While Eurovision often attracts some of the best songwriters in the world, it also attracts entries from performers who have written or co-written their own song. This year 23 entries – over half – are performed by an artist who has also had a hand in the writing. But which of these is best? Listen to the tracks and vote for your favourites.
Armenia: Iveta Mukuchyan with “LoveWave”
Iveta co-wrote the song lyrics along with lyricist Stephanie Crutchfield.
Austria: Zoë with “Loin d’ici”
Zoë co-wrote the song along with her father, Austrian indie rock star Christof Straub.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Deen & Dalal with “Ljubav je”
While the song was largely written by songwriter Almir Ajanovic, rapper Jala contributed lyrics for his part of the song.
Bulgaria: Poli Genova with “If Love Was a Crime”
The song was largely compared by a Bulgarian and Swedish team, but Poli Genova also contributed lyrics.
Cyprus: Minus One with “Alter Ego”
Minus One collaborated with Swedish songwriter and producer Thomas G:son on writing their entry.
Denmark: Lighthouse X with “Soldiers of Love”
All three Lighthouse X members — Søren, Johannes and Martin — had a hand in writing their song, along with a team of Danish songwriters.
Finland: Sandhja with “Sing It Away”
Sandhja contributed to the music and lyrics, along with a team of Finnish songwriters.
France: Amir with “J’ai cherché”
Amir co-wrote the song with two other songwriters.
FYR Macedonia: Kaliopi with “Dona”
Kaliopi’s long-term collaborator Romeo Grill wrote the music, while Kaliopi contributed the lyrics.
Greece: Argo with “Utopian Land”
Argo vocalist Vladimiros Sofianides wrote “Utopian Land” himself, one of four performers to have a sole songwriting credit.
Iceland: Greta Salóme with “Hear Them Calling”
Greta is the second artist to have a sole songwriting credit, creating both the music and lyrics.
Ireland: Nicky Byrne with “Sunlight”
Nicky Byrne co-wrote the song along with two other songwriters.
Italy: Francesca Michielin with “No Degree of Separation”
While an Italian team wrote the song, Francesca contributed lyrics.
Malta: Ira Losco with “Walk on Water”
The song originally came from a Swedish writing team, but Ira Losco put her mark on it, contributing music and lyrics.
Montenegro: Highway with “Real Thing”
Guitarist Luka Vojvodic co-wrote the song along with two Montenegrin songwriters.
Netherlands: Douwe Bob with “Slow Down”
Douwe Bob co-wrote his song with three other Dutch musicians.
Norway: Agnete with “Icebreaker”
Agnete co-wrote the song along with a Swedish and a British songwriter.
Romania: Ovidiu Anton with “Moment of Silence“
Ovidiu is the third artist to have a sole songwriting credit, having written both the music and lyrics of his song.
Slovenia: ManuElla “Blue and Red”
ManuElla cowrote the music for “Blue and Red”.
Spain: Barei with “Say Yay!”
Barei cowrote her song along with two Spanish songwriters.
Sweden: Frans with “If I Were Sorry”
In recent years, Melfest winners haven’t had much creative involvement in their songs, but Frans has contributed both music and lyrics.
Switzerland: Rykka with “The Last of Our Kind”
Rykka cowrote the song along with her regular Canadian songwriting team.
Ukraine: Jamala with “1944”
Jamala was the fourth artist to have a sole writing credit for her song.
Poll: Which is the best self-written song?
Which is your favourite? You can vote for as many acts as you’d like, but you can only vote ONE time. Be sure to click the box next to each act you want to support before pressing submit.
[polldaddy poll=9355783]
Iveta Mukuchyan Armenia
Vote for Iveta from Armenia
Armenia! Lovewave is the best
Armenian! Lovewave is the best
ARMENIAAAAAAAA
Armeniaaaaa (Ivetaaaa)
Armenia <3
ARMENIA for IVETA ?????
Vote for Iveta
Iceland And Armenia
ofc 1st Armenia cause its amazing.
2nd Malta
3rd Bulgaria
Thats my top 3
Ireland!!.go Nicky..continue to give light to the people whose in the dark moment of their life..let the Sun Light upon us..
#goodluck
#number1supportersince1998
#withlovefromthephilippines
Ireland…
ARMENIA; ARMENIA; ARMENIA;ARMENIA
Amir the 1 & only
Armenia N1
Wiwibloggs logic..
The singer added a ‘yeah’ at the end of the song-
SELF-WRITTEN!
“SUNLIGHT” shine’s in IRELAND this Eurovision 2016.
France, Iceland and Ukraine … End of discussion.
Ireland, Norway (of course), Austria, and Greece.
Ukraine, Romania, Iceland have the most quality from this. I also personally like Slovenia, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark a lot.
Shije Yu, that’s actually right! Make a poll soon called: “Which is the best of the eurovision songs in 2016 with swedish composers”.
To be fair self penned entries at the contest are nothing new. Last year Aminata, Loic, Stig and Morland all wrote their songs, as well as others. However the last winner to write their own song was Alexander Rybak- hopefully 2016 changes that, considering Iceland and Ukraine are my top 2
Swedish teams are everywhere
The reason I like Italy best is because of the profundity of the lyrics contributed by Francesca Michielin. Every shot in the video, in which objects become electric and burst with color when passed from one person to the next relates directly to the deep message of the song: that we are all connected, and we all give and get energy from each other through our interactions and human touch. What better anthem for building bridges and for Eurovision?
I thought Joe & Jake wrote their song and that Iveta selected her song internally. Probably wrong then 🙂
….but only four of the artists wrote their songs.
Co-writing means that they were in the room when the song was written.
Seriously funny if you think Ira Losco had anything to do with her song whatsoever.
Didn’t even know Nicky wrote “Sunlight” but any way,
I voted for the songs I like most,
Which is:
France
Bulgaria
Iceland
Ireland
Spain is the one made to shine on stage. Not even the best song, but the one constructed (thanks to the revamping) to make a great staging.
Many people don’t see it now. That’s why they will be positively surprised on may.
Spanish people! You have soooooo wonderful language and you choose the song in english to represent you? I don’t get it. I wish you sent Alvaro Soler next year. His songs are great! Good luck anyway! 🙂
@Ron A. Antonyan is a lyricist. I know that there is another entry that was co-written and produced by a composer of Armenian origin. It’s Ph. Kirkorov. So to whom should Armenia give its 12 points?))
A great sign that so many songs are self-penned! 🙂 Entirely or completely. It shows a kind of genuinity and musical closeness. Credibility sort of. Definately not out of place in a song contest 🙂 As opposed to massproduced and calculated Swedish penned songs perhaps? I think so. But what about Malta then….hehe. Speaking of which – I like that one a lot! My ranking of ALL those songs: 1. Cyprus 2. Montenegro (so underrated. But they are good at what they do. I like such “uncompromised songs”. And good with so many rock songs this year) 3. France 4.… Read more »
Jamala wrote her song with Art Antonyan who’s an Armenian composer. Oddly enough, Jamala is also half Armenian….I wonder if this means douze points from Armenia will go to Ukraine instead of Russia. Armenia tends to back songs that are written by Armenian composers, including Ukraine 2013 (12 points), Russia 2006 (12 points), Belarus 2007 (10 points), Ukraine 2008 (10 points), Georgia 2008 (10 points)
Will there be best sweden composed entry poll?
Tonight I dreamt that Austria finished 12th in the semifinal and I was part of the press corp and went completely nuts over this. Crying out loud and insulting the organizers for rigging the result in favour of the usual countries. So weird this dream. I couldnt believe it when I woke up.
The Karaoke Version of Loin d’ici is mesmerizing. I wish it would get performed. When her voice blends in at the end of the song, I am so done…..
Well, I wouldn’t call song whose “artists” get credit for changing a word or two in the song lyrics self-written.
But among the very few who actually did write their song BY THEMSELVES, it’s gotta be Greta Salóme for me.
Sweden, Finland, Malta, Spain, Ukraine, Italy
From my point of view originality needs to be rewarded in a “song” contest. JAMALA for Ukraine is probably one of the best vocalist this year too.
b.r. LEO ESC AUT
Sweden, France and Netherlands.
All the respect for all these artists who write (or at least collaborate) their own songs.
I think, Austria is best among them.
Ukraine, Armenia – masterpieces. I also like the Iceland’s entry.
Respect for those who took a part in writing process. Shame on those who year after year buying entire production abroad.
New video /an OST of a commedy/ featuring Iveta Mukuchyan has been released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eie_8gOPL6k
spain, ukraine, france
Jamala, Francesca, Ira, Greta, Poli, Amir and Zoë! 🙂
One Armenian composer made the music for Jamala’s song. She wrote her song in collaboration.
Jamala, Barei, Amir. and they are actually my favs in the contest.
Austria
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Italy
Malta
The Netherlands
Romania
Spain
Sweden
Especially Romania and Italy, they are REALLY good
Sweden and France!
Daah? France and Sweden ofc.
My prediction for the second semi-final http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh6VFHNFiuc