The 2024 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, from 7 May 2024 to 11 May 2024, following their win in Liverpool the previous year with "Tattoo" by Loreen. This was Sweden's seventh (and Malmö's third) time hosting the contest.
The three live shows were hosted by presenter Petra Mede (a Eurovision fan favourite who previously hosted the Contest twice, in Malmö 2013 and Stockholm 2016) and Swedish-American actress Malin Åkerman. Breaking from recent tradition, the slogan for this edition —"United by Music"— was retained from the previous year as the contest's new permanent branding, while the visual identity (the "Eurovision Lights"
) consists of linear gradients that resemble both sound equalizers and the northern lights of Scandinavia.
37 countries competed in this edition, with Romania dropping out from the previous year due to financial and internal difficulties within their broadcaster, while Luxembourg made their grand return to the contest after last competing in 1993, setting a new record for the longest gap between successive participations from any country in the competition. Notable format changes in this edition include the Big Five (and host nation Sweden) performing live in the semi-finals note , and voting lines being opened from the start of the final for the first time since 2011.
This edition was notably plagued by controversy compared to recent years, drawing widespread criticism over Israel's involvement amid their continued war on the Gaza Strip, with many citing their presence as a double standard following the EBU's expulsion of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Boycott movements and protests in Malmö (both in favor of and against Israel's participation) overshadowed much of the contest's media coverage, distracting from what was otherwise considered to be a very strong year competitively. This edition also saw an unfortunate milestone never before seen in the history of the contest: the last-minute disqualification of a competing act just hours before the final, capping off a fraught and stressful week for everybody involved.
This edition was won by Switzerland, with "The Code" by Nemo Mettler. In the process, they earned its first victory in thirty-six years since Céline Dion, with Nemo in particular becoming the first Swiss-born winner since Lys Assia all the way back to the inaugural edition at Lugano 1956 (on home soil) and the first non-binary winner of the Contest.
Entries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024
- Albania — Besa, "TiTAN"
- Armenia — Ladaniva, "Jako"
- Australia — Electric Fields, "One Milkali (One Blood)"
- Austria — Kaleen, "We Will Rave"
- Azerbaijan — Fahree feat. Ilkin Dovlatov, "Özünlə apar" note
- Belgium — Mustii, "Before the Party's Over"
- Croatia — Baby Lasagna, "Rim Tim Tagi Dim"
- Cyprus — Silia Kapsis, "Liar"
- Czechia — Aiko, "Pedestal"
- Denmark — Saba, "Sand"
- Estonia — 5miinust x Puuluup, "(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi" note
- Finland — Windows95man, "No Rules!" note
- France — Slimane, "Mon amour" note
- Georgia — Nutsa Buzaladze, "Firefighter"
- Germany — Isaak, "Always on the Run"
- Greece — Marina Satti, "Zari" note
- Iceland — Hera Björk, "Scared of Heights"
- Ireland – Bambie Thug, "Doomsday Blue"
- Israel — Eden Golan, "Hurricane"
- Italy — Angelina Mango, "La Noia" note
- Latvia — Dons, "Hollow"
- Lithuania —Silvester Belt, "Luktelk" note
- Luxembourg — Tali, "Fighter"
- Malta — Sarah Bonnici, "Loop"
- Moldova — Natalia Barbu, "In the Middle"
- Netherlands — Joost, "Europapa" note
- Norway — Gåte, "Ulveham" note
- Poland — Luna, "The Tower"
- Portugal — iolanda, "Grito" note
- San Marino — Megara, "11:11"
- Serbia — Teya Dora, "Ramonda"
- Slovenia — Raiven, "Veronika"
- Spain — Nebulossa, "Zorra" note
- Sweden — Marcus & Martinus, "Unforgettable"
- Switzerland — Nemo, "The Code"
- Ukraine — alyona alyona and Jerry Heil, "Teresa & Maria"
- United Kingdom — Olly Alexander, "Dizzy"
Tropes present in the 2024 shows include:
- Appropriated Appellation: The title of Spain's song, "Zorra" by Nebulossa, literally translates as "vixen" (as in female fox), but it's used colloquially as an insult against women just like "bitch". Lead singer María Bas discussed the double standard in the song, as the masculine form "zorro" (fox) is positively connotated when used to describe men (case in point, Zorro), before proudly declaring herself "una zorra de postal" ("an ideal bitch").
- Ascended Extra:
- Prior to her participation as an entrant this year, Austria's Marie-Sophie "Kaleen" Kreissl previously served various behind-the-scenes roles within the Eurovision ecosystem, notably as a creative/stage director for several countries and a rehearsal stand-in for Cyprus's Eleni Foureira in Lisbon 2018. She also waved the flag for Austria in that edition's flag parade.
- Other than her previous participation in 2010, Iceland's Hera Björk also sang live background vocals for her country's entrants in 2008 and 2015.
- Malta's Sarah Bonnici participated as a backing dancer in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest all the way back in 2010.
- Prior to her participation as an entrant this year, Austria's Marie-Sophie "Kaleen" Kreissl previously served various behind-the-scenes roles within the Eurovision ecosystem, notably as a creative/stage director for several countries and a rehearsal stand-in
- Aside Glance: Olly Alexander did a very cheeky wink to camera during the flag parade. Shame the public gave him nothing for it.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: While the contest is broadcast in 16:9 "Doomsday Blue" was presented in 4:3, "Grito" started and ended in 4:3, with 16:9 for the main portion of the song, and "Zari" began in vertical cell phone ratio (and interface) before switching to 16:9.
- Audience Participation Song:
- The audience in the Malmö Arena enthusiastically took part in the chorus of Croatia's "Rim Tim Tagi Dim":Baby Lasagna: There's no going back!Audience: WHO-OAH!
- Same goes to the second verse of Spain's "Zorra":Mery: Si alargo y se me hace de día...Audience: ¡¡SOY MÁS ZORRA TODAVIA!!
- The audience in the Malmö Arena enthusiastically took part in the chorus of Croatia's "Rim Tim Tagi Dim":
- Band of Relatives:
- Sweden's Marcus & Martinus are identical twin brothers.
- Spain's Nebulossa is made up of María "Mery" Bas and her husband Mark Dasousa.
- Be Yourself: "The Code" by Nemo Mettler of Switzerland discusses their struggle with identifying as a non-binary person and finding inner peace upon coming out.
- Brain Drain: "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" by Baby Lasagna of Croatia is a sardonic take on the emigration of Eastern European youths and the resulting brain drain back home, as seen from the perspective of a "big boy" who sold his farm's cow to move to the big city.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Downplayed compared to recent editions, such as the preceding 2023. This year only saw the return of two previous entrants, Iceland's Hera Björk (2010) and Moldova's Natalia Barbu (2007), in the latter case keeping Moldova's streak of sending veteran artists since 2020. Quite a few notable others were unsuccessful in their bids to come back during the national final season, including Mahmood (Italy, 2019 & 2022), Let 3 (Croatia, 2023), Konstrakta (Serbia, 2022), KEiiNO (Norway, 2019), Margaret Berger (Norway, 2013), Gaute Ormåsen (Norway, 2022), Il Volo (Italy, 2015), Melovin (Ukraine, 2018), and The Roop (Lithuania, 2020 & 2021). It became a meme in the Eurovision fandom that having prior Eurovision experience was (ironically, given Loreen's victory the previous year) actually a curse instead of a benefit.
- In the case of Australia, their entrant was internally chosen among the past competitors of its former national-selection show Eurovision — Australia Decides. Just like Voyager, who lost the ticket to Sheldon Riley in 2022, were chosen to represent their country last year (as well as Andrew Lambrou for Cyprus), this time it's the turn of synthpop duo Electric Fields, who participated in 2019 with the song "2000 and Whatever" but narrowly lost to Kate Miller-Heidke.
- Luxembourg returns after last competing in 1993, setting a new record for the longest gap between successive entries (31 years) from any competing nation in the contest.
- Malmö 2024 is the third hosting duty for nationally-renowned comedian and Eurovision fan favourite Petra Mede.
- All three shows also featured various Eurovision alumni:
- The first semifinal was opened by three non-winning singers who nevertheless found success elsewhere: "Fuego" by Eleni Foureira of Cyprus (runner-up, Lisbon 2018), "Popular" by Eric Saade of Sweden (third, Düsseldorf 2011), and "SloMo" by Chanel Terrero of Spain (third, Turin 2022). The interval then featured Benjamin Ingrosso of Sweden (seventh, Lisbon 2018) with an all-original lineup, as well as Johnny Logan of Ireland, the Contest's only three-time winner (singer in The Hague 1980 and Brussels 1987, writer in Malmö 1992), performing a cover of "Euphoria," Loreen's first winning entry from Baku 2012.
- The interval for the second semifinal featured a sing-along of three past winning entries: "My Number One" by Helena Paparizou of Greece (Kyiv 2005), "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Perrelli of Sweden (Jerusalem 1999), and "Every Way That I Can" by Sertab Erener of Turkey (Riga 2003); notably, their presence can be interpreted as an implicit call for peace, given that Paparizou and Erener hail from centuries-long geopolitical rivals (who nevertheless gave each other crucial points in respective winning years), whilst Perrelli won in Israel (25 years ago, itself a landmark), currently embroiled in hostilities in Gaza. The "We Just Love Eurovision Too Much" skit (see "Self-Deprecation" below) also featured a brief cameo by last year's runner-up and high fan favourite Jere Mikael "Käärijä" Pöyhönen of Finland singing his entry "Cha Cha Cha." Finally, after the qualified nations are announced, the show is closed by the Herrey brothers Per, Richard, and Louis singing "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley," their winning song from exactly forty years ago in Luxembourg.
- In honour of the fiftieth anniversary of ABBA's breakthrough win at Eurovision, their entry "Waterloo" is covered in the Grand Final by past winners Carola Häggkvist (Rome 1991), Perrelli, and Conchita Wurst of Austria (Copenhagen 2014); the latter two's presence are also nods to, respectively, the twenty-fifth and tenth anniversaries of their triumphs.
- Downplayed compared to recent editions, such as the preceding 2023. This year only saw the return of two previous entrants, Iceland's Hera Björk (2010) and Moldova's Natalia Barbu (2007), in the latter case keeping Moldova's streak of sending veteran artists since 2020. Quite a few notable others were unsuccessful in their bids to come back during the national final season, including Mahmood (Italy, 2019 & 2022), Let 3 (Croatia, 2023), Konstrakta (Serbia, 2022), KEiiNO (Norway, 2019), Margaret Berger (Norway, 2013), Gaute Ormåsen (Norway, 2022), Il Volo (Italy, 2015), Melovin (Ukraine, 2018), and The Roop (Lithuania, 2020 & 2021). It became a meme
- The Cameo:
- The Grand Final was opened with a pre-recorded greeting from Crown Princess Victoria (who was also in attendance at Malmö Arena), followed by Blue Swede frontman Björn Skifs singing their cover version of B.J. Thomas's "Hooked On A Feeling," the first Swedish song to top the USA's Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, the same year ABBA won Eurovision. One of its interval acts also featured disco trio Alcazar, five-time participants at Sweden's national-selection show Melodifestivalen, performing their hit 2000 single "Crying At the Discoteque."
- Various Eurovision alumni and other celebrities also presented jury votes during the Grand Final, namely: Voyager vocalist Danny Estrin of Australia (ninth, Liverpool 2023); Aysel Teymurzadeh of Azerbaijan (third, Moscow 2009; one-half of a duet with Arash Labaf); Birgit Sarrap of Estonia (twentieth, Malmö 2013); Natasha St-Pier of France (fourth, Copenhagen 2001); Sopho Khalvashi of Georgia (twelfth, Belgrade 2008); Helena Paparizou of Greece (winner, Kyiv 2005); Eurobandið vocalist Friðrik Ómar of Iceland (fourteenth, Belgrade 2008); Paul Harrington of Ireland (winner, Dublin 1994; one-half of a duet with Charlie McGettigan); Monika Linkytė of Lithuania (eleventh, Liverpool 2023); Désirée Nosbusch of Luxembourg (presenter, Luxembourg 1984); Viki Gabor of Poland (winner, Gliwice 2019 Juniors); Marisa Isabel "Mimicat" Lopes Mena of Portugal (twenty-third, Liverpool 2023); Ana "Konstrakta" Đurić of Serbia (fifth, Turin 2022); Soraya Arnelas Rubiales of Spain (twenty-third, Moscow 2009); Frans Jeppson Wall of Sweden (fifth, Stockholm 2016); Jamala of Ukraine (winner, Stockholm 2016); and Joanna Lumley of the United Kingdom (actress and two-time BAFTA TV Awards winner for Absolutely Fabulous).
- Chess Motifs: Poland's entry "The Tower" by LUNA features this in spades, including two giant rook pieces on stage, reprising the music video's theme. In fact, the Polish word for "tower" (wieża) is the same as the one for "rook", as it is for many other European languages. Ironically, LUNA is a self-admitted poor chess player.
- Cool Old Guy: Spain's Nebulossa is a music duo made up of María "Mery" Bas and Mark Dasousa, a married couple in their 50s who sing about sexual freedom and gender liberation.
- Denser and Wackier: Following a trend started in 2022, this edition features plenty of outlandish and unusual entries that are comparable to those of the 2000s, such as Croatia (a chaotic techno-rock song that strikes a similar feeling to previous year's "Cha Cha Cha", performed by a singer named Baby Lasagna of all things), Spain (a Cool Old Lady reclaiming the word "bitch"), Finland (a man dressed in Windows 95 memorabilia and jean shorts who proclaims his disregard of rules), Ireland (a non-binary witch with a song that switches willy-nilly from electro-metal to pleasant jazzy choruses), or Estonia (a hip-hop group and a nu-folk duo teaming up to express their unawareness of drugs, with the longest title for an Eurovision song ever).
- Discretion Shot: This year's "postcards"note begins with a line of multi-colored light (resembling an aurora) moving from Malmö to the participating country, followed by a couple clips of its past performances, before transitioning to the current performer(s) taking a video selfie of themselves participating in various activities. The postcards were parodied during the grand final with one for host Petra Mede which began with clips from her hosting the 2013 and 2016 contests, followed by footage of her doing silly things like spilling ketchup on her shirt and drinking a large glass of wine.
- Eliminated from the Race: Poland, Iceland, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Australia were sent home in the first semi-final while Denmark, San Marino, Czechia, Albania, Malta and Belgium bowed out in the second semi-final. Notable among these:
- Azerbaijan got their second consecutive semifinal strikeout (and third overall), as well as yet another televote bomb,note which stung all the more when bitter Transcaucasian rivals Armenia made it to the Grand Final (alongside fellow semifinalist Georgia) and even finished a decent eighth.
- Iceland continued a two year non-qualification streak, which is especially damning given that they were (briefly) projected to win by the bookies after Bashar Murad (a Palestinian expat) was announced to be competing in their national selection a few months prior.
- Australia failed to qualify for the second time, after Montaigne gave them their first NQ in Rotterdam 2021.
- Moldova failed to qualify for the first time since Tel Aviv 2019, following an impressive streak of fellow veteran representatives preceding her to success.
- This is only the second time since their 2014 return, after 2021, where Poland didn’t get enough televotes. Their two other non-qualifications in that period (2018 and 2019) were the results of poor jury results spoiling their otherwise top-ten rankings with televoters.
- By failing to qualify when the contest was taking place across the Oresunds Bridge, Denmark repeat their unwanted feat they achieved in 2016 when failing to qualify in an exact venue they previously won in. They also became the only 2024 participant to not make a Final in the ‘20’s after Ireland, Georgia, and Latvia now has qualified.
- Belgium failed to qualify having been seen as a dark horse when their song was released but got negative reviews of their rehearsals.
- Experienced Protagonist:
- The sole two returning acts this year, Hera Björk of Iceland (nineteenth, Oslo 2010) and Natalia Barbu of Moldova (tenth, Helsinki 2007), are also among the oldest in the already older-than-average field of entrants, with most of them being over the age of thirty and some even in their fifties. Conversely, there are only a handful of twenty-somethings, and just one teenager, seventeen-year-old Silia Kapsis of Cyprus.
- The United Kingdom's Olly Alexander (formerly of Years & Years) is perhaps the entrant with the most high-profile performance experience in the bunch, and could reasonably be described as one of the most famous acts entering the contest in quite some time.
- Expy: Croatia's Baby Lasagna couldn't quite shake the comparisons to 2023's Käärijä - both had Audience Participation and an easily danceable tune, but both of them won their semi final with exactly 177 points; and came runner-up in the final despite winning the televote.
- Faceless Goons: A curious fashion coincidence sees several entries include masked backing dancers. The first semi-final alone had Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Croatia in various levels of this, and the second semi-final added Czechia and San Marino to the mix.
- Fanservice: Seems to be the main fashion trend of this year, next to pointy shoulders and masked dancers, with many entries including exposed skin, nude illusions, or form-fitting catsuits in their stage shows. 3 entries involved male dancers stripping shirtless, two of them gratuitously (Cyprus and Malta) and one which was to do with the song’s story about double standards (Spain).
- Fan Disservice: On the other hand, Finland's Windows95Man is a middle-aged man in a crop top who starts the performance apparently bottomless (fear not — he's actually wearing a thong to cover his naughty bits) until he receives his flame-spewing jorts.
- From Bad to Worse: Being originally slotted right after them, Israel moved up to the running order spot, that would have belonged to the Netherlands, thereby combining the two biggest controversies of the weekend in one place.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Three entries this year were considered quite salacious, either lyrically or staging-wise, for different reasons:
- The title and refrain of Spain's "Zorra" by Nebulossa literally translates to "vixen" (as in, a female fox) but is more colloquially used as an equivalent to "bitch" or "whore" in Spanish, which caused a minor scandal in the country upon its selection. Amid speculation that it would have to be modified for Eurovision, the EBU ultimately decided it would require no further revision, citing the word's literal definition as their reasoning.
- The title of Estonia's "(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi" by 5miinust x Puuluup translates to "We (sure) know nothing about (these) drugs" and conveys something of an anti-police message, but non-speakers of Estonian will likely not be able to figure this out on their own.
- The staging of the United Kingdom's "Dizzy" is possibly the closest thing to outright gay erotica that could be shown on the Eurovision stage, with Olly Alexander and his dancers entangling in interesting poses in a dingy gym shower room. Which is hurtling through outer space.
- Giant Poofy Sleeves:
- Croatia's Baby Lasagna has these, not helping the many comparisons of his song with previous year's "Cha cha cha". However, while Käärijä's sleeves were neon green and puffer jacket-like, Baby Lasagna's are made of white lace.
- Nebulossa's singer Mery Bas, representing Spain, has these as well, in black lace instead.
- Graceful Loser: This year's final saw many artists getting low televoting scores, with every entry out of the top 10 receiving less than 50 points. But most of the contestants took their scores in stride. Special mention goes to Olly Alexander, who, like James Newman before him, smiled and celebrated his 0 points.
- Croatia's Baby Lasagna, who topped the televote but ended up losing to Switzerland's Nemo overall, took his loss pretty well, calmly celebrating Nemo's win. Granted, he knew he wasn’t going to win, but still.
- During the second semi-final qualifiers' announcement, if you look closely, Malta's Sarah Bonnici (who failed to qualify) could be seen smiling and clapping when Armenia was announced as the last qualifier.
- Gratuitous English: Downplayed, as while the majority of songs are still in English, it's the year with the lowest ratio of purely English-language song since the language rule was scrapped in 1999:
- Notably averted by Norway's Gåte, who competes with Norway's first non-English, wholly Norwegian-language song since Christine Guldbransen's "Alvedansen" in 2006. note
- Played straight by Albania's Besa, who competes with "Titan," originally an Albanian-language song called "Zemrën n'dorë" ("Heart in Hand").
- Greece and Ukraine both sing in their national language, though with a couple of English lines sprinkled in both songs. Italy's song "La noia" include repetitions of "dress code", "business" and "princess", all English loanwords that have entered Italian parlance.
- Notably averted by Norway's Gåte, who competes with Norway's first non-English, wholly Norwegian-language song since Christine Guldbransen's "Alvedansen"
- Gratuitous Italian: Croatia's "Rim Tig Tagi Dimi" by Baby Lasagna features the usage of "ciao"note , while his chosen stage name itself could also be considered this.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language:
- The Netherlands' "Europapa" by Joost features words and phrases in several non-Dutch languages, reflecting its themes of European diversity.
- "One Milkali" by Australia's Electric Fields is primarily in English, but features lyrics in Yankunytjatjara, an Aboriginal Australian language and native idiom of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding. Notably, it's the first time that an Aboriginal Australian language features in Eurovision.
- "Doomsday Blue" by Ireland's Bambie Thug is primarily in English but features the phrase "Avada Kedavra", which many listeners may recognize from its usage in the Harry Potter franchise, but it's actually rooted in the archaic Aramaic language note , marking the first-ever usage of Aramaic in Eurovision.
- Gratuitous Spanish:
- Guest Fighter: As is normally the case at Eurovision, several countries are represented by acts who are not originally from there, as the EBU does not have nationality-based restrictions on entrants (any that may exist are purely at the discretion of national broadcasters), although there notably fewer examples this year than seen in recent editions:
- Sweden is represented by Norwegian twin brothers Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen, who currently work in Sweden (and even finished second behind Loreen in last year's edition of its national-selection show Melodifestivalen). This makes them only the second-ever foreign-born Swedish representative, following 2021's Tusse Chiza from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.note There is a Swedish competitor this year — Ireland's Bambie Thug, who is half-Swedish on their father's side.
- San Marino is represented by the Spanish band Megara, who are the first non-Sammarinese or Italian act chosen to represent the country since 2019, and only the fourth overall, after 2016 and 2019's Serhat (a Turk), 2017's Jimmie Wilson (an American, who shared the stage with Sammarinese Valentina Monetta) and 2018's Jessika Muscat and Jenifer Brening (respectively, a Maltese and a German) — fifth if you count the American Flo Rida as well, who went uncredited for his feature on Senhit's "Adrenalina" in 2021.
- Keeping with their recent tradition of pulling from Greek Cypriot diaspora, Cyprus's Silia Kapsis is actually an Australian citizen, directly following her predecessor (and fellow Aussie) Andrew Lambrou.
- Armenia's Ladaniva is a duo made up of Armenian singer Jaklin Baghdasaryan and French multi-instrumentalist Louis Thomas.
- History Repeats:
- Just like eleven years ago, this edition saw the Contest brought to Malmö (in the same venue, even) after Loreen won last year, as well as presented anew by Petra Mede (though this time joined onstage by Malin Åkerman).
- Like the previous year, a song inspired by rock and techno performed by a charismatic male singer in Giant Poofy Sleeves sweeps the televote, but ultimately places second overall to the juries' favourite, a single-person act which made use of a large dynamic prop.
- Just like in 2018, Belgium sends an act that was initially well-received and considered a potential dark horse, but ended up staying in the semi-finals due to an unimpressive staging.
- Hot Witch: In a curious coincidence, several entries mention witches or witchcraft, and all their performers are definitely easy on the eyes. The list includes Ireland's Bambie Thug (who themself identify as a witch), Slovenia's Raiven (whose song "Veronika" is about a historical Slovenian noblewoman who was accused of witchcraft), and Norway's Gåte (reinterpreting a Norwegian medieval ballad about a maiden cursed by her Wicked Stepmother). Unofficially, the list also includes Poland's fan favourite Justyna Steczkowska and her song "WITCH-ER Tarohoro", who narrowly missed the Eurovision ticket by one point to Luna in their country's internal selection.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: In the first semi-final, host Petra Mede boasted that she had studied every Eurovision song that had ever performed to the point where she knows every single one of them. She then asked a random fan in the crowd to say a country and a year and she would see if she could sing it. She didn't know a single song that the fan requested.
- Mood Whiplash: Zigzagged by the Netherlands' song, "Europapa" by Joost Klein. It's a fast paced electro pop that keeps the energy up throughout the whole thing, but the lyrics are about Joost being depressed, despite visiting so many countries. If someone isn't familiar with the lyrics, the last twenty seconds are jarring, as it shifts into a somber piano tune as Klein sings about following his deceased father's advice of seeing more of the world.
- Multilingual Song:
- "Fighter", sung by Tali Golergant for Luxembourg, is mostly in French but has English lines in its chorus.
- The song "Hurricane" by Eden Golan, representing Israel, is mainly in English with a coda in Hebrew.
- Azerbaijan's entry, "Özünlə apar" by Fahree featuring Ilkin Dovlatov, has its verses in English and a chorus in Azerbaijani. It's the first time that Azerbaijan sends a song prominently featuring their national language.note
- My Greatest Second Chance:
- One of the year's more interesting meta stories involves Spain's Nebulossa and San Marino's Megara swapping flags. Nebulossa (unsuccessfully) auditioned for Una Voce per San Marino in 2023, while Megara (themselves also Spanish) placed as finalists in Spain's Benidorm Fest a month earlier. One year later, Nebulossa wins Benidorm Fest, while Megara emerges victorious at Una Voce per San Marino.
- Sweden's Marcus & Martinus came second behind eventual Eurovision winner Loreen in last year's running of its national-selection show Melodifestivalen. This time around, they won the privilege of representing Sweden on home soil.
- Mythology Gag: Yes, they actually made a song about the executive supervisors. And praising a certain Mr. Österdahl who was really popular that year.
- Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly:
- Greece's entry, "Zari" by Marina Satti, can be described as traditional Greek music-meets-urban pop.
- Switzerland's song, "The Code" by Nemo Mettler, blends drum'n'bass, operatic pop, and rap.
- Estonia's song, "(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi", is a hip hop track backed by a traditional bowed lyre called a talharpa.
- Non-Appearing Title: San Marino's "11:11", Norway's "Ulveham"note , Portugal's "Grito", Ukraine's "Teresa & Maria" note and, unsurprisingly, Estonia's "(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi" all don't feature their (exact) title into the lyrics. Kinda applies to Croatia's "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" too, as while the lyrics include many similar lines of Scatting, none of them are in the exact same order as the song title.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: The Netherlands were disqualified on the day of the grand final following an "incident" between Joost and a member of the production crew the previous day.
- One-Woman Song: Armenia's "Jako" (a nickname of Ladaniva's singer Jaklin Baghdasaryan) and Slovenia's "Veronika" (titled after Veronika of Desenice, a 15th Century countess who was accused of witchcraft). Ukraine's "Teresa & Maria" is a Two Women Song, the title referring to Mother Teresa of Calcutta and The Virgin Mary respectively.
- The Oner: France and Greece had the first two verses of their performances filmed without any camera cuts.
- One-Word Title: More than half the competing songs have a single-word title: "Dizzy", "Europapa", "Fighter", "Firefighter", "Grito", "Hollow", "Hurricane", "Jako", "Liar", "Loop", "Luktelk", "Pedestal", "Ramonda", "Sand", "Titan", "Ulveham", "Unforgettable", "Veronika", "Zari", "Zorra".
- Overly Long Name: With 40 letters (44 characters in total if you count the brackets), Estonia's "(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi" currently holds the record for the Eurovision song with the longest title.
- Product Displacement: While Finland's Windows95man wasn't forced to change his stage name, he did have to blur the Windows logos on his hat and t-shirt.
- Rearrange the Song:
- As it happens often, some songs receive a "revamp" from the time of their original selection to the proper Eurovision live shows. The songs that got revamped this year included Czechia, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Albania, the latter of which was also completely translated from Albanian into English (its original title being "Zemrën n'dorë", meaning "Heart in Hand").
- Italy also had a very minor edit, cutting 7 seconds and a single lyric to fit into the 3-minute limit.
- "Hurricane", the Israeli entry, was originally announced as "October Rain", but it was retitled and partially rewritten after the EBU rejected its original lyrics for political content.
- Downplayed by the German entry, while it wasn't revamped per se (apart from the new intro), they did have to cut a Precision F-Strike out of the first verse.
- Regional Riff: Matching the first use of an Aboriginal Australian language on the Eurovision stage, the melody of Australia's entry "One Milkali (One Blood)" is accompanied by the sound of a didgeridoo. Didgeridoo player Fred Leone even joins Electric Fields on stage for the chorus.
- Scenery Censor: During the first two verses of the Finnish performance, various objects around the stage are used to cover Windows95Man genitals for the camera, including one stage worker's clipboard at one point.
- Self-Deprecation: As it was in 2013 and 2016, the Swedish presentation dished out a few self-aimed barbs:
- When introducing herself at the opening of the first semifinal, Petra Mede told the audiences not to ask her why the Contest is being held in Malmö, claiming she also voted for Finland last year, a nod to the (at the time) contentious result of Liverpool 2023, where Loreen, the jury leader, managed to leap over high fan favourite Käärijä.note
- While introducing Lisbon 2018 alumnus Benjamin Ingrosso as an interval act for the first semifinal, Malin Åkerman quips that whereas his seventh-place finish would be envied by any other country, in Sweden it is considered a disaster, again playing into its tendency to take the Contest as a very Serious Business, with Ingrosso himself admitting to disappointment with the result in an interview on the Contest's official podcast channel.
- The interval act of the second semifinal features Mede and Åkerman singing "We Just Love Eurovision Too Much," a satirical apology for Sweden's obsession with Eurovision (and how divisive it can be at times to the larger fanbase), jokingly promising not to send Loreen anew, though it also has some playful digs at what the Contest would look like had it been won by Finland (see "Shout-Out" below) as well as a cameo of Käärijä singing his entry "Cha Cha Cha."
- Shirtless Scene: On the topic of fanservice, the male backing dancers for Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Malta, Spain, and Ireland (plus Australia's didgeridoo player) either perform shirtless the entire time or ditch their shirts/jackets during the performance.
- Shoulders of Doom: Another one of this year's fashion trends (apart from Fanservice and dancers with covered faces) seems to be costumes with pointed shoulders, sported by Poland and Ireland during the first semi-final and by the Netherlands during the second. Not pointed, but Ukraine's Jerry Heil wears a massive pauldron on her left shoulder, too.
- Shout-Out:
- As mentioned above, Ireland's "Doomsday Blue" opens with the words "Avada Kedavra", an Aramaic expression which was popularised by Harry Potter. It's equal parts Shout Out and Take That!, since their performer Bambie Thug, who is non-binary, said they're "not a fan" of J. K. Rowling because of her views on transgender topics, but instead a "fan of being clever with language".
- The Netherlands' "Europapa" mentions Stromae and his song "Papaoutai", which, like "Europapa", was about lamenting the death of his father.
- Windows95man's staging begins with him emerging from a giant egg, a reference to the Cosmic Egg from Finnish poem The Kalevala.
- The Self-Deprecation song "We Just Love Eurovision Too Much" features The Moomins and Ievan Polka as part of an joking Imagine Spot on what the interval act would have been if Finland hosted in 2024 instead of Sweden.
- Before introducing the sing-along interval of the second semifinal, Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman pay tribute to its inspiration, Allsång på Skansen ("Sing-along at Skansen"), host broadcaster SVT's annual summer sing-along show hosted at the titular open-air museum and zoo in Stockholm, the oldest of its kind in Sweden.
- The Show Must Go On: If you look closely during the United Kingdom's first semi-final performance, Olly Alexander's in-ear monitor receiver fell off during the second chorus, forcing him to hold it in his free hand for the rest of the song. Thankfully that specific performance didn't count for points, but to his credit Olly was barely fazed!
- Three Minutes of Writhing: A rare male example that probably best describes the United Kingdom's performance by Olly Alexander, since it involved him and some shirtless male dancers striking some highly suggestive dance moves in a set that looked like a locker room. In space.
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- Ireland was seen as the Broken Ace of the contest since The New '10s, having only made the final once since the last time the contest was hosted in Malmö 2013 (where they came last, to rub salt in the wound), in Lisbon 2018 courtesy of Ryan O'Shaughnessy. This year's representative, self-described "ouija-pop" singer Bambie Thug, went all-in on the Malmö stage with a conceptual staging that could be described as a pagan witchy demonic love story séance, as well as three different styles of (pitch-perfect) singing from Bambie. The massive risk Ireland took granted its rewards when they were announced as one of the finalists, finally breaking their non-qualification streak. Come the Grand Final, they even finished sixth, their best finish in 24 years (since Eamonn Toal at Stockholm 2000, down to matching his placing).
- For the second year in a row, all three competing ex-Yugoslav countries (Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia) pass through to the grand final. Made sweeter by the fact that, barring Croatia's status as a front-runner in the odds, Slovenia and Serbia were both seen as borderline qualifiers at best.
- Latvia and Georgia make the grand final for the first time since Stockholm 2016. In the case of the former this marks the first time since 2015 where all three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) qualify to the final.
- In recent years Germany had been a stereotypical Big Five underperformer alongside the United Kingdom. Luckily for their entrant Isaak Guderian, the jury gave him 99 points (for tenth-place), which helped offset his lowly 18 televote points (hence nineteenth-place) and finish twelfth overall, its best since Michael Schulte's fourth in Lisbon 2018.
- After last year's hard fall to 16th place, France redeemed itself through Slimane Nebchi, 2016 winner of The Voice: la plus belle voix, and his soulful chanson (with a stirring acapella section towards the end), reaching fourth-place (fourth with televoters, second with juries).
- Sweden's Marcus & Martinus finished ninth, an improvement over Robin Stjernberg's fourteenth on the same venue eleven years ago.
- Luxembourg's last Eurovision outing, Millstreet 1993, saw Modern Times (Simone Weis and Jimmy Martin) finish twentieth (and dead last), and has since withdrawn from the Contest; upon returning 31 years later, Tali Golergant brought them to the Grand Final (and on their very first semifinal stint, to boot) where they finished a decent thirteenth.
- Switzerland finally won after 36 years of ups and downs (including several non-qualifications and three close calls with Annie Cotton's third in Millstreet 1993, Luca Hänni's fourth in Tel Aviv 2019, and Gjon's Tears's third in Rotterdam 2021) with a genre-busting pop/opera/rap solo by Nemo Mettler, who became the first Swiss national to win since Lys Assia from the inaugural edition at Lugano 1956 (the second is with Canadian-born Céline Dion) as well as the Contest's very first non-binary winner.
- Triumphant Reprise: The tilting turntable setpiece for Nemo's entry was not used for their winner's reprise, possibly because it was too difficult to set up in the allotted time, and instead Nemo danced around the bare stage.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The winner was (jokingly) promised a Gilmore Girls DVD as their big reward. At the end of the show, Nemo was handed the trophy, but not the DVD.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Zigzagged by the Finnish act Windows95man, who was allowed to keep his stage name (and mention it in the song) but had to wear blurred-out logos of said operating system on his hat and shirt.
