Greece: Stefania

In 2020 Greece brought us Stefania and "Supergirl". The song itself ticks some catchy pop tune boxes with a slight "mmm nice" factor for a little Arabian influence. But the narrative of the video is what grabs you- a teenage girl with some telekinetic powers working out high school and relationships. While proficient, she is clearly still getting accustomed to her powers (otherwise she would surely be stopping planes crashing rather than tying boys' shoes together and would have a much cooler superhero suit). 

As she strives to avoid her powers being found out, it's crunch time. A cat is stuck in a tree. As always with such moments of feline peril, a large group of teenagers gather and start filming. Everyone is acutely aware that the safety of the cat relies solely on finding someone with an ability to levitate (Greece famously lacks ladders and, while someone could clearly give someone else a leg up to get the cat, this would require putting down their phone). Inevitably, she floats up, gets the cat and gives it as a gift to her boyfriend. It's a powerful moment.

Having a story to her video gets Stefania some bonus points and again we are reminded of the pain of the lost live show- what special effects could Greece have used to emulate Stefania's super powers? Flying over the audience would have been fun. Are they allowed live cats on stage?  What could have been.....

Road safety is a surprisingly underexplored theme amongst the Eurovision alumni but "Last Dance" puts a powerful and important message front and center.

Will she/won't she cross the road? The red standy man has just taken over from the green walky man but there's no traffic. Do you risk it? Is it worth it, Stefania....Stefania? Oh no, she's in the road! The consequences of her recklessness rise in the form of unstoppable floods. There's no escape and the pegasus of death comes to take her away. This is her "last dance". Her clothes transform into pure, brilliant white like the high-vis garments that could have saved her. We cut back to the crossing. She's still on the pavement. It was all a "Final Destination" style premonition. Green man's back. She's OK. Lesson learnt.

Overall I like "Last Dance" more than "Supergirl" but either would have been good additions to the competition. The Greeks have certainly come a long way since Socrates.