Its fan contest season – Get song hunting now!!!

Off season can be quite long, 2020 took the biscuit for sure following Eurovision’s cancellation but it still can be daunting knowing you have a whole year to wait until the next contest. So what semi-ESC related thing can I do with my time?

Well you read the title right!?

For context, fan contests are when people in the Eurofandom social media fandoms collect songs they like and submit them to mini ESC style contests where we vote for our favourites. This is a great way to discover new music and let’s face it this is a music blog – in our opinion that can only be a good thing. It is also a great way to interact with other Eurofans, particularly if you are shy and want a good excuse to talk to people in the community. Many of the artists that get entered to fan contests end up participating in national selections for Eurovision or even end up going to the contest. For this reason, fan contests are also a great way to familiarise yourself with artists in various countries and the directions their music scene branches into.

When I first joined the fandom I would really enjoy reading blogs on who people wanted to see show up at Eurovision but I never knew who half the artists were. Since I started participating in fan contests though, I have begun to get more of an appreciation for major artists in music scenes which aren’t as big in my own local culture or linguasphere. If you want to extend and develop your love for music out with Eurovision and national final seasons, fan contests are a great way to do it.

So how do I get started?

Well each contest varies in its rules and community, it is pretty straight forward to get started. All you need is a social media account! I’m sure many of you are already part of the fandoms on various social media networks but if you aren’t the first thing to do is #JoinUs. Simply search Eurovision on your network of choice and I can guarantee you will find plenty of like minded people who also enjoy Eurovision. Then its simply a matter of joining one of their contests or setting up your own.

Finding songs can be really easy or really hard depending on contest rules and how much you want to challenge yourself. The most obvious and common approach is to send a song by an artist you already know and love. Most artists have a Wikipedia page or a country/location on one of their social media profiles, so you can often pretty easily find out where your artist is from and eligible to represent. If you really don’t know who to send, you can always do the reverse, starting with a country and then either googling it or going on a website like everynoise.com to find artists with links to that country. Fan contests are a great excuse to start listening to those world Spotify playlists you have never gotten around to listening to.

But fan contests aren’t for everyone….

Fan contests are a lot of fun but also take a lot of commitment and work. You have to remember to listen to the songs, remember to vote and if you are hosting you have to collect and present all this information. So if you do want to try throwing your hat into the fan contests of the Eurofandom, I would highly recommend you do it but start off with one or two and work your way up. The last thing you want (especially if your life is already busy – and who’s isn’t) is to burn yourself up.

So yeah not everyone enjoys fan contests but I would say they are definitely worth a shot. The good news is if they aren’t for you, the very same Eurovision fandoms organise lots of other creative events and media for us all to consume and interact with. Never fear, the Eurovision community lasts all year!