About

Hi! I’m Justin-Paul Sammons (he/him). I’m from Melbourne, Australia, although I lived in the Netherlands for several years in my teens and early twenties.

Let’s begin with some family history: I’m a third-generation Eurovision viewer. My Dutch grandparents started watching in the 1950s, and while my grandfather passed away years ago, my grandmother continued to watch, dialing in from her landline to cast a single vote each year. She was delighted when the Netherlands finally won in 2019 after a 44-year drought, but sadly passed away at the age of 95 a few months before the contest was held in her birthplace, Rotterdam.

My mother grew up watching the contest, but lost touch with it when she met my father and moved to Australia in the late 1970s. SBS Australia started screening Eurovision in 1983, but somehow my mother never heard about this. I guess raising children is rather distracting (I was born in 1982). Hence, it wasn’t until we moved to The Netherlands in 1997 that I saw my first contest. Since then, I’ve missed only three (2006, 2008, 2009).

I used to be the snarky type, making “witty” remarks on social media to amuse others, but since 2016, when I listened to the songs ahead of time and woke early to watch each show live, I’ve become more of an earnest fan, keen to analyse the contest from a more nuanced perspective. And that is what you’ll see here. Eurovision, seriously? Yes, seriously.

While I’ll use this site for my full reviews and any essay-like articles I may write from time to time, you can also find me on Mastodon at https://douzepoints.social/@EurovisionSeriously for reviews of national selection songs and general discussion.