The line-up for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö is finally complete and it’s time for us to review the full line-up for Sweden, do our speculations on the semi-final running order and react to some of our community’s comments on the Eurovision songs.

IIn this episode, we start off by taking a closer look at the last two songs, which made the line-up for Malmö complete: Jako by Ladaniva for Armenia and Özünlə Apar by Fahree feat. Ilkin Dövlətov for Azerbaijan.

Especially the Armenian song was flooded with positive feedback from our podcast hosts:

This song is exactly what I expected from Ladaniva and I was not disappointed. It might be too much for some people but I think it’s an absolute banger and I see it 100% as a qualifier.

Sebi, Building Bridges – Episode 71

Furthermore, we asked you guys some questions on our social media profiles, regarding the line-up of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Especially the question about the most overrated song, raised a lot of angry comments on TikTok.

One user called the Austrian song overrated and basic, while a different account commented “UK! If it wasn’t Olly Alexander, nobody would put it in their top 10“. Overall, the entries from Croatia, Italy, Ukraine, Austria, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands received some form of negative feedback.

However, Sebi does not see this as a sign of danger for these songs:

I think haters are not a bad sign and in a way even important, as long as there are enough people who love and enjoy your song. If everybody finds your song “just nice”, you are not going to win the Eurovision Song Contest.

Sebi, Building Bridges – Episode 71

The official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel has just published the recap video of all the 37 songs, that will grace the stage in Malmö this May:

What do you make of the overall line-up for Eurovision 2024? Do you agree with the comments from our listeners? Let us know in the comments and on our social media profiles @buildingbridgespod !

Photo: SVT / EBU