So we have the full 41 songs for the 2019 contest, but what do they tell us, other than the taste of each nation. We crunched some numbers...
So let's start with the 41 songs itself, this is the least amount of songs in the contest since there were only 40 nations back in 2015. This is down because of Bulgaria and Ukraine withdrawing and no returning nations this year. Fingers crossed for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2020!
Artists
This year is a bit of a sausage fest, with more male solo artists than female artists which is quite a rarity. Looking back at the past five years this is the first time male solo artists outnumber females. But this is a trend that has been building year on year. It's also an interesting one considering that in the contest's history female solo acts have had more wins than their male counterparts. Will this male roll of the dice pay off?
Duos are also down with only three this year, compared to eight last year, seven in 2017 and a whopping nine in 2015 (but what a year, Estonia, Norway and Czech Republic were ace).
This is this year's artists break down:
Language - the 'Salvador Effect'
The recent trend of songs not in English is holding up. From 2014 to 2017 songs in English made up over 80% of the entries each year. After Salvador's win this changed, 13 of the 43 songs in 2018 (70% in English) were predominantly not in English and in 2019 this has dropped only slightly to 11 of the 41 songs (73% in English).
One word titles are in
Another obvious trend over the last five years and reaching a high in 2019 is one word song titles. Is this about making a short sharp statement or saying something about our diminishing attention span? Regardless it's a trend in mainstream music, not just Eurovision.
This year sees 18 songs with just a one word title, this is over double the amount of seven in 2015.
Love is back!
As the famous Stockholm interval act says "the song is essential. Let it be about something everyone can connect to. Love works!"
Despite this not many songs have had 'love' in the title in recent years. Australia's 'We Got Love' and the Greece 'This is Love' were the only entries in 2018 and 2017. But this year we have four! Poland's 'Fire of Love'. the Greeks again with 'Better Love', Denmark with 'Love is Forever' and Sweden with 'Too Late for Love'.
Will it work?
Well there hasn't been a winner with 'love' in the title since 2000's 'Fly on the Wings of Love'...
Regardless of the make up let's hope we see interesting and unique year in Tel Aviv.