40 countries participate in the Eurovision Song Contest this year in Turin, Italy. The final airs May 14th at 3pm (Eastern)
Italy, the home country of last year’s iconic winners, Maneskin, hosts the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Ahead of the May 14th final, there will be two semi finals on 10 and 12 May.
Since the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, the world’s biggest song contest has changed quite a bit. In recent years it became a 3- night event, with two semi finals, out of which 10 our of 18 or 19 countries moves forward to the final, and then the Grand Finale event with 26 countries (the 20 from the 2 finals, plus “The Big 6”: Italy, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain).
Starting as a European contest, originally to unite the broken Europe after World World II, the contest had evolved into a worldwide event, at the beginning with accepting countries that are not in Europe belong to the European Broadcast Union like Israel (and Morocco that competed once in 1980). And then in 2015 Australia, which was apparently a big fan of the contest, has joined the party. Now with Eurovision producers’ launch of American Song Contest, and the latest announcement on Eurovision Canada begins in 2023, it seems that the Worldvision dream, the musical equivalent to Olympics, is looking more real than ever.
Eurovision 2022: Who Will Win?
Eurovision has never been shy of politics: the most common fact of countries voting for their favorite neighbor country was eventually resulted in changing the score system and split it between the audience and a panel of judges in every country. But it is known that many times the voting is effected by what’s happening in the world. For example: Israel won the contest for the first time in 1978 during it’s Camp David Accord which lead to peace with Egypt. In 2016, Ukraine’s Jamala won the contest with the song “1944”, whose lyrics referenced the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. United Kingdom has ended up in the bottom of the scoreboard every year since Brexit; And this year, with the Russia-Ukraine war, Russia is banned from the competition while Ukraine is almost sure to win, according to the bookies.
Is Eurovision A Gay Thing?
Officially, no. But there’s something in the air that is very, very gay. Throughout its decades, the competition has grown to be adored by the community, that become its most devoted fans. In 1998 Dana International, a trans woman, has won for Israel – but really won for the LGBT community in Europe. Since then the competition “came out” with out performers and a lot of gay appeal (and many, many hot representatives!). This year, the gay appeal comes from Australia, Israel, and Italy’s gay love song, which is the second-favorite to win:
A Celebration of Pop Music in an Over-the-top Performances
But overall, Eurovision is about the music: the song and the delivery of the song. With so many participants, each country wants to be remembered – and will try to do something unique/extreme during its 3-minute performance.
An example of just a good song will be Sweden. The minimalist performance of Cornelia Jakobs with her breakup anthem Hold Me Closer can send her back home with the trophy (Sweden is currently the 3rd favorite to win)
To sum things up, our Eurovision 2022 classic favorite is the impossible Chanel from Spain with her Beyonce-style phenomenal performance and flawless vocals that will leave you with your jaw dropped. If we had to explain to you what to expect on May 14 in one video, it would be this: