The Malta Song for Europe was one of the poorest festivals I had ever seen. Only the winning song stuck in the memory, being different to the usual Maltese concept.

So Malta’s eighth place this year was a nice surprise to me.

However, winning the Eurovision with this high-spirits song was never really within reach. Again, the competition was too strong, with new heavyweights like Russia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine in much better positions. The concept of catchy dance tunes paired with melodic singing once more led to successful placings.

Europe’s biggest song contest has established an incredibly high level throughout the past years.

It is remarkable that most of the top 10 songs were written and/or composed by artists with international experience either in the commercial billboard charts music business or in the Eurovision circus.

Without hesitation, many countries nowadays import experienced and successful writers and composers. Sensing the taste of the European audience is a major part in this process.

That is also why the listeners often feel that a song is familiar, as if they have heard it or something like it before. I would call this an ongoing Eurovision unification process that actually seems to be the only way to place top. National individualism and the pride of national identity therefore get lost.

Most of the past years’ Eurovision songs could not be associated with a particular country. Emmelie De Forest could also be Romanian, Loreen could be Armenian, Ell and Nikki could be Swedish.

This is the price we pay to get a fantastic music show with professional performers who sing and dance like in any chart’s music videos.