I've watched Eurovision for 45 years — here's my party survival guide

Metro

17-05-2025

It's time to hang out your finest flag bunting, dust off your scorecards and get the snacks in for one of the biggest TV nights of the year.
Yes, Eurovision is upon us once again, and whether you're a superfan or whether it's your idea of televisual hell, there's no escaping the international Song Contest at this time of the year.
The 2025 event is taking place tonight in Basel, Switzerland, and if you're heading to a Eurovision watch party and want to seem like something of an expert (despite ignoring the contest for the other 364 days of the year), you might be wondering where to start.
Well, here's as good a place as any. I've watched every minute of every contest since 1980, I've been to the whole shebang four times and even reported on it from Vienna and Lisbon. Yep, I'm that person who stays home on Saturday nights in February to watch national finals and tentatively browses Airbnbs in potential host cities before the date has even been set.
So, if you're hoping to come across as a top-notch Eurovision expert to rival Graham Norton and Rylan come Saturday night, then fear not — I'm here to help.
When is Eurovision 2025? The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final begins on Saturday, May 17 at 8pm. Where is Eurovision 2025? The contest is taking place in the city of Basel, after Swiss act Nemo won the trophy last year. Who is the favourite to win this year? Having won the Eurovision Song Contest seven times already, Sweden are once again the bookmakers' favourites. How to watch Eurovision 2025: The final will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer from 8pm BST. The show will also be live-streamed on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
The final will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer from 8pm BST. The show will also be live-streamed on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. Where can I listen to Eurovision 2025? BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds will have live commentary of tonight's final from 8pm.
As predictable as this might sound — because they've won the thing seven times already — Sweden are on course to score yet another victory in Basel. Only it's not with the song everybody expected.
Former Eurovision winner Mans Zelmerlow had been widely predicted to fly the flag for the Swedes with his song Revolution, until his thunder was well and truly stolen by the trio KAJ, who snatched a sensational victory with their song Bara Bada Bastu, a cheery tribute to the joys of taking a sauna.
KAJ's chances of winning the contest are said to be hotter than their beloved sauna, with bookmakers giving them a 42% chance of victory. If they do take top honours, it'll make Sweden the country with the most wins in Eurovision history — overtaking Ireland, who have also won seven times.
Oh, and by the way, the band themselves are actually from Finland, specifically Ostrobothnia, a Finnish region where Swedish is more widely spoken.
And speaking of Finland…
Just when you'd got over the sight of a bunch of half-naked dancers writhing around onstage with Olly Alexander in the 2024 contest, this year's event ups the smut level by several thousand percent.
Let's start with Finland's Erika Vikman, who's tried before to represent the Nordic nation and has finally succeeded with her growling electropop anthem Ich Komme (yes, you did read that correctly).
However, top honours go to Malta's Miriana Conte, whose pop banger Kant (a harmless Maltese word which means 'singing') fell foul of the censors for its title's similarity to a certain swear word you definitely don't want younger viewers to hear. In the words of the UK's Remember Monday, 'Clutch my pearls!'
Fortunately, Miriana saved Ofcom the mother of all headaches by changing the song title to Serving, and leaving out the offending term — although we can't guarantee the crowd won't fill in the blanks on her behalf, come the big night.
So we've established that KAJ are actually from Finland in spite of representing Sweden, but that's not the only bit of swapsies going on this year.
Germany are hoping for success with dance anthem Baller, performed by sibling duo Abor and Tynna, who are actually from over the border in Austria.
Danish representative Sissal is actually from the Faroe Islands, and the microstate San Marino has once again turned to Italy for its act, in the shape of DJ Gabry Ponte.
Bingo: Fake rain, wind machines, disco balls… these things happen every year, which makes Eurovision perfect for a game of bingo. You can also turn it into a drinking game, and take a sip each time you see a Eurovision cliche on screen — but I'm not taking any responsibility for how, erm, merry you get.
Bingo
byu/Marijkje ineurovision Personalised score cards: Become your own professional jury and rank each performance as you watch. You can score the performances according to your own criteria, like costume design, quantity of glitter or general outlandishness. Sweepstake: A classic for a reason. Once you know which countries have made it to the final, randomly assign them to the watch party guests and anxiously wait to find out if you have the winning act. You can all contribute some money towards a prize pot, pick out a Eurovision-themed gift for the winner or maybe the glory is enough on its own.
The path to Eurovision is often filled with folk heading back for another try, and this year is no exception.
Poland are represented by Justyna Steczowska, who was the country's second-ever Eurovision participant in 1995, finishing 18th with the song Sama. Can she go higher this time?
Meanwhile, Montenegro's singer Nina Zizic previously appeared in 2013 alongside the duo Who See.
As for the better-known participants, the aforementioned Gabry Ponte is better known as one half of Eiffel 95, who topped the charts in 1999 with that best-selling earworm Blue (Ba Da Bee).
Tommy Cash, who is representing Estonia with the controversial Espresso Macchiato, has performed across Europe, the US and China, as well as played at Glastonbury.
It's Eurovision, so obviously you can expect some pretty fantastic costumes on the night with sparkly, glittery and shiny outfits galore, a few smart suits and a spot of black PVC (hello Finland).
However, you can also expect a lot of red this year. Step forward Albania's Shkodra Electronica.
The latter's song Zjerm (Fire), is a moody blend of ethnic pop and electronic beats, which speaks of hope, resilience, and a plea for peace and purity in a war-torn world.
With a song called Fire it seems only appropriate that singer Beatrice Gjerji will take to the stage in a vivid, fiery red dress. Her costume has been designed by her mother, stylist Irina Dema, who also made the striking frock Beatrice wore at the turquoise carpet opening ceremony.
Since the free language rule came in in 1999, meaning countries can decide what language they want their contestant to sing, songs in English have dominated the contest.
This year, however, things are different, with only 19 of the 37 songs fully or partly in English. Sweden and Germany are both singing in their native languages for the first time since 1998, and you can also expect to hear everything from Icelandic and Albanian to Serbian, Latvian and Georgian on the Eurovision stage.
This year's contest also includes no less than five songs fully or partly in French (France, Luxembourg, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland), three in Italian (Italy, San Marino, Estonia), and two featuring German (Germany, Finland).
Of course, it would be remiss of us not to mention the act hoping to bring glory to the UK this year.
Remember Monday first came to prominence when they appeared on the 2019 series of The Voice UK, during which they were mentored by Jennifer Hudson and made it as far as the knockout rounds.
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They're also the first girl band to represent the UK since Precious in 1999 and the first non-solo act since Joe and Jake in 2016. More Trending
If they do win, it'll be the sixth victory for the UK, who last took the trophy with Katrina and The Waves in 1997. However, the country's fortunes haven't been so great of late.
Though Liverpool had the honour of hosting the 2023 show on behalf of Ukraine, after Sam Ryder came second in 2022, we've also finished last five times since 2000: in 2003, 2008, 2010, 2019 and 2021. And on two of those occasions — 2003 and 2021 — we didn't score any points at all.
Fingers crossed we don't all wake up on Sunday morning thinking 'What The Hell Just Happened…'
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This article was originally published on May 14.
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