What can we expect from a national final for Eurovision 2026? In the first article, we look back at songs from various national finals that were tipped for victory but ultimately failed to meet expectations. Who earned the dubious title of “fan flop”? Article by Ilay Gaist and Adiel Shtainmetz.
Every year, with the revival of the Eurovision season, thousands of fans across Europe fall in love with certain songs and hope they will finish high in their national finals and go on to represent their country at Eurovision. In this series, “Preparing for 2026”, we will cover irregular scenarios that happened in national finals across the continent. Every year some songs began as major favorites, ultimately failed to deliver and ended much lower than expected. In this article, we look back at those fan-beloved songs that, despite the hype, ended up recording particularly disappointing results.
KEiiNO – Norway 2021 and 2024:
KEiiNO is a Norwegian band formed in 2019. The members are rapper and joiker from Lapland Fred Buljo, and singers Alexandra Rotan and Tom Hugo Hermansen. Each member has a successful solo career, and they came together specifically for the song “Spirit In The Sky”, with which they won “Melodi Grand Prix 2019” and represented Norway at Eurovision 2019. They finished in sixth place and won the televote. Two years after their great success in Eurovision 2019, the band decided to return to “Melodi Grand Prix” to try their luck again at representing Norway at Eurovision.
The band came back with the song “Monument”, and from the moment the song was released, it received great admiration among Eurovision fans. With a 52% winning chance according to betting odds, the song was expected to win and KEiiNO to appear once again on the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam. However, at the decisive moment, KEiiNO disappointed and finished second, losing by a huge margin of 98,990 votes to TIX, who represented the country with the song “Fallen Angel” and finished in 18th place with 75 points. In 2024, the band returned again to the preselection with the song “Damdiggida” and again finished second.
Patty Gurdy – Germany 2023:
Germany aimed to make a big impact at Eurovision 2023 and surprised many fans with a relatively strong national final “Unser Lied für Liverpool”, a significant improvement from the previous year’s weaker national final “Germany 12 points”. Upon the release of the songs, many fans immediately fell in love with “Melodies Of Hope” by German singer Patty Gurdy, and in her real name Patricia Büchler.
The affection for Patty’s song was also reflected among Euromix viewers, as Patty won a poll with 44% of the votes. Her song stood out in “Unser Lied für Liverpool” partly because she played a unique instrument called the hurdy-gurdy, a string instrument that produces sound by means of a rosined wheel turning against the strings.
Ultimately, the special instrument did not help her, and she recorded a particularly disappointing result, finishing last with only 56 points. This disappointing outcome was likely due to a notably poor live performance by Patty.
Athena Manoukian – Armenia 2025:
Athena Manoukian was supposed to represent Armenia at Eurovision 2020 with the song “Chains On You“, which was especially loved by Eurovision fans. However, as is well known, the contest was cancelled that year due to the spread of the covid-19 pandemic, and Athena missed her chance to represent her country on the big stage.
In 2025, Athena decided to try her luck again to represent Armenia with the song “DaQueenation”, which gained significant admiration among Eurovision fans. Armenia shifted direction in the past year and decided to select its representative through “Depi Evratesil” the same competition through which Athena was chosen in 2020. This Armenian national final was considered one of the weakest in recent years, leading many fans to be confident that Athena’s victory was assured.
However, in the end, the Armenian singer Parg won the national final with the song “Survivor“. One of the song’s producers is Israeli creator Yinon Yahel. Athena disappointed many Eurovision fans by finishing only in third place in the national final.
EYJAA – Denmark 2023:
The “Dansk Melodi Grand Prix” is considered one of the weakest contests each year, somewhat like a condensed Melodifestivalen with lower production quality and only one broadcast. However, in 2023, the singing duo EYJAA surprised Eurovision fans. Their song “I Was Gonna Marry Him” immediately caught the attention of Eurovision enthusiasts, with many convinced that they would easily win the national final. Moreover, the song led the betting odds for Denmark’s Eurovision 2023 representation during most of the national selection period.
To fans’ disappointment, the singer Reiley won the national final with the song “Breaking My Heart” and represented his country at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool, finishing only 14th in the semi-final. Would EYJAA would have done better or even qualified to the grand final? That remains a mystery that we will likely never know.
Valleria – Moldova 2024:
Thought the “Dansk Melodi Grand Prix” was weak? Think again. The DMGP is considered strong compared to Moldova’s “Etapa Nationala”, which every year demonstrates how low the level of competing songs and production quality really is. However, in 2024, a pleasant surprise occurred when Moldovan singer Valleria, full name Valleria Condre, made her debut in “Etapa Nationala” with an interesting song that stood out among the otherwise weak entries. Many fans were convinced Moldova had to choose Valleria to represent them at Eurovision 2024 with her song “Rule (rai di ri di)”.
To everyone’s disappointment, Valleria did not qualify for the national final and was surprisingly eliminated already at the audition stage! A year later, Valleria returned to “Etapa Nationala” with the song “A Picture Of Myself“, but she was disqualified by the selection organizers even before performing because she was 20 minutes late to her audition. Following her elimination from “Etapa Nationala”, Valleria tried her luck in the San Marino’s national final, “San Marino Song Contest”, but again disappointed by failing to qualify for the grand final. Will Valleria return next year and succeed? We can only wait and see.
Bobbi Arlo – Ireland 2025:
As we all remember, Ireland managed to qualify for the Eurovision final in 2024 with the controversial Irish singer Bambie Thug after years of failing and remaining stuck in the semi-finals. When the songs for the Irish national final “Eurosong 2025”, were revealed, the song “Powerplay” immediately caught the attention of many fans as the best choice for Ireland’s Eurovision 2025 entry. The song was performed by the Irish singer Bobbi Arlo, or in her real name Jennifer Billie O’Brien.
During the national final season, Bobbi led by a significant margin on the official Eurovision betting site as the favorite to represent Ireland, eventually holding a 56% chance of winning “Eurosong 2025”. However, Bobbi faltered and finished third with only 20 points. The main reason for Bobbi’s failure was likely her particularly weak vocal performance during the national final. The winner of the Irish national final was Emmy, who represented Ireland at Eurovision with the song “Laika Party” but also failed to meet expectations, finishing 13th in the second semi-final with 28 points.
Felicia Lu – Germany 2022:
In 2021, German singer Jendrik Sigwart represented Germany at Eurovision 2021 in Rotterdam with the song “I Don’t Feel Hate”, finishing 25th with just 3 points. Due to this lack of success, Germany decided to change its approach and chose its next representative through the national final “Germany 12 Points”. Germany aimed to improve, but the songs in the selection did not attract much interest from fans, who expected Germany to again rank low at Eurovision.
However, one song caught the fans’ attention, and many were convinced it was the right choice for Eurovision: Austrian singer Felicia Lu with her song “Anxiety”. The song is a catchy, well-produced pop tune that grabs the ear from the first listen. Unfortunately for Felicia, like the other artists mentioned, she finished disappointingly in fourth place out of six competing entries in the national final. Felicia returned to Eurovision in 2025, but in a completely different role – as one of the members of Austria’s delegation supporting JJ who won Eurovision 2025 with the song “Wasted Love”.
Elvana Gjata – Albania 2020 and 2025:
In December 2019, beloved Albanian singer Elvana Gjata competed in “Festivali i Kenges 58” with the song “Me Tana” (in English: “Our Nation”), an ethnic hit that quickly exploded among fans, becoming a clear favorite to win the Albanian preselection. The affection for Elvana’s song was also reflected among Euromix viewers, where she won Euromix’s poll with 48.4% of the votes. Unfortunately for Elvana, Albanian singer Arilena Ara won the national final with the powerful Albanian ballad “Shaj” and was chosen to represent Albania at Eurovision 2020 with the English version “Fall From The Sky“. However, as is well known, the contest was cancelled that year due to the covid-19 pandemic, and Arilena missed her chance to represent her country.
Elvana made a comeback and tried again to represent Albania at Eurovision 2025 with the song “Karnaval” (in English: “Carnival”). She returned once more to the national selection with a hit that quickly caught fans’ attention, and in 2025, Euromix viewers showed her great support again by awarding her 54.35% of the votes in our poll. However, once again, Elvana failed to represent Albania at Eurovision, finishing second once again, this time behind the Albanian duo Shkodra Elektronike, who triumphed with the song “Zjerm” (in English: “Fire”), who represented Albania at Eurovision achieving 8th place with 218 points – the country’s best result since 2012 and third-best national result.
Maria Celin – Norway 2023:
We Started with Norway, and we will finish with Norway, a country known for consistently delivering some of the strongest national selections in Eurovision each year. “Melodi Grand Prix 2023”, was especially strong, with many songs immediately capturing fans’ attention. One of the standout songs and potential winners was “Freya” by young Norwegian singer Maria Celin.
Maria faced a relatively tough draw, competing in the third semi-final. Despite this, the vast majority were confident she would easily advance to the final. The official betting site ranked her first in chances to qualify from the third semi-final, with a 79% probability. Due to her youth and inexperience, Maria began her performance somewhat nervous but quickly regained composure and delivered an excellent performance that was expected to secure her a place in the final.
However, in the end, Maria remained in the semi-final, likely due to the tough draw and a slightly imperfect start to her performance. This semi-final was full of surprises, as Norwegian singer Akuvi with her song “Triumph” also faced a major disappointment. Akuvi was second in the odds for qualifying with a 75% chance but also did not advance past the semi-final.
Are national finals indeed an effective selection method? And which European countries have enjoyed the greatest successes with them? All this and more in the next article, where we will examine the success of national finals across Europe!
Eurovision 2026: The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Austria, following the country’s third historic win with the song “Wasted Love” performed by JJ. This will be the third time the contest is hosted in Austria, after 1967 and 2015.
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Ilay Gaist is a leading Israeli content creator and writer specializing in the Eurovision Song Contest. He is a well-known commentator with extensive expertise in the contest’s history, rules, and dynamics. His passion for Eurovision drives him to deliver rich, professional, and innovative content to his audience.
Ilay holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic and has a multilingual background. He also engages in cultural research, with a particular focus on global culinary traditions and the evolution of local cuisines around the world.
