Norway
Kyle Alessandro – Lighter
From the land of fjords, fish, and fantastically committed Eurovision entries comes Lighter, Norway’s solidly middle-lane offering courtesy of Kyle Alessandro—a name that sounds like it was generated by a fashion AI stuck on the “Zara fragrance” setting. The song is pure Eurovision: sweeping, soaring, and structurally obedient to a fault. Verse, chorus, middle-eight, big chorus, and all delivered with an aching sincerity that suggests he means every single word, even if no one is entirely sure what they are.
There’s a definite whiff of five-years-ago about this. It feels like the kind of track that would’ve comfortably cracked the left side of the scoreboard in 2018, back when a few well-timed flame jets could still swing a televote. This year, its success may depend entirely on how much literal fire they can hurl at the stage. Judging by the video—where the pyrotechnics budget has clearly been emptied and Kyle sports a tasteful little chain choker that straddles the line between heirloom jewellery and Berlin dungeon wear—they’re off to a running start.
Vocally, it’s the familiar Eurovision medley of nasal urgency, throaty ambition, and what sounds like the tail-end of a mild chest infection. Still, he hits the notes and commits to the performance with the kind of focus usually reserved for figure skaters and Swedish detectives.
The whole package is slick, calculated, and just edgy enough to earn a few headlines—but there of whiff of something assembled in a lab trained on Eurovision data sets from the past decade. It’s not trying to change the world, just hoping to light up a few phone screens in the final.
6 points