Mike McComb has been following the Eurovision Song Contest since 2010 and has covered the competition across a number of websites since 2011. While studying Television, Radio, and Film at Syracuse University, he fell down a video rabbit hole of Ukraine’s previous entries that radicalized him into Eurofandom. Mike first attended Eurovision in Kyiv 2017, which doubled as his honeymoon. He lives in Chicago and has an inscrutable online media algorithm.
Mike McComb has hosted 311 Episodes.
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Episode 308: Welcome to Bulgaria
September 1st, 2026 | Season 10 | 34 mins 33 secs
austria, bulgaria, canada, israel, netherlands, ukraine, united kingdom
Happy Eurovision New Year! We start our 10th Season (sidebar: WHAT?!) catching up on the planning for 2027 as Bulgaria prepares to host the big event for the first time.
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The AsiaWhat?
August 25th, 2026 | 33 mins 4 secs
australia, bhutan, canada, malaysia, mongolia, philippines, south korea, thailand
It's been years in the making: Eurovision is heading to Asia! We take a look at the decades-long development process for this brand expansion, as well as discuss the first selections as we wait for November’s competition.
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Episode 307: Can't Stop the Music
August 18th, 2026 | Season 9 | 38 mins 47 secs
austria, bulgaria, switzerland
The Eurowhat AV Club finishes out the 1980 Disco Musical Trilogy (which includes The Apple and Xanadu) with CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC.
Spoiler: We would like to stop the music...
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Episode 306: Xanadu
August 4th, 2026 | Season 9 | 35 mins 23 secs
australia, austria, bulgaria, united kingdom
The Eurowhat Movie Club celebrates the legacy of Olivia Newton-John’s film career with a detour into roller disco classic(?) Xanadu. And OH BOY do we have questions...
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Episode 305: American Song Contest Revisited Part 2
July 21st, 2026 | Season 9 | 1 hr 27 mins
albania, austria, bulgaria, canada, italy, latvia, sweden, ukraine
The instantly-doomed American Song Contest really did seem like a good idea at the time: 56 states and territories competing for the hearts and minds of the public on NBC. The execution was not great, but we were pot-committed back in 2022 when we covered this pale imitation of Eurovision. What lessons can be learned before Asia tries its hand at the ESC formula?
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Episode 304: American Song Contest Revisited Part 1
July 7th, 2026 | Season 9 | 1 hr 35 mins
albania, austria, bulgaria, sweden
The instantly-doomed Great American State Fair was supposed to bring together all 56 US states and territories. What if there was a song contest that did that? NBC tried it in 2022 and we watched it all.
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Episode 303: Scopitone
June 16th, 2026 | Season 9 | 29 mins 42 secs
austria, france, italy, united kingdom
Scopitone was a video jukebox from the 1960s that featured short clips that could be considered proto-music videos. Ben discusses the history, production, and cultural impact of the medium while Mike delights in the off-model nature of the content.
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Episode 302: Notes on Camp
June 2nd, 2026 | Season 9 | 30 mins 34 secs
austria, belgium, iceland, ireland, latvia, moldova, san marino, sweden
What is "Camp"? In 1964, literary critic Susan Sontag investigated this question in her culture-defining essay "Notes on Camp". We discuss how the concept of Camp applies to Eurovision, other forms of pop culture, and our day-to-day lives.
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Episode 301: BOOM Bangaranga
May 19th, 2026 | Season 9 | 1 hr 1 min
australia, austria, belgium, bulgaria, denmark, france, germany, israel, lithuania, united kingdom
Better late than never: let’s talk about Eurovision 2026. We’ll discuss what happened in Vienna, what this means for the Contest going forward, and share our post-confetti plans. Also: BULGARIA?!
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Episode 300: Tu cara me suena
May 12th, 2026 | Season 9 | 32 mins 51 secs
austria, israel, spain
Spain has been ride-or-die for Eurovision since debuting in 1961. In this episode, we’ll be taking a look at how Spain’s original approach to the Contest may have informed their decision to not attend the festivities in Vienna for the first time in 65 years.
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Episode 299: Going Dutch
April 28th, 2026 | Season 9 | 24 mins 28 secs
austria, israel, netherlands, slovenia
Eurovision is an expensive enterprise, and the Netherlands has been one of the Contest’s largest financial supporters. In this episode, we’ll be taking a look at the financial impact of Netherland’s absence from Eurovision 2026.
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Episode 298: Hvala, Ne
April 14th, 2026 | Season 9 | 36 mins 10 secs
austria, bosnia & herzegovina, croatia, israel, slovenia
Slovenia has struggled to find momentum and consistency on the Eurovision scoreboard. In this episode, we take a look at how rule changes—especially around who qualifies—has impacted Slovenia’s ability to succeed at the Contest.