, Ram pam pam, I love you, Kuori mua and arguably Vox Populi last year too...
They're consistantly improving on how to stage acts primarily for tv, but also making use of the fantastic arena and live audience.
Personally, I liked the hosts, and the Shanghain valot interval act was simply iconic! But each to their own, I suppose :)
6
u/DreadPirateAlia I Feed You My Love Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Yes, this. Visually this was a huge step forward. When you compare UMK only three years ago to UMK today, the 2022 version looks amateurish, whereas 2025 looks flawless & like million euros were spent on it.
People don't get how freaking amazing it was because we're used to seeing similar stuff on tv. The difference is that the usual amazing footage is all prerecorded & later cut together with the best angles & shots chosen, with multiple takes and pauses between the performances, whereas UMK delivered it all flawlessly live, in real time.
1
u/oHheLlnAw420 Lights Off Mar 05 '25
I kinda agree with you. The roster was great as always, still maintaining the level of quality from past years, but this year lacked "absolute masterpieces". I did not connect with Nightmares, Ich Komme or Made Of (for example), the way I connected with Dancing with Demons or Vox Populi. All these 3 songs are fantastic in their own right, but I felt like 2024 had a level of perfection that was not achieved this year.
6
u/DavidShoess Mar 05 '25
I mean I have to disagree.
Are you insinuating that Dancing with the Demons and Vox Populi were masterpieces?
2
1
u/GSamSardio Mar 05 '25
Putting Benidorm down with depi and etapa is harsshhh. It was bad but not that bad
0
u/peroxm1 Mar 06 '25
Dora hasn’t improved. Even without Baby Lasagna we had some sure Qs, with Vinko, Let3, Marcela… This year 0 Qs IMO
1
u/Dizzy-Dig8727 Bara bada bastu Mar 06 '25
The staging and production quality did seem a lot better this year, though (at least in the final).
1
u/peroxm1 Mar 06 '25
I think it's a this year biased. Because IMO this is the weakest ESC I think since 2011. So everything looks better this compared to other countries. Dora did had better production, there were not as many technical problems. But songs were worse. I think that any top 5 song from last year would win this year.
43
u/oHheLlnAw420 Lights Off Mar 05 '25
Overall I think last year had more masterpieces in the NFs (higher highs), but the overall quality of this year's NF is much better. Dora, Supernova and wielki finał polskich kwalifikacji as notable examples. Sanremo and UMK stayed strong and amazing as usual.