S. Worthen | Weblog

This year's Eurovision song contest features a ridiculously large number of videos with very gloomy visuals, some justified, some not. Over half were filmed with a very limited grey or brown color palette, many in full darkness with limited lighting. Some of those were even happy songs, such as Greece's, which is in grey with some color highlights. So, so gloomy that anything outdoors or with much color was a highlight for me.

Presumably this is in part thanks to the angsty - if beautiful - 1942 winning the contest for Ukraine this year. There are lots of songs about broken relationships. There is lots of long hair being flipped about all over the place, not always pleasantly. Key changes are rarer than usual.

Best overall song (again!): Australia Isaiah, "Don't Come Easy"
Happiest song: Romania Ilinca ft. Alex Florea, "Yodel It!"
Best overall video: France Alma, "Requiem"
Best atmospheric: Belgium Blanche, "City Lights"
Most haunting: Finland Norma John, "Blackbird" (content warning: suicide)

Minor trends
Songs blatantly about lust: Sweden, Montenegro
Drowning women: Malta, Finland

News headlines widely report that Italy is odds-on favorite to win, but I find their song too offensively orientalising to support this year.

( The Eurovision 2017 videos, reviewed.... )