To highlight the art of writing song lyrics www.eurostory.nl presents the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award – THE award for the best Eurovision song lyrics. This year’s award is won by Italy, by the lyricists of the song Brividi, Mahmood and BLANCO!
This is Mahmood’s second win – in 2019 he got the award for the lyrics of his song Soldi.

Who were second and third?
Second: Serbia (Konstrakta), In corpore sano
Third: Ukraine (Kalush Orchestra), Stefania

Who’s in the jury?
The winner was chosen by an international expert jury of 23 authors, journalists, publishers, songwriters and ex-Eurovision participants from 17 countries (converted to 12-10-8 etc points, 75% of the votes, list of names below) – as well as more than 5.000 readers of www.eurostory.nl (voting through the website, converted to 12-10-8 etc points, 25% of the votes).

Jury report
The jury wrote about the winner: ‘With Brividi Mahmood and BLANCO have created a truly universal tale. Regardless of one’s gender or sexuality, we’ve all had the experience that our high expectations of a love started to crack and crumble. The first line sparkles: ‘I dreamt of flying on a diamond bicycle with you.’ This metaphor is so new and at the same time so striking that it hovers in the air throughout the song. And just as the diamond bicycle represents happiness, so the first words of the refrain ‘nudo con brividi’ – naked with shivers – paint a brilliant picture of that feeling you get when you feel that something is wrong. The makers continue to deliver one fantastic image after the other throughout the song, and even manage to hide an important plot twist at the very end – ‘uno fra tanti’ – one of many.’

The full lyrics in Italian and English translation can be read here.

Who are the previous winners?
2016: Ukraine
2017: France
2018: France
2019: Italy
2021: Italy

Quotes Mahmood and BLANCO
Mahmood: ‘I’m so happy! In the lyrics of Brividi we really tried to make generations meet. We are all different, but when it comes to expressing your feelings to someone, we all feel the same fear.’
BLANCO: ‘I’ve always been reading the lyrics of great songwriters, and I’ve learned a lot from working with my producer Michelangelo. I’m not interested in just writing music to make money, I want to express things in original words. So thank you so much!’

 

The expert jury of 2022

  • Andorra: Niki Francesca, Eurovision participant 2007
  • Belgium: Bart Moeyaert, author
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: Fazla, Eurovision participant 1993
  • Bulgaria: Kristian Kostov, Eurovision participant 2017
  • Bulgaria: Vasil Ivanov, Former Head of Press BNT Eurovision Bulgaria
  • Croatia: Marko Bošnjak, DORA participant 2022
  • Cyprus: Alexandros Panayi, Eurovision participant 1995, 2000
  • Finland: Ami Aspelund, Eurovision participant 1983
  • Finland: Tommy Mansikka-aho, Eurovision participant 1998
  • The Gambia: Sunni Lamin Barrow, spoken word artist
  • Germany: Jendrik Sigwart, Eurovision participant 2021
  • Iceland: Eyjólfur Kristjánsson, Eurovision participant 1991
  • Latvia: Lauris Reiniks, Eurovision participant 2003, host Latvian national final 2022
  • North Macedonia: Biljana Crvenkovska, author / publisher
  • Malta: Moira Stafrace, Eurovision participant 1994
  • Norway: Elsie Bay, Melodi Grand Prix participant 2022
  • Spain: José Luis Serrano, author
  • Spain: Marcos Llunas, Eurovision participant 1997
  • Sweden: Erik Titusson, publisher
  • The Netherlands:
    Hanna Bervoets , author
    Greetje Kauffeld, Eurovision participant 1961
    Getty Kaspers, Eurovision participant 1975
    Cornald Maas, author, presenter, Dutch Eurovision commentator