Switched on Pop - Eurovision is back – but not without controversy

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

The flowers are blooming and the calendar says May. That can only mean one thing: the Eurovision Song Contest is upon us once again. This year, thirty-five countries face off to determine the best song that Europe and adjacent continents have to offer. However, the competition comes with a big asterisk: while Eurovision prides themselves on being “apolitical,” the inclusion of Israel in the competition has led to a massive boycott, and the nations of Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands all withdrawing their participation. These are very real concerns impacting the general tenor of the competition this year, and are worth deeply considering. Since  Eurovision is music news, and proves fundamental in discovering new sounds in global pop, as reporters, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna run down the top contenders according to bookmakers as of this recording. If you’re not watching this year, you’ll still know what’s going on.  But if Eurovision isn’t of interest, it’s all good. At the end of the episode, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna also take some time to run down the current state of Switched On Pop bingo. Get your own bingo card here. Links: ⁠Newsletter⁠, ⁠YouTube Songs discussed: Céline Dion – Ne partez pas sans moi ABBA – Waterloo Joost – Europapa JJ – Wasted Love Delta Goodrem – Eclipse Søren Torpegaard Lund – Før Vi Går Hjem Ariana Grande – One Last Time Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper – Shallow Akylas – Ferto Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha Linda Lampenius, Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin Windows95man – No Rules Erika Vikman – ICH KOMME DARA – Bangaranga Alexandra Cǎpitǎnescu – Choke Me Satoshi – Viva, Moldova! PinkPantheress, Zara Larsson – Stateside Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All vets are in network. Go to fetchpet.com slash save. Right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.com slash save. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu.

It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. CRM, accounting, inventory, economy. and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-O-4-3 at O-D-O-O-D-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-D-com. Welcome to Switch on Pop. I'm producer Rianna Cruz. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding, and I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. Nate, Charlie, somehow, the flowers are blooming once again. The calendar says May. Here on Switched-on Pop, I think you guys know what that means. It's the campiest time of the year.

The Eurovision Song Contest is upon us once again. And usually it comes with those beautiful flowers this year with some storm clouds as well. Yeah. For those of you that aren't familiar every year, the countries of Europe and assorted other locales gather to display the best songwriting that their country has to offer. That can mean whatever these countries want it to mean. The competition has given us such icons

as Celine Dion. Aba. And my personal obsession as of late Dutch musician Jost Klein. Check him out if you haven't. This year's competition is the 70th edition,

and it's held in Vienna, Austria, following last year's win by the artist JJ and his song, Wasted Love. I love that if you are from the home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, you must, in your Eurovision Song Contest song, bring in the opera. Lots of operatic vocals in Eurovision, writ large. This year, you mentioned storm clouds, Charlie. It's worth noting that while Eurovision

seems to pride itself on being, quote, unquote, apolitical, this year's edition is extremely politically charged, specifically focusing on the European Broadcasting Union's inclusion of Israel in the contest. This has been a hot button issue for the past few years of the competition. In In 26, specifically, there's been a notable boycott. Artists like Massive Attack, Kneecap, Brian Eno have all signed an open letter for said boycott. The 2024 winner Nemo even returned their trophy back to the EBU. And the countries of Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Slovenia and the Netherlands, all Eurovision powerhouses, have withdrawn their participation from the contest. So these are very real concerns that are impacting the general tenor around Eurovision this year and the way the competition is perceived.

For an event, which is so often very lighthearted, it's now very heavy. You know, as reporters, I feel like we need to cover the event in some way, including its boycott. How do you want to go about this this year, Rihanna? Well, personally speaking, you know, I am not going to watch the competition this year. Yeah. I'm sure a lot of viewers out there are holding off as well. There's ample reporting on the boycott in the history of Eurovision if people want to check that out. But I feel like Eurovision is music news and we are a music podcast.

Nonetheless, we do have kind of an obligation as we have the past couple years to sift through some of the big submissions to the competition. So for folks who choose to not watch, maybe this is sort of like, here are the highlights of the things you need to know that you're going to skip out on. Exactly. Even if you're joining me and not watching, you'll get the gist. And even if you don't want to listen to this podcast, you could skip to the end because we will have an unrelated bingo update for all here today. Eurovision is such a crucible for the development of new sounds and global pop that despite the turmoil surrounding this event, I feel like we have to check in and hear what is percolating out there across the world. What are the sounds that we might hear sort of proliferating throughout our pop charts in the future? Okay, so there's many countries that are choosing to participate in this event.

A number of them are at the very top of the game you're saying. We're going to look at the top four. How are we going to evaluate them? So there's a couple things that go into judging these songs. The showmanship of it all is definitely important. You know, all of these songs have a visual component in the contest, and that kind of shapes people's perception of the music. But the three musical aspects of each song are its vocal qualifications,

the song's composition, you know, is it new and exciting, is it pushing boundaries, and a general impression of the song, how does it make you feel? What does it leave you with? You know, are you going to be thinking about it 10 minutes from now when the next entrant is on screen? You know, you got to think about all of these things and put them together. It is a song contest after all. So we will be looking at the songs, Sands the Live Performance.

Okay, so we're getting rid of the visual because this is a podcast. Yeah. We're talking, how good is the song itself, lyrics and music? Yeah. How good is the performance?

And then a little bit of Geneseechwa. That little extra, how does it make you feel? Yeah, there's always a Geneseechqua when it comes to Eurovision. So without further ado, let's get into it with the top four songs. Coming in at number four,

we have the artist Delta Goodroom and her song Eclipse, representing the not European but still participating country of Australia. The Eurovision Song Contest Eclipse is just Europe. As a reminder, the European Broadcast Union includes nations including in North Africa, the Middle East, and one of the associate members, not a current full-fledged member, is Australia, who somehow gets to still participate. This song feels like classic Eurovision. It's got the soaring strings. It's got the build into the anthemic chorus.

It's got lyrics that when you first listen to them, you're like, yeah, then you listen to them again. You're like, what? Like, what does it mean when we eclipse? Like, I don't understand. Like, doesn't one thing eclipse another thing? So how do you eclipse together as a verb? If someone could explain that to me, I'd be very grateful for a lesson in astronomy. So great place for us to start Delta Goodrum.

Amazing name, by the way. Yeah, I had never heard of Delta before. Apparently, she is one of Australia's highest selling female artists, like of all time. Her debut album in 2003 sold millions of copies and stayed at number one for 29 weeks. I could see it as like if Christina Aguilera was the American entrant if we were in New York. Vision, you know, kind of like on the same plane maybe of fame. But this song has an 8% chance of winning, according to bookies. Anything can happen.

These are pretty good odds for the Eurovision bookmakers. Eclipse has good mature vocals. I think they're delivering in that department. The song goes from this ballad as we hear at the beginning of the song. Shadows in the moonlight. Dancing with the sun Planets are lining To love as one

And it won't be love. Maybe that's your definition of eclipsing, Nate, the opening line, Shadows in the Moonlight, Dancing with the Sun, planets are lining to love as one. So when we eclipse is when we come together as one, so there's no light emerging.

our bodies are perfectly together. Am I reading this correctly? I still find it inscrutable. But I do love the opening line, shadows. Very dramatic. It's funny that it doesn't sound, I don't feel like I have my ear on the sound of Australia, but the beginning is very sort of like,

it feels like 50s, Hollywood, Lawrence of Arabia. It feels like it's hinting towards like more Middle Eastern-style sounds, but with orchestra and harp and it's very over the top. I know that we're not considering the visual aspects of this song, but you're kind of on the money, Charlie, because the music video is her playing the piano in a middle of a desert. So I think that's kind of the vibe that she's going for. Australia has many deserts.

Yep, that works. So the song starts in this ballad space, and then as we move into the chorus and get to the end of it, we move into this folk pop, almost stomp, clap, beat. There's this massive chorus and stack. and stacks of vocals. You just described every Mumford and Sun's song.

I'm very curious what's going to happen. If you take away the banjos from Mumford and Sons, maybe you'd get something close to this song. You know, very like one republic adjacent. Yeah. I mean. I really don't like this. And it has to do with my reporting

on the AI company Suno. When you make generative AI music, so often the song, I feel like the regression to the mean of its idea of pop music is begin in a ballad and then in the chorus go a little bit EDM with a four to the floor kick thing that nobody asked for. Obviously, that's derived from pop music conventions,

but they're very old. They feel very tired. This is a way of building 2010's ballad EDM crossover. Yeah. It doesn't feel relevant. And unfortunately, because of the way that AI is making so many of these copycat kind of stuff, songs, it doesn't feel alive and real. It doesn't leave me with that genoccois. It makes me feel

a little flat, even though the vocal performance is powerful. Unfortunately, I think the arrangement is too polished and perfect and represents something which is inhuman. I hear you. I felt that way until I got two minutes into this song. Every Eurovision song is three minutes max. So in the back third of this track, she switches it up a little bit and gives it that real element that kind of that puts it over the edge for me. Let's set it around. Oh, yeah. Okay, let's go.

Let's go. Wow. This is like Celine Dion and Bon Jovi made a power ballad together with, I feel like they're trying to impress the Viennese with this unbelievable sort of classical-style piano that happens as well. I like it a lot more. Say it. Say it. What do we get? What do we get? Say it. What do we get? Say it. What do you mean? What do I take a back? Well, you haven't said. No, what happens harmonically? Oh, there's a modulation, obviously. Every song in Eurovision modulates in the final third. You got to up the ante. But this one is a good one. That was a kind of a surprising one with that little piano interlude. Yeah. Y'all, I know I'm hung up, but is it not that one thing eclipses another? Like, it's not just that you eclipse. You have to eclipse something. What are we eclipsing? Well, she just says when we eclipse. clips. What is like I don't I, okay,

I'm not loving your reaction here. You're just looking at me like I'm a crazy old man Nate, you kind of have to turn your brain off with these lyrics. Like Eurovision, you need to kind of shut off the part of your brain that understands logic. Stop trying. Okay, I accept. That's all I needed to hear. That's all I needed to hear.

So we have vocals. We have interesting composition with that key change, even though I wish it was more of the song, but nonetheless. And the Genesecois, of this track, Eclipse, it grew on me a little bit. When I listened to it the first time, I kind of threw my head in my hands. It was like, oh, my God, not this. As soon as it got to that little piano break, I was energized.

So I like it, and I think it'll play well live. So we have Delta Goodrum at number four. Moving on, next up at number three, we have the artist, Suron Topegold Lund, from Denmark. Apologies if I butcher that. I don't speak Danish. the song for Vigar. I don't know. You have to play more for me.

It's not doing much for me yet. It's kind of hard because I do think the whole track is kind of underwhelming, but let me move to the next chorus. When we listened to the verse at the beginning, I was getting like regga tone meets industrial. The chorus feels more like classic Eurovision, but I agree.

It's not really pushing my button I mean, obviously I speak fluent Danish, but Rihanna, maybe for those who don't, what is this song about? So the title translates to before we go home and is about a night at a club with neon lights and smoke and an on again, off again lover that you can't escape. As it stands, it has an 11% chance to take home the trophy. I think this is kind of a fan favorite from what I've gathered from the Eurovision subreddit. The thing is, though, I don't really connect with this song. You know, there's this kind of ethereal club vibe. There's this intense thumping, indicating something darker, right?

When he hits the four-vigar him part. So there's some, like, techno synths happening. There's a lot of cinematic percussion. Feels very trailer music. It feels like trailer music. Just, yeah, those are like, You're like watching a It's like a C-tier Han Zimmer track

There's one thing about this track that I think is of note I don't know if I like it But the pre-chorus sounded very familiar to me And I'm wondering if you guys can hear what I can hear Um, oh Oh my gosh Wait this is another melody Is this a Charlie Puth song?

What is this? What is this? Not quite, but you're kind of close. Is it a Gaga track? Again, close. It is one last time by Ariana Grande. Never would have gotten that. Let's hear it.

And here's the Eurovision song again. To be fair to our Danish friends, I feel like that is a common melodic motive that we could probably find in a lot of songs. I definitely hear it in the Ariana. Charlie, I wonder if you said Lady Gaga because it also. sounds like shallow a little bit. I'm falling. I'm falling. It's that same motion.

The melody goes one, two, three, and the chords follow underneath. I guess they're going like one minor two and then probably one in first inversion. Yeah. So good ears, Rihanna, but I think this is probably a wider kind of melodic harmonic phenomenon than even just those two songs. All right, all right. I was like maybe Suron is a secret arianator out there in the world. Aren't we all?

It seems entirely plausible. What I'm learning from this song is I am fundamentally not European because if this is a favorite, it's so clear that I'm just in a different musical culture and that there's something I'm not catching on first listen. I dig it. I feel a little differently. It's not like setting my world on fire, but it's cool. One of the things I love about Eurovision is how many of these songs, of like double meanings. You know, they'll have some personal narrative, but then there's some

kind of larger theme as well. Like, Rihanna, you mentioned Juiced earlier. I remember his song, Europoppa was kind of about his family, but there's also this like larger meditation on borders and international travel. So like, I'm curious if we're going to get a song that has like one of these double meanings coming up. So funny you mentioned that because the next entrant coming in at number two with the second best odds in the competition has these double meanings and that's Greece's Achilles and his song Ferto. Oh, I'm really looking forward to some folk instrumentation. We have not gotten that yet in Eurovision entry and I feel like we're going to get it right now.

There it is something for this has something for everyone. This is sick. Oh yeah. This track has a 15% chance of winning. And loki, I'm throwing myself behind Ferto. I love this song. As we've heard in the entries from Australia and Denmark, I feel like there's been a lack of these high-energy goofy songs in the competition this year. And so I think Achilas really stands out from the rest of the crowd. Every part of this song is peak Eurovision, high-energy silliness. The chorus is built around the word ferto, which in Greek translates to bring it. So he's singing about all of these things that he wants, like, real estate and sashimi tuna. As he's saying, bring it, give it to me, right? Like, I want it.

And of course, the essential folk instrumentation. You got to have some sort of acoustic folk instrument in your track to demonstrate your nationality or heritage while blending it with the most over-the-top electronic sounds that make people dance. As if it's still the 90s, though, right? Like, so much Europop still sounds like the 90s to me. I feel like I just took a time machine to another time. I believe that instrument in the post-chorus is the Lyra from Crete. Bowed, frontless instrument that has a sort of violin-esque sound, a precursor to the violin. Yeah.

So after the breakdown, we have this clubby auto-tuned verse that switches up the vibe. It really is talking about how he wants everything. This track is essentially an ode to hedonism. Something I like, along with the Greek instrumentation. He's also singing in multiple languages. He sings in English. He sings in Greek. but he also sings in French at the start of this verse, and at the beginning of the song he sings it's Spanish as well. It's taking a worldly approach, perhaps designed for everybody in the competition to connect. Maybe his goal is to get more votes from these other countries.

We play on this post-chorus breakdown even further with a little bit of video game music. We have a bit crushed section in the song. I want to play that game. It's a video game. Akulas is winning. I think this has a really good chance. It'll perform really well on stage. It actually reminds me of my favorite Eurovision song from the past few years.

The song Chachachacha by Karya from Finland in 2024. It has a similar construction and is kind of bridging the gaps between this clubby and industrial vibe. I could totally. hear that, Rihanna, but I was actually going to compare it to a banger from one of your favorite Eurovision artists, the Estonian great Tommy Cash, espresso

macchiato, right? Multilingual vote pandering set to a Euro pop, Euro dance beat. Yeah. For sure. So the construction and

composition of Ferto is there for me. It leaves an extremely positive impression. I've been singing it all week. So that really just leaves the vocals. And if you weren't sold by the rapping and the auto tune, Akela slows it down in the final verse and kind of switches the meaning of the song on its head. Whoa. I'm not sure ma'clock I'm not sure

I'm not sure if we've just honored a completely disrespected Freddie Mercury but I did not expect that bridge It's a wild pivot and he's singing in Greek that all of this he's doing for his mom, talking about the fact that he grew up poor and saying to his mother, look at all the things we didn't have. I'm going to make sure we never lack again. So when he's singing about like buying houses, buying sushi-grade tuna, buying all of these really expensive things, you think it's about hedonistic pursuits. But actually, the last verse flips it and he's reflecting on his past growing. up without much money. So it's the classic Eurovision switch. But also a little bit of Mama, life has just begun. That's where I'm hearing of Freddie Mercury as well. It's like, lyrically we're singing about our mom. We got the piano. We got the layered vocals. Smart move. This is why I come to Eurovision. You know, I'm really bummed that this contest is marred

in such dark politics and understandably. But what it has to offer when it's going well is a a style of music which is unlike what I typically expose myself to. Rihanna, you opened up by saying that it's a contest of the best songs in the European broadcast union. I don't think that's what Eurovision is. I think it is a competition of the best Eurovision songs. They are their own sound. They are their own thing.

Whatever that means in the eyes of the EBEU. I think Fertrto kind of checks off all the boxes. While I would love Aculas to take it home, he is in second. in terms of odds, people are predicting that this year's winner comes not from Greece but from Finland with the duo Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkonen and their song Lichtenhyten, which translates to flame thrower. Lots of fire motif in Eurovision. That postcourse is giving me life.

Linda Lampinius is a classical concert violinist, who also goes by Linda Brava. And Pete Parkunan is a singer-songwriter for Finnish people tapped into both Eurovision and classical violin. I can imagine that this is like earth-shattering, groundbreaking collaboration. This track to me feels like quintessential Eurovision where it's intense, it's arresting, has the orchestral flare in the violin. Ultimately, is not too risky, but catchy nonetheless. I'm not surprised that they're a frontrunner either. You know, Finland, I think, represents the part of Eurovision where they say, oh, this is a political event. But, you know, Finland is one of the newest members of NATO.

They joined in 2023. In 2022, Russia was kicked out of the Eurovision song contest for its invasion of Ukraine, which leads to the current boycott on this week's event as Israel is raging a war against Gaza, southern Lebanon, Iran all at the same time. member nations are declaring that that is a great contradiction to oust one state for going to war and not the other. So I think Finland represents a sort of bright star in a dark moment. This submission, Likin Heighton, is an interesting choice because they tend to keep their submissions silly. We heard Karya earlier with Chachachah. That was the 2023 entrant from Finland.

After that, in 2024, we had no rules from Windows 95 man, which you'll remember. as the denim song. Last year, we had the track It Come from Erica Vickman, where she climbs a giant phallic-looking microphone stand. So this kind of self-serious violin songwriter, Imagine Dragons-y track is an interesting choice, and maybe they're trying to, like, legitimize themselves as an actual contender rather than, like, a joke.

play it. I don't want to like a four to the I was just going to say it's like the violin takes this song to the next level 100%. Without it it would be a great song. With it, it is superb. Her tone is incredible.

My God, she plays with such power. Every note, it just like explodes off the instrument. This elevates this to another level. Although, I believe, I don't know the rules have changed, but Eurovision got rid of playing live instruments at the competition and the only voices would be heard. I'm very curious how this will be performed. Yeah, it's all

backing tracks. No, no, wait, how recently that can't, I remember the Ukrainian entry rocking that flute solo pretty hard, you know, I don't know, four or five years ago. Well, you'll be happy to know that the EBU has granted Linda Lumpinius special permission to play the violin parts live. Oh, look at this. You're right. Quick backing track Eurovision history. Originally in Eurovision, you had to perform everything live. And then in the 70s, some instruments were kind of hard to replicate live.

And so you could have them on stage and kind of air guitar them. For the next 20 years or so, there was a sort of hybrid model where some things would be mimed live and then there would also be an orchestra to perform alongside with you. The orchestra was cut in the late 90s as a cost-saving measure, leaving only vocals performed on stage since then. It was also required for a while that your backing vocals would also have to be live, but once the pandemic happened in order to limit the number of people on stage, basically Eurovision went to a karaoke contest, if you will. Everything was backing tracks, one vocalist, if it was a group, multiple vocalists, obviously. But,

But yeah, this is exciting. 2026. We're going to hear some live instruments again. Wow. So anytime I saw an instrument, it was just like the equivalent of lip syncing. Yeah, basically. More or less. I'm sure, you know, maybe there's been exceptions here or there, but that is my understanding.

Wow. Fascinating. So Likin Haighton has this technical violin prowess. I know we're not talking about the visuals, but Linda Lampinius is beautiful and gorgeous and looks like a goddess. And she's playing this violin while strutting down the cat. and it's a really a resting visual and that's got to count for something. She's an equal part next to Pete in this track and I think that's really lovely as well.

The violin and the vocals are designed to kind of be in conversation with one another as if it's a duet, but the duet is with violin. Yeah. The vocals are there. The composition is there. There's really that lasting impression of the track. You know, how does it make you feel when it's over? the way that the song ends is really interesting to me because it ends in this big climax that doesn't have a Donument.

Like it just stops. Anti-drop. Yeah. And the title of the song is Flamethrower, right? So it makes me think that the point is to like sound like Pete is getting lit on fire. Like he's kind of burning with Joan of Arc style. And then the track just ends and it leaves the audience wanting more. You know, it's over.

And I want more than these three minutes of Leakin Heighton. Nothing wrong with leaving someone. Support for this show comes from Fetch Pet Insurance. Do you have a pet? Every six seconds, a pet owner in the U.S. gets hit with a vet bill of over $1,000. And it's almost always an unwelcome surprise. That's where Fetch pet insurance comes in.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. I'm wanting more. It means you might vote for them. Okay, so we just listened to four front runners, and I can totally see why the odds makers have put these at the top of the

running to win Eurovision song contest. But, you know, part of the joy of Eurovision, as you said, Rihanna, is also to celebrate the wildcards, the weirdos, the international freaks amongst us. What else should we be tuning into, even if it's not necessarily going to take the top crown? This year, several countries come back to the competition after years away, one of which is the country of Bulgaria, who hasn't competed in the past three years. Their return is with the artist Dara and the track Bangoranga. Oh, I love this track immediately.

I haven't heard it yet, but this is it. I was going to say, contrary to popular belief, this track is unrelated to Bangorang by Scrillx. Instead, Dara says, I'm the bonga. Which is... What does that mean? Hmm. Exactly. I have no idea what she's talking about.

Well, is it not Bulgarian? I'm going to guess that this is just a nonsense word. It's a state of mind, guys. You either get it or you don't. All right. Let me, hold on. Google translate. Bongaranga detected as not the right language.

Let's try that. Let's go Bulgarian. English and the Bulgarian language does not have a word called bongaranga. I am not a linguist, but I feel pretty confident saying that. Absolutely not. It translates as bongeranga. Yeah, no, no. This is, uh, this is, I don't know.

If I have to explain to you guys, I'm not sure you're ever going to get it, honestly. It's, it's, it's, it's, you just, you just have to know it. You look, look deep into your soul and find your bonger. Oh, I love some nonsense. This is not my favorite song in the competition by any means. Again, Eurovision states that a song can't be over three minutes, but this song feels like it's a million years long. It's tough to get through.

There's a cool tempo breakdown after the first chorus, but the song repeats the same thing over and over and over again. It's because it's the Bangaranga. I appreciate the Bulgarian read instrument that we get in the breakdown. I appreciate that this is in a lineage of songs like Welcome to the Jungle. Welcome to the Machine. And then welcome to the Bongaranga. I can't do this one.

This one's pulling teeth for me. I got to say, the next track is a little bit better in my eyes. It's from another country returning to the competition after a two-year absence, Romania. And the song, Choke Me, by Alexandra Capitanescu. This track I've described as if Lady Gaga was the singer in Evanescence. I say, and don't you ever betray me? You are to obey me or you not? Oh my God.

Okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What? Yeah, where do we start? The Lady Gaga imitation, the Mozart, Queen of the Night, Aria interlude. Was that Mozart? It reminded me of Nemo's the Code from 2024. Exactly.

That's what I was thinking of as well. Very code-coded, yeah, definitely. The talk singing in the pre-chorus sounds so much like Lady Gaga. I love the rasp in her voice and this note that she hits as we move into the chorus where she's like, ah! Like, it's so awesome. Oh, my God, this song is so extra. I thought Eurovision was supposed to be a contest of people. piece. This is a very violent song. First BDSM entry in the Eurovision catalog. People don't

really like it because of that reason. The general fan vibe that I've gathered is that people think this is too explicit for the live broadcast. I can kind of see where they're coming from. Yeah, a family-friendly event. I kind of feel like if Choke Me came out in America, instantaneously like, no, Lady Gaga sounded like, but that it's coming from a... Eurovision, I'm a little bit more intrigued. Well, on that point, I do think this song is very American, and I think that's why it's not connecting with the Eurovision audience. This has, like, new metal butt-rocky elements that don't play well to a European audience, you know?

And I think that's the song's downfall, even though I'm like, this is pretty epic. Yeah, I mean, as someone who loves butt rock and Lady Gaga and has just come back from a European vacation, I feel like you have not done a good job of being an ambassador. to our culture. How are there not more votes for this track? Exactly. Maybe if I was watching this year, I could vote for this one, but I won't be. So.

All right. What else is the wild card? Last but not least, we have another sleeper hit. That's Moldova's Satoshi and the aptly titled Viva Moldova. I love this song. It's like a multicultural jock jam. It's exactly what you would expect it to be. What?

Well, all right, what is this song about? Well, it's about Moldova. I heard him say Moldova is on duty at one point. Yeah, I mean, it's in several different languages, including Spanish and Italian. He's saying, long live Moldova. Greetings to everyone. Moldova is on duty. Goodbye, crazy life.

Hello, Moldova. Like, that's what he's saying. It's very, very simple. But fun. Ode to Moldova. We need more of those. They do say, goodbye Europe. See you later.

Uh-oh. Moldova is coming. Whoa. Interesting. Yeah. See, this is the part where it's like, it's really unfortunate that this event cannot avoid the really negative political repercussions that it's found itself in because there's so many participants who have something to say who are trying to make their

claim in culture, especially from small member nations that don't otherwise get to be heard. and I think Moldova's just doing an amazing job of saying, come on to Moldova. Like, I want to go now. It's like a tourism ad. It's a great one. They're not going to win. They know they're not going to win.

So instead they're just being like, this is all that Moldova has to offer. Isn't it awesome? Say goodbye to Europe and hello Moldova. I love that. I mean, I'm looking up tickets on kayak right now. What's the capital of Moldova? The capital city of Moldova is. Pichinao.

Not something I can pronounce. Are there direct flights from L.A. Kishina? We got to figure it out, Nate. I'll board a plane right now. This song is doing it for me. What a journey you've taken us on, Rihanna. And I appreciate, you know, for those who aren't going to be watching, getting to get a sense of the important things, you've given it to us. Hearing all these entries, knowing where the bookmakers stand, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of what the vibe is in Europe right now, musically, where a lot of these different countries are in terms of promoting their sounds.

I mean, Moldova is just kind of putting themselves right out there. Other countries are doing the same. I am noticing a trend this year where the songs are less risky than we're used to from Eurovision. I wonder if the general politically charged tenor of the competition and the swirling politics of Eurovision and the EBU at the moment are making it so that contestants are playing it safe and not pushing the boundaries. I wonder if there's a correlation there because largely, the crop of contestants this year are kind of lackluster in my eyes.

Certainly, we didn't listen to every entry. But yeah, I would say I didn't hear anything like some of the entries in past years that really just made my jaw drop, made me kind of blown away in this way that only Eurovision can provide. So we'll see if the contest is able to sort of regain that mantle in the future. Maybe an alternative path from watching this year could be just going and watching the Will Ferrell film Eurovision, which is a great comedic mockery celebration of what Eurovision wants to be. You bring that up every year, Charlie. Yeah, I was just going to say, Charlie loves that movie.

I love that movie. And he represents Iceland, right, which is not participating this year. So let's all go support Iceland. Yeah, I mean, when Rachel McAdams sings in Icelandic at the end of that movie, I mean, I was bawling. She's got range. It's got everything. It's got laughs. It's got tears.

Check this out, y'all. Eurovision is a musical competition. Speaking of competitions. Nice transition. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it, guys. We launch our annual bingo game at the beginning of the year.

and we've been getting some chatter from listeners that there might be some squares to check off. We're kind of reaching the half point of 2026. So Charlie, can you pull up our bingo card and we can go through and see if there are any new entries to check off? bingo.com. Uh, yes. Number one, big beat revival. Don't think has happened. Number two, guitar solo's return, I think highly dependent upon another prediction, which we're going to get to shortly. I don't think it's happened yet.

Three, animated avatars rise again. Not yet. We're waiting for K-pop Demon Hunters 2. Four, Madison Beer Breakout. Has it happened, Rihanna? No. That was really all about out. Not happening.

A year of beer. Sorry, everybody. It's not to be. Five, old-time religion worship song hits the top 40. I'm not sure if we've crossed that one yet. I don't think so. Six. Timbalin-style production hits the top 10.

Can we count stateside by Pink Pantheres? Let's listen for a second. We pull it up. Yeah. Specifically. It's the remix of Stateside with Zara Larson. I'm freezing outside. I know my skin tight.

My coat is ends. Yeah. I think so. I think that's an easy. I mean, which Justin Timberlake song is that? Something off of future sex. Get your sexy on.

Go ahead. Sexy Back. It's sexy backs. The sexy back is the reference. Okay. So we've crossed off Timblen style production. Number six. That's going on.

If it's on your bingo card, you might be getting close to bingo, a little bit, a little closer. Seven. Certified Human. label rise of AI going to create the need to be able to say who is human and who is not. Rihanna, Spotify did just announce that they will be giving a special label to verify it accounts so that they can try to label what is and is not human. Now, I think that's happening at just

one DSP. It's not across the entire music ecosystem. I think it counts. I think your prediction has come true. I think it counts as well. Amazing. So maybe I was so far off with Madison Beer, but it's circled around. And other ones that I've got some good ones that I. said are right, which is great. All right. Number eight, Drake goes country. It's going to happen. Not happened yet. Iceman's coming out soon. Oh, okay.

There's still time. Number nine, Bruno Mars makes a return with SCA. We were way off. Didn't happen. Ten. Gen Alpha Takeover. Have we had an artist born 2010 to 2024 who's reached the top 40? I don't think so yet.

Still could happen. 11. Brass goes big. heavy brass song reaches the top 20. I don't think like main instrument brass. No. Number 12, the death of autotune. Any major, like, hit with completely raw, unprocessed vocals, tuning issues in the top 10?

I haven't heard it yet. Not exactly. Number 13. Narrative over form. A structurally unconventional narrative song reaches the top 40. I think we could argue that our last episode, Oliver Rodriguez, dropped dead, killing off the second verse. we didn't mention in that episode how she never repeats the hook the same way twice. Right.

I think that might, I think that might do it. Well, we've got an email from a listener, Michael Murphy. Yeah. Who claims that he's checked off every square, but three. What? He's going to say that Ray is an example of a new narrative form. Hmm. Interesting.

Like the end credit track fan, for instance. That's not a hot 100. Yeah, yeah. I mean, she only had, where's my husband? And I don't think that that qualifies as a very sort of soul traditional song. Let's keep going. Okay, number 14, piano ballad charts in the top 10. Okay. Michael says Siena Spiro die on this hill. Yeah, but it's not in the top 10. It was top 40, maybe. It reached number 19. It peaked at 19 on the Hot 100. Was our rules top 10? To top 10. Wow, we're really being sticklers here. Sorry, Michael.

15. Instrumental hit lands on the Hot 100? I don't think we've heard that, no. Not yet. We need Scrillx back. Yeah. 16. Horrifying music emerges, some kind of new horrifying rap genre that Nate pontificated about.

I don't think we've seen it yet. No, not yet. 17. Album sequel hits number one, not yet. Number 18. Spanish language number one. Did we get that after the Super Bowl? I believe after the Super Bowl halftime show, Bad Bunny hit number one on the Hot 100 with DTF off of DeB Tehramaz Votos.

So I think that's an easy checkoff. That's what I was banking on. So I'm happy it came through. Well done. All right. Number 19 cover song comeback. We haven't heard it yet. Number 20, my favorite prediction I made, a Nepo Baby Parent Duet.

we haven't seen it. Come on J.J. Abrams on the new Gracie Abrams album, he is a synth head. He loves synthesizers. I just, I want to see that happen. Okay. Number 21, a major Jamaican star in the top 20. Not yet. All right, 22. Rihanna, I believe this is on you. Rock Revival. A guitar driven band breaks the top 20. Now, I don't think we should have said guitar driven band. I think this is what we're about to see. As of this taping, Charlie XXX just, announced a rock song coming out tomorrow, and we're all waiting on Beyonce. Whereas Renaissance Act 3, the rock version, this is going to happen this year. There's just no doubt.

Yeah, I think I'm pulling for the residual effects of the Charlie XX slash rumored Beyonce rock moment to usher in a bunch of guitar songs by bands into the Billboard Hot 100. Time will tell. Maybe we could revisit that one in the back half of the year, See if it's come true. Okay, great. Number 23, jam bands break through. A jam band album reaches the top 20?

Don't think so. No. Number 24. This is one of my favorites. Rebecca Blackassants. Rebecca Black surpasses her previous peak of number 58 was Friday. She is DJing, getting her name out there, but I don't think we have the song yet. Not yet.

Finally, number 25, the Rebel Alliance, a major political anthem breaks into the top 20. We heard Bruce Springsteen give us the streets of the street's Minneapolis. That song didn't have the legs that I think we might have hoped to capture that moment. So I don't believe we have crossed the threshold there, but we have checked off a few. It's very possible that someone could have bingo out there. If you do, let us know. If you don't, you can get your bingo card. We'll drop it in our show notes. The year is young. Yeah, it's still possible. We'll have to review all of Mike. Michael wrote us a long email with a lot of different boxes that he's checked off. So we'll have to review those a little

a more granular way and get back. But I suspect we are still waiting for the true B-I-N-G-O. We're only in Q2. There's two and a half other cues to get through. Here's my cue. Who's going to read the credits? Switched on Pop is produced by Rana Cruz, edited by Lissa Soap, engineered by Brandon McFarland, illustrations by Iris Gottlie, video by Nick Rips. Our music is by Zach Thunario and Jossi Adams of Arc Iris. Remember the Vox Media Podcast Network, production of Vulture, which is part of New York Magazine. You can subscribe at NYMag.com slash pod.

Find us anywhere you get your podcasts. We are Switched on Pop on every platform. Subscribe to our newsletter on Substack. And what else? We got merch on the website. Check it out. Switched on Pop.com. What else, guys?

We'll be back with a special episode this Friday. I'm chatting with Rostom about his spectacular album, American Stories. It is definitely worth listen. I'll see you on Friday. Until then, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Are you one of those media strategy people

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