Eurovision 2024: Your guide to all 37 songs [View all]

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From Mark Savage, Music Correspondent, BBC

Olly Alexander is trapped in a post-apocalyptic boxing gym, aboard a spaceship hurtling towards earth in 1985.
A “goth gremlin goblin witch” is holding a candlelit séance and summoning the spirit of a minotaur.
Nemo (the singer, not the fish) has skinned a muppet and is cavorting around in its skin, while singing Mozart’s Queen Of The Night.
It can only be the Eurovision Song Contest.

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Zany songs (with serious undertones)
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The success of Käärijä’s mutant rave-rap anthem Cha Cha Cha at last year’s contest has unlocked something potent.
Everywhere you look in Malmö, there’s a sense of musical experimentation and outré risqué performance.
Top of the heap is Croatia’s Baby Lasagna, whose ridiculously catchy Rim Tim Tagi Dim is currently the bookmakers' favourite to win.
Loud and aggressive and memorable and fun, it blends elements of rock and techno to tell the story of a farm boy saying goodbye to his milking stool and setting out for the big city.
According to singer Marko Purišić, the lyrics are a reference to the brain drain that’s affecting Croatia’s economy.

Another strong contender Switzerland’s Nemo, whose song The Code is a hare-brained hybrid of pop, opera and electro.
Inspired by Nemo’s childhood experience as an opera singer, it uses elements of Bizet’s Carmen and Mozart’s The Magic Flute to explain how they came to terms with their non-binary identity. It’s surprisingly intense.

Finland’s Windows95Man, on the other hand, is trying too hard to stand out, emerging from a giant egg and dancing around in his underpants. But all the antics aren’t enough to distract from the fatally generic Europop of his song, No Rules.

I’m much more enamoured by Joost Klein from the Netherlands who takes a whistle-stop, happy hardcore tour of Europe in the infectiously silly Europapa.
Performed in high-rise shoulderpads, while LED screens project images of currywurst and paella, the song is nonetheless rooted in tragedy.
Joost lost his parents at a young age, and the song reflects that no matter how far he travels, he can’t outrun his grief.

Read about the rest of the songs here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgy7l6er7vo

Eurovision will take place in Malmo, Sweden, on May 7 & 9, with the final on May 11.
Streaming live at:
https://eurovision.tv/event/malmo-2024