
[update – the day after]
I correctly predicted the winner (Netherlands), but my second and third place predictions (Sweden and Australia) were a little further down the list: Sweden was 6th, Australia 9th. Not bad.
Here’s an interactive infographic of the final scoreboard. The final top 9 were as follows (last column shows my prediction):
# | Country | Song/artist | Score | JB # | |
1 | Netherlands | Arcade Duncan Laurence | 492 | 1 | |
2 | Italy | Soldi Mahmood | 465 | ||
3 | Russia | Scream Sergey Lazarev | 369 | ||
4 | Switzerland | She Got Me Luca Hänni | 360 | ||
5 | Norway | Spirit in the Sky KEiiNO | 338 | ||
6 | Sweden | Too Late for Love John Lundvik | 332 | 2 | |
7 | Azerbaijan | Truth Chingiz | 297 | ||
8 | North Macedonia | Proud Tamara Todevska | 295 | ||
9 | Australia | Zero Gravity Kate Miller-Heidke | 285 | 3 |
[Original music analysis below]
Welcome to the 2019 Eurovision live musicology blog, now in its ninth year. This site has provided live (or pre-live) music analysis of the ESC final every year since 2011, previously during the UK live broadcast. Since 2016, the text has been written from Boston USA, 5 hours behind UK time and, this year, 7 hours behind Tel Aviv, where the show takes place.
The Contest can be watched on YouTube, and across many European and US networks and time zones. Parts of the blog post are typed as-live, but I’ve uploaded everything in advance so you can follow along with the show. For any non-Europeans who are unfamiliar with Eurovision, the Wikipedia page gives a great overview.
As before, I have posted predictions of the winners before the voting begins. 2015 is the only year so far that all three were correct, and in the correct order, but I’ve gotten close with the top few most of the time.
This year I’m including more of the chord loops, so that keyboard/guitar people can play along. These chords are transcribed at speed, and are sometimes slightly simplified for text purposes (e.g. there aren’t always 2nd/3rd time bars etc).
And, as always, I recommend music creative types (particularly songwriters and producers) read Milton Mermikides’ excellent Deux Points’ article, which gives top tips on how to write those fair-to-middling low-scoring ‘Euro-formula’ songs. As you listen to tonight’s show, look out to references to the Aeolian mode aka natural minor scale (in music generally, the least exotic of all the minor scales; in Eurovision terms, an essential signifier of cultural and emotional authenticity).
My predictions – (added before voting begins)
- Winner: Netherlands
- 2nd place: Sweden
- 3rd place: Australia
1 Malta: Michela: Chameleon
- BPM: 98 Key: Bbm
- Verse: | F | Bbm / / (Gb) | F | Gb |
- Pre: | Gb Bbm | Db Ab | Gbmaj7 Db | Ab | x2
- Chorus: F | Bbm | F | Gb | x 2