🗞️ Eurofan Exodus🦋 / AI controversy / NF🇪🇸🇱🇺🇧🇪🇦🇱🇬🇷 Updates | Eurovision News 2025

[@ESCTom]

Follow me on Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/eurovisiontom.bsky.social re: Some comments about 4:43 Poland has 36 million people, Australia has 26 million. Im talking about population, not landsize - people enter Eurovision, not grass 😜

[@MariaMariamuzieklove]

@@ESCTom sorry the Dutch selection committee received 330 songs the wrong number was mentioned on TV. I think 330 songs is more reasonable given the circumstances and the fact that all artists needed to be part of a record label

[@radharose99]

New TVP's National Final rules were created in cooperation with OGAE Poland and it shows. Pretty much everyone here in the fandom is pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the direction.

[@willardprenfrew4303]

@@radharose99 finally some good news from Poland. Still not over Justyna missing out on ESC 😭

[@carloscamejo7532]

Armenia, knowing them, will announce their participation in March right at the deadline

[@sarahenchanted]

It'll probably be confirmed once we have the list of countries (which could happen any day/time now)

[@logi-a]

A day later and they announce it lol

[@esc_george]

Great timing there 😅

[@Serge.Song.Contest.got.Recaps]

27:44 Mentissa is really big (she has 1.5 Million Monthly Listeners on Spotify)

[@GianniDN]

Her song Mamma mia is played in Italy and she’s huge in France.

[@andytarver263]

Thanks tom Great video as ever.

[@ESCTom]

🙏🏻

[@myrawatters1036]

Okay, so I hated the way they presented the jury points BUT it’s the first year I didn’t feel uncomfortable watching the kids looking stressed during results. It went fast, it was hard to tell who was at the top but also who was at the bottom. And lots of kids got to be first place at some stage which is exciting for them. But yeah, please don’t use this system for senior ESC 😂

[@ESCTom]

agreed, yea i think there can be benefits to it, as you said, itll shuffle the scoreboard around a lot. but i think they could still keep the crux of it without it being this total whirlwind

[@boscabruscairgang]

The best thing I like about Bluesky is the customised feeds. Believe or not, I other interests outside of Eurovision.. but, if I'm looking for Eurovision news and decisions, I can just look at the Eurovision feed. If I want news from the Primer League I can just switch to the Premier League feed.

[@ESCTom]

oh thats really cool, i didnt know that they have that!

[@alyssachey8417]

@@boscabruscairgang this! I am really impressed with the ability to customize feeds.

[@PersonaNG-oo7ku]

An entry in Kashubian would be wild for Poland. This language is like if you took medieval Polish and put it on drugs - and I say that very lovingly and as a compliment. Foreigners wouldn't notice the difference, I assume, but it'd be a strange experience for most Polish viewers.

[@Eurovision-OLD]

Thank you so much for mentioning the thing that Danie did. That really was a game changer for people like me who can't stand the dumb hate anymore. I tried moving over a year ago... didn't work. Her lists did really work, so I will possibly leave X. In the most annnoying way, on Janurary 20th 😆

[@danietregonning]

❤

[@mimmapierrot]

i would love a video of your esc250 votes !! especially talking about the songs that neeeaaarrly made your list but didnt. but i also understand if that's not possible considering how many videos you've got lined up!

[@ESCTom]

yea actually one of the main reasons that id want to make it is to cope with all the songs that JUST didnt make the cut 😭

[@Zakarias89]

15:45 Yes!

[@nikolag.-rb5ql]

I'm really hoping that Serbia🇷🇸 will use that new proportional system for televote. I like this system much more than current PZE voting system which in my opinion isn't good at all (although Teya Dora was my favourite over Breskvica). Basically, our Dora🇭🇷 has proportional televote system (last year BL got over half of all televote points cause he had over half of all televotes, so if you has gigantic televote like him you can win with 0 jury points). Also submissions for Dora 2025 are closed, with record breaking 221 submitted entries (1 less than PZE🤣🤣🤣), reportedly with a lot of young artists wanted to become new BL. Also, one of the biggest Croatian news portal put a little article about Dora with satirical title: (which absolutely make sense) "Submissions for Dora 2025 are closed, good luck to reserve entries".🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ZakhadWOW]

Justice for Nina Zizic, the sexy cyborg for the Who See "Igranka" entry in 2013. Highly regarded as one of the single greatest robberies in ESC history, with the massively popular song with the voters, while getting hosed by the Juries. Same thing happened with Poland in 2014.

[@sarahenchanted]

(I completely understand not covering it but it's worth mentioning) There's a chance KAN/IBA may get privatized by the government which could lead to Israel not participating. I believe things will be more clear in the coming days (i think there's supposed to be a Knesset vote or some sort of government decision fairly soon). I think this has been a thing for years and could be a nothing burger but its not out of the realm of possibility atp.

[@ESCTom]

yea thats the reason that i didnt cover it, is that theyve said similar things in the past and it was a nothing burger. will wait to see what happens

[@sarahenchanted]

@ESCTom we don't need another pre song release headache from them 😂

[@beahill4667]

OMG i love Mentissa 🇧🇪 I found her after listening to la Zarra and it was recommended to me. Do recommend her songs "mamma Mia" and "Et bam". I remember listening to her and thinking, she should so go to Eurovision!

[@treyperilloux7398]

Hoping Belgium sends Mentissa, she’d be able to deliver vocals and already is pretty established with 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

[@ZakhadWOW]

Oh come on, it wouldnt be ESC pre-season without Moldova's annual trainwreck of live auditions! I mean I know I and many others just LIVE for that wild night.

[@florentynakrupa5713]

As soon as you mentioned a Conan Osiris vibe I knew I need to go check Lucas Bun out. Conan Osiris vibes is all I ever want. His 2023 album Por Empezar is pretty interesting, I'm excited to see what he'll bring to Benidorm!

[@ullarajala4784]

A lot of Eurovision people moving to Bluesky. I am on the starter pack and I have got as many followers as for my other interest. Good video and the section about the Junior Eurovision was good, but did not point out how the jury winners winning over public vote winners was rife also in JESC, not only in ESC. Hope you do more lifestreams. They are fun, although it is easier to concentrate on the songs on one's own.

[@ESCTom]

yea im going to get into more streaming, its fun but you need to have the right setup

[@esckrystianochman]

3:25 well, actually in 2022 there was already a superfinal in the Polish selection with 100% of the televote. Kind of the same as in Eesti Laul

[@idraote]

I am thankful for the content... but I expect more all the same 😁 P.S. Victoria Silvstedt does have musical experience, she has published several singles and people tell me they have sold... That said her singing is similar to that of Sabrina Salerno, but with a lot more autotune.

[@archie-runs]

I miss the times when each country announced all their points 1-12 out loud 🥲 Takes longer but I loved it (Or at least 8-12)

[@zwelfbungt]

We technically had 38 countries in 2006. It is so strange. According to the EBU-Website on the Eurovision 2006 Semi-Final-results, Serbia & Montenegro is listed as participant with no song after their national final back then was...the most chaotic thing ever?! And they also participated in the voting securing North Macedonia a spot in the final on the cost of Poland.

[@ESCTom]

haha true, ok 38 entries then 😜

[@kirkhoffman3945]

The list of participants in Sanremo 25 will be announced on December 2nd

[@diekommentarekommentiererin]

A day before, actually. 1st December.

[@kirkhoffman3945]

@@diekommentarekommentiererin yes sorry 1

[@matchalatte42]

Regarding ESC250, I can see Joost winning this year actually (I also voted for him but not in first place)

[@ESCTom]

oh that would be epic

[@llamaboy]

I didn’t follow Junior Eurovision this year, but I did have a look at parts of the final after the event, and I found the production value embarrassingly bad. I don’t know much about the production logistics of these things, so I never know when the EBU or the national broadcaster is to blame, but I was just baffled by how little effort there seemed to have gone in. First of all I’m confused at why they shortened the runtime to such a degree, when they had more countries than the past couple of years, and I think they did Zoe really dirty by not letting her perform again and relegating her to just sharing the common song performance. And then the voting system was just so strange to me, especially after reading somewhere that it was supposedly done to reduce the stress on the kids - correct me if I’m wrong, but have there ever been any complaints about the kids being harmed by the stress? Ultimately it’s a competition with a winner, there’s going to be some anxiety and pressure in there somewhere. And they cited preventing a France vs Spain 2023 situation happening again - but that whole thing did happen again anyway, because the online votes were presented the same way. And then of course there’s the AI, but everything about that has already been said. It looked ridiculously cheap and tacky, and it raises eyebrows that in an edition when they’re trying to make it safer and healthier for the children, they’re at the same getting computers to recreate and beautify them.

[@kevanmcdougallmph]

re: JESC, I feel like another glaring issue is the jury/online vote splits. In ESC we consistently see that the top televote finishers get more collective points than the top jury scores. Yet, because of the way online votes are cast in JESC, we see the jury actually has more power by virtue of a higher points ceiling and lower points minimum. I really think they need to change this because it's quite clear that the top jury songs are the only ones with a chance to win in this system. JESC 2024: 150 point difference in favour of Jury Top 4 Jury Top 4: 180, 122, 103, 96 Online Vote Top 4: 117, 81, 79, 74 JESC 2023: 134 point difference in favour of Jury Top 4 Jury Top 4: 136, 116, 115, 102 Online Vote Top 4: 92, 86, 83, 74 JESC 2022: 145 point difference in favour of Jury Top 4 Jury Top 4: 132, 114, 110, 88 Online Vote Top 4: 80, 78, 71, 70 JESC 2021: 90 point difference in favour of Jury Top 4 Jury Top 4: 120, 116, 115, 109 Online Vote Top 4: 109, 102, 92, 67

[@ESCTom]

they arent going to change it, as the current system means that last place is stil pretty much guaranteed 40 pts. if you go adult ESC style, you risk 0 points. The jury score is pretty much always going to be bigger than the televote because of the 2 different ways that they are done

[@lucajeanp]

I agree, JESC graphics was a total mess

[@hippopotamusbosch]

@ESC Tom could you please post the your Bluesky handle on your channel description page? Doesn’t appear on your linktree either.

[@ESCTom]

will do - thanks for the heads up

[@JCEurovisionFan1996]

The new way of announcing the points, as seen in this year's JESC, should NEVER implement again.

[@vae-drama-deu]

Hi Tom, did you see the running order for Montesong already? The piano ladies aren't very spread out unlike you were hoping in your analysis. It's gonna be interesting!

[@ESCTom]

yes i saw it but it was released just after i was recording, so it didnt make the cut 😭

[@vae-drama-deu]

@ESCTom I see, I was just thinking of you when I saw it, keep up your good work :))

[@annakobuk3618]

I'm Polish and for the first time in many years I feel a bit of real excitement about our national selection. Finally a chance to send something interesting or crazy (not krejza). This season is going to be pretty long and interesting at least looking and the number of planned NFs. The downside is as always too many finals around the same time and some finals at the middle of the work week. (Whyyyy???)

[@diekommentarekommentiererin]

@@annakobuk3618 Well, at least your NF is on a Friday and I don't think anyone will join you so you'll have that day all to yourself. The day after looks to be a Super Saturday though with 4 NFs so far so you dodged a bullet there.

[@annakobuk3618]

@diekommentarekommentiererin Polish NF watching is no big problem. I think rather about NFs in Greece or Montenegro and Super Saturday events in other countries.

[@gothiclight8048]

So on Valentine’s Day now we have the Polish final and the covers night of Sanremo also!

[@giantchaser]

14 Feb, it's a date! 😘

[@garrickdarts]

On the scoring part, could a mix be the right answer? Keep the televote part how it is now at the end, it's exciting, but for the jury part, have something like they did for junior eurovision for the points 1-10 with your suggestions about horizontal bars and ordering etc. It could move pretty fast still though perhaps a little slower than in jesc this year, but then after that go to each country for their 12 - it's pretty much what we do now, but would also help cut down on the awkward "here are the points from the xyz jury" with that pause while they wait etc etc - the presenter from the broadcaster would know that all they need to do is say "thanks for a great contest, the 12 points from xyz go to abc" and no need for back and forth over slow sattelite connections that really make things seem slow.

[@classlessacts3535]

Both of Montaigne’s songs made my 250 vote 😅😅😅

[@jacekpokrywka6857]

Douwe Bob has child with woman named Anouk but it isnt 2013 Dutch entrant.

[@ESCTom]

ah thank you for that clarification, the wiki article made it sound like it was Anouk

[@thesnesgeek]

Will you go over the Mello 2025 artists? I know you have given them out but hear all of them in one go.

[@gothiclight8048]

Moldovan live auditions are back!

[@Gimlo_Goblin]

Thanks Tom :^) Gimlo was thinking that since Megara submitted a song to Benidorm Fest in 2024 and got rejected, maybe they're just really picky with the songs that make the lineup. Then again, "11:11" was better than at least a few of the songs at Benidorm Fest last year, so who knows, maybe RTVE just really like Blanca Paloma 🤷‍♂️

[@user-Eor2004]

Hey Tom i wanna ask you what type of entries do you wanna see in eurovision 2025 from each country? You cant pick any names or songwriters but you can pick what genre of music that each cuntry should send.

[@sandrogigi5666]

4:43 Australia???

[@ESCTom]

huh? australia has 10 million people less than Poland?

[@sandrogigi5666]

@ESCTom you said biggest country and when comparing the sizes australia is almost 20 times bigger than poland

[@dhilandass7986]

@@sandrogigi5666 he was obviously talking about population 💀 what would land size have to do with anything

[@ZakhadWOW]

DOuwe Bob is a very interesting person.. he may be a multiple baby daddy, but he's also quite bisexual and has had no problem throwing out thirst traps for the guys...

[@MariaMariamuzieklove]

yes but his songs aren’t strong enough.

[@diekommentarekommentiererin]

3:00 Why are they allowing these languages in particular? German, fair enough considering the history. Ukraine I get too. But Armenian? Do they have a large diaspora? French & Italian, but not Spanish? I think an entry in Belarusian would not be very popular though... 5:54 Meanwhile, there are news (rumours) about Armenia now. This video was one day too early. 9:00 And we'd have even semi finals as well for the first time in years. I'm crossing my fingers for 38 (or 40 would be fine too) I'm not counting 2006 since 37 songs competed. 13:45 But they listened to the HUUUGE backlash they received for the intended qualifiers announcement change. 20:15 Apparently just 40 sec snippets though. 21:15 Not FiK 😭 As a German, it's making me cringe 😨 22:57 I thought more Noa Kirel. 28:35 In January, if I understood correctly. 28:55 Considering Luxembourg doesn't really have a big pool of singers, it's save to say they will try again. 29:05 She applied with four songs so one of them had to be chosen, right? 29:36 Yes, that was Edsun. 30:20 Belgium went from 7 to 8 and Luxembourg did the reverse. 31:20 And Croatia had one less 😄

[@PersonaNG-oo7ku]

As for your first point, I also have no idea, why they'd pick these specific languages for a Polish song. The lack of Spanish is very strange, in particular. It's not a language many people learn in school, but the same applies to Italian and it's on the list anyway. My one theory on those limitations is that they didn't want to deal with a potential issue of a song being inappropriate and having to consult a native speaker or translator to make sure the lyrics are not breaking any rules. As for Belarusian... Well, I'm sure a lot of Polish people would criticize that choice, but at the same time most people in Belarus speak Russian instead, so their native language is - in some aspects - a symbol of cultural resistance. And if Polish people can sympathize with anything it's opposing Russia. Pan Savyan who competed last year, for example, is from Belarus, and Polish people supported his song regardless. (Also, I've noticed that the languages of all of our neighbours - besides Russian - are allowed, so that's why there's Lithuanian, but not Latvian or Estonian, for example.)

[@Kanabai1871]

What are your thoughts on the news of only one show in Mgp?

[@ESCTom]

ill talk about it in next episode, but im really sad about it. MGP is my favourite NF so it means almost half the songs are gone 😭

[@vicsymons1570]

I don't get why the spanish language is not allowed in the polish NF...are they boycotting Spain because of the jesc?

[@robtoole2337]

Red Sebastian has a great voice if he gets the right song. Very conchita

[@thesnesgeek]

It's confirmed, Armenia is ready and Montenegro is too, thus increasing the amount to 38, the higest amount since 2022.

[@tastaturgaming2908]

I just looked up the Benidorm contestants and Loco Boombox isn't there :( I really hoped we would get In Forma 2 - Electric Boogaloo

[@eoghandowney537]

I do not think that the way the Jury deliver their votes. Eurovision would loose its novelty if that was to occur and would in turn loose what makes Eurovision stand out from other competitions.

[@esclance]

Tom, did you see when the Georgian sporting channel that broadcasted JESC 2024 bribed everyone to vote for Georgia for a free iPad. I feel like that must’ve contributed to their win

[@ESCTom]

hmmmm i dont think so - they won because of their massive jury vote, not their televote. They literally could have come last in the televote and still won

[@esclance]

@ that’s a fair point, but you never know. Maybe their televote score would’ve been massively low. However, that’s very unlikely cus his voice was amazing

[@danietregonning]

I did wonder why I had so many notifications on BlueSky this morning haha ❤️

[@ESCTom]

lol ❤️😂

[@danietregonning]

@@ESCTom appreciated!

[@Hydraas]

So I looked through every Belgium and Ireland wiki page for eurovision. Belgium's first Eurosong was 1975, Ireland's was 1988. So yes, Ireland stole it from Belgium. You're right, Éiresong is a much better name. Also at least 3 other countries have had a Eurosong national final: Greece from 2013-2015, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 (their debut) to 2005 and Czechia from 2007 (their debut) to 2009

[@ESCTom]

yea Éiresong is right there - its such an obvious name and builds more brand than the generic Eurosong

[@logi-a]

Armenia have confirmed! 🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲

[@NumaMaxenceAmbre]

Sorry but Mentissa is super super established name in France and Belgium, and she's a top interpreter/voice.

[@Lawrence.Laurentius]

ESC is a live event of performers performing on stage in real time. No place for AI in ESC. No place at all.

[@willardprenfrew4303]

Things that are in: Proportional voting Fairness at TVP Things that are out: Trash AI graphics Transphobes

[@rinjoo3]

UMK just released the yearly teaser pictures (of basically nothing) of each song's music video in the Instagram page, only two months for the artist reveal.

[@ESCTom]

oooooo thanks, ill check it out

[@rinjoo3]

@@ESCTom Also some "insider" knowledge: a pop song called "Ira - Auf Wiedersehen" (on youtube) was published today and it was aplied to UMK25, but did not progress to final due to other (presumably better) song containing German language was selected instead. Although its very basic pop song, its not totally terrible imo so it is very likely that the song quality will be atleast decent this year (2025) considering that the method used to select UMK finalists also include "audience" teams instead of just the showmaker team this year.

[@lukewhiter9555]

sorry can’t watch all the video. But I know Montenegro are retuning but who else??

[@stevenwilliams3038]

I would be shocked if Armenia is Armeniout. Im expecting them Armenin

[@stevenwilliams3038]

You have Bulgaria as Not Confirmed I would be more shocked if Bulgaria was in then if Armenia was out but I would absolutely not complain if Bulgaria joined

[@PersonaNG-oo7ku]

Someone posted a rumour today about Armenia's NF coming back. Which doesn't confirm anything, but if the source is reliable it's a good sign.

[@Hydraas]

Fyi, the current winner of the jury scoring was clear, although they didn't explain it. It's whichever one is highlighted. Also the executive producer of jesc was interviewed and explained that they changed how the points were shown to both shorten the show and to make it less tense in the performers by not having to make them wait as long, both reasons I had personally already realised for myself

[@aekelly]

So happy seeing people finally leaving the bird. I left a while ago now, after tolerating reporting the most misogynistic yucky comments just to be said "the post didn't violate our code of conduct". I wish everyone would leave it - its really awful to be rewarding that cesspool. Thank you - going over to BlueSky as soon as I finish watching this! LOL! (No JoJo Siwas! LOL!)

[@wietzejohanneskrikke1910]

A nuke?

[@KorpKyuuSama]

Bluesky is just an echo chamber, but I guess that is what ppl that dislike X want. Meh.

[@ESCTom]

twitter has no moderation. there's nothing wrong with people wanting to go somewhere where they can discuss without having to endure constant abuse from anonymous profiles and bots

[@KorpKyuuSama]

@@ESCTom Sure, but if we only gonna point out the bad, not saying that i agree, bluesky is full of out of control censorship and toxic groups. Also bots too. The hate on X is so forced. But i guess one more thing to divide us makes no difference at this point.

[@PersonaNG-oo7ku]

It might be an echo chamber now, but as more people join it'll get more diverse in time, I'm sure. I, personally, had to stop logging on Twitter, because it's become straight up unusable and... honestly - it was often an echo chamber too.

[@KorpKyuuSama]

@@PersonaNG-oo7ku Can't became diverse if they keep banning everyone with a different opinion. And my feed on X, at least for me, is very far away from an echo chamber. Idk, X hate seems so forced.

[@PersonaNG-oo7ku]

Twitter is literally managed by a fascist and a neonazi who allows all of his hatred to grow on the platform. Some of the most racist, transfobic, and overall vile posts I've seen in the last 2 years came from over there and they were often boosted by the platform, too. I'd say it's not hated enough. If being in an echo-chamber means not seeing a 19th century-level bigotry then I'm happy with that.

[@annhenriques3520]

Bluesky is awesome !

[@aekelly]

Anouk should NOT be allowed to participate. I have no idea if she considers herself a radical feminist, but TERFS are not feminists - its an oxymoron! Hope if Netherlands ever hosts again, they won't make numerous jokes about the same one poor person who lost - that was really mean.

[@alexhodder4129]

Twitter has always been a cesspit so will blue-sky all that's changed is right wingers are no longer censored. Looking forward to the new ESC season tho 😁

[@ESCTom]

yea thats actually very true, its important not to falsely remember what Twitter was. But with pre-Musk twitter, at least there was some moderation if people attacked you. the stuff that people can get away with saying now is insane, and you know that 99% of them wouldnt say it to the persons face

[@craigpacker7171]

Just signed up for Bluesky. Can't wait to delete my Twitter account if Bluesky works out.

[@fehermarcell6826]

Once again they absolutely do not care about the critics. 😂

[@GianniDN]

We will not have 38 countries. Israel is banned out of every contest and sport event. There is an international attest against Netanyahu which all European countries signed. It means that all European universities stop working with them, all trade stops. What applies to Russia, applies to Israel too.

[@EurovisionESC]

Stop it!!!! Stop bringing the politics in esc again!!! Just stop it!!!

[@sav0001]

The EBU doesn't have to follow that though

[@GianniDN]

@ of course the EBU has to follow it. Israel will get the same treatment as Russia.

[@GianniDN]

@ no, I am happy they are finally banned. ESC is a political circus anyway. It has completely lost its reputation as a family show.

[@EurovisionESC]

@@GianniDN ...because of "fans" like you!!! STOP ASKING FOR POLITICAL CRAP IN ESC !!! You cannot remove Israel without also removing Ukraine !!! (it's the exact same situation on both sides!!! ), STOP BRINGING POLITICS INTO ESC !!!! ffs