Belgium
Strobe Lights – Red Sebastian
Belgium has sent in the fog machine early this year, accompanied by something that approximates a song if you squint hard and dim the lights. Red Sebastian (a name that sounds like a wine bar chain or an unsuccessful Marvel villain) delivers one of those cool, detached electro bangers that pop up every few years, do surprisingly well with the juries, and leave the rest of us wondering if we missed a memo.
The production leans hard on vintage synths—icy, pulsing, and vaguely threatening—but the vocals are too anaemic to ride the wave. You get the distinct impression someone wrote a moody instrumental and only remembered vocals were required the night before the deadline. There’s no real progression, no payoff, no actual song—but as ever, if you like your Eurovision entries to sound like the intro to a Berlin nightclub set, this is absolutely your jam.
3 points