At second from bottom in my personal top 40, Switzerland are the biggest fallers in terms of position in my 2021 rankings compared to this year’s rankings. In fact I had Switzerland (in the shape of Gjon’s Tears) in my top 2 for both last year and the cancelled 2020 contest and in 2019 Switzerland was in my top 10. So I’m sorry for this very low ranking, but as always, this is my own personal preference, rather than an objective critique of Marius Bear and “Boys Do Cry”.

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Marius Bear (real name Marius Hügli) was internally selected as the 2022 Eurovision artist for Switzerland. He’s been a musician for several years and won a Swiss Music Award in 2019 for “Best Talent”. He’s the cowriter of his Eurovision song “Boys Do Cry”, a call for men not to ignore or be ashamed of their feelings.

As always, I like to start with positives! Being cowritten by the singer is always a plus, and it’s a smooth, gentle, slow jazzy song that carries a positive message and an appeal against toxic masculinity. Marius himself seems to have a voice to match the song, and a recent live performance shows he can match the studio version vocal in a live setting.

My own feelings towards this, and the reason for the low placing, is that I just find it too slow, low key and, if I’m honest, boring. I don’t demand uptempo songs, and there are plenty of examples of slower paced, more chilled entries finishing high on my ranking, but I just don’t get engage with this one at all I’m afraid.

Switzerland have burst back into life recently at Eurovision, after over a decade of mostly non-qualifications, they got a 4th place in 2019, and went one better in 2021 with a third place finish and winning the jury vote. No such glory awaits them this time I predict and while it’s not impossible this will pick up some jury points, it is in a very forgettable slot in the running order in its semi-final and a return to non-qualification may well be on the cards.

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Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest