And with that, the National Finals are over. As we publish the latest Insight News podcast we’re waiting on France to declare its entry to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. The community’s reaction is in the spotlight this week, as are the artists’ reactions. Other delegations are working the PR machines to get as much love inside the community and…

Gabry Ponte is one of the world’s most successful DJs but he is now taking on a huge new challenge as he competes at the Eurovision Song Contest. His entry Tutta L’Italia was used as part of the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, but it’s now been chosen to represent San Marino in Basel. Gabry chats to Steve about the journey of his anthem and his exc…

With one weekend of National Finals to go, the Eurovision playlist for Basel 2025 is almost full of the songs of every nation. Yet the global nature of the Song Contest has been brought into sharp focus with international songwriters contributing throughout the shows and cultural norms being challenged across borders. Eurovision Insight News Podcas…

Norway’s Kyle Alessandro has been a Eurovision Song Contest fan since he sang Dami Im, Barei and Jamala in a karaoke bar at the age of 10! He chats to Steve about the meaning of his entry Lighter, his Spanish and Norwegian influences, his friendship with Queen of Kings Alessandra, and how he’s the Norwegian Will Ferrell. The Official Eurovision Son…

Welcome To Eurovision Wars Eurovision Wars is a series of podcasts exploring geopolitical themes as they emerged on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. You can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 in full on Spotify, covering such topics as the Russia-Ukraine War, and the long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. For Season 3, the podcast moves to i…

A single National Final last week, a slice of Icelandic vibes between two Super Saturdays. Of course, there was the small matter of Måns Zelmerlow in his Melodifestivalen heat to set tongues wagging in the community. Michelle Kittens (That Eurovision Site) joins us on the News Pod this week to discuss a roller-coaster week that moves through the Se…

Red Sebastian is living his childhood dream by representing Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest. He’s singing Strobe Lights and speaks to Steve about making the club banger he is taking to Basel. He also talks about how the Little Mermaid shaped his life, his love of Whitney, Christina and Gaga, and how Belgium’s 2023 entry Gustaph taught him to…

The latest Super Saturday is over, and there are lots of discussion points to choose from in this week’s Insight News podcast. This week, we’re joined by Phoneix ESC’s MJ to talk about the differences between watching the show and being in the audience, deciding to go for a National Final or an Internal Selection, and what moment earns our weekly n…

EMMY is going to represent Ireland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with her song Laika Party. It’s a tribute to Laika the dog, who was one of the first animals to go into space. Steve caught up the Norwegian singer to hear how she’s feeling about singing for Ireland,, learning Irish traditions and find out whether Jedward or Subwoolfer might…

A packed weekend of Song Contest selections saw some spectacular shows, as well as controversy around lyrics, feedback, and running length. Gina Jones joins Ewan Spence to continue the discussions. Our nominations for the Iceberg start and end (on time) in Italy. Then we move to Finland and the increasingly spectacular UMK shows. Malta gets in on t…

Erika Vikman will represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest with her song Ich Komme, and becomes the first act of 2025 to appear on our official podcast! Steve caught up with her the morning after winning the Finnish national final UMK (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu) in her home city of Tampere. She talks about her amazing stage performance, her f…

It’s been a packed week in the world of the Song Contest, with lots of discussion points and debates to be had. Ewan Spence and Tom Hendryck pick out some of them to talk about in the latest Insight News podcast. As well as our weekly nomination for the Iceberg, they talk about the various ways of announcing an Internal selection, who best to do it…

The legendary Tia Kofi is the first guest on a brand new season of the Official Eurovision Song Contest! Tia is a drag icon, singer, podcaster and a WINNER of RuPaul’s Drag Race vs The World. As we get ready for this year’s competition in Basel, Tia joins Steve for a chat about her love of the contest, her ambition to sing at the event, her love of…

Welcome To Eurovision Wars Eurovision Wars is a series of podcasts exploring geopolitical themes as they emerged on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. You can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 in full on Spotify, covering such topics as the Russia-Ukraine War, and the long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. For Season 3, the podcast moves to i…

This week on the Insight News podcast, Ewan Spence is joined by AJ Clay (Keep Watching podcast) to discuss seven days in the world of the Eurovision Song Contest. They discuss the impact of the Semi Final Draw, who’s singing when, and wonder what happened to the Keys to the Host Cities; the impact of storytelling at the Luxembourg National Final, a…

Faith Martin (@EurovisionFaith) joins Ewan Spence on this week’s Insight News podcast to discuss this week’s wonderful world of Eurovision. We have our hosts to discuss and the roles they play, the announcement of 36,000 tickets for the Watch Party next door to St Jakobshalle in Basel, Moldova’s withdrawal, the advantages and disadvantages of Super…

It’s our second Insight News podcast of the year, and the second run at the new format. After last week’s double-length episode that to cover everything from September 1st, this episode only needs cover one week in the Song Contest. Samantha Ross (12 Points From America) joins Ewan Spence to talk about Lithuania’s Eurovizija.lt Semi Finals and how …

This weekend will see the first Semi Final in Lithuania’s journey to select a song for the Eurovision Song Contest, and it’s the first of eight weekends that will be filled with non-stop National Selection action. That’s on top of the two National Final winners and internal selections on the board already. Yes, it’s getting busy! And what helps whe…

Welcome To Eurovision Wars Eurovision Wars is a series of podcasts exploring geopolitical themes as they emerged on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. You can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 in full on Spotify, covering such topics as the Russia-Ukraine War, and the long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. For Season 3, the podcast moves to i…

We’ve been chatting to some of your Eurovision favourites in Amsterdam at Het Grote Songfestivalfeest, where dozens of acts come together for a huge party in the Ziggo Dome. From the class of 2024, we catch up with Croatia’s Baby Lasagna, Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil from Ukraine, and Ireland’s Bambie Thug. Steve also welcomes Australia’s Guy Sebasti…

This week saw the launch of the Basel 2025 branding. While the Eurovision Song Contest has an overall look, each host city and year carries their own look reflecting the city, the country, and the values of the Contest. Artur Deyneuve is leading the team for Basel. ESC Insight’s Ewan Spence sat down with Artur following the launch to find out more …

Content Warning This podcast episode includes discussions of violence, and mentions of sexual violence and rape. Welcome To Eurovision Wars Eurovision Wars is a series of podcasts exploring geopolitical themes as they emerged on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. You can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 in full on Spotify, covering such topics as the Russ…

We’re celebrating the 2024 Junior Eurovision Song Contest final in Madrid! Steve is joined by the three Spanish hosts of this year’s final: Ruth Lorenzo, Marc Clotet and Melani Garcia. Ruth talks about her own experience at Eurovision after she came 10th in 2014 with her song Dancing In The Rain. Marc is a well known actor and model in his home cou…

Welcome to the latest episode of the Eurovision Masterpiece Collection. There’s more to our favourite singers than their Song Contest entries, so join David Horton as he highlights some of the best music away from the Eurovision stage. In our latest musical moment, David’s audience picks out three favourites from Eurovision legend Loreen. Loreen fi…

As the Eurovision Song Contest moves forward and Basel 2025 comes into view, the events leading up to, during, and after the Song Contest’s third visit to Malmö continue to echo around the community. Bakel Walden, the current chair of the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group, returns to the ESC Insight podcast and joins Ewan Spence to talk about…