Denmark 2025: Sissal with ‘Halucination’
Long time favourite for DMGP Sissal narrowly held of 2011’s Tim Schou and is now tasked with turning around Denmark's fortunes in Basel:
Hallucination is not a bad song at all and of the Euphoria-lite songs that have popped up at Eurovision since Loreen's first victory this might be the strongest. It’s predictable sure but the hook is strong and the production good. It’s the sort of entry SVT would get to 4th-8th in a melfest final depending on the name attached, which for Denmark's recent standards is a big upgrade. In fact, this year's DMGP was a better edition all around than the rest of the 2020s editions so far - for what that is worth.
On the televote going quite heavily towards Schou instead of this I’d read that more as name love and bad Danish tastes (after all, the best entry in the superfinal was 3rd…) but it’s still not a great sign.
This was the hyped entry by a mile in the buildup suggesting a good base to work from, as long as Denmark make some significant changes to the staging this might have a chance…
Nevermind, it seems like DR are perfectly happy to continue their NQ streak as the chances of that were dismissed this morning. Let's hope they are bluffing I guess but most concerning is the belief what was presented was - 10/12 and only a small beefing up is needed to reach 12/12 - to paraphrase. My stance is it was 4/12 and significant work is needed to reach just 7/12 to use the same metric.
Sissal is a strong vocalist but has that diva-ish vibe in a non ironic way vs Malta and obviously does not own the stage like Finland's Erika Vikman, who are going to pose the biggest issues to qualifying. Presenting this as the credible pop song against the two is the hope but that won’t happen without those improvements live, from styling through to everything else.
As the country on the longest NQ streak, Denmark might hope for a favourable late draw but again can that be justified against the Malta/Finland pair in semi Two? On country composition in semi two it’s also not great with Finland the only Nordic company and no sizeable points guaranteed there. What is the biggest score likely here? 5 points from Germany or something?
On Saturday night this felt in with a good chance in semi two but once you go down the list of entries there I’m placing all but two countries ahead of them so far and the news today doesn't help that. If this does find its way into the final it’s a strong enough pop song to get mild jury support which should save it from the very lowest spots.
Personal Rating: 14/20
Staging Potential: 5/20(taking DR’s word)
Televote Potential: 8/20
Jury Potential: 9/20
Track Record: 6/20
Total Rating: 44/100
Early Prediction: Semi Two 10th-14th, 18th-22nd if in the final.