Since Eurovision 2020 was sadly cancelled back in March, the #EurovisionAgain project has helped fill the gap in our Eurovision-loving hearts. The series of rewatching classic editions of Eurovision comes to an end in December, but it’s going out with a bang. The final session will be a semi-final special where the best non-qualifiers of the current semi-finals era will battle it out to find a winner. But which are the best songs from each country?
Throughout November, the official Eurovision Instagram account will poll fans on their semi-final favourites from each country. Combined with favourites from Eurovision fan media, the #EurovisionAgain team will decide the 20 most popular non-qualifiers and those picks will battle it out in a special edition of #EurovisionAgain on Saturday 19 December.
But we’re also curious to see which non-qualifiers are favourites with wiwibloggs readers, so we are launching a series of polls to find out your favourite from each country.
The polls won’t include any entries from the Big Five — as they have never competed in the semi-finals. Ukraine and Australia also won’t be included as they are #blessed to have never had a song not make it out of the semis.
Five countries have only ever had one song not qualify, so we’re considering those songs to be the automatic picks for those countries. They are:
- Azerbaijan: Aisel – “X My Heart”
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner & Jala – “Ljubav je”
- Russia: Julia Samoylova – “I Won’t Break”
- Sweden: Anna Bergendahl – “This Is My Life”
- Turkey: Yüksek Sadakat – “Live It Up”
But what are the best from the rest of the countries? Listen to the non-qualifying tracks from the semi-finals era (2004 onwards) and vote for your favourites! We’re starting with Albania, Andorra, Armenia and Austria.
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Albania?
- 2006: Luiz Ejlli – “Zjarr e ftohtë”
- 2007: Frederik Ndoci – “Hear My Plea”
- 2011: Aurela Gaçe – “Feel the Passion”
- 2013: Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko – “Identitet”
- 2014: Hersi Matmuja – “One Night’s Anger”
- 2016: Eneda Tarifa – “Fairytale”
- 2017: Lindita – “World”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Andorra?
- 2004: Marta Roure – “Jugarem a estimar-nos”
- 2005: Marian van de Wal – “La mirada interior”
- 2006: Jenny – “Sense tu”
- 2007: Anonymous – “Salvem el món”
- 2008: Gisela – “Casanova”
- 2009: Susanne Georgi – “La teva decisió (Get a Life)”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Armenia?
- 2011: Emmy – “Boom Boom”
- 2018: Sevak Khanagyan – “Qami”
- 2019: Srbuk – “Walking Out”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Austria?
- 2005: Global Kryner – “Y así”
- 2007: Eric Papilaya – “Get a Life – Get Alive”
- 2012: Trackshittaz – “Woki mit deim Popo”
- 2013: Natália Kelly – “Shine”
- 2019: Paenda – “Limits”
Which non-qualifiers are your favourites? Who would you like to see have another shot at Eurovision? Tell us your thoughts below!
Albania 2017
Andorra 2006
Armenia 2019
Austria 2007
Gorgeous idea! I’m looking forward to it!
I wish they included songs that stayed in first preselections – 1993 and 1996. Russia lost in the latter so they would be eligible then but even without that many gems were excluded in those.
My picks:
Albania – 2006. Great song, maybe not enough going for it staging-wise.
Austria – 2005. Absolutely charming and delightful. Sad to see it so low here.
Andorra – 2008. But it’s a tossed coin between this and 2007 and both deserve to be included.
Armenia – 2019. Duh… The only acceptable choice out of those 3.
To me the biggest SF crime will always be Blackbird from Finland. Such a gorgeous song.
Am i the only one who love Hear my plea from Albania 2007?
Yes you are ;P
No, you’re not. I really like it.
I wouldn’t pick it as Albania’s entry here but it’s still good.
“Five countries have only ever had one song not qualify, so we’re considering those songs to be the automatic picks for those countries.” –
Actually not, that article on Eurovision site also says that only the countries which failed to qualify more than once are egilible. So that means we won’t see those 5 listed songs.
My picks are:
1. Andorra – Salvem el món
2. Austria – Limits, a unique masterpiece that approaches a subject of spoon budget, which has never been approached before that on Eurovision.
3. Albania – Identitet
4. Armenia – Walking Out
Although I love all 4 of them, only Andorra and Austria would make my top 20 of ideal picks for every country.
I personally find that “1 song per country” thing a little bit unfair, cause some countries had multiple great non-qualifying entries, so I already feel bad for them going to be robbed again.
For example, even from today’s countries, along with those 4 songs I picked above, I also love “Get a life – get alive”, “Woki mit deim popo” and “One night’s anger”, the first two being placed higher than “Identitet” in my personal ranking.
Yes I can see the reasons behind it, also if fans from some particular countries will decide to rig the voting (like they rig polls here on Wiwibloggs), it will be beneficial only for one song, not 5 for example.
So we will not be seeing all our (robbed) Maltese entries, just the one? I demand a recount! Wait till I tell Donald!
Haha I feel the same only when I wrote my comment I had only Switzerland in mind above everything else. Then Finland, then Slovenia, Latvia and North Macedonia.
(For Malta my choice is btw the masterpiece called Warrior by far, and it’s my 7th in my ideal picks’ top 20).
I would probably have to choose Vertigo but not happy about leaving out One Life, Warrior and Breathlessly.
Albania: 2007
Andorra: 2007, 2008 & 2009
Armenia: 2011
Austria: 2007
Albania 2006
Andorra 2007
Armenia 2019
Austria 2019
You forgot Australia!
Oh wait
These are my picks: 1) Albania: Identited (2013) This is an amazing entry, anthemic and powerful. It’s never bad to inject some rrrrrrock into your life!!! 2) Andorra: La Teva Decisió (2009) Eurofans should have supported Andorra. It’s an enjoyable, pleasant entry: “Ah-ah-ah-I… I know I am right, I’m getting a life…” 3) Armenia: Walking Out (2019) A dramatic song, the guys left our Srbuk girl alone on stage despite her song’s potential to have rendered an impressive act. 4) Austria: Shine (2013) Miss Kelly opened her semi-final and then that starting “Oh-oh” was never ever EVER erased from my… Read more »
This is going to be a lot of fun, Here are my picks:
Albania: 2017
Andorra: 2007
Armenia: 2019 (seriously, it would have qualified if they hadn’t screwed up the staging)
Austria: To be honest, I could see none of them in the final, but if I had to pick one, it’s 2019.
Albania – World
Andorra – Casanova
Armenia – Boom Boom
Austria – Woki Mit Deim Popo
Dislike away, ;P
Srbuk being picked to open the show was SO unfair. Not an opening song at all. Didn’t really like it, but I felt the producers choosing the running order really hurt its chances.
I don’t think Walking Out going first hurt its chances, it was its disastrous staging and Srbuk’s patchy vocals that sealed its doom.
It didn’t affect Andre or Aram MP3. I think all 10 qualifiers were better than Walking Out, and the staging was lame, but it shouldn’t have placed 16th (11th or 12th made more sense and I rate it over Kruna And Sebi from the other, weaker, heat), it felt weird for armenia to miss out twice in a row, and why I want them to use a single artist song selection (like 2008 and 2013) by any means necessary (even if in Greece or Hannover instead). For Albania and Austria it is hard to name, though Shine was nice.
Srbuk wasn’t even close to qualify. Running order wasn’t the reason and wouldn’t change that.
We could say Armenia 2014 or Latvia 2016 weren’t typical openers and didn’t hurt their chances.
Albania – Feel The Passion
Andorra – Casanova
Armenia – Walking Out
Austria – Shine
Love Sense Tu!
Albania: Can’t choose between Feel The Passion (2011) and Zjarr E Ftohtë (2006)
Andorra: La Teva Decisió (Get A Life) (2009)
Armenia: Walking Out (2019)
Austria: Shine (2013)
Albania: One night’s anger (top 15 in 2014)
Andorra: Sense Tu/ La teva decisio (both top 15 in their years)
Armenia: Qami (have it as a non qualifier)
Austria: Limits (have it as a non qualifier)
Andorra 2007 is the answer.
Albania 2016
Andorra 2008
Armenia 2019
Austria 2013
Fairytale dragged on, but it was still better than the others (Albania didn’t qualify with) for me – identity felt generic, and the others felt poor. I also think that This year would have had the same problems as 2011, 2014 And 2017, even with a birdcage and good vocals, as I found it too dated for the public and schreechy and gravelly for the jury. I still wish her the best though, For she did Satellite better than my 2011 faves Jedward.
Albania 2017
Andorra 2005, 2006,2008 (costume ruinned chance for final and many points in all 3 times)
Armenia 2018
Austria 2013
Albania: Zjarr e ftohtë
Andorra: Sense tu
Armenia: Qami
Austria: Shine
Of all the songs listed Casanova is my favourite
Albania – Lindita – World, Armenia – Srbuk – Walking Out, Andorra – well no question here, Salvem El Mon was a great song, Austria – i went with Woki Mit Deim Popo, fun song 😀 But Austria 2007 was also good, still don’t understand why it did so badly in the semi-final…
Albania: World, but Feel the Passion also deserved better.
Andorra: Salvem El Món obviously but La Teva Decisió is not that bad.
Armenia: Walking Out. If it was just by studio cuts, Armenia would be top 10, at least top 15.
Austria: Limits. A beautiful song that was robbed for no reason.
Most of them for me deserved to stay in semi final, but if I have to choose:
Albania: 2011
Andorra: 2007 and maybe 2009
Armenia: all of them deserved to be out, but I choose 2018
Austria: 2013
Albania – World
Andorra – Salvem el mon – The song I voted for back in 2007. But I would put most of them in the qualifiers for their respective years. I think La mirada interior is underrated among fans.
Armenia – Qami
Austria – Most of them are in a similar “might have as well qualified” status for me – Limits, Y asi, Woki mit dem popo and Shine.