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.

Three countries returned to our beloved competition after a few years of absence and for the country I will talk about today we are almost talking about the return of the ages because the last time they participated in 2023 they came in last place in their semi-final without getting a single point and thus it probably felt very good that it was a third place, well helped by the fact that the people had this song in 2nd place, the jury was not completely in the tough rock corner on the final night since our Romanian friends came in 13th place with it, the jury actually had Norway as their favorite country within the rock genre.

Although Alexandra Capitanescu may appear as a solo artist, she obviously feels most at home with her band and the song “Choke Me” received a bit of a harsh reception before going to Vienna. Some thought it was about sexual acts that include choking as part of the act, but Alexandra claimed that it was about feeling suffocated in a relationship, but when I read the lyrics I can understand those who get some sexual vibes out of it.

Vibes or not, the rock audience around ESC countries liked what they heard and saw and they, along with Bulgaria, received points from all countries that had telephone voting and it is actually rare that it happens and if there is anyone I should blame for Norway getting few votes from the people, my main suspect lives in Romania, just to put it that way.

All rockers who want to participate in ESC should watch and learn from what happened on stage during the performance of the Romanian song, here we have an artist who sings impeccably, she has tons of attitude and there is someone during the entire song who constantly points to the song title, all the focus is in the right place and it works like a charm.

And even though this is music that some can control their enthusiasm for, it fits like a glove for the rock community and with enough of them saved, the points also rush in and then you get third place. Why the juries were only so satisfied I don’t really understand, maybe there were few real rockers among the jury members, who knows.

It can be expected that a national final will be held in Romania next year since they have a relatively short distance to go, after all, they are going to a neighboring country, our Romanian friends have sometimes chosen quite unconventionally so it will take a lot for it to surpass this year’s result, I think, their third 3rd place by the way.

Featured image – ESC Covers