Elsie Bay — “Death of Us”
This is one of the favourites to win this year’s MGP, but if I’m being brutally honest, I’m not sure why. At times it sounds like something from a musical, a genre which usually isn’t welcome in Eurovision. Bay’s voice is very girlish and I’m not keen on some of her vocal techniques. Musically, I welcome the avoidance of synth: while I’m all for electronic music, some songs really do much better without it, and this certainly is one of them. In the end I just don’t connect with this song for whatever reason.

Christian Ingebrigtsen — “Wonder of the World”
We’re going back in time — I’m sure I’m not the only one to recall the Irish entry of 1990, “Somewhere in Europe”, in which Liam Reilly name-checked as many European capitals and possible. I guess it worked to an extent — he finished second after all. This Ingebridtsen name-checks several wonders of the world (official and unofficial) before deciding that being loved by his partner is another wonder. It’ll all a bit sappy and too sentimental, something the instruments do little to restrain. I’m afraid Reilly did this much better.