This year the Song Festival will be terrible

Whether you like it or not, no one can ignore that the Song Festival takes place this week. Tonight is the first semi-final and I expect that we will be surprised again with, to say the least, ‘special’ acts. Generally, I find more than half of the performances awful. For me, it is a kind of guilty pleasure that I have indulged in since I was young.

It also goes every year again about ‘the bookmakers’, who try to make some kind of prediction about who will win. Our Joost Klein is currently in 6th place, and maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I really think ‘Europapa’ is a nice song. Especially that it ends so sensitive and sweet, and his outfit is very special. I thought it was high time to delve into our main competitors.

Currently, Croatia is in first place. I want to warn you about that: the singing is awful and the lyrics in the song (like ‘I sold my cow’) seem to be random exclamations that have nothing to do with each other. But honestly: the ‘rimtimtadadadarimtim’ is quite catchy.

What seems to be a trend this year is the mix between singing and rap; this can be heard in both Switzerland and Ukraine. As for Switzerland: I have heard better. Maybe I have become spoiled because I listen a lot to Beyoncé and Jay-Z, but I also find Ukraine already a lot better, which has the same idea. Maybe it's also because it's about two women who look a bit like mystical witches (in a good way). Ukraine won a few years ago, so I would prefer it if another country finishes first this time.

Like Italy. She can not only really sing (which is rare, I hope she can do it under the pressure of the European broadcast live shows), it is also just a lovely song. I can see this being played everywhere; you can dance to it and Italian is, in my opinion, the most romantic language in the world anyway. Maybe I am a bit biased because of my Italian blood, but I am sure that many people agree with me when it comes to this song.

Tonight the first semi-final can be seen at 21:00 on NPO1. The second is on May 9, and the grand final (hoping we make it) can be witnessed on May 11. I am already ready with my score sheets to give out my own ‘douze points’.