Who will win the Eurovision Song Contest 2019?

This week the Eurovision Song Contest will start in the heart of Tel Aviv, Israel. But what can we expect from this mad showcase? Throughout the years we’ve seen a woman with a beard, rock bands with totally scary masks, controversial songs on and other weird stuff. But sometimes there’s a glimpse of musicality. What will it be this year? Every year the bookmakers predict who will win the Eurovision Song Contest. They are not always right, so let’s talk about the songs I think have a strong chance of winning.

Duncan Laurence — Arcade (The Netherlands)

Not to sound too nationalistic, because trust me The Netherlands always blows up any slight chance of winning anything (look at the Ajax disaster!), but there has been a lot of talk about Duncan Laurence. He is a fairly unknown singer but now is becoming an A star in Europe. In recent years The Netherlands has been sending famous singers such as Anouk, Trijntje Oosterhuis, OG3NE and last year Waylon to be the Dutch entry. Waylon competed in Eurovision before with Ilse DeLange in 2014 as The Common Linnets, where they surprisingly came in second (after woman with a beard, Conchita Wurst). That Ilse DeLange turned her chair around in The Voice for Duncan that same year, and now she’s being his coach to guide him throughout the journey. The song Arcade is a song about a friend of Duncan. She battled with a disease but found love with a guy. The guy kept on loving her, even though she was dying. The lyrics ‘loving you is a losing game’, is not only the most powerful line of it all, it also happens to be the most catchy phrase of the song. The song is very emotional, small yet big and can hit that very sensitive side in you. Be ready to get goosebumps and/or cry! Duncan will perform his song on Thursday in the second semi-final.

Sergey Lazarev — Scream (Russia)

Sergey Lazarev has had a big career in Russia. He came in third at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016 with his song You Are The Only One, where he almost copied the whole visual set of 2015’s winner Måns Zelmerlöw. But that year the win went to Ukraine with a controversial song about Russia, the irony is too much. This year he’s literally screaming to win the whole thing with his song Scream. Russia brought in the big guns as Sergey collaborated with The Moscow Symphony Orchestra to make the song more powerful. As predicted Sergey will be having some visual effects on stage. But will the song stand out? And can Sergey scream it out? You can see Sergey perform in the second semi-final on Thursday.

John Lundvik — Too Late For Love (Sweden)

Sweden has always been very powerful with their acts. You would expect that in a way, since the pre-competition, Melodifestivalen, is quite intense. John Lundvik is the chosen one to represent Sweden with his song Too Late For Love. The song is a gospel-like song with everything you would expect from that. His voice is very soulful and lifts you up. Funny music geek side-story: the studio recording is actually a tad higher than the live performance, will he pull this trick off in the semi final as well?

Mahmood — Soldi (Italy)

Every year there’s a song with a deeper meaning and that hits a controversial side. This year Mahmood was the overall winner of Sanremo. He has Egyptian roots but was born and raised in Italy. His song Soldi is about how his father abandoned him and how he’s struggling to find his true identity. He sings/raps in Italian but also in Arabic, this for sure will speak to a lot of people that traded Africa for Europe. Since Italy is one of the Big Five (countries that automatically qualify for the final), we will see him perform on Saturday.

Second best?

Last year Cyprus was the runner-up behind Netta’s Toy. Eleni Foureira left the audience in awe with a stunning Beyonce-like performance with her super catchy song Fuego. Greece actually rejected her to be the Greek entry (she’s actually Greek), therefore she moved and represented Cyprus for the time being. Greece probably scratched their heads when it turned out that she was so close to winning the whole thing. So why did she almost win? She had a catchy song with a reggaeton kind of beat, a formula that worked. And using the same formula could potentially win it this year, at least that’s what some countries thought. Not only did Cyprus send pretty much the same, Switzerland and Malta also send very similar songs. How similar? This similar.

So in conclusion, it’s still anybody’s game. The bookmakers are predicting, but are unpredictable as well. They didn’t predict the winner last year (they thought Cyprus would win!), and the Top 5 keeps changing every day. It’s safe to say that we just have to watch and see. The first semi-final is on Tuesday 14th, the second on Thursday 16th and the grand final is on Saturday 18th of May. Have fun!