Songs and favourites… What you need to know about Eurovision 2022

Forty songs will be in the running in Turin (Italy), in May, to try to succeed the Eurovision winners Zitti and Buoni of the Måneskin group which won last year ahead of Barbara Pravi’s Voilà. More than a month away from the competition – the first final will take place on May 10, 20 minutes takes stock of the titles that stand out and the trends of this 2022 edition.

A year of ballads

If the 2021 edition was marked by a legion of female artists performing dance / up tempo songs, Eurovision 2022 will be that of ballads. A large quarter of the songs in the running oscillate between the melancholy refrain and the power ballad. Among the most notable are Brividi Italians Mahmood and Blanco singing about impossible loves, the (tremendous) From Diept with which S10 will represent the Netherlands (there had been no song in Dutch in the contest since 2010), the unstoppable Hold Me Closer by the Swedish Cornelia Jakobs, or the very “James bondienne” Belgian proposal, Miss You by Jérémie Makiese, who could create a surprise in Turin.

To wiggle your hips, you will mainly have to rely on Spain and the Slo Mo by Chanel, on the unusual Norwegian song, Give That Wolf a Banana of Subwoofer (where it is a question of feeding a banana wolf so that it spares Grandma…) or on Halothe bulldozer of Austria driven by Lum!x and Pia Maria – a piece which, it is rare enough to be reported, is already broadcast in France on NRJ.

Måneskin’s triumph last year made some countries want to try their luck with rock songs. Namely, Bulgaria (Intention of Intelligent Music Project), Georgia (with the very “Brit Pop” Lock Me In) or even Finland, with Jezebel of the group The Rasmus that we know in France for the hit In The Shadows.

No songs in French and Latin for the first time

The English language is losing ground at Eurovision. Long considered essential to hope for a good result, it took for its rank last year: in the final ranking, the Top 3 was composed of a song in Italian and two others in French. If Iceland finished fourth with an English-speaking song, Ukraine completed the Top 5 with a title in Ukrainian… In 2021, among the thirty-nine songs in the running, 10 were entirely or partly interpreted in a language other than the ‘English. The trend is accentuated this year with fifteen titles suggesting other languages. Namely, Albanian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Dutch, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Serbian, Spanish, Breton, but also, for the first time in the history of the competition… Latin (Corpore Sano of the Serbian Kontrasta).

There will be, and this too is a first in the history of Eurovision, no song interpreted entirely or partly in French. When Amaury Vassili represented France in 2011 with lyrics in Corsican, the language of Molière could count on the Lithuanian Evelina Sasenko with It’s my life. As a reminder, Alvan and Ahez will defend the tricolor chances with Fulenn, in Breton. This is the second time, after Dan Ar Braz and L’Héritage des Celtes in 1996, that France has sent a song in this language to the competition.

Who are the favorites and favourites?

More than a month away from the competition, it is necessary to consider with caution bookmakers predictions. Generally, they gain relevance during the week of the competition, once the artists have rehearsed their performances on stage. However, we can apprehend them as a kind of barometer of the songs that attract their attention. To date, Ukraine is considered the favorite, with a 35% chance of winning. A craze that probably has less to do with the intrinsic qualities of the song Stefania of the group Kalash Orchestra mixing folk sounds and rap with the tragedy that is hitting the country at the moment. Those betting on Ukraine are no doubt counting on the fact that the public and the juries could vote for this song as a sign of symbolic support…

Italy is the second favorite, with a 15% chance of winning. The host country, represented by a duo composed of Mahmood (who in solo had finished second in Eurovision 2019) and Blanco and his ballad Brividi, would thus achieve a double if he won. Third favorite, Sweden with Cornelia Jakobs who, according to the bookmakers, has an 11% chance of winning with Hold Me Closera very effective ballad which could make the consensus as well on the side of the public as of the juries.

And France? Alvan and Ahez emerge this Tuesday in 12th position, more or less the place occupied by Madame Monsieur and Bilal Hassani, among the bookmakers, respectively in 2018 and 2019.

On the fan side, this Wednesday morning, France is in 8th position in the application ranking My Eurovision Scoreboard, with some 48,000 points. Sweden leads with 94.4000 points, ahead of Spain (93.500) and Italy (84.000).