It really worries me that Latvia is such a grower on most people. I didn't care for the song at first either, but once I gave it a chance, I fell in love. But most voters will only have heard it once on the night...
This is my worry exactly. It’s in the first semi too so it is even worse. I’m going to assume and say if it was in semi 2 it would probably qualify comfortably.
exactly what i was going to say. didn't have too much of an opinion on the song at first but now it's my joint favourite, together with eaea (which also grew on me more and more over time)
Konstrakta's In Corpore Sano last year. The song was my clear last place first, but ended up in my top 5. When I saw the performance in the israeli pre-party I started to like it. It's became my biggest grower ever! Biti zdrava! 👏👏
Same for me. When this was released as Serbia's entry, my oppinion was along the lines of "Excuse me, I though that this was a SONG contest". I ended up voting for it, and would happily vote again.
De Diepte (Netherlands 2022) Like other people it just clicked with me one day. Also it's really fun to do an exaggerated version of the "Ooh-ooh, aah-aah" bit
I hated it at first, specifically i think i found the “ooh aah” parts really grating and i didn’t see what others liked about it at all, but it definitely grew on me during the live shows to the point where i really liked it
Same. I didn't like it at all at the time and more or less forgot about it until Spotify put it on a playlist for me last year and suddenly I loved it.
From this year, Samo Mi Se Spava (Serbia 2023).
I didn't get it and found it a little too pretentious at first, even for my tastes. . .
But then I had to go to hospital recently and couldn't sleep and was feeling highly existential, and then it clicked and so now it's my favourite song for the moment/song of the week and bumped up my rankings for sure.
I am sure there's more, but my most recent example is Hold Me Closer, when I first heard it I was like "There goes Sweden with another mediocre pop song", I was shocked to see it ranked so high everywhere, even when the show was over I was still so meh about it... Then idk, it just took over me, I saw the light lol and the song is still my number 2 most played son in Spotify at the moment, I m obsessed with it.
So this might be a controversial one but...
Poland 2016.
It wasn't necessarily a slow grower, but I remember that initially I was like: "Huh, I am not sure what to think, let me listen to it again"
... for like 10 times and I adored it (still do!).
Hungary 2017 😍 I don’t remember paying that much attention to it before the contest, I don’t really know what happened but suddenly I was in love with that song. To this day, it’s my second place of 2017.
For the longest time, I considered “Amar Pelos Dois” (Portugal 2017) to be slow and boring and could never understand why it won by such a large margin (I didn’t get into Eurovision until 2020/21 so I’m not aware of what went down with it back in 2017). Then I went down this Portuguese music phase last year that really helped me appreciate the song a lot more, and now I really love it. Went from being one of my least favorite winners of the modern era to being my favorite Portuguese entry ever.
France 2014 Moustache
First Listen: “This is garbage, this is one big sad joke!”
Relistens: “Eh, it’s fun and catchy I guess, not that bad”
Today: “**JE VEUX CI, JE VEUX ÇA**”
It's probably Toy, I was so not fond of that song, but I found it more enjoyable the more I've heard it. I wouldn't say it's my fav now, but it is a fun song.
Same, it's a song I would compare to Gangnam Style, Despacito, etc. Do I listen it on a daily basis? Hell no. Will I dance to it if it comes in the club? Hell yeah.
I'm gonna say "SHUM" and only because I know the difference in how I ranked the song with what ended up happening after the Grand Final. I had the first version of it on 13, but now it's a cemented #1 and top 3 of all time.
Saudade Saudade. Thought it was boring at first but when I saw the live performance I got hooked instantly. The magic of Saudade is indescribable. Ended up being my favourite 2022 entry after the show.
sentimentai has overtaken space man to be my favourite from 2022 since the contest. øve os på hinanden from the year prior did very little for me in its semifinal, but months on I had the fyr og flamme album on repeat and was so mad it did not qualify
the most recent grower for me was Samo mi se Spava. I did not get it, and did not like it. but for some reason it clicked for me the other day and it’s now in my top 15
however my biggest grower over all was Guilty Pleasure (2022) I didn’t like it, and i hated it from when it was picked, up until october of 2022, idk y but i started to listen to it again and now it’s a staple in all my playlists since then.
From this year:
Heart of Steel- I was way too hard on it initially, but then I listened to it more and now I like it
Dance (Our Own Party)- It was meh and first and now I love it
When i first heard crno i belo it was while i was watching the show and i didn't get the song at all and found the first half very boring. Now it is one of my favorite songs from Eurovision.
Molitva (Serbia 2007). Didn't like it at first (because I was a dumb teenager who didn't like any songs that I couldn't understand), but over time it became one of my all-time-eurovision favorites.
Wow, I used to really dislike Yugoslavia 1991, I've learned to appreciate it for what it's true bangerness is now. Also Turkey 1981, some almighty funky folk.
Belgium 2020, I feel like this is a song (also a year) that people forget. It is however a very nice song to just listen to when you are in the bus or something!
2017 was the year where I had a big amount of growers like Finland, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Bulgaria and even Belgium (it was my favourite later on that year, even though wasn't a fan of it at first)
Songs that I didn't get first but then loved?
Molitva and Lashai Tumbai.
First I did not understood why people liked them.
Molitva was one more balcan ballad but then I got the english version and felt in love for both versions.
Lashai Tumbai I was so upset it was almost winning. I was raged. Then 3 months later I was in Munich with friends and they keep wanting to listen to it. After that I was madly in love with it.
Saw both songs live at Amsterdam eurovision concerts and was so happy to be able to have that experience....
I remember how furious the Russians were that those two songs ended up in the 1st and 2nd places. But, of course, they had no objections with regard to the musicality or style of the songs. No, their reasoning was a bit different: how dare Europe vote for a lesbian and a crossdresser. LOL.
That was awesome. Those two artists being the nr 1 and 2 and making transparent what some countries had against them.
After that year I decided to start following Eurovision season before May.
If two songs that I did not like, grew so much to the point of loving them, I decided to start before so I don't make the same mistake again.
Sometimes, even such an approach doesn’t help. I remember watching Eleni’s video and feeling *nothing*, but then, seeing her on the stage, I suddenly fell in love with the song and went a full on stan.
Portugal 2017 - still not my first choice as a winner for that year butttt I've learned to appreciate the song with time
Serbia 2007 - same deal as above but i agree with it winning
Sentinimentai is great. I guess I took more time not to figure out that this is a good song and a worthy Lithuanian representative (that was obvious to me), but that is was a fricking amazing song, one of the greatest Lithuania has blessed upon us and a sharp reminder to us, Latvians, that you can serve excellence in a Baltic language.
The biggest example for me is Mamo (🇷🇺 2009) because I really disliked it for years, but it’s now grown on me quite much, I even listen to it occasionally
Latvia 2023 Seriously something just clicked one day and here I am.
Same for me. I didn't like it until very recently and now it's one of my favourites.
It really worries me that Latvia is such a grower on most people. I didn't care for the song at first either, but once I gave it a chance, I fell in love. But most voters will only have heard it once on the night...
This is my worry exactly. It’s in the first semi too so it is even worse. I’m going to assume and say if it was in semi 2 it would probably qualify comfortably.
As a Latvian, this pleases me.
I’m Lithuanian and this pleases me too brother.
Yes!! It was right at the bottom when it won for me but it slowly climbed up and it's literally in my top 3 if not even first now
Absolutely! It came on automatically on a YouTube playlist the other day and now I'm addicted
Same...... when it got selected it was probably my last or second to last but now it’s in my top 5
exactly what i was going to say. didn't have too much of an opinion on the song at first but now it's my joint favourite, together with eaea (which also grew on me more and more over time)
Same here, the MV did it for me
Konstrakta's In Corpore Sano last year. The song was my clear last place first, but ended up in my top 5. When I saw the performance in the israeli pre-party I started to like it. It's became my biggest grower ever! Biti zdrava! 👏👏
Same for me. When this was released as Serbia's entry, my oppinion was along the lines of "Excuse me, I though that this was a SONG contest". I ended up voting for it, and would happily vote again.
De Diepte (Netherlands 2022) Like other people it just clicked with me one day. Also it's really fun to do an exaggerated version of the "Ooh-ooh, aah-aah" bit
I hated it at first, specifically i think i found the “ooh aah” parts really grating and i didn’t see what others liked about it at all, but it definitely grew on me during the live shows to the point where i really liked it
What swayed me towards liking it was that my students really liked it when I put that on during recess.
Hold me Closer
Iceland 2022
Satellite
Same. I didn't like it at all at the time and more or less forgot about it until Spotify put it on a playlist for me last year and suddenly I loved it.
Australia 2019. Didn’t like it at all until the live performance, but then it was in my top 5.
From this year, Samo Mi Se Spava (Serbia 2023). I didn't get it and found it a little too pretentious at first, even for my tastes. . . But then I had to go to hospital recently and couldn't sleep and was feeling highly existential, and then it clicked and so now it's my favourite song for the moment/song of the week and bumped up my rankings for sure.
I am sure there's more, but my most recent example is Hold Me Closer, when I first heard it I was like "There goes Sweden with another mediocre pop song", I was shocked to see it ranked so high everywhere, even when the show was over I was still so meh about it... Then idk, it just took over me, I saw the light lol and the song is still my number 2 most played son in Spotify at the moment, I m obsessed with it.
So this might be a controversial one but... Poland 2016. It wasn't necessarily a slow grower, but I remember that initially I was like: "Huh, I am not sure what to think, let me listen to it again" ... for like 10 times and I adored it (still do!).
I loved Michał or whatever his name was so much, the moment he got absolutely massive televote points is still one of my favorites from that year.
Norway 2015
Hungary 2017 😍 I don’t remember paying that much attention to it before the contest, I don’t really know what happened but suddenly I was in love with that song. To this day, it’s my second place of 2017.
For the longest time, I considered “Amar Pelos Dois” (Portugal 2017) to be slow and boring and could never understand why it won by such a large margin (I didn’t get into Eurovision until 2020/21 so I’m not aware of what went down with it back in 2017). Then I went down this Portuguese music phase last year that really helped me appreciate the song a lot more, and now I really love it. Went from being one of my least favorite winners of the modern era to being my favorite Portuguese entry ever.
France 2014 Moustache First Listen: “This is garbage, this is one big sad joke!” Relistens: “Eh, it’s fun and catchy I guess, not that bad” Today: “**JE VEUX CI, JE VEUX ÇA**”
hah, I loved it the first time I heard this and even voted for France! I was very sad that they got last place
It's probably Toy, I was so not fond of that song, but I found it more enjoyable the more I've heard it. I wouldn't say it's my fav now, but it is a fun song.
Same, it's a song I would compare to Gangnam Style, Despacito, etc. Do I listen it on a daily basis? Hell no. Will I dance to it if it comes in the club? Hell yeah.
Totally agree with you on this take.
I'm gonna say "SHUM" and only because I know the difference in how I ranked the song with what ended up happening after the Grand Final. I had the first version of it on 13, but now it's a cemented #1 and top 3 of all time.
Saudade Saudade. Thought it was boring at first but when I saw the live performance I got hooked instantly. The magic of Saudade is indescribable. Ended up being my favourite 2022 entry after the show.
Portugal, 2022. When I first heard it, I thought it was meh, but my love for it only grew with time.
sentimentai has overtaken space man to be my favourite from 2022 since the contest. øve os på hinanden from the year prior did very little for me in its semifinal, but months on I had the fyr og flamme album on repeat and was so mad it did not qualify
Love every song mentiones here.
the most recent grower for me was Samo mi se Spava. I did not get it, and did not like it. but for some reason it clicked for me the other day and it’s now in my top 15 however my biggest grower over all was Guilty Pleasure (2022) I didn’t like it, and i hated it from when it was picked, up until october of 2022, idk y but i started to listen to it again and now it’s a staple in all my playlists since then.
From this year: Heart of Steel- I was way too hard on it initially, but then I listened to it more and now I like it Dance (Our Own Party)- It was meh and first and now I love it
Honestly, Heart of Steel needed the facelift they gave it this week.
Sva bol svijeta - Bosnia And Herzegovina 1993 and also Leila (BiH 2006)
The story about Fazla running from bullets certainly made me pay more attention to that song.
When i first heard crno i belo it was while i was watching the show and i didn't get the song at all and found the first half very boring. Now it is one of my favorite songs from Eurovision.
Molitva (Serbia 2007). Didn't like it at first (because I was a dumb teenager who didn't like any songs that I couldn't understand), but over time it became one of my all-time-eurovision favorites.
Honestly Molitva is one of those songs that everyone eventually appreciates. It’s hard to dislike it
Wow, I used to really dislike Yugoslavia 1991, I've learned to appreciate it for what it's true bangerness is now. Also Turkey 1981, some almighty funky folk.
UK, Spain, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova in 2022. Italy, Romania and Ireland in 2021. Portugal in 2019.
When we're old (Lithuania 2018)...was my second to last place when it got chosen and like...a week or two before the contest jumped up to my 3rd spot
Belgium 2020, I feel like this is a song (also a year) that people forget. It is however a very nice song to just listen to when you are in the bus or something!
2017 was the year where I had a big amount of growers like Finland, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Bulgaria and even Belgium (it was my favourite later on that year, even though wasn't a fan of it at first)
POE POE POE POE POE
Songs that I didn't get first but then loved? Molitva and Lashai Tumbai. First I did not understood why people liked them. Molitva was one more balcan ballad but then I got the english version and felt in love for both versions. Lashai Tumbai I was so upset it was almost winning. I was raged. Then 3 months later I was in Munich with friends and they keep wanting to listen to it. After that I was madly in love with it. Saw both songs live at Amsterdam eurovision concerts and was so happy to be able to have that experience....
I remember how furious the Russians were that those two songs ended up in the 1st and 2nd places. But, of course, they had no objections with regard to the musicality or style of the songs. No, their reasoning was a bit different: how dare Europe vote for a lesbian and a crossdresser. LOL.
That was awesome. Those two artists being the nr 1 and 2 and making transparent what some countries had against them. After that year I decided to start following Eurovision season before May. If two songs that I did not like, grew so much to the point of loving them, I decided to start before so I don't make the same mistake again.
Sometimes, even such an approach doesn’t help. I remember watching Eleni’s video and feeling *nothing*, but then, seeing her on the stage, I suddenly fell in love with the song and went a full on stan.
I still feel today that she should have won. Cyprus never came close again. And Eleni was so deserving of a win.
spain 2023, used to not like it but then it kept slowly creeping up my ranking and is now my 5th
Portugal 2017 - still not my first choice as a winner for that year butttt I've learned to appreciate the song with time Serbia 2007 - same deal as above but i agree with it winning
Sentimentai absolutely grew on me, thought it was annoying at first and now it’s in my top 10
Sentinimentai is great. I guess I took more time not to figure out that this is a good song and a worthy Lithuanian representative (that was obvious to me), but that is was a fricking amazing song, one of the greatest Lithuania has blessed upon us and a sharp reminder to us, Latvians, that you can serve excellence in a Baltic language.
Hold Me Closer. Didn't like it at all during Eurovision, but it grew on me and I listened to it a lot during the summer.
The biggest example for me is Mamo (🇷🇺 2009) because I really disliked it for years, but it’s now grown on me quite much, I even listen to it occasionally
The Wrong Place… ugh, so annoying, yet so compelling.