This week in Eurovision – 31 January 2026

It’s been a whole week (and a day) since last I updated our loyal and patient audience about happenings in the world of Eurovision. Since we last spoke, the Vienna roster has gone up one, and various broadcasters have clicked into gear with preselections.

Elsewhere, tickets are going on sale for a series of Eurovision Live concerts very soon. The big bosses have unveiled the kind of line-up that might more typically grace the stage at a disappointing regional Pride – we’re talking Logan, Katrina and Verka.

We do at least know who’ll be badly ad-libbing from a moribund script in Vienna this May. Our hosts for the three big nights are Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski. So far no mention of who gets to try to coax anything vaguely entertaining from tired and disengaged contestants in the Green Room, but watch this (and other) space. The picture to my right speaks a thousand words.

Victoria is a TV presenter, entrepreneur, model, designer and singer. Michael is an actor and “popular presenter”.

The official burb displays little more than a passing familiarity with the English language, calling them “motivated, exciting and extraordinary personalities.”

Staying in Austria, at least one of the competing songs for “Vienna Calling – Wer singt für Österreich?” has begun releasing on socials, suggesting the rollout is now in motion rather than sitting on a pile of unreleased tracks.

In Italy, Sanremo bosses are introducing earlier checks on acts to confirm whether they’re willing to represent the country in Vienna. This removes the 2am press conference thing whereby RAI have to change the name on the Eurovision contract. The announcement comes as at least one act (Levante) makes clear a reluctance to take on the job should they win Sanremo.

Germany – and so far six of the nine competing songs from their upcoming preselection are now available to hear in full online. Nip over to ESC Kompakt for the links.

Luxembourg may have picked its song, but there are already questions over just how original the entry actually is. There are reports that broadcaster RTL is investigating claims by the French rights organisation SACEM that “Mother Nature” sounds an awful lot like Birdy’s 2016 “Keeping Your Head Up”.

In Norway, the lineup for Melodi Grand Prix 2026 is complete after Skrellex beat Raylee  in a series of ‘radio duels.

In San Marino, it’s still all about the money, with the submission deadline extended to 25 January. The ‘Dreaming’ things continue to happen, mostly to an audience of one, with the main final still shrouded in the mists of whoever gets spat out by Sanremo. SMRTV director-general Roberto Sergio confirmed today that the ten established acts taking part in the San Marino Song Contest will be made public on 26 February during a press conference in Sanremo.

Serbia marches on, with a reveal of the Pesma za Evroviziju 2026 semi-final running orders.

In Sweden, SVT has tinkered with the format, tweaking how qualification is revealed. Viewers get to see the two direct qualifiers at the end of each heat, but a third ‘winner’ will be named on SVT Play only. Your guess is as good as mine as to why. There’s also a bunch of nonsense about routing voting through a third-party where charity gets a slice. There were raised eyebrows earlier in the week, as Mello boss Anders Wistbacka said he doesn’t rule out songwriters using AI to write their songs. And let’s take a moment to remember the good old days. The compilation CD is no more. Warner Music are not bothering because (thanks to streaming) nobody actually buys it. Here are tonight’s songs…

Rarely ones to disappoint, the BBC in the United Kingdom have denied newspaper reports that they’ve dropped the (solo) act scheduled to sing this year’s try-too-hard song in Vienna. The Sun insisted the broadcaster has been forced to change plans after the performer found himself (just a guess, honest) ‘cancelled’ on account of saying dodgy things online. It just gets better, eh, chaps? No smoke without fire and all that. In unlikely other news, the BBC will announce their second choice ‘soon’.