For the seventh year we hand out the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award – the award for the best song lyrics of the Eurovision year. Previous awards were won by Ukraine (2016), France (2017, 2018) and Italy (2019, 2021, 2022). This year four entries are nominated. They are revealed one by one, and Saskia Halfmouw gives us a unique visual interpretation of each song.

The first nominee for the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award 2023 is: Austria.

Country: Austria
Title: Who the hell is Edgar?
Artist(s): Teya & Salena
Lyricist(s): Pele Loriano, Ronald Janeček, Selina-Maria Edbauer, Teodora Špirić

Jury report
Teya & Salena sing the funniest Eurovision lyrics in many years. Look at the first line: ‘There’s a ghost in my body and he is a lyricist.’ So… the girls are being possessed by a writer? Right. And not just any writer either: ‘It’s Edgar Allan Poe.’ Suddenly there’s a literary element to this Song Contest, as they are really referring to the American author (1809-1849) who is famous for his ghost stories. ‘He’s gonna make me rich,’ Teya & Salena sing, but that turns out to be disappointing. The song evolves into an accusation against the music industry, because the girls keep repeating the number ‘0,003’ which just so happens to be the exact amount of dollars an artist makes for one single Spotify stream. The song ends with a great last line: ‘At least it pays to be funny.’ Followed by a final outburst: ‘Wah!’

Excerpt of the Who the hell is Edgar? lyrics

Oh my god, you’re such a good writer
Oh no it’s not me, it’s Edgar
Who the hell is Edgar?

There’s a ghost in my body
And he is a lyricist
It is Edgar Allan Poe
And I think he can‘t resist
Yeah his brain is in my hand
And it’s moving really fast, mhm

Don’t know how he possessed me
But I’m happy that he did
‘Cause this song is feeling special
And is gonna make me rich
Yeah the words are spilling out
What the heck is this about, mhm

Oh mio padre, there’s a ghost in my body
Ohhhhhhh

The complete lyrics for this song can be found here.

How do we determine the winner?
As in previous years the winner of the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award will be determined by an international expert jury of published book writers, journalists, editors, songwriters, translators and former Eurovision participants from different countries, as well as by public vote at eurostory.nl. The winner will be announced during the Eurovision week in May. Keep track of our website for the latest news!