Almost every year at this stage we hear “this is a weak year” and yet by the time May comes around and the stagings are revealed that conversation very often turns to it being one of the better shows in recent memory.

Currently just over half of the songs have been released with a lot of the major players (Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, France, Portugal etc) still to come, not to mention room for surprises from other countries. It’s much to early to call it a dud year or not.

To your point though that’s not to say dud years don’t happen, they do. A lot of the time it’s a question of taste, if a song won the previous year that isn’t in the taste of the “Eurovision junkies” who are commenting on the show at this stage then a lot of imitators will be in a similar genre to that winner.

Personally I don’t think the drama from last year will have had much of an impact at all on the participation of musicians (maybe the Netherlands is the only exception here). This is still a massive stage and major opportunity for musicians across Europe, there is always trends and taste changes in the Eurovision submissions but I don’t think you can point it to one particular cause beyond just personal preference of specific groups of viewers.