Well, here we are: the biggest weekend of the national selection for Eurovision 2022 in terms of songs being chosen, with six acts being elevated to the status of Eurovision artists.

Melodi Grand Prix (Norway), Final
While in the end the favourite won, and Eurovision will soon know all about Subwoofer and “Give That Wolf a Banana”, the surprise runner-up was NorthKid with “Someone”, which must have mustered an ‘anyone but the wolves’ vote in the gold duel to finish with 45% against Subwoofer’s 55%. Previous favourite Elsie Bay with “Death of You” made it to the top four, alongside Sofie Fjellvang’s “Made of Glass”.

EMA (Slovenia), Final
In evidence that slowly gathering momentum can get you a long way in Eurovision and its national selections, one of the four EMA Freš (the emerging artists contest) qualifiers LPS won selection with “Disko”, comfortably ahead of Batista Cadillac, BQL, and fellow Freš qualifiers Luma.

Dora (Croatia), Final
In a smaller surprise, Mia Dimšić “Guilty Pleasure” took out both the jury and televote at Dora to triumph over Marko Bošnjak’s “Moli za nas” and pre-show favourite Mia Negovetić with “Forgive Me (Oprosti).

Tu bije serce Europy (Poland), Final
The surprise here wasn’t that “River” won, nor that Daria’s “Paranoia” came second, but that Unmute made the super final to finish third with their challenging song “Głośniej niż decybele” (Louder than Decibels), in which all lyrics were performed in sign language. It is good to see appreciation for acts challenging assumptions and questioning the boundaries of Eurovision.

Une Voce Per San Marino, Final
A long week in San Marino concluded with nine emerging artists and nine established artists battling it out for the chance to represent the smallest nation currently active in Eurovision. In the end it was established artist Achille Lauro, fresh from finishing 14th (out of 25) in Sanremo, who took out the win with “Stripper” (not the song he entered to Sanremo).

Malta ESC, Final
For reasons I’m not sure I want to know too much about, Malta used a bizarre voting system in which the televote seemed to count for next to nothing in comparison to the jury. Fortunately for the organisers, Emma Muscat’s “Out of Time” won both the jury and televote over Aidan’s “Ritmu”, which certainly was a favourite with the fans, and would have brought the Maltese language back to the contest after several decades. Maybe next time.

Melodifestivalen (Sweden), Semi-Final 3
We were warned ahead of time that this wasn’t the strongest of the semis from Melodifestivalen this year, leading to even more attention being paid to the other finals taking place. However, from this batch Anders Bagge with “Bigger Than the Universe” and Faith Kakembo with “Freedom” went straight to the final, while Lisa Miskovsky with “Best to Come” alongside Cazzi Opeia’s “I Can’t Get Enough” head off to semi-final 5. The eliminated acts were Linda Bengtzing, Lancelot and Tribe Friday.