Finland’s second entry at the contest is memorable but for the wrong reasons. Marion Rung performs “Tipi-tii” (Chirpy chirp), in which she imitates a bird while framing her relationship in the context of things like building a nest and singing on a branch. It’s irritating and falls in the category of songs that might have been better suited to a children’s program.

For the last time, one of the performers from the class of 1956 returns. Fud Leclerc’s fourth attempt at Eurovision for Belgium, this time with “Ton nom” (Your Name) would prove to be his least successful so far, the new voting system probably a large factor in his middling song receiving the dreaded nul points (along with three other songs). It’s another example of his competent approach, but equally as another standard love song, it has little to make juries sit up and pay attention.

Given that backing vocals and stripped-back arrangements aren’t really a thing at this point in Eurovision, I suspect that the recording I’ve found of Victor Balaguer singing “Llámame” (Call Me), Spain second entry in the contest, is going to sound a lot fuller at the contest itself. Balaguer’s vocals have a fair bit going for them, and the song would be improved if the backing singers with their “doo-wop” interventions were taken away to leave him front and centre. We’ll see how this pans out in the live performance.

Austria continues its trend of sending in left-field entries on a regular basis — this time it’s arguably the most operatic song to date. Eleonore Schwarz performs “Nur in der Wiener Luft” (Only in the air of Vienna), a song which extols Vienna’s virtues as a city. Now, while opera isn’t my favourite genre, I don’t have any issues with it when done with an understanding of the context of the situation. This song is utter chaos; at times it seems like Schwarz is on fast-forward as she races to squeeze in an aria that might have been several minutes in an actual opera into three minutes. The result is messy and bewildering, with a sequence of vocalising towards the end of the song that makes a bad situation even worse.