At first, I thought that Hollow by Dons was a very boring and underwhelming song.
But seeing him in this mess of an edition has made me change my mind. He seems like a very kind and genuine person. I’ve grown to like his song more and more and was very happy (and suprised) when Latvia qualified.
Has anyone else ever had their opinion on a shift from negative to positive on the basis of its performer.
I’d love to hear it.
It was very touching to see Dons getting emotional while performing Hollow in second semi-final 
Armenia 100%
I liked the song, but the singer’s easy, confident and positive performance just made it a joy to watch.
I think Sam Ryder won a lot of people over by being a shining beacon of happy. At least at home. We’re normally miserable about everything but people really got behind Sam, even before he become a front runner. His positivity was infectious.
I was surprised by how humble and (relatively) new to the stage Lasagna was. When I watched his Dora final performance, I thought he’s an already popular Croatian star. His personality definetely made me root more for him
Monika Liu
I already loved the song (Sentimental) but her not just elevated it.
similar for sugar. she was so happy to be performing - even though I didn’t enjoy the staging
Watching Teemu and Henri’s backstage shenanigans very much improved Finland 2024 performance for me.
Also agree about Dons and Sarah Bonnici.
No I really like Sarah bonici’s personality, still not a big fan of loop. The reverse however is true, someone’s personality can turn me off a song especially if they bring that into the performance.
Not really improved but further cemented by already positive opinion. Seeing ladaniva be super wholesome, jamming and dancing with everyone, overall being super sweet people who went to esc more so to have a good time and meet new artists than the compete for a high position just added to the positive vibe I got from the song.
Also their wholesome reactions during the qualifier announcement gave me life lol (turns out they did it to distract themselves from the tense situation they were in)
Dons and Baby Lasagna definitely.
yes Citi Zeni! (Latvia 2022)
I already loved Jako when I first heard it, but seeing how infectiously happy all of Ladaniva (especially Jako herself) were up on stage and in the MV made me love it even more.
Personally I wasn’t into Rim Tim Tagi Dim the first couple times I heard it, but after watching interviews with Marko and learning more about his story I started liking him and the song more and more to the point where I actually cried during his grand final performance.
Last year it was definitely slovenias entry for me. I liked it before, but a few days before the second semi final I got some clips of the boys from joker out on my fyp and I instantly rooted for them. I remember being more exited for them to qualify than for my own country even though I went with this as my top priority.
This year its definitely my own country (austria). I didn’t really know what to think about we will rave but I found Kaleen to be such a sweet person so I was really happy when we qualified 
(and i also like the song much more now)
I believe Lena won in 2010 because she had a very charismatic and quirky personality that fit perfectly with that random song and that’s why people even voted for her
The Uralic novelty entries (ie Estonia and Finland) gain a lot of people’s respect due to their enthusiasm
Dons completely stole my hear with how endearing and wholesome he seems. Doesn’t take himself too seriously, very passionate about what he is doing. I genuinely started rooting for him to win the contesr in all of this chaos. Turned Hollow from a lower end mediocre song to a very enjoyable mediocre song
I love Käärijäs energy and his inability to speak English. Makes me laugh when I see his vids.
Definitely joker out. I wouldn’t have given it a lot of attention if not for them.
How about this year’s winner? It’s hard not to love Nemo’s enthusiasm, which I think also helps “sell” the theatrical aspects of the song/performance. (In general, I’d extend this to anyone else whose song has “musical theater” characteristics like North Macedonia 2021.)