🎤 Eurovision, Lyrics, and Love: What 10 Years of Songs Reveal

For nearly seven decades, the Eurovision Song Contest has captivated audiences far beyond Europe’s borders. It’s the most-watched non-sporting event in the world—and this week, it returns for its 69th edition in Basel!

📅 Don’t miss it!

• Semi-Finals: May 13 & 15 at 21:00 CEST

• Grand Final: May 17 at 21:00 CEST

Stream it live on Eurovision’s official YouTube channel—and yes, you can rewatch all past performances there too!

Every year, artists representing nearly all European countries (plus Israel and Australia) compete for musical glory. Beyond the glamour and glitter, what makes Eurovision so fascinating is the voting system: countries can award up to 12 points—but not to themselves! Strategic alliances, cultural ties, and even immigrant communities abroad often play a key role in shaping the results.

💡 Eurovision Meets Data Science: What the Lyrics Tell Us

With my co-authors Alessia Morrone, Barbara Będowska-Sójka, Sabrina Giordano, and Claudia Tarantola, we’ve been diving into the world of Eurovision through data. We've built a unique dataset, and in particular, we track lyrics from 2015 to 2025—yes, including this year’s entries.

🎶 We translated all songs into English and applied text and sentiment analysis to uncover patterns in the words sung across Europe over the past decade.

So... which words steal the spotlight in Eurovision lyrics?

🧠 Insight: Over the past decade, a clear lyrical pattern has emerged in Eurovision songs: “love” consistently tops the chart of most-used words. From 2015 to 2019, love dominated alongside emotional expressions like hear, feel, know, and heart. Interestingly, in the pandemic-affected years of 2021 and 2022, love temporarily disappeared from the top spot—replaced by more introspective words like know, like, and never, likely reflecting the global mood during lockdowns. But since 2023, love has made a strong comeback, featuring prominently again in 2024 and 2025 lyrics. Whether romantic, hopeful, or dramatic, love seems to be Eurovision’s most enduring theme—reminding us that music, at its core, still speaks the universal language of the heart.

❤️ Will Love Win Again in 2025?

It’s clear that love remains Eurovision’s favorite theme—year after year. But will this trend continue? Will the 2025 winning song include “love,” or will a new emotion take center stage?

Stay tuned—and keep an eye (an ear) on the lyrics 😊.

We’ll be sharing more Eurovision insights soon, including visuals of each year’s lyrics and sentiment clouds. Until then… let the best song (and maybe the best love story) win 😊!