by Joe Bennett | May 16, 2026 | Education, Eurovision, musicology, Popular Music, Research, Songwriting
[The next day] results v my predictions So, even though I was right here in Vienna, soaking up the vibes, this wasn’t my best prediction work! All my top 3 made the top 10, but although I loved Bangaranga, I didn’t see its runaway success coming! Top 10 at... 
by Joe Bennett | May 17, 2025 | Eurovision, Popular Music, Songwriting
The next day: actual results vs my predictions. Not my best work, but not my worst either. I predicted Austria at #2 (winner); Sweden to win (4th); and France near the top (7th). The Fins were predicted #3 (13th). Most tellingly, I went against my music instincts to... 
by Joe Bennett | May 15, 2025 | Eurovision, Forensic Musicology, musicology, Popular Music, Research, Songwriting
Here’s my brief interview with CNN’s Max Foster, in which we discuss my prediction for 2025, and review two of the Eurovision archetypes – the Euro-banger and the French Chanson. This year’s Eurovision blog will, as always, contain a song... 
by Joe Bennett | May 11, 2024 | Eurovision, musicology, Popular Music, Songwriting
Winners vs predictions [the next day] Phew! What an intense evening. One media outlet described it as “beset by chaos”, and there was certainly a lot of drama – from the last minute disqualification of the Netherlands entry to the various geo-political... by Joe Bennett | May 14, 2022 | Eurovision, musicology
Kalush Orchestra (Ukraine), who won the 2022 contest with their song ‘Stefania’. A better result than last year with the predictions – I got a home run on the top 3, and only missed one outsider – Serbia, for which I guess I misread the lyric theme.... by Joe Bennett | May 13, 2022 | Eurovision, Forensic Musicology, Popular Music, Songwriting
As regular readers will know, I have been live-blogging the ESC since 2011, and in 2020 undertook a larger-scale song analysis for Netflix, where we looked at the meta-characteristics of 259 finalists 2010-2019. To get you in the zone (I’m typing this on...
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