Eurovision 2022: Wrapping up this year's 40 ESC participants

• With all 40 Eurovision 2022 representatives been selected and their respective competing songs released the puzzle of this year's class has been completed. 

  A total of 40 nations will take part in the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. With the Big-5 countries (Italy, Germany, Spain, UK and France) qualifying directly to the Grand final on May 14, the rest 35 countries will pass through two semi finals set for 10 and 12 May.  All three live shows of Eurovision 2022 will be held in  Pala Olimpico in Turin, Italy.

  Lets go and see now that the picture is clear the overview of the ESC 2022 class:

   

  Eurovision 2022 will see 15 female solo artists

  A total of 15 female solo acts will be flying the flag of their countries in Turin. Namely those are the following the songs of which you can check ot by clicking the song titles: 

  1. Albania: Ronela Hajati - Sekret 
  2. Armenia: Rosa Linn - Snap 
  3. Croatia: Mia Dimsic - Guilty Pleasure
  4. Cyprus: Adromache -Ela
  5. Greece: Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord - Die Together
  6. Ireland: Brooke - That's Rich 
  7. Lithuania: Monika Liu - Sentimentai
  8. Malta: Emma Muscat - I Am What I Am
  9. Montenegro: Vladana - Breathe
  10. Netherlands: S10 - De Diepte
  11. North Macedonia: Andrea - Circles
  12. Portugal: Maro - Saudade saudade
  13. Serbia: Konstrakta - In Corpore Sano
  14. Spain: Chanel - SloMo
  15. Sweden: Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer

    

   

  This year the Eurovision stage will see 11 male soloists

  A number of 11 solo male acts will be competing in Pala Olympico this May which is a slighter smaller number then previous editions. Namely the solo male delegates to take the stage are: 

  1. Australia: Sheldon Riley - Not The Same 
  2. Azerbaijan: Nadir Rustamli - Fade to Black
  3. Belgium: Jeremie Makiese - Miss you
  4. Estonia: Stefan - Hope
  5. Germany: Malik Harris - Rockstars
  6. Israel: Michael Ben David - I'M
  7. Poland: Ochman - River
  8. Romania: WRS - Llamame
  9. San Marino: Achille Lauro - Stripper
  10. Swtizerland: Marius Bear -Boys Do Cry
  11. United Kingdom: Sam Ryder - Space Man

   

  The 66th Eurovision will see 14 groups or duos

  A total of fourteen  nations opted for groups or duos instead of soloist artists which marks the highest number in the contest. Namely they are: 

  1. Austria: LUM!X ft Pia Maria - Halo
  2. Bulgaria: Intelligent Music Project - Intention
  3. Czech Republic: We Are Domi - Lights Off
  4. Denmark: REDDI - The Show
  5. Finland: The Rasmus - Jezebel
  6. France: Alvan & Ahez - Fulenn
  7. Georgia: Circus Mircus - Lock Me In
  8. Iceland: Systur - Með Hækkandi Sól
  9. Italy: Mahmood & Blanco - Brividi
  10. Latvia: Citi Zeni - Eat Your Salad
  11. Moldova: Zdob si Zdub & Fratii Advahov - Trenuletul
  12. Norway: Subwoolfer - Give That Wolf A Banana
  13. Slovenia: LPS - Disko
  14. Ukraine: Kalush Orhestra - Stefania

   

  The Comebacks

  Among the competing acts at this year's Eurovision we meet some a few returning acts, who had experienced the Eurovision stage in the past. Namely, Italy's Mahmood is making a second appearance in the competition after his participation at Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv with the song 'Soldi' which offered Italy the honorable 2nd place. Of course this year he is not alone as he will be performing in a duo with Blanco. 

  For Moldova's Zdob și Zdub this will be their third Eurovision participation as they have taken the Eurovision stage twice in the past. The Moldavian punk rock and folk rock group Zdob și Zdub ( Roman Yagupov, Mihai Gâncu, Sviatoslav Starus, Andrei Cebotari, Victor Dandeș și Valeriu Mazilu ) has already participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with" Bunica bate doba " (Grandmamma is beating from drum-a). finishing in sixth place. In 2011, they again represented Moldova, finishing in twelfth place with 'So Lucky'.

  Stoyan Yankoulov is no stranger to the Eurovision world as he represented Bulgaria along with Elitsa Todorova in two past editions of the Eurovision Song Contest. Namely, back in 2007 in Helsinki with the song "Voda" which placed 5th, marking the country's best results in the competition up to that point, and at Eurovision 2013 in Malmö in 2013 performing "Samo Shampioni" where they failed to qualify to the final the Grand Final.

   

   

  The age factor

  Interesting are the facts around the age of this year's competing acts. The youngest participant for Turin is Zala Velensek, member of the group LPS, Slovenia's hopefuls in Turin, who is 17 years old. Three acts are aged 18: Filip Vidusin and Gasper Hliupic from LPS and Pia Maria who is representing along with DJ LUM!X Austria. 

  On the other hand the oldest participating act comes from Bulgaria, as returning act Stoyan Yankoulov is 55 years old followed by the members of the group Zdob și Zdub, Victor Dandeș (49), Sviatoslav Starus (47), Mihai Gâncu (46) while the top 5 of the oldest acs close the male members of The Rasmus , Lauri Ylönen (lead singer-songwriter), Eero Heinonen (bass), Pauli Rantasalmi (guitar) all 42 years old.

  In the overall, the majority of competing acts are between 17 and 30 years old. 

   

   

  Selection formats

  A total of 28 nations opted for national selections in order to determine their Eurovision 2022 hopefuls while 12 decided to choose their representatives via internal procedures. Among others Spain, Ireland, North Macedonia, Poland and Germany swtiched this year to a national selection format. 

   

   

  Performers contributing in their songs

  Another impressive fact for this year's edition is the high number of performers that have been involved in the creation of the songs that they will be delivering on stage in Turin. A total of 24 performers have contributed one way or another (lyrics, composition, arangement) in the creation of their entries. Namely, the representatives of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Australia, Ireland, U.K, Denmark, Estonia, Netherlands, Latvia, Belgium, Germany, Czech Rep., Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, N.Macedonia, Albania, Italy, Greece, Moldova, Romania and France have their names included in the creative team behind their competing entries.  

   

   

  Genres of music

  Like every year, diversity of music is reflected in the type of participating songs. A big variety of genres is represented in the competition year from year. The 2022 edition is on the same page of the story, as we see 14 up-tempo songs against 11 mid-tempo ones, a total of 11 ballads and four songs in the field  of rock music. With the ethnic pop elements playing a major role in past editions especially during the 10's decade, this year Albania, Cyprus, France, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova and Israel are betting on strong enthnic musical elements to attract votes from all the ethnic music followers across the continent.  

   

   

  The beauty in languages

  Our of the 40 performers that will be taking the stage in Turin a strong majority of 25 songs will be delivered exclusively in English language. A second set of six participants will be singing using a combination of two languages, with  Spain, Albania, San Marino, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania (contains the song title and one line in Spanish) in that group. On the other hand,  a total of nine countries will be using national languages, with Lithuania, Moldova (although it contains a repeated line in English), the  Netherlands, Slovenia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, Italy and France taking this option. However we must point out here that the French hopefuls will be singing in Breton which is Celtic language in France's Brittany region marking the debut appearance of the specific language in the competition. 

   

  Records

  Germany has competed more times than any other country, having participated in all but one edition, while Ireland holds the record for the most victories, with seven wins in total. However, if Cornelia from Sweden achieves to bring in May the trophy back home than Sweden will reach Ireland's record. If one of France, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands win this year's contest they will reach Sweden's six victories and will be a step away from Ireland. 

  If Italy tops the final scoreboard for a second year in a row it will join the list of four countries that have already achieved a back to back victory: Spain (1968 and 1969),  Luxembourg (1972 and 1973), Israel (1978 and 1979) and Ireland which became the first country to win three consecutive titles, winning in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

  Poland, Romania, San Marino, Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, Moldova, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Lithuania, Iceland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia, North Macedonia and Australia  are running after their first victory in the competition as they have never won the contest since their debut participation.  

   

  The 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place at Pala Olimpico in Turin, wth the two semi-finals taking place on May 10 and 12 and the Grand final show on May 14, 2022. This will be the third time that Italy hosts the contest (having previously hosted the 1965 edition in Naples and the 1991 edition in Rome),The three live shows will be hosted by Italian television presenter Alessandro Cattelan, singer Laura Pausini and Lebanese-British singer Mika.

   

  News Source/Image: Eurovsion.tv

   

   

   

   

AUTHORS

Angelos D.
Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.