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.

With today’s rules, no country can finish in the same place, so even though Armenia and Latvia got the same score in their semi-final, Latvia was judged ahead. I choose to believe that it is because Latvia got the most points from the audience and that with 2 measly points, so the 3 points the people of Norway gave Atvara for the song “Ena” did the trick.

The title means “In the Shadow” in Norwegian and that’s exactly how the song appeared on the TV screen, a bit colorless and hidden in a way and it probably stood out too little for enough people to notice it.

Add in vocals that sometimes sound more strained than nice, some facial expressions on Atvara’s part that look a bit like they’re suffering, and the whole thing quickly becomes something many would consider taking a pee break for, even if our Azerbaijani friends had already given us time for such necessary physical activities.

I’m 100% in favor of singing in your own language, but then the actual performance of the song must give us the message in the song and that’s where I think it probably failed a bit, it just became black, sad and dark and in that sense the song put itself in the shadows for those who voted.

Latvia was the country that was closest to being able to secure a final spot, but as we know, odds are not the answer and with an artist who, in my opinion, underperformed, a final spot was very far away in the end.

Only 8 times since semi-finals were introduced has this country managed to qualify for the final so they haven’t quite grasped this yet, I don’t really know what to suggest to them, the things they have qualified for the final with have been so many so maybe just keep up that tradition of sending something they believe in and maybe it will go to next year.

Featured image – ESC Covers