Instead We Made a Pod is back with our latest instalment and this week it's time to head to Sweden for our review of Melodifestivalen 2025! 🇸🇪

12 artists will compete in Sweden's popular Melfest national final but only one will be crowned the winner and represent Sweden at Eurovision 2025 🎤

MJ and resident Phoenix expert Liv discuss their favourite competing entries across the heats and give their thoughts and predictions on who will win!

Can Måns Zelmerlöw seal a second Melfest victory and represent Sweden again? We'll find out on Saturday 8 March when the Melfest Final takes place at 20:00 CET live from the Strawberry Arena in Stockholm

Competing artists and songs:

John Lundvik - "Voice of the Silent"

Dolly Style - "Yihaa"

Greczula - "Believe Me"

Klara Hammarström - "On and On and On"

Scarlet - "Sweet N' Psycho"

Erik Segerstedt - "Show Me What Love Is"

Maja Ivarsson - "Kamikaze Life"

Meira Omar - "Hush Hush"

Måns Zelmerlöw - "Revolution"

Saga Ludvigsson - "Hate You So Much"

Annika Wickihalder - "Life Again"

Kaj - "Bara bada bastu"

Hosts - MJ & Liv

Produced by - Aaron (⁠⁠⁠⁠@Aaron_F320⁠⁠⁠⁠)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Eurovision, Eurovision Song Contest, ESC, ESC2025, Eurovision 2025, Melfest 2025, Melodifestivalen, Mello, Melfest, National Final, Sweden, Stockholm, music analysis, songs, Måns Zelmerlöw, Phoenix ESC, finalkval, culture, entertainment

Episode 3 is here and this week we're bringing you our pre show thoughts, discussions and predictions on Ukraine's national final, Vidbir 2025 ! 🇺🇦

Adam and MJ are joined by previous Vidbir episode guest and friend of the show, ESC Gottem (@escgottem). They explore the mixed opinions surrounding the quality of this year's songs, highlight the wild card entry, and delve into specific tracks. The conversation also touches on the representation of post-punk music in Vidbir and concludes with predictions for the winner.

Ten artists competed in Ukraine's national final which took place on 8 February 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Competing artists and songs:

Vlad Sheryf - Wind of Change

Abiye  - Дім

MOLODI - my sea

Future Culture - Waste My Time

Masha Kondratenko - No Time to Cry

KHAYAT - HONOR

FIЇNKA - Культура

KRYLATA - STAY TRUE

Ziferblat - Bird of Pray

DK Energetyk - Сіль

Hosts - Adam P & MJ

Special Guest - ESC Gottem

Produced by - Aaron (⁠⁠⁠⁠@Aaron_F320⁠⁠⁠⁠)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠⁠

Vidbir 2025, Eurovision, Ukrainian music, national finals, music critique, song reviews, Masha Kondratenko, FIЇNKA, Vlad Sheryf, DK Energetyk, Vidbir, Eurovision 2025, ESC, ESC2025, Ukraine

Episode 2 of Instead We Made a Pod's new season is here and this week we're bringing you our review of all things Eurosong 2025 ! 🇮🇪

Six artists will compete in Ireland's popular Late Late Show national final but only one will be crowned Bambi Thug's successor and represent Ireland at Eurovision 2025 🎤

Join Adam and MJ plus this week's special guest Alex Basmati from the amazing Eirevision podcast (@eirevisionpod) as they review each of the competing entries and give their thoughts and predictions on who will win!

The Late Late Show Eurosong 2025 will take place at RTÉ Television Centre, Dublin on Friday 7 February.

Competing artists and songs:

Bobbi Arlo - Powerplay

Reylta - Fire

Adgy - Run into the Night

Samantha Mumba - My Way

EMMY - Laika Party

NIYL - Growth

Hosts - Adam P & MJ

Special Guest - Alex Basmati

Produced by - Aaron (⁠⁠⁠@Aaron_F320⁠⁠⁠)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠⁠

Eurovision, Eurosong, Ireland, Ireland Eurosong, NIYL, EMMY, Samantha Mumba, Adgy, Bobbi Arlo, Reylta, music analysis, national final, Ireland, podcast, Eurovision 2025, Eurovision Song Contest, RTE, Eirevision, Late Late Show

The 2025 Eurovision season is here and Instead We Made a Pod is back for season 2!

We're kicking off the new Eurovision year with a brand new episode all about the upcoming Finnish National Final, UMK!

In this episode, MJ and Georga dive into UMK 2025, discussing the national final's songs, their impressions, and predictions.

Six artists will battle it out at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, on Saturday 8th February to become Finland's entry for Eurovision 2025 in Basel, Switzerland.

Competing artists:

NEEA RIVER - Nightmares
Nelli Matula - Hitaammin Hautaan
costee - Sekaisin 
VIIVI - Aina
Goldielocks - Made Of
Erika Vikman - ICH KOMME

Hosts - MJ & Georga

Produced by - Aaron (⁠⁠@Aaron_F320⁠⁠)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠⁠

Eurovision, Eurovision 2025, UMK 2025, Finland, song reviews, national finals, Eurovision predictions, music analysis, pop songs, ballads, Eurovision Song Contest⁠, music

We're back with a brand new episode and this week it's all about artists that were selected internally by their broadcasters. In this episode we're talking about:

Belgium 🇧🇪 - Mustii - Before The Party's Over

Greece 🇬🇷 - Marina Satti - ZARI

Netherlands 🇳🇱 - Joost Klein - Europapa

Australia 🇦🇺 - Electric Fields - One Milkali (One Blood)

Austria 🇦🇹 - Kaleen - We Will Rave

Switzerland 🇨🇭- Nemo - The Code

Hosts - Adam & MJ

Produced by - Aaron (⁠⁠@Aaron_F320⁠⁠)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

As Eurovision draws ever closer, pre parties are in full swing. Recently MJ and Georga attended London Eurovision Party and in this episode they tell you all about their experience including discussing some acts for 2024 that we haven't talked about yet! 🇬🇧

If you would like a fabulous bracelet, you can find Georga's etsy store here: BraceletsByGeorga - Etsy

London Eurovision Party 2024 took place on 7 April at Outernet in London

Hosts - Adam & Georga

Produced by - Aaron (⁠@Aaron_F320⁠)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠⁠

BraceletsByGeorga - Etsy

We're back with a brand new episode and this week it's all about Sweden 🇸🇪 So grab your towels, it's time to talk everything Melodifestivalen!

Adam & MJ are here to take you through the Melfest final as hosts Sweden chose their artist for Malmö - including some behind the scenes info as MJ was a member of accredited online press for Mello this year!

A huge thanks to SVT for granting us online press accreditation this year and for the amazing shows!

Melodifestivalen 2024 took place on Saturday 9 March at Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Hosts - Adam & MJ

Produced by - Aaron (@Aaron_F320)

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠⁠

We're back with another national final review and this week it's all about Finland 🇫🇮! That's right we're talking everything UMK (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu).

In this episode MJ is joined by Phoenix's queen of the spreadsheet and UMK super fan Georga (@__georga) to take you through everything that happened as Finland made their choice for Malmö 🇸🇪

UMK 2024 was held on 10 February 2024 at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland. Show clips are the property and copyright of broadcaster YLE.

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us ⁠@⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠⁠

In our latest episode we are talking everything Vidbir as last week Ukraine 🇺🇦 selected their entry for Eurovision 2024! 🇸🇪

Adam and MJ are joined by Gottem (@escgottem) as they discuss the high's and low's of Ukraine's National Final including what happened with the all important public vote...👀

Vidbir 2024 was held in Kyiv, Ukraine on 3rd February 2024 with the results show broadcast on 4th February 2024.

If you would like to make a donation, you can donate to Ukraine at the following link: https://war.ukraine.ua/donate/

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us @⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠

It's time to get excited for Ireland to select their entry for Eurovision 2024 and what better way to do this than to introduce one of the artists hoping to represent the emerald isle in Malmo.

Adam and MJ sat down with current favourite Ailsha (@ailshamusic) to find out more about her and her song 'Go Tobann'

Ireland's National Final 'Eurosong' takes place on 26th January from the RTÉ studios in Dublin.

Listen now to find out more and don't forget you can keep up with all the latest Eurovision news by following us @⁠ThePhoenixESC⁠

*Information in episode correct at the time of recording