Like previous years, ESC COVERS will again share a blog post from Morten Thomassen of OGAE NORWAY with his views on the positions reached by all 35 2026 entries. ESC Covers google translated it from Norwegian to English.

The second semi-final was obviously so tough that when the top 11 had received their points, there were only leftovers left for the last 4 countries and the country that did the best of these was our Luxembourg friend Eva Marija and her song about “Mother Nature”.

The first two years after this country that participated in the first ever ESC final returned after a 30-year hiatus, they made it to the final, but not all good things were 3 for them, they went on the not-going-to-the-final-slam and that quite thoroughly too.

No one can take away from Eva Marija the fact that she exudes charm on screen, but a good quality rarely lasts in this company, because it doesn’t get very far into the song before questionable vocal performance unfolds and the whole thing becomes quite puzzling and fake at times.

I don’t think it was a smart choice to leave the artist completely alone on stage, she is unable to fill the stage in any way, even with fluttering gloves, and her fiddle playing in the end didn’t charm enough people for the points to flow in.

I don’t quite understand what all that running around on stage was supposed to be good for, it seemed pretty pointless, here it probably should have been thought of differently and perhaps toned down the entire performance to better suit the message, which was after all a good one.

In Luxembourg, participation is of national importance, they received funding to participate for the three years they have now participated and now they have to raise money again and one can hope that a missing final place does not ruin it, we are betting on the opposite, we are happy that as many countries as possible are participating, aren’t we?

Featured image – ESC Covers