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.

There have always been some who have benefited more from good neighbors in this competition than others and Lithuanian Lion Ceccah and his song “Solo Quiero Mas” were certainly in that class, of the not too impressive 22 points he received, 8 points came from the Finnish jury and a whopping 12 points from the Latvian people, so it was only the 2 points from the Italian jury that stood out here.

It may be because they understood the title of the song, “Jeg Vil Ha Mer” to be roughly what it means, but once again, a title for a song doesn’t do the trick, there wasn’t much those who voted thought Lion deserved for its, to put it mildly, silver-gray song and silver-gray performance.

I probably should have read up on this, but I didn’t really understand why he wore makeup like the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz.” It seemed a bit dramatic, and the song clearly had dramatic undertones.

What I see is a rather unsuccessful attempt to make a not-too-interesting song with an unusual performance, it ended up with something far too dark and gloomy and when it comes to vocals, the voice also fails at times, so that moment also becomes a bit puzzling.

It’s funny that it’s sung in many different languages, but right here I think it confused and deterred more than it enticed people to vote for this particular song.

Our Lithuanian friends have only missed the final twice in the last 10 years, so they obviously have a clue over there, and when half of the entries in the same period have contained the Lithuanian language, one can perhaps hope and believe that that tradition will continue, but maybe a little more “normal” pop next time?

Featured image – ESC Covers