Sauna fiends, space dogs and Jesus Christ Superstar: it’s the 10 best Eurovision songs of 2025!

Erika Vikman – Ich Komme (Finland)

What would Eurovision beryllium without sexually explicit songs? Australia’s Milkshake Man by Go-Jo is rather self-explanatory; the standout is Finland’s Erika Vikman with Ich Komme (“I americium coming” successful German). Set to a four-on-the-floor bushed and Eurodance instrumental, the way bursts with unrestrained hands-in-the-air energy. Vikman sings of pleasure, ecstasy and a authorities of trance with a vigour reminiscent of Norway’s 2023 introduction Queen of the Kings, by Alessandra. Vikman hails from a household of Finnish tango musicians – her parent and sister are some progressive successful the genre – and she herself embraced it aboriginal successful her career. Still, backmost successful 2020, her breakout deed was different sex-positive, disco-inspired anthem: Cicciolina, which celebrates the boldness and self-determination of the Hungarian-born porn prima Ilona Staller.

Lucio Corsi – Volevo Essere un Duro (Italy)

Italy’s entries person ever portrayed masculinity successful a mode that’s much layered than meets the eye, with performers and songwriters specified arsenic Cristiano Malgioglio, Renato Zero, and Ivan Cattaneo challenging machismo. In 2025, Lucio Corsi takes the baton with Volevo Essere un Duro (I wanted to beryllium a pugnacious guy), which challenges gendered preconceptions. Melodically, it has hints of 1970s glam stone and Elton John’s ballads, and it conjures a fairytale-like ambiance that’s amplified by Corsi’s elven-like self-presentation. There’s a spot of a fairytale to his spot here, too: helium placed 2nd astatine the Sanremo euphony festival – to find Italy’s contender – but got to vie aft the victor Olly declined to participate.

Emmy – Laika Party (Ireland)

Upon learning astir the bleak destiny of the abstraction canine Laika, Norwegian popular prima Emmy tried to envision an alternate story: what if she had not been near to dice successful abstraction but alternatively enjoyed dancing among the stars and comets? A delightful synthesis of Aqua, Grimes and a hint of Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road allows america to ideate her partying similar it’s 1999. But wherefore is simply a Norwegian singing astir the Soviet abstraction canine Laika representing Ireland, you whitethorn ask? Technically, Laika Party counts 1 Irish and 3 Norwegian songwriters. It had primitively been submitted arsenic a campaigner to Norway’s nationalist contention Melodi Grand Prix, lone to beryllium rejected by the broadcaster. Ireland’s Eurosong accepted it and it won some the nationalist assemblage and the televote. Technicalities exist, and should beryllium taken vantage of!

Princ – Mila (Serbia)

“Dear, you paid the terms of maine loving you,” goes the refrain of Mila, a heart-rending Balkan powerfulness ballad astir the extremity of a toxic relationship. The creator is polymath Princ – frontman of the stone set Sisyphus, erstwhile karate champion, philologist and connection teacher with a grade successful Scandinavian languages, lit and culture, and Jesus successful the 2020 Serbian accumulation of Jesus Christ Superstar. While the lyrics represent a slighted antheral grovelling successful the aftermath of the narration – astatine 1 constituent calling his beloved’s caller spouse a “liar” – Princ’s transportation renders him tortured and sympathetic alternatively than pathetic.

Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte le Son (Luxembourg)

Dolls and their bureau – oregon deficiency thereof – are a large philharmonic and creator trope: look astatine the ballet Coppélia, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Doll connected a Music Box and Aqua’s Barbie Girl. The Luxembourgian Eurovision introduction La Poupée Monte le Son (the doll turns up the volume) by Laura Thorn is simply a tribute to France Gall’s opus Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son, composed by Serge Gainsbourg, which won Eurovision 60 years ago. However, implicit a melody that combines strings, a four-to-the-floor bushed and a vaguely eerie music-box melody, Thorn’s doll asserts “je ne suis pas ta marionnette” and lifts from Bizet to pass the antheral she addresses: “Prends garde à toi” – ticker yourself.

Tommy Cash – Espresso Macchiato (Estonia)

Amore, spaghetti, mafia and espresso are the ground of Tommy Cash’s rap-dance ode to Italian cliches: “Mi similar to alert privati / With 24 carati / Also mi casa precise grandioso / Mi wealth numeroso.” It shares nary thematic similarities with Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso but alternatively DJ Ötzi’s après-ski anthem Pronto Giuseppe!, and successful a twelvemonth wherever a big of vaguely Italian-themed, AI-generated surrealist memes known arsenic “Italian brainrot” are going viral, the nonsense of Espresso Macchiato afloat embodies the zeitgeist. Cash co-wrote it with Johannes Naukkarinen, who gave america the metal-dance-pop fusion way and 2023 Finnish Eurovision introduction Cha Cha Cha by Käärijä, successful which the portion of prime is piña colada.

KAJ – Bara Bada Bastu (Sweden)

As the onshore of Max Martin and Abba, Sweden has historically sent legit – albeit possibly excessively clean-cut – popular acts to Eurovision. This twelvemonth they abruptly changed creator direction, and on came KAJ, a Fenno-Swedish music/comedy radical that credits the unapologetic weirdness of past Finnish acts for the inspiration down their song, Bara Bada Bastu (let’s instrumentality a sauna), performed successful the Vörå dialect and featuring that different accepted Eurovision sound, the folksy, pan-European accordion. (A enactment astir dropping the soap was expunged from the last cut.) At this year’s Melodifestivalen – Sweden’s contention to sanction their Eurovision entrant – KAJ started arsenic the underdog but ended up winning arsenic good arsenic topping Spotify’s planetary viral chart.

Melody – Esa Diva (Spain)

In 2001, property 10, Spanish vocalist Melody released the Euro-rumba tune El Baile del Gorila, implicit with ape-channelling choreography: the commencement of a palmy vocation successful the Spanish and Latin-American market. In 2025, she’s representing Eurovision with the anthemic Esa Diva (that diva). It starts arsenic an introspective ballad, akin to 2014 victor Conchita Wurst’s Rise Like a Phoenix, with Melody herself reminiscing connected her career. Then the chorus hits and the bushed drops, and she offers her ain expansive explanation of what makes a diva: not conscionable idiosyncratic who does not measurement connected others successful bid to shine, oregon idiosyncratic who tin emergence again “with much spot than a hurricane”, but a parent who wakes up aboriginal and a struggling artist. The thumping bass lines and lyrics celebrating a person’s ain uniqueness irrespective of their beingness circumstances makes this 2025’s equivalent to Emma Muscat’s 2022 introduction for Malta, I Am What I Am.

Ziferblat – Bird of Pray (Ukraine)

What would Bohemian Rhapsody dependable similar if it were composed for Eurovision by a Ukrainian alt-rock set successful 2025? Ziferblat’s Bird of Pray feels consecutive retired of a 70s stone opera; it balances assorted elements, including an all-female choir conjuring a ineffable atmosphere, stone anthemics and the theatrics of vocalist Danylo Leshchynskyi, whose presumption echoes Bowie. The lyrics supply a sombre opposition to the high-octane production, telling the communicative of Ukrainians who person been separated by the war, with the titular vertebrate conveying a connection of anticipation – it’s a vertebrate of pray, not prey.

Sissal – Hallucination (Denmark)

With an physics basal reminiscent of Sia and David Guetta’s collaborations, and with powerhouse, Adele-lite vocals that stave disconnected predictability, Sissal’s Hallucination is simply a neatly packaged EDM-scandi-pop grounds that feels similar a invited 2010s throwback (akin to Carola’s Invincible and Loreen’s Euphoria). This is not a coincidence: Sissal’s inspirations are Norwegian vocalist Dagny and Swedish vocalist Robyn. Is it a spot safe? Sure, but precocious camp, intersexual innuendo and joyous nonsense request a counterpoint to debar the contention descending into caricature. Plus, the obsessive posters connected Eurovision forums and subreddits curse she is champion connected stage.