Welcome back for another year Luxembourg.
Luxembourg's Song Contest was held on 25 January 2025 to select its representative for Eurovision in Basel this year. There were 7 entries and here is my summary.
Top Pick - 184 points, Laura Thorn with “Le Poupee Monte Le Son” - yes, another song about a doll.
This song was a clear winner. It has so much going for it - upbeat pop song, snappy choreography, and builds to a strong vocal climax. And a striptease thrown in to keep the viewers’ attention. A song that suits modern day Eurovision, with its pop beat and just enough experiential difference to keep everyone watching and voting. The footage of Luxembourg’s past winning song by Frances Gall introduces Thorn’s 2025 song, and I have to say that it’s no coincidence that it’s 60 years since that song won Eurovision. Are the stars aligned for Luxembourg? Perhaps.
Runner - up - 126 points, A country song by band Zero Point Five. The song is titled, “ Ride”. This was a surprising finish for me, as I felt the song was ordinary, and did not get my attention at all. I cannot understand how this song actually beat Thorn in the public vote. Anyway, I’ll move on.
Luzac was third with his song “ Je Danse”. This song melded dance, rap, and modern performance art. Different and kept me interested. The public vote showed solid support for this proposal.
Rhythmic Soulwave - a six piece band with diverse interests of jazz, pop, Latin, soul- performed their R&B song “ Stronger” and fared pretty well. Well performed and a song soundly constructed with a climax that the lead singer, Carmen Carbonnell Suarez, nailed. They had a strong stage presence. It was my personal runner up.
Further down we had a rock band One Last Time with their song, “ Gambler’s Song”. I got quite excited when this band started as I felt the beat calling me but I was soon disappointed as there were too many spoken words and not enough head banging.
Sixth place was another group - Mana - with their song “Human Eyes”. Enjoyable but needed the wind machine.
Seventh place was a dance number performed by Rafa Ela. Titled “ No Thank You”, and that sums it up really. It was repetitive- maybe she could have borrowed a few words from “ Gambler’s Song” to pad out this proposal- and then it may have crept up in the voting.
All in all, it was an entertaining show and looks like Luxembourg is here to stay. They will definitely be making the final in 2025, and with the polish that can come with a couple of month’s practice, I think top 10 finish is achievable.