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.

After missing the final last year with a song about poisoned cake, our Croatian friends chose to take us into space, more specifically, to a galaxy called “Andromeda” the group LELEK wanted us to take with them and this was one of several songs that were about female strength, a theme that keeps recurring in our beloved competition obviously.

This song was liked a bit better by the audience than by the jury and when you look at who they got points from, it is from countries that probably either have a close connection with this country or many from this country who have settled in these countries.

Already in 2025, keen ESC fans became familiar with this group, they then participated for the first time in the Croatian final and for them all good things come in twos since on their second attempt in their national final they went to the top with what they themselves describe as music with a focus on their own country’s musical heritage mixed with a slightly more modern packaging.

What we were served was well within the definition of Balkan pop, a strong song, but strong vocals and strong empathy in performance all wrapped up in a performance with the right amount of drama and a lot of emotion going on.

I understood that the signs they had on their faces had meaning for them, for outsiders they were perhaps a bit more incomprehensible and perhaps didn’t quite fit in, but all in all one of the better versions of Balkan ballads we’ve seen in this competition, but it probably wouldn’t have hurt the points if the facial drawings had been toned down a bit.

This country is also among those that are musically everywhere when it comes to what they serve us ESC fans, so we can eagerly await what we get from them next year, something that we will almost certainly remember.

Featured image – ESC Covers