Live Updates: Eurovision Song Contest Comes to Asia for the First Time
When they sat down to plan the final show of the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest in Asia, the organizers faced a challenge: How could they introduce variety when most of the entries were slow-paced love songs?
Nine of the competition’s 11 participating countries picked performers singing about love in a wide range of styles, from ballads to a cappella hip-hop. Their choices suggest that the bombastic music often associated with victors of the European edition might not be a winning formula for Asian viewers.
“Europeans tend to prefer songs with a crescendo, a hook and a grand ending, but also a strong social message,” said Dean Vuletic, a historian of contemporary Europe at the University of Luxembourg who is an authority on Eurovision.
“The audience doesn’t want to see an innocuous pop song,” he said.
Electro-pop and dance songs have featured heavily on the list of Eurovision winners over the past decade. In May, Bulgaria’s Dara won with “Bangaranga,” a dance-pop song inspired by her diagnosis with attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Nemo, from Switzerland, won in 2024 with an EDM opera about their nonbinary identity, while in 2018, Israel’s Netta won with “Toy,” a pop anthem about female independence.
Some countries hold a nationwide contest to select an artist and a song to represent them in Eurovision, while others leave the choice to Eurovision’s local broadcasting partner. Audiences in the Philippines voted for Carmelle in a televised competition, for example, while Vietnam Television chose Toc Tien.
The two are considered front-runners in the Asian edition, with their high-energy folk-pop songs about female empowerment.
Malaysia’s Aina Abdul, another early favorite, will showcase her powerful vocals in “Bluest Sky,” a ballad with an orchestral arrangement that is about a troubled relationship. The track is reminiscent of “Wasted Love,” an opera-techno song that won Austria the European title in 2025.
Pratik Himal Rai of Nepal, who got married this summer, said love was easy to sing about because it can be understood across borders and languages.
“It is love that holds the world together,” he said in an interview.
He will sing “Ananta Maya” in Nepali. Other Eurovision Asia artists blend English lyrics with their national languages.
In Europe, every winning song after 2022 has been in English. That year’s champion, Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, sang in their own language on “Stefania,” a hip-hop track that interspersed a Ukrainian lullaby with rap verses and traditional woodwind instruments.
Winning songs tend to blend a country’s national instruments and musical motifs with internationally trendy pop, Mr. Vuletic said.
A traditional Bhutanese flute can be heard in “Lhayi Semo,” Nyendra’s love ballad. Monetrey’s “I Let You Go” uses a Cambodian bamboo xylophone and a tro, a string instrument played with a bow. A kulintang, a percussion instrument made of eight brass gongs, keeps the fast beat in Carmelle’s “Sobra-Sobra.”
