🗳️ Our ESC 250 votes: Daniel

Voting for the annual ESC 250 celebration closed on the 10th of December 2023, and now we have a nervous wait to find out the results! The event is hosted by songfestival.be, with the results revealed on the 31st December 2023 on EFR12 Radio to close out the year. Find out more about it here!

While we wait to find out the official results, members of the TES team will be sharing their votes for this year and explaining the reason for their picks. This time it’s Daniel’s turn to reveal how they voted.

The Rankings

I’ve decided against doing a straight countdown of my 10 favourite Eurovision songs, and instead I wanted to shine a light on some of the songs you might not see in the countdown on New Year’s Eve, but are still some of my favourites from the years gone by in the contest.

1 point: “Life Looks Better in Spring” – Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders (Cyprus, 2010)

In a time before Cyprus scouted the Mediterranean for the boppiest of girlbops, their entrant was a young singer from South Wales, singing a song as sweet as spring itself. Whilst it was never going to be challenging to bring the contest to the island, in addition to Jon’s good vocals, I feel there’s a lovely element of authenticity and charm that’s less present in newer Eurovision.

2 points: “Playing With Fire” – Paula Selig & Ovi (Romania, 2010)

Songs like this are why I love Eurovision, because they are Eurovision in it’s purest form. Funky piano, pyro, a whistle note halfway through an Eastern European banger. Perfection.

3 points: “The Balkan Girls” – Elena (Romania, 2009)

Honestly, I’m just as confused as you as to how this has ended up here. You’ll see from the rest of my list that my usual taste is very different. There are better Eurovision songs. I know that, you know that. I should not be a fan of this song, but I can’t help but love it. It’s a disaster bop in all of the best ways possible, it makes me proud to be a Balkan Girl despite the fact I’m as British as rainclouds and delayed trains.

4 points: “Birth Of A New Age” – Jeangu Macrooy (Netherlands, 2021)

I’ll never forgive Europe for how this song was treated. Jeangu Macrooy’s host entry in 2021 was powerful, meaningful, and beautiful. I’m a sucker for a Eurovision song with a strong message, and this is one of the strongest there is. Jeangu’s energy and stage presence are infectious and the chorus in Sranan Tongo is a symbol of everything Eurovision should be, a showcase of how brilliantly diverse our continent, and all of us who come with it, is.

5 points: “När jag blundar” – Pernilla Karlsson (Finland, 2012)

I wasn’t a Eurovision fan in 2012, so my first experience of this song was via Twitter. After hearing it for the first time, and not knowing its result, I could’ve been sure it competed for the win. I’m still to this day shocked that a song as beautiful as this one didn’t reach the grand final in Baku. It saddens me that this is the only Eurovision song this century in the Swedish language. I hope that changes in the near future, because Pernilla’s song is an example of just how beautiful the language is, and it is great that the fandom is finally starting to give such a beautiful song the recognition it deserves.

6 points: “A Matter Of Time” – Sennek (Belgium, 2018)

I am this song’s strongest soldier. The meme goes “If the world is against X I am against the world” – In that case I am certainly against the world when it comes to Sennek’s staging. A brilliant song that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bond film, I think the dark & mysterious theme was the right path to go down, even if the execution wasn’t perfect. Evidently Europe disagreed, but this is my list, not theirs. 6 points.

7 points: “Með hækkandi sól” – Systur (Iceland, 2022)

‘Anemoia’ is a term for nostalgia for something one has never experienced. Með hækkandi sól fills me to the brim with this emotion. I’ve known very few other songs that have such serenity about them, it feels almost like a lullaby. I’m forever thankful that these incredible sisters were able to take the beautiful Icelandic to the Eurovision stage, and then the grand final with this song.

8 points: “Strazdas” – Aistė (Lithuania, 1999)

An absolute gem of a song. When I heard this song for the first time, performed first in the running order as I watched through Eurovision 1999, I knew nothing else from that year would even come close to it in my rankings, it finishing where it did (20th) was criminal. Samogitian is a beautiful dialect and the song hits my brain in all the right ways, Aiste’s folk tune is definitely my favourite Eurovision song of the 20th century.

10 points: “Hear Them Calling” – Greta Salome (Iceland, 2016)

For most of my favourites that didn’t reach the final, I have some idea why. Maybe the live vocals weren’t the best, maybe it was the staging, maybe the move to 100% televote screwed them over. For Greta Salóme and Hear Them Calling, I am stumped, because at least in my eyes, it had everything. An energetic folk pop banger that wouldn’t feel out of place in an action sequence, with good vocals and epic staging, Greta deserved so much better.

Special mentions

Before I reveal my 12 points, I would like to give a special shout-out to the songs who would be towards the top if I were simply reeling off my 10 favourites, they are:

• “Saudade, Saudade” – MARO (Portugal, 2022) – One of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.
• “growing up is getting old – VICTORIA (Bulgaria, 2021) – The song that made me love Eurovision.
• “Calm After The Storm” – The Common Linnets (Netherlands, 2014) – One word. Ethereal.

And Daniel’s 12 points go to…. “Burning Daylight” – Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper (Netherlands, 2023)

I’ve never felt the same way about any other Eurovision song as I do about Burning Daylight, and it isn’t even close. In many ways it’s the perfect song for me at the perfect time. It’s difficult to justify how much it means to me in a Top 10 article, I may write something all about it one day, but rest assured, I think Mia & Dion have my #1 spot on lockdown for a very long time.

Listen to our collective ESC 250 playlist on Spotify

Enjoy our collective ESC 250 playlist on YouTube

Now that Daniel has revealed their votes for ESC 250 this year, what do you think of their picks? Who received your 12 points this year? As always, please let us know what you think by commenting below. Be sure to follow ‘THAT Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all of the latest Eurovision news.

News Source: That Eurovision Site

Photo Credit: Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU