Poll: Who was your favourite interval act this NF season?

The National Finals season may be over, but we are still discussing how good some of the shows have been. And the interval acts played an important role in their success — sometimes even overshadowing the actual contestants. But who have been your favourites?

Because of the actual news that was the winning act, we sometimes overlooked the guest artists, but we are here to set the record straight. Technically not all of them are interval acts, as some of them opened the shows. But no matter: they were all fabulous. Here are our picks for the best of this NF season, in alphabetical order of the respective countries.

Albania: Rona Nishliu

The 2012 Albanian representative reminded us why “Suus” brought the house down in Baku, performing alongside Fanfara Tirana brassband and leaving us breathless with her amazing vocals once again.

Austria: Conchita Wurst

Conchita delivered it big time at the Austrian final and stole the show with her powerful rendition of her latest single, “You Are Unstoppable”. After this spellbinding performance, someone even shouted from the audience that she should represent Austria again this year.

Denmark: Basim

The 2014 Danish representative took to the stage of DMGP once again. Basim performed his new single “Picture In A Frame” with a live orchestra, before entertaining the crowd with his 2014 song “Cliche Love Song”.

Estonia: Tanja

The amazing Tanja recreated her Eurovision song from last year, complete with her own Epic Sax Guy and “Amazing” co-writer Timo Vendt, and made us dance like it was 2014.

Finland: Softengine

The band who represented Finland last year took to the UMK stage once more to perform a mellower version of their song “Something Better”, before exploding into a show-stopping rendition of their new single “Sirens”.

Germany: Conchita Wurst

The 2014 Eurovision winner was also present in Hannover, for the German final. We will never get tired of her performing “Rise Like A Phoenix”.

Greece: ONE

Cypriot band ONE, who represented the island nation at Eurovision back in 2002, reunited at the Greek national final and performed their revamped song “Gimme”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CnHFuxkEBg

Hungary: András Kallay-Saunders

The handsome hunk who represented Hungary last year performed his new single “Juliet”, pairing it up with “Running” at the A Dal final. He was assisted by an orchestra.

Italy: Ed Sheeran

Breaking away from the tradition of Eurovision related interval acts, Sanremo brought the British pop megastar Ed Sheeran. Needless to say, he was flawless, becoming an instant trending topic on Twitter.

Ed Sheeran con Thinking out loud a Sanremo 2015 by massibond67

Latvia: Rigas Bebrs (Riga Beaver)

The Riga Beaver is an internet sensation since he broke out on the stage of the Latvian selection Supernova. There are even calls to make him a cultural symbol – or at least reader of points for the Latvian broadcaster in Vienna. His freestyling abilities did not go unnoticed, so you never know, y’all!

Malta: Conchita Wurst

Last year’s Eurovision winner was also invited to the Maltese national final, where she performed her winning song “Rise Like  A Phoenix,” but also her (then) latest single “Heroes”.

Norway: Bobbysocks!

The legendary pop duo that won Eurovision thirty years ago returned to the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix stage for an acclaimed performance of their winning song “La Det Swinge”, proving that age ain’t nothing but a number. We wish we looked as good as Hanne and Elisabeth thirty years from now!

Romania: Ruslana

The 2004 Eurovision Song Contest winner from Ukraine was the interval act at the Romanian National Final. Her performance exceeded the alloted time by ten minutes, a testament of how great she felt in Craiova. She also gave a tearful speech in support of her country (jump to the 22:14 mark) before performing the Ukrainian version of her 2012 song “This Is Euphoria”.

Slovenia: Maja Keuc

The 2011 Slovenian representative owned the stage and the audience with her version of “Euphoria”. We are still talking about it!

Sweden: Dirty Loops

Of course, seeing as Melodifestivalen is the lengthiest national selection, with six shows, we could not stop at just one interval act. While some viewers hated that Sanna didn’t perform “Undo” on the Melodifestivalen final instead, many enjoyed Dirty Loops’ funky cover. It certainly put a different twist to last year’s MelFest winning song, turning the power ballad into a vintage dance track. Who woulda thunk?

Sweden: Conchita Wurst, Sanna Nielsen & Robin Paulsson

The final of Melodifestivalen opened with a cheecky and fabulous number: Conchita was joined by hosts Sanna and Robin for a reworked rendition of “The Final Countdown”, followed by last year’s Eurovision winning song performed by Ms Wurst in all her glory. (Also notably, as she was missing from the dress rehearsal because she was performing on Austria’s final the night before, Conchita had been replaced by Christer Bjorkman on stage – complete with wig, gown and beard – slaying it live in one of the most amazing dress rehearsals ever.)

Sweden: Loreen

Although relegated to Andra Chansen, Loreen was arguably one of the most anticipated and later talked about guest stars of Melodifestivalen 2015. Her topless performance of “Paper Light (Higher)” raised a lot of eyebrows, but also the standard of Swedish showmanship. (And look at those Kazkaky boys! Y to the um!)

Sweden: Ylvis

Last but not least, Norwegian comedy band Ylvis, known for the 2013 viral video “What Does The Fox Say?” took to the MelFest final stage to perform their new single “Stonehenge” with a gospel choir. This time, their brand of Nordic humour fell flat on some international ears, but still it was a memorable, WTF moment of this national finals season.

So these are our picks, but we are curious to hear which of them is your favourite interval act of the 2015 National Final season. Let us know by voting in our poll below. You can vote for as many of the acts as you’d like but you can only vote ONCE. So make sure it counts y’all! The poll will remain open until 1 April.

After voting, please feel free to defend your choice in the comments section. Or maybe we missed your favourite interval act? Sound off below!