The Italian singer Gabry Ponte, representing San Marino with the song "Tutta L'Italia," performs during the dress rehearsal for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, on May 16, 2025. (Credit: Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP.)
The 26 songs in the Eurovision final on Saturday will lead viewers to choose between the humor of an ode to the sauna, the regret of squandered love, the promise of a new dawn after horror, the praise of enjoyment, or the memory of a mother.
The song contest is 69 years old and it is the largest televised music competition in the world. Music, kitsch, competition, high-definition LED walls, and plenty of pyrotechnics vie for the attention and votes of some 160 million viewers in Europe and beyond. Sweden remains the bettors' favorite with the ode by comic trio KAJ and their catchy and uplifting "Bara Bada Bastu," which evokes the joys of a sauna.
In total contrast but on the trio's heels, the countertenor JJ dazzled for Austria with "Wasted Love" on squandered love, performed in magnificent Harcourt studio black and white. After two semifinals and impressive performances, Austria, France, Finland, the Netherlands, and Israel intend to surprise at Basel's St. Jakobshalle.
Louane, for France, was automatically selected for the final, but her song "maman," a tribute to her late mother, intensely performed with a restrained scenography symbolizing the passage of time in an hourglass, has propelled her to third place among bookies.
Adrenaline
Fans snapped up all 6,500 tickets for Saturday's final. "The team is exhausted, but super happy," Eurovision director Martin Green told AFP on Friday, 24 hours before the grand finale. "What drives us all is seeing these artists sing, and it's a real adrenaline rush. Some of these performances are simply breathtaking," he says. "I find that the final's line-up is quite diverse, with both up-tempo proposals and ballads, perhaps slightly more poetic moments," analyzes Fabien Randanne, music journalist at the French newspaper 20 Minutes and a regular at Eurovision.
Norwegian Kyle Alessandro opens the show in an explosion of flames, followed by Luxembourger Laura Thorn and "turn up the doll." A possible surprise according to Fabien Randanne. The singer denounces patriarchy by invoking "Poupée de cire, poupée de son," written by Serge Gainsbourg and whose interpretation by France Gall secured Luxembourg's victory 60 years ago.
The live broadcast begins at 19:00 GMT, with two hours of concerts, followed by the suspense of the votes: separate voting from the jury and viewers from each of the 37 participating countries, with equal weight. Added to this is the vote of viewers from the rest of the world to determine the winner.
Although kept secret on the numbers, Thomas Niedermeyer, Eurovision's voting master, revealed that this week's semifinals — where 20 countries qualified and 11 were eliminated — were "very close." "It was even closer than the points suggest. The race has indeed been exciting and the race for the winner promises to be tight," he says.
Hope and Desire
Israeli singer and attack survivor on October 7, Yuval Raphael saw her odds increase over the weeks, and her performance of "New Day Will Rise" has secured her a spot in the final. The 24-year-old who survived by playing dead under a pile of corpses during the massacre carried out by Hamas, wants to deliver a universal message "of hope and solidarity."
Finnish Erika Vikman celebrates life in her own way. Clad in studded leather bodysuit, with thigh-high boots, singing at the top of her lungs "Ich Komme" (I'm coming), the singer flies into the air on a giant microphone from which sparks fly. The audience chanted "Erika," "Erika," reflecting the growing enthusiasm for the one who had to hide parts the Eurovision would not dare show. The mystery remains around the involvement of Canadian megastar Celine Dion, who suffers from a severe autoimmune disease. She was 20 when she won Eurovision 1988 for Switzerland. The contest made her a global star.