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 during the contest off-season, using Eurovision as a lens to analyze what’s happening in pop culture and the world.

The EuroWhat? Podcast on social media

Episodes

  • Episode 166: Volare

    August 23rd, 2022  |  Season 5  |  35 mins 21 secs
    armenia, israel, italy, netherlands, united kingdom

    "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" (also known as "Volare") is not only one of the most well-known Eurovision songs, it's one of the most successful Italian songs ever. We dig into the song's backstory and it's continued impact on popular culture.

  • Episode 165: Lugano

    August 9th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  26 mins 6 secs
    armenia, belgium, italy, switzerland, ukraine, united kingdom

    How did the first Eurovision telecast come about in 1956? We talk about coronations, cattle calls, and continental broadcasting in this week's episode.

  • Episode 164: Host Country Where?

    July 26th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  29 mins 31 secs
    armenia, france, israel, italy, netherlands, spain, ukraine, united kingdom

    Now that the United Kingdom will officially host Eurovision 2023 on Ukraine's behalf, we take a look back at the other times substitutes needed to be called in to produce the Contest.

  • Episode 163: Iceberg

    July 12th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  33 mins 34 secs
    albania, estonia, georgia, germany, italy, moldova, netherlands, norway, poland, san marino, ukraine, united kingdom

    With around 250 entries on the Reddit post for the 2022 Eurovision Iceberg, we take a look at some of the stories we missed (or skipped) in this year's Contest.

  • Episode 162: Midsommar

    June 28th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  41 mins 17 secs
    israel, italy, poland, san marino, sweden, ukraine, united kingdom

    We're joined by @dudepoints to discuss some Swedish post-Eurovision activities: ABBA's Voyage concert experience and Martin Osterdahl's Max Anger book series.

  • Episode 161: Trivial Pursuits

    June 14th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  38 mins 14 secs
    belgium, cyprus, ireland, russia, ukraine, united kingdom

    Professional TV quiz writer Alex McMillan joins us to talk about how to write tantalizing Eurovision trivia. We also learn about some of the differences between UK and US game show writing.

  • Episode 160: Just ASCing Questions

    May 31st, 2022  |  Season 5  |  49 mins 39 secs
    azerbaijan, georgia, italy, montenegro, poland, romania, san marino, ukraine

    We check in with the Eurovision jury shenanigans and then offer a sample of what we've been doing over on Patreon. Andy Dehnart from Reality Blurred joins us to look back on NBC’s American Song Contest experiment.

  • Episode 159: Long Time, First Time

    May 24th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  58 mins 44 secs
    czech republic, ireland, israel, italy, montenegro, san marino, serbia, ukraine, united kingdom

    Bradley Dalton-Oates joins us for a deep dive of the full Eurovision experience as a first-time attendee. Did Turin do a good job of promoting brand Italy?

  • Episode 158: Slava Ukraini

    May 17th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  24 mins 52 secs
    azerbaijan, georgia, germany, italy, montenegro, romania, san marino, serbia, spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine, united kingdom

    Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra claimed the Eurovision 2022 trophy thanks to a record-breaking televote. Dave Steeves joins us to do a mini-dive into this year's Grand Final.

  • Episode 157: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — Eurovision 2022 Grand Final Preview

    May 13th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  36 mins 53 secs
    armenia, australia, azerbaijan, belgium, czech republic, estonia, finland, france, germany, greece, iceland, italy, lithuania, moldova, netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine, united kingdom

    We started Eurovision Week with 35 semi-finalists. 20 have moved on to join the Big 5 in Saturday's Grand Final. We take stock of our predictions from last episode and make our picks for who will win Eurovision 2022.

  • Episode 156: Bubblicious - Eurovision 2022 Semi-Final Preview

    May 8th, 2022  |  Season 5  |  34 mins 31 secs
    albania, armenia, australia, austria, azerbaijan, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, estonia, finland, georgia, greece, iceland, ireland, israel, latvia, lithuania, malta, moldova, montenegro, netherlands, north macedonia, norway, poland, portugal, romania, san marino, serbia, slovenia, sweden, switzerland, ukraine

    We make our picks for who we think will advance from this week's Eurovision Semi-Finals. These predictions were made before rehearsals, but surely they're still accurate?

  • Episode 155: Sommelier

    May 3rd, 2022  |  Season 5  |  32 mins 31 secs
    france, germany, italy, spain, united kingdom

    Glen Weldon from NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour joins us to discuss the songs that have automatically qualified for the Eurovision 2022 Grand Final.