“The north wind doth blow and we shall have snow”… Well, that has certainly been true for Europe this past week as we shiver under a Siberian blast and snow falling in unlikely places. And aptly, this coming weekend will see us finding out which songs will be representing a cluster of northern countries.. 

Estonia: Eesti Laul 2018

Estonia always puts on a good national selection, and this year is no exception. I’d say they have the widest range of musical genres and styles in their national final of 10 songs (following two semi-finals).

 Elina Nechayeva “La forza”

This is the BIG favourite, and not just to win Eesti Laul, but Estonia is one of the current favourites to win Eurovision itself. Hard to see it not winning, but there are several other songs that would be worthy winners in my view:

Stig Rästa “Home”

Stig is an old hand at Eurovision these days, having written two Eurovision songs already, and of course was one of the performers in the more successful of those songs – “Goodbye to Yesterday”, and earning a 7th place in the 2015 contest. Not as dramatic as the soprano, but this would be a very lovely winner. Also bonus points for a reference to Game of Thrones in this 🙂

Sibyl Vane “Thousand Words”

There is something a little Britpop-y about this – maybe it’s my own late 90s student days nostalgia kicking in but I like this a lot. Not what you often come across in a national final (or at Eurovision), it would be refreshing to have something like this in Lisbon.

Nika “Knock Knock”

Another musical style (I told you it was a varied final), this is another of my favourites and I enjoy the performance as well as the song itself. Just some tightening up of vocals needed maybe…?

Finland: Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2018

Finland is holding a national final with a difference – the artist is already selected, but it’s down to the public to decide which song of three presented that she will sing. The artist is well known in both Finland and the UK – it’s Saara Alto, runner up in The Voice of Finland in 2012, runner up at Finland’s national final in 2016, and perhaps most famously, runner up in the UK’s X Factor 2016 series. Hugely popular with the Eurofandom, Finland are being rated a contender to win Eurovision. The fandom are going crazy for “Monsters” but perhaps controversially, I rate “Queens” even more highly. Let’s hope the Finnish people don’t then go for “Domino” – thought it wouldn’t be disastrous if they did!

“Monsters”

“Domino”

“Queens”

Iceland: Söngvakeppnin 2018

Last of this northern trio is also, afraid to say, the least, in terms of quality of songs on offer in their national finals. But there are a couple of OK songs in there but I don’t think Iceland will be picking up their first Eurovision win this year…

Aron Hannes “Gold Digger”

The favourite to win from the 6 songs that have made the final.

Fókus “Battleline”

This is my personal pick from the Icelandic final – it’s nice to hear the Icelandic here although I think we might be getting it in English in the final itself. This might sound a bit like mid-2000s Eurovision, but my musical tastes rove across the decades!