Basel, SWITZERLAND – At the Eurovision Song Contest, anyone over the age of 16 can take part and this year, there are artists aged 19 to 52.
Youth Journalism International is taking a closer look today at three of the Gen Z performers – between age 15 and 28.
Listen to a recording of this article:
Austria‘s representative Johannes Pietsch, known on stage as JJ, is combining two different genres this year.
The 2001 born Filipino-Austrian singer was trained at the Vienna State Opera since 2022. He’s a countertenor, which means he has the highest possible voice range for a male singer. JJ can thus reach the heights of a soprano.
JJ started his career as a teenager at the Opera School in Vienna and currently studies Opera Music at the Viennese Music and Arts University.
For his debut single “Wasted Love,” which is also his Eurovision song, JJ combines classical music with modern elements, showcasing his outstanding vocals while also include techno beats, making the last 30 seconds of the song feel like a rave.
In “Wasted Love,” JJ sings about his experiences with unrequited love (I’m an ocean of love/And you‘re scared of water.) He describes a moment in his life where the person he loved at that time moved away from him, having the fear of not being able to process the love they receive.
In the end, he realizes that the relationship is without a future and he completely lets his feelings out, resulting in an emotional rollercoaster – and in one of the highest notes ever to be sung in Eurovision.
Another song about processing a break up is “Baller,” the German contribution to this year’s contest. It is performed by Abor & Tynna, a sibling duo from – Austria! Tynna, born in 2000, is the singer and lyricist of the group while her brother, who was born in 1998, is responsible for producing their songs.
Just like JJ, Abor & Tynna live in Vienna and have roots from Hungary and Romania. In songs like “Winnetou,” they partly even sing in Hungarian.
“Baller,” however, is completely sung in German, making it the first entry since 2007 from Germany to do so.
The sibling duo are part of a musical family, with their father being a cellist with the Vienna Philharmonic. This can be heard in their songs as well. In their Eurovision entry, the intro of the song consists of Abor playing the cello, which he continues doing during the chorus.
Otherwise, the song is very modern, including electropop elements and a very catchy hook. Different from JJ‘s song, the modern elements are much more represented here and it is thus very appealing to younger people.
In the song, the protagonist puts an end to a relationship, although it seems hard to do so, they are not wanting return to them (but, I won‘t come back/no matter what you say) and are even going a step further (so, I change perfumes/and buy myself new clothes.)
The song title “Baller” means ‘to shoot’ in this context as the protagonist shoot[s] for the stars, trying to regain confidence.
As with JJ, the text is personal to Tynna and she dedicated the song to a former partner who left a very negative impact on her.
Another Gen Z artist to watch is Miriana Conte with her song “SERVING.” The 2000-born Maltese has tried to represent Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest four times before this year, each time failing to win the national final.
But this year she was able to convince the Maltese people to choose her and her song, which includes elements of electronic music.
It is best described as a hymn for self-empowerment and confidence: Why should we let other people decide/When we could be having the time of our lives? While the version that Conte will sing is called “SERVING,” the original version was called “Kant,” meaning singing in Maltese.
When Miriana was “serving Kant“ it meant “serving singing,” but the European Broadcasting Union did not allow her to sing this version.
This is due the fact that the pronunciation of the word is very similar to an English swear word, and as Eurovision is seen as a ‘family show’ by the EBU, this version was not approved.
Online, many people criticized this decision, saying the word would not have any negative meaning in Conte‘s native language and that it thus would be a case of censorship of the Maltese language.
But Conte made the best of this situation and changed the lyrics from “Serving Kant” to “Serving ___.” She replaced the missing word with a simple sound, so fans could fill in the blank.
All of these songs are seen as fan favorites, ranking first (Austria), fifth ( Malta) and seventh (Germany) out of 37 countries in the biggest fan poll.
Especially among young Eurovision fans, those songs are very popular – but could one of them win?
Find out at the May 17 broadcast of the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest.
Florian Gashi is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Germany. He is covering the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland. He wrote this article and made the videos.
Lilit Nazlukhanyan is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Armenia. She recorded the audio.
