Experts say how to win the European TV Song Contest
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Who will follow in the footsteps of Loreen and Nemo and become the champion of the Eurovision Song competition?

Last year, about 163 million people watched the Eurovision Song Contest, meaning that opinions on being the perfect contestant could be 163 million different.

Are you looking for a soul-filled ballad that promises to leave the European mist, full of love and peace?

Or did you choose a cheesy event with Saucy's regional outfit and breathtaking stages that would roam in the living room throughout the continent (and Australia)?

Perfect song

Getty Images Beard drag Queen Conchita Wurst, who performed well in the 2014 Eurovision Song competition. She was wearing a golden brocade dress and long black hair, and raised her head as she lifted her microphone.Getty Images

The rise of Conchita Wurst is like Phoenix, showing that self-authorized songs can be very successful on Eurovision

According to Bennett, this works, and each Eurovision song falls under six broad lyrical themes: "Love, Unity, Self-hosting, Party, History, History and Songs about Making Music".

He added: "Songs that are self-aggressive or lyrical self-authorized are very good" - just like Austria's 2014 champion rise, like Conchita Wurst.

Keep it simple and effective

According to our experts, behaviors may easily stand out on the stage, but that may not be the way to ensure victory.

Songwriter Thomas Stengaard co-created the only teardrop of Denmark’s 2013 champion (and this year’s British entries, Remember Monday, what just happened. He will successfully put aside some of the simple stages, which he says is easy to remember.

"If you ask a kid to draw that stage, they can. It's a girl without shoes, two guys playing drums and a flute guy. Very simple, but it works very well."

Getty Images Emmelie de Forest Singing in White DressGetty Images

The only teardrop and its "simple stage" are the champions in 2013

Vocal coach Carrie Grant led the British jury in 2014 and finished sixth in 1983 as part of Sweet Dreams.

“Nothing is worse than having an artist with a lot of money, but their performance is not worth it,” she said. “It makes the performance look worse.”

The 2014 champion (and Carrie’s personal favorite) is Conchita Wurst, the first competition to win the contest since 1970 without supporting singers or dancers.

What makes Conchita stand out is that she is a bearded drag queen. Carrie believes that Eurovision fans love quirky things and things that “embrace the LGBT community.”

The band Sweet Dreams waved on the 1983 European TV stage. Two women wearing grey and yellow track sets and headbands waving in blue and gray sportswear on both sides of a man

Carrie Grant (right) represented the UK in the 1983 Song Contest - on the stage that just featured three stools

But she added that Kanggita is not a head, but "a great singer who can say something in a vocal coach's 'money moment'".

The key is the key

The songs of the Little Key are increasingly dominating the European TV network.

Bennett revealed the idea that “mainly equals happiness, secondary equals sorrow”, adding that “the secondary key is even a shorthand for emotional depth.”

According to the News Association, in 2023, 85% of finalists played with the secondary key. In the past 20 years, only two Big Key Champions have won the 2011 running fear (for Azerbaijan) and the 2017 Amar Pelos Dois.

Professor Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, a Princeton music cognitive researcher, emphasized the sensitivity of the source - our instinct to connect the sound of the song to the expected background. For example, some bars of some technical songs, we have a mental image of a dark nightclub, and a DJ that might be playing there.

The three remembered Monday in front of a tree. The woman on the left is a blonde, the woman with black hair in the middle, and the woman on the right is a red hair. They were wearing white corsets, and the woman in the middle also wore pink ruffles.

Remember Monday trying to stop the European TV trend with a big key song Monday

This means that some minor keys now send a "European TV" signal to the audience immediately.

Remember, what happened on Monday was written at the songwriting camp where several songwriters worked together at country resorts to write the perfect song for this year’s UK bill.

The song was written intentionally with the main key and could stand out in a small key song - similar to the British second-place work "B Major" in 2022.

Surprise your sleeves

Margulis said repetition is very important to making song sticks. But songs should be avoided overly repetitive. Margulis said that what is fascinating about a song in particular is “not only the words you hear repeatedly, but when they throw out some kind of surprise twist.”

Bucks Fizz won the title in the UK in 1981, which is a classic example. First, the song changed the keys and soon made an unforgettable costume change, in which the female singer's skirt was torn off to reveal the shorter skirt - a joint visual and musical twist.

Bucks Fizz performed in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest. The band stood outside in a row, and two women were outside. The woman in length was wearing a red thigh high dress, and the woman on the right was yellow. The men were wearing white pants with a blue jumper on the left and a green on the right. Women's discarded long skirt lying on the ground behind them

Bucks Fizz's skirt fall routine helped them win the 1981 game

Early Eurovision winners were often ridiculed for their nonsense lyrics, such as Swedish 1984 champion Diggi-loo diggi-ley, but Bennett believes this highlights the Eurovision’s focus on melody.

"European TV really needs a hook for big melody. You want people from all over Europe to sing. Melody. Needing a very accessible, engaging chorus is essential."

The major change has long been a way to introduce novelty to European TV songs. The 2000s saw multiple winners follow this formula, including the flight of the Olsen Brothers on Norwegian Wings of Love (2000) and the 2007 Molitva, Serbia.

But as Bennett points out, although they still appear in the fifth finalists, songs without the final chorus keys have won the championship since Molitva 20 years ago.

Stengaard's song "Remember, Monday" is definitely full of surprises. BBC music correspondent Mark Savage said the song features “a series of dazzling key changes and rhythm changes.”

The song is the songwriter’s answer to the question he asked himself while writing for Eurovision: “How do you stand out in a competition where everyone wants to stand out?”