About the show
The Eurowhat? Podcast launched in 2018 and features two Americans (Ben Smith and Mike McComb) attempting to make sense of the Eurovision Song Contest. The show tracks national selections and artist announcements, breaks down each year’s songs with a diverse array of guests, and dives into the 65+ years of contest history using Eurovision as a lens to analyze what’s happening in pop culture and the world.
The EuroWhat? Podcast: Eurovision News & Reviews on social media
Episodes
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Episode 252: Process
January 21st, 2025 | Season 8 | 22 mins 13 secs
belgium, iceland, ireland, lithuania, luxembourg, moldova, norway, poland, portugal, serbia, slovenia, switzerland, ukraine
It's another hopping Eurovision 2025 setup week with another wave of potential songs, information about Basel, the ESC hosts, ticket sales, plus auditions and previews from Moldova and Belgium.
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Episode 251: Wading
January 14th, 2025 | Season 8 | 24 mins 8 secs
belgium, croatia, finland, greece, iceland, lithuania, malta, norway, poland, switzerland
We ease into the waters of the Eurovision TV season, thanks to the first heat of Lithuania's Eurovizija.LT. We also check in on the candidate song drops for the processes happening in Finland, Malta, Croatia, and Greece.
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Episode 250: Loaded with Energy
January 7th, 2025 | Season 8 | 44 mins 15 secs
albania, estonia, finland, iceland, ireland, lithuania, moldova, netherlands, san marino, spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine
Before 2025 gets into full swing, we catch up on Eurovision news from the end of 2024. We have designs! We have fonts! We have an entry where we're not not saying Tirana 2026! Plus, we go deep on the results from the ESC 250 Countdown.
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Episode 249: Pew Pew Pew
December 30th, 2024 | Season 8 | 59 mins 34 secs
austria, belgium, croatia, cyprus, denmark, estonia, finland, france, germany, iceland, ireland, israel, latvia, malta, netherlands, north macedonia, norway, romania, russia, spain, sweden, switzerland, turkey, united kingdom
As we head into 2025, we jump back 25 years to watch the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. How has the competition, fashion, and pop music changed in the last quarter-century(!)?
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Episode 248: Three-Card Montesong
December 17th, 2024 | Season 8 | 47 mins 38 secs
albania, armenia, belgium, croatia, czechia, estonia, finland, greece, iceland, italy, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, melfest, moldova, montenegro, norway, poland, serbia, slovenia, spain, switzerland
As we rush to get out of 2024 we're getting details from just about every country participating in Eurovision 2025. We recap last month's Montesong from Montenegro, learn a bit about Czechia's artist, and start adding all the dates to our calendar.
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Episode 247: Rebuilt
December 3rd, 2024 | Season 8 | 40 mins 42 secs
denmark, france, germany, italy, romania, spain, switzerland, united kingdom
In 2019 we examined the Big 5—Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—and offered suggestions on how they might improve their standing at Eurovision. It's five years later: how are the Big 5 doing now?
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Episode 246: Rockin' the Kremlin
November 19th, 2024 | Season 8 | 49 mins 6 secs
latvia, russia, sweden, switzerland, ukraine
David Junk, originally from Ohio, was the first CEO of Universal Music Russia. In his memoir Rocking the Kremlin', he and co-author Fred Bronson from Billboard Magazine share stories about the "Wild, Wild East", Eurovision, and the influence of western pop culture after the fall of the USSR.
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Episode 245: Avalanche
November 5th, 2024 | Season 8 | 38 mins 49 secs
albania, australia, azerbaijan, croatia, czechia, estonia, finland, germany, greece, iceland, ireland, luxembourg, malta, montenegro, north macedonia, norway, poland, serbia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine, united kingdom
It's been a couple months since we last checked in on Eurovision news… hoo boy there's a lot to get caught up on. We have elections, new heads of delegations, and info about way too many national selections.
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Episode 244: Yugonostalgia
October 22nd, 2024 | Season 8 | 36 mins 43 secs
croatia, finland, iceland, serbia, switzerland, yugoslavia
We welcome back @dudepoints, who recently completed their Master's thesis which included discussion of the intersection of the Yugoslavian Art Practice and recent Eurovision entries from Serbia and Croatia. More simply: let's talk about performance art at Eurovision!
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Episode 243: Verily
October 8th, 2024 | Season 8 | 27 mins 29 secs
croatia, germany, iceland, portugal, spain, sweden, switzerland, united kingdom
The Reference Group is one of the governing bodies for the Eurovision Song Contest. Who sits on this board and what experience do they bring to the table? We go through the dossiers in this episode.
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Episode 242: Eurovisionaries
September 24th, 2024 | Season 8 | 41 mins 51 secs
azerbaijan, croatia, israel, russia, sweden, switzerland, ukraine
Dr. Zoë Jay returns to discuss Eurovisionaries, an academic research project investigating the ways Eurovision fans think about and practice forms of cultural diplomacy.
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Episode 241: Exotic Switzerland
September 10th, 2024 | Season 8 | 41 mins 35 secs
cyprus, italy, montenegro, netherlands, sweden, switzerland
Our 8th season begins with news about Eurovision 2025 host city Basel, our first artist announcement, and a look at the history of Switzerland at the Contest.