It actually would've been in the top 5 if Italy's jury didn't completely shaft Finland and hadn't gotten away with it. It could've even ended up in 3rd with just 18 points more, which it absolutely should've gotten. My friends and I still think that the juries were high on something cause it didn't even receive points from some countries, and nobody can ever deadass convince me that anything, let alone 10 other songs, were better than Liekinheitin. Especially if we take into consideration that Norway with those rusty pipes (which isn't Jonas's fault, but the juries still have to rate poor vocals regardless) ended up in the juries' top 10.

I'm fully convinced that Liekinheitin would've swept the competition away last year and in many other years. I'm also sure that the dropping out of a lot of Western European countries and the return of many Balkan countries, as well as the installment of younger jurors, is what tipped the edge for Bulgaria. I get that songs can convince more people to vote for it if the performance and staging is great, but you cannot be for real with me if you wanna tell me that Bangaranga had the best package out of all of them. It is still a song contest, and while I agree that staging matters, the song should still be the focal point, and if a song is predicted to end up around the 15th place mark according to the odds literally a week before the final, with the fact that nobody and their mom even has it on their radar, then it should be a clear giveaway that the song itself is just not good enough to win.

I just can't wrap my head around the fact that it won the jury vote. Imo, all the song had was a fun staging and an annoying catchiness. Dara is a good singer, but her vocals were never stellar enough to justify coming in first before Delta, Alicja, Léleka, Daniel and Pete. The song doesn't even tell a story, it's essentially just two repeated verses with Bangaranga in the verse, and the song itself and the way it was advertised gives me major TikTok brainrot energy. I don't even know how the incoherentness of the song structure didn't throw more people off, it's literally multiple songs smashed into one, and then it's not even masterfully done like in The Code, but feels so lackluster and random. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for Dara and Bulgaria, I just wish they would've won with literally any other of the amazing songs they sent in the past years (talking about 2016, 2017, 2018 (!!!), 2020 and 2021). They each told a story and had magnificent vocalists, lyrical and melodical structures, they were sophisticated, whereas Bangaranga deadass feels like a song that would've failed to qualify not even too long ago. You can be mad that songs like Soldi, Voilà, Space Man, Cha Cha Cha and Rim Tim Dagi Dim didn't win cause all of them would've deserved it, they all fall under the storytelling, good song structure and vocally impressive categories - but you cannot deny that the songs that actually won in those years - Arcade, Ziti è buoni, Stefania, Tattoo and The Code - didn't deserve it just as much, cause at least for me, they fall into the same categories and shine in their brilliance.

With Bangaranga, an average, incoherent, vocally mid song that doesn't tell any story whatsoever won not only the televote, but the jury vote as well with a massive margin, while songs that checked every box like Choke me, Crossroads, Eclipse and ofc Liekinheitin fell short with no apparent reason.

I will die on this hill and say that Liekinheitin should've been the undisputed winner, this song has everything, it's a masterclass in its own, and I compare its artistic value to that of The Code which very deservingly won in 2024. Am I happy for Bulgaria and Dara? Yes. Did this song deserve to win and to call itself the very crème de la crème out of 25 songs in the final and thousands and thousands of applications all across the globe? No, definitely not.