🎶 Eurovision music round-up: June 2023

The Winners

Salvador Sobral – “pedra quente”

The 2017 winner is back with more new music, and it’s some of his most upbeat work in a while. The track was written and composed by Salvador and frequent collaborator Leo Aldrey. Portuguese radio statrion M80 writes about “pedra quente” (hot stone) that it is an ode to the singer’s summer holidays when he was young, the times where Salvador and his friends “would repeat the same mistake every day”.

Lena – “What I Want”

Lena is a rare but always exciting sighting in this music round-up. Her new song, “What I Want,” sees Lena combine the indie-pop sound of previous release “Looking For Love” with a more typical pop-beat. Lena co-wrote the song with Joe Walter and producer Pascal Reinhart. In the track, Germany’s 2010 winner tells someone that she needs a little more time to figure out what she wants before she can enter a relation with them.

Tanel Padar – “Mustad purjed”

Tanel was part of Estonia’s winning team of 2001. Although “Everybody” is a specific brand of pop-perfection (to me at least), Tanel tends to be more of a rocker himself (like me). New release “Mustad purjed” (Black sails) is no exception to this, as the Estonian composed a song with some lovely guitarwork and driving drums. The lyrics were written by Lauri Räpp.

Sertab Erener – “Boş Sokak”, “Brahms Lullaby”, and “Here Comes The Sun”

Sertab won it all in 2003 with “Everyway That I Can,” but is known for much more than that, especially in Turkey. New release “Boş Sokak” (Empty Street) is part of new album “100 Yıllık Şarkılar” (100 Years of Songs). The album features 12 covers of tracks penned by the legendary Turkish songwriter (and so much more) Fecri Ebcioğlu. “Boş Sokak” was originally sang by Ajda Pekkan in 1968, and Sertab’s take on the track takes the classy ballad into a slightly more singer-songwriter direction.

“Brahms Lullaby” is the second release from Sertab this month. She takes the classic lullaby in a beautifully gentle-yet-rich acoustic guitar direction, all wrapped up with her great voice of course. The song is an ad for Bepanthol Baby. Added to this “Lullabies Spreading Goodness” project just at the end of the month is a cover of the best Beatles song: “Here Comes The Sun”.

Gali Atari – “חזקה מהרוח 2023”

“חזקה מהרוח 2023” (Stronger than the wind 2023) is, as the name implies, a new version of an old track. The 1992 original was a classic, classy uplifting track. With the 2023 version being released in honour of Pride month, and the transgender community in particular, the track has taken a (unsurpsiring) electro-dancepop turn. Both tracks are actually kinda… amazing? (although I remain very much against the use of so-called AI to make music videos, which this song also utilizes).

Kalush Orchestra – “In the fire”

The 2022 winners are continuing with releasing music that is (partially) in English, something they first did in “Changes” a few months back. “In the fire” is a musically more sparse track for Kalush Orchestra, but still incorporates melodic elements from Ukrainian folk music. The song itself symbolizes, the band write, “human resilience and indestructibility, because no matter what happens, no matter what difficulties fate throws at us, we can definitely overcome everything, any evil can be overcome with our own efforts, strong faith and inspiration”.

KALUSH feat. Leo Mantis – “ХМАРИ”

And when the Orchestra releases music, KALUSH itself usually has something scheduled to go out as well. This holds true this month, as KALUSH release their new track “ХМАРИ” (CLOUDS), a collab with Leo Mantis. It’s a beautiful combination of the harsher sound of KALUSH being contrasted by the gentler parts with Leo, whose dulcet vocals really pull you in.

Ruslana – “Лірниця”

The queen of the Wild Dances has finally released the new song she teased last month. Well, perhaps not new new, as she first premiered this song while performing at the Eurovillage in Liverpool in May. The song is the first single of a rare thing: a new Ruslana album! “Лірниця” (I could not find a reliable translation for the name of the song, I am sorry to say) will be part of upcoming album “Дике серце” (Wild heart), and the song is an eclectic take on mixing electronic music with folk elements.

Helena Paparizou – “Δε Μου Τα Λέει Καλά”

Helena Paprizou was Europe’s number 1 in 2005. Her new track “Δε Μου Τα Λέει Καλά” (He’s Bad News) is a song with a dancefloor-filling beat. The song, which is about taking control of your life and cutting out a bad influence, sees Helena work together with Arcade and well-known Greek singer Stan.

Dana International & Italy Galo – “BIG D*** ENERGY”

Dana teams up with Israeli DJ Italy Galo for her new track, in which she repeatedly ask for a guy’s BDE. Over on Instagram, the singer says about the repetitive track that “[i]t may not sound like that at first listen, but it’s the most personal, exposed and real song I’ve released. Sometimes the sadness is danced”.

Netta – “Everything”

And Netta makes it three Israeli winners to release something this month. “Everything” is, by Netta standards at least, a fairly regular pop track. But it remains astoundingly catchy. Netta co-wrote the song with American trio AJR and Eurovision-fancast-favourite Zara Larsson.

Charlotte Perrelli – “Love Is A Losing Game” and “You’re The Voice”

Another winner to cover a song this month is Charlotte Perrelli. The 1999 champion takes on Amy Winehouse’s “Love Is A Losing Game” and changes it up a bit, adding elements from lounge and even, if you listen very closely, schlager. Mattias Bylund, who has worked with everyone from Taylor Swift to Loreen to Justin Timberlake, took on the production of this track. And that was not all by Charlotte and Mattias! Bylund also produced Charlotte’s cover of John Farnham megaclassic “You’re The Voice”.

Måns Zelmerlöw & The Agreement – “Running Low”

Måns Zelmerlöw is back with more music with The Agreement. You can read all about the song “Running Low” here:

Next page: The best and biggest new releases from other Eurovision artists