Ciao from Sanremo, this is Alloracast! Join ESC Insight&#8216;s James Stephenson and Dude Points as they preview Night One of the Festival della Canzone Italiana as it gets going this evening.
On this episode, James and Dude go into the Teatro Ariston for the rehearsals, and go through their highlights from tonight&#8217;s line-up. You&#8217;ll find out whether the bookies&#8217; favourite is set to take it all, how the songs that break Sanremo&#8217;s traditional formula are standing out, why a politically charged song from a former winner could be a major talking point and which of the 30 competing entries is &#8220;the wedding song to end all wedding songs&#8221;.
There will also be updates on The Boat&#8230; obviously.
Listen to Tuesday&#8217;s episode of Alloracast now on your preferred podcast platform of choice, or live every evening at 20:00 GMT on <a href="http://www.radiosix.com/">Radio Six International</a>, with new episodes every day during the festival. Allora!
Never miss an episode of the ESC Insight podcast. <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-unofficial-eurovision/id369754923">Follow the show on iTunes,</a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4uNBt1qiXXi1qMxk58HNHe">Spotify</a>, or <a href="https://podnews.net/podcast/i7fh">in your favourite podcast app listed here</a>. <a href="https://escinsight.com/category/podcast/feed/">A direct RSS feed is available</a>.
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2026/02/24/alloracast-sanremo-podcast-tuesday/">Alloracast! Daily News From Sanremo, Tuesday 24th February</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com">ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast</a>.

<description>&lt;p&gt;Will the bookies' favourite win? Which songs break Sanremo's traditional formula? Why will a politically charged song from a former winner be a major talking point? Which is "the wedding song to end all wedding songs?"James Stephenson and Dude Points report from the Sanremo rehearsals on today's Alloracast.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The post &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2026/02/24/alloracast-sanremo-podcast-tuesday/"&gt;Alloracast! Daily News From Sanremo, Tuesday 24th February&lt;/a&gt; appeared first on &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com"&gt;ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>

Which Sanremo song is the wedding song to end all wedding songs?

Ciao from Sanremo, this is Alloracast! Join ESC Insight's James Stephenson and Dude Points as they preview Night One of the Festival della Canzone Italiana as it gets going this evening. 
 
On this episode, James and Dude go into the Teatro Ariston for the rehearsals, and go through their highlights from tonight's line-up. You'll find out whether the bookies' favourite is set to take it all, how the songs that break Sanremo's traditional formula are standing out, why a politically charged song from a former winner could be a major talking point and which of the 30 competing entries is "the wedding song to end all wedding songs". 
 
There will also be updates on The Boat... obviously.

Alloracast! Daily News From Sanremo, Tuesday 24th February

Ciao from Sanremo, this is Alloracast! ESC Insight&#8216;s James Stephenson and Dude Points are in Italy to bring you everything from one of the most legendary, historic and unhinged festivals in the world, the Festival della Canzone Italiana.
While Sanremo is the method Italy uses to select its song for the Eurovision Song Contest, that&#8217;ll be the last thought on their minds. On this episode, they&#8217;ll explore how Sanremo is gearing up for festival week, the myriad of exciting and eccentric events going on in town, how the closing ceremony of Italy&#8217;s Olympic Games owes to Sanremo, and how the show sits at the centre of a cultural conversation between Italy&#8217;s government, its national broadcaster, and its people.
Listen to the first episode of Alloracast now on your preferred podcast platform of choice, or live every evening at 20:00 GMT on <a href="http://www.radiosix.com/">Radio Six International</a>, with new episodes every day during the festival. Allora!
Never miss an episode of the ESC Insight podcast. <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-unofficial-eurovision/id369754923">Follow the show on iTunes,</a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4uNBt1qiXXi1qMxk58HNHe">Spotify</a>, or <a href="https://podnews.net/podcast/i7fh">in your favourite podcast app listed here</a>. <a href="https://escinsight.com/category/podcast/feed/">A direct RSS feed is available</a>.
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2026/02/23/alloracast-sanremo-podcast-monday/">Alloracast! Daily News From Sanremo, Monday 23rd February</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com">ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast</a>.

<description>&lt;p&gt;Allora! Join James Stephenson and Dude Points in Italy every day this week as they enter the wild world of the Festival della Canzone Italiana to find out what's going on in Sanremo. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The post &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2026/02/23/alloracast-sanremo-podcast-monday/"&gt;Alloracast! Daily News From Sanremo, Monday 23rd February&lt;/a&gt; appeared first on &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com"&gt;ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>

The musical marathon is about to begin, join James and Dude in Sanremo for the adventure.

Ciao from Sanremo, this is Alloracast! ESC Insight's James Stephenson and Dude Points are in Italy to bring you everything from one of the most legendary, historic and unhinged festivals in the world, the Festival della Canzone Italiana. 
 
While Sanremo is the method Italy uses to select its song for the Eurovision Song Contest, that'll be the last thought on their minds. On this episode, they'll explore how Sanremo is gearing up for festival week, the myriad of exciting and eccentric events going on in town, how the closing ceremony of Italy's Olympic Games owes to Sanremo, and how the show sits at the centre of a cultural conversation between Italy's government, its national broadcaster, and its people. 
 
Listen to the first episode of Alloracast now on your preferred podcast platform of choice, or live every evening at 20:00 GMT on Radio Six International, with new episodes every day during the festival. Allora! 
 
Join the ESC Insight team as we bring you the latest news from the world of the Eurovision Song Contest, at www.escinsight.com

Alloracast! Daily News From Sanremo, Monday 23rd February

This week on Eurovision Uncovered, we explore what the Song Contest stands for &#8211; and what it could fall for.
In Episode 4, host James Stephenson analyses how the Eurovision Song Contest has been reshaped by the values of its fans, and whether the values it represents are under threat. From the rise of the public vote and Eurovision&#8217;s importance for the LGBTQ+ community, to its position as a cultural exchange and value to neurodiverse fans, we see how Eurovision has evolved to inhabit those values. And, by looking at the way those values can be dismissed, distanced and weaponised by others with the help of academics, artists and fans, James analyses whether the Contest is still living up to those values &#8211; and what happens if it doesn&#8217;t.
<blockquote>Eurovision Insight Presents&#8230; Eurovision Uncovered: A Show Shaped by Us
James Stephenson analyses what values the Eurovision Song Contest still stands for in the latest episode of Eurovision Uncovered.</blockquote>
Featuring contributions from some of the biggest names in Eurovision community media, listen to the story of how the Eurovision Song Contest works like never before. You can listen to Eurovision Uncovered now via the ESC Insight podcast feed (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-unofficial-eurovision/id369754923">we&#8217;re in iTunes</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4uNBt1qiXXi1qMxk58HNHe">Spotify,</a> <a href="https://podnews.net/podcast/369754923">or find a link for your favourite podcast app here</a>).
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2025/12/23/eurovision-insight-presents-eurovision-uncovered-a-show-shaped-by-us/">Eurovision Insight Presents&#8230; Eurovision Uncovered: A Show Shaped by Us</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com">ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast</a>.

<description>&lt;p&gt;On this episode of Eurovision Uncovered, James Stephenson explores how the Eurovision Song Contest has been shaped by the values of its fans - and the pressure its under to turn the volume down.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The post &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2025/12/23/eurovision-insight-presents-eurovision-uncovered-a-show-shaped-by-us/"&gt;Eurovision Insight Presents&amp;#8230; Eurovision Uncovered: A Show Shaped by Us&lt;/a&gt; appeared first on &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com"&gt;ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>

James Stephenson explores how the Eurovision Song Contest has been shaped by the values of its fans - and the pressure its under to turn the volume down.

James Stephenson analyses how the Eurovision Song Contest has been reshaped by the values of its fans, and whether the values it represents are under threat. From the rise of the public vote and Eurovision's importance for the LGBTQ+ community, to its position as a cultural exchange and value to neurodiverse fans, we see how Eurovision has evolved to inhabit those values. And, by looking at the way those values can be dismissed, distanced and weaponised by others with the help of academics, artists and fans, James analyses whether the Contest is still living up to those values - and what happens if it doesn't. 
 
You can listen to Eurovision Uncovered now via the ESC Insight podcast feed (we're in iTunes, Spotify, or find a link for your favourite podcast app here).

Eurovision Insight Presents… Eurovision Uncovered: A Show Shaped by Us

In a wide-ranging interview for Eurovision Uncovered, Eurovision 2025 Head of Contest Christer Björkman has opened up about his time producing the world’s biggest music show.
Across an hour-long conversation with James Stephenson, available now as a special episode of the Eurovision Uncovered podcast and on ESC Insight’s YouTube channel, Björkman reveals what really goes into making Eurovision possible. He discusses how he and the technical team work with countries on each song’s staging, how he devises the all-important running order, and considers the future of Eurovision across the world.
Christer Björkman has taken on the role of Head of Contest at seven separate Eurovision editions &#8211; but he’s confirmed to ESC Insight that he will not be taking on the role at the upcoming contest in Vienna in 2026. The Swedish TV producer revealed that the role would be taken “by an Austrian” for the 70th anniversary edition, “who I have hired in the past.”
With this news, this conversation became a reflection about Björkman’s time in the role, the evolutions he’s made to it, and never-before-heard stories about how the show comes together.
<iframe class="youtube-player" width="450" height="254" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1re4wMaMys?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation"></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h2>Staging Each Entry</h2>
Eurovision Uncovered spoke to Björkman to get his insights on how complex the Eurovision Song Contest’s production really is. In his view, the Eurovision team is a service provider &#8211; a production crew that tries to deliver the best possible product for its “customers”, the broadcasters:
<blockquote>“The Contest is a creative service to 40 customers…that actually pay handsomely to get help to put their absolute best possible show on the stage.”</blockquote>
As Head of Contest, Björkman faces a myriad of technical challenges in realising each country’s ambitions. But for Christer, one of the biggest challenges in creating those Eurovision performances is bringing people down to reality.
While every artist, staging director and broadcaster may have a dream vision of their performance, Christer believes that it&#8217;s vital to make everyone work within the reality of what’s possible on stage each year.
<blockquote>“Every creator has a film in their head. It’s based on the best possible outcome. What we do when we send out the stand-in rehearsal recording is we actually kill that film and force everyone into the reality of our world. This is the world we have.”</blockquote>
As Christer says, creating that begins long before the broadcasters arrive. The process of getting each performance ready for the team begins almost as soon as each song is selected for the Contest.
<blockquote>“My work usually starts with me writing to a country saying, congratulations, I hear you chose your artist and your song. Please brief me as soon as possible of your ideas and let&#8217;s see if we can help you achieve what you want.”</blockquote>
From there, Björkman says that each country approaches their performance differently:
<blockquote>“Some countries come&#8230;with a package. This is it. This is what we want. This is what it looks like.”
“You have those and then you have those that actually come and say, we need help. We have this artist, we have this song, we don&#8217;t have much money, but &#8211; what can we do together?”</blockquote>
The Eurovision production team works closely with both types of entry &#8211; either to achieve the best possible version of a country’s ideas, or to create ideas collaboratively with the broadcaster.
<h2>The Production Challenges</h2>
But, of course, achieving each performance at the Eurovision Song Contest on stage is a difficult feat. Christer revealed just how challenging the process could be:
<blockquote>“There are challenges in almost every act. It could be something simple like getting rid of a mic stand.”</blockquote>
Eurovision performances are a high-wire act. Beyond the artist and the dancers, there’s a team of camera operators working around the stage, almost a part of the choreography themselves. That adds more layers of complexity, and more risk of a slip-up.
<blockquote>“People run across the stage all the time…and you never see it on camera. There’s always something that could go wrong.”</blockquote>
Christer revealed one such example from Eurovision 2025. He told ESC Insight that, during the first semi-final of this year’s contest, a camera operator stepping on a single cable led to the feed cutting out during Zoë Më’s performance of “Voyage” for hosts Switzerland.
Beyond those challenges, another one that Christer is concerned about is the cost of Eurovision performances. That cost has been rising in recent years &#8211; in an interview during show week at Eurovision 2025, Ziferblat’s Valentyn Leshchynskyi claimed that the smoke machine they used in their performance of Bird of Prey cost €15,000 to use.
When that number was put to him, he revealed that costs were “a huge problem” for the Contest:
<blockquote>“The cost of making this show, period, is a problem. It is so expensive.”</blockquote>
However, the producer doesn’t believe that it’s something you can make fair for all broadcasters. In his view, Eurovision is like sports &#8211; where some countries have more resources than others:
<blockquote>“Fairness is not even applicable here. It is what it is. Yes, some countries spend more money on [Eurovision]. Some countries spend more money on sports, athletes and the development of them.
Is it fair? No, maybe not, but it&#8217;s just the way it is.”</blockquote>
<h2>The Running Order</h2>
As Head of Contest, Christer Björkman is also responsible for the Eurovision Song Contest’s running order. We asked him what the process of creating that all-important sequence for the Grand Final was really like.
<blockquote>“I still have my post-its. And they have different colours, and everything that’s included in the act &#8211; all the information I could put on a post-it I have on it.”</blockquote>
For Christer, the post-its act as a code to quickly identify what type of performance they are placing into the order:
<blockquote>“[The colour] indicates if it&#8217;s male or female, group or solo, high-energy, low-energy, genre and all that.”</blockquote>
Once the second semi-final is finished, and all 26 finalists are established, Christer moves quickly:
<blockquote>“What happens is on Thursday night, right after, I just take off. And then the Executive Supervisor also comes and usually I get like half an hour to make a suggestion, you know, just something to start with &#8211; and then we actually go through every single position.”</blockquote>
In Christer’s view, organising that running order is a different challenge today. That’s because he feels the new voting rules, where audiences can vote for their favourite performances during the Eurovision final, has changed the dynamics of the running order itself.
Today, Christer feels “there are no bad spots” within the running order:
<blockquote>“If you look at the result from this year, top 3 [in the public vote]: 3, 4, 9 [in the running order]. In the old days, it would have been beneficial probably to be in the second half.
But still, Sweden was before Estonia in the semi-final, but they were after in the final in the results. Interesting.”</blockquote>
<h2>Eurovision Around the World</h2>
Finally, Christer Björkman spoke to ESC Insight about the future of the Eurovision Song Contest &#8211; specifically his work with Voxovation, which licenses the format to different territories.
During our conversation, he told us that the next programme in the pipeline was Eurovision Asia &#8211; a show which was rumoured to be airing this year, only for the EBU to issue a statement denying its existence.
However, Björkman revealed there were “intensive preparations” for Eurovision Asia ongoing, and that they hoped it would be revealed “quite soon”:
<blockquote>“The most intensive preparations are for Asia. It&#8217;s ongoing. It&#8217;s very complicated. There&#8217;s nothing decided yet. There&#8217;s nothing confirmed. We&#8217;re not quite there yet. Hopefully, it will be quite soon.”</blockquote>
Through Voxovation, Christer also hopes to bring Eurovision to other parts of the world. And, at the end of our conversation, he said his “ultimate dream” was to see Eurovision Song Contest’s across the world, from which the top entries would compete against each other “in a world final”:
<blockquote>“My dream scenario is that Europe, Asia, South America or the Americas actually happen &#8211; and the top 5 from each continent meet in a world final.”</blockquote>
When we asked whether he truly thought that could happen, Christer responded in a way that sums up his approach to working as Head of Contest and making Eurovision’s technical production tick over the years:
“Yeah! Why not?”
You can listen to ESC Insight’s full interview with Christer Bjorkman for our podcast series, <a href="https://escinsight.com/category/podcast/eurovision-uncovered/">Eurovision Uncovered</a>, on our podcast feed, or you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1re4wMaMys">watch the conversation in full</a> on the ESC Insight YouTube channel.
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2025/12/15/christer-bjorkman-eurovision-production-interview/">Eurovision Uncovered Meets Christer Björkman: &#8220;There are Challenges in Almost Every Act&#8221;</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com">ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast</a>.

<description>&lt;p&gt;In a special interview for Eurovision Uncovered, James Stephenson meets Eurovision 2025 Head of Contest Christer Björkman to chat about producing the show, the processes he follows, and what's in store for Eurovision's future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The post &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2025/12/15/christer-bjorkman-eurovision-production-interview/"&gt;Eurovision Uncovered Meets Christer Björkman: &amp;#8220;There are Challenges in Almost Every Act&amp;#8221;&lt;/a&gt; appeared first on &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com"&gt;ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>

Eurovision's Christer Björkman reveals what really goes into making the Song Contest possible.

In a special interview for Eurovision Uncovered, James Stephenson meets Eurovision 2025 Head of Contest Christer Björkman to chat about producing the show, the processes he follows, and what's in store for Eurovision's future. 
 
You can listen to Eurovision Uncovered now via the ESC Insight podcast feed (we're in iTunes, Spotify, or find a link for your favourite podcast app here).

Eurovision Uncovered Meets Christer Björkman: “There are Challenges in Almost Every Act”

It’s a scrappy, anarchic alternative to Eurovision where singers from Arctic communities compete for the prize while also developing cross-cultural solidarity. This is the third edition of the contest, which in 2025 is being held in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut.
We talked about how the contest emerged, the challenges faced by Arctic communities and the challenges of holding a song contest in one of the most isolated places on Earth. We also discussed the politics inherent in contests such as Eurovision and Pan-Arcticvision, and how this feels very different in a contest where all the participants come from marginalised communities far from the power centres.
<blockquote>Eurovision Chat Over Coffee, with Pan-ArcticVision&#8217;s Amund Sjølie Sveen
Ahead of the third running of the Contest, ESC Insight’s Phil Doré chats to Amund Sjølie Sveen, artistic director of Pan-Arcticvision, about the challenges and the rewards of this song contest.</blockquote>
Pan-Arcticvision will be live-streamed from <a href="https://www.panarcticvision.org/">PanArcticvision.Org</a> on Saturday 29th November at 20:00 Greenwich Mean Time, 21:00 Central European Time.
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2025/11/28/eurovision-chat-over-coffee-with-pan-arcticvisions-amund-sjolie-sveen/">Eurovision Chat Over Coffee, with Pan-ArcticVision&#8217;s Amund Sjølie Sveen</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com">ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast</a>.

<description>&lt;p&gt;Ahead of the third running of the Contest, ESC Insight’s Phil Doré chats to Amund Sjølie Sveen, artistic director of Pan-Arcticvision, about the challenges and the rewards of this song contest.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The post &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com/2025/11/28/eurovision-chat-over-coffee-with-pan-arcticvisions-amund-sjolie-sveen/"&gt;Eurovision Chat Over Coffee, with Pan-ArcticVision&amp;#8217;s Amund Sjølie Sveen&lt;/a&gt; appeared first on &lt;a rel="nofollow" href="https://escinsight.com"&gt;ESC Insight - Home of the Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>

A truly international, border-crossing experience of song, community and empowerment: Welcome to Pan-ArcticVision.

ESC Insight’s Phil Doré chats to Amund Sjølie Sveen, artistic director of Pan-Arcticvision. 
 
It’s a scrappy, anarchic alternative to Eurovision where singers from Arctic communities compete for the prize while also developing cross-cultural solidarity. 
 
This is the third edition of the contest, which in 2025 is being held in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut. 
 
We talked about how the contest emerged, the challenges faced by Arctic communities and the challenges of holding a song contest in one of the most isolated places on Earth. We also discussed the politics inherent in contests such as Eurovision and Pan-Arcticvision, and how this feels very different in a contest where all the participants come from marginalised communities far from the power centres. 
 
Pan-Arcticvision will be live-streamed from PanArcticvision.Org on Saturday 29th November at 20:00 Greenwich Mean Time, 21:00 Central European Time. 
 
Phil Dore and the ESC Insight team bring you the latest news from the world of the Eurovision Song Contest, www.escinsight.com.

Eurovision Chat Over Coffee, with Pan-ArcticVision’s Amund Sjølie Sveen

Ewan Spence and the ESC Insight team keep you up to date with the Eurovision Song Contest.

ESC Insight: Eurovision Song Contest Podcast

Details

Recent Episodes