It’s Sunday evening, and normally we’d be watching SongHunt in the chat together now. But the semi-final stage is over, 12 direct finalists have been selected, and we’re now eagerly anticipating the chat-only “Last Chance” round which is scheduled for next Sunday (28 March)!

So we thought: Let’s use this brief downtime to time to look back and remember some more songs from the newly completed national final season. Some of them nearly made it into SongHunt, others… didn’t get so close.

If you don’t know it already, SongHunt is our quest to find the best non-winning national final song of the season. You can read more about the 2021 edition here, and about its history here.

Now let’s dive into those songs that (mostly) just missed out!

Cambi – Zaljubljen (Croatia)

Just 0.01 points separated Zaljubljen from Eric Saade’s Every Minute in the average score of our chatters, which ultimately meant it never had enough to sneak into any SongHunt round.

Zaljubljen got an average score of 6.43 in our chat and came fourth in its national final, Dora 2021.

Atle Pettersen – World On Fire (Norway)

0.17 points away from qualifying (in theory): World On Fire. Just like Cambi, Atle Pettersen also didn’t convince our editorial team to give him a wildcard ticket.

World On Fire got an average score of 6.27 in our chat and was an automatic finalist in Melodi Grand Prix 2021, but failed to reach the Gold Final there.

Joana Alegre – Joana do mar (Portugal)

0.26 points away from the lowest scoring automatic SongHunt candidate, we find Joana do mar. The song did get some attention from the editor’s team, but it wasn’t enough to grab a wildcard ticket in the end.

Joana do mar got an average score of 6.18 in our chat and made it to the final of Festival da Canção, where it ended up in seventh place.

Bernarda – Colors (Croatia)

Bernarda Brunović is an old favourite in our community, and so we were happy to see her participating in Dora 2021. She did enter our discussion as a potential Editor’s Choice for SongHunt, but no – our priorities were elsewhere.

Colors got an average score of 5.45 in our chat, and came seventh in Dora 2021.

Emmy – Witch Woods (Norway)

This one surely had its fans in our community, but it was also polarizing – let’s just say that two of our editors disagreed wildly on its merits. Along with an insufficient chat score, that ended up being enough to keep it out of any SongHunt semi-final.

Witch Woods got an average score of 6.15 in our chat and reached the final of Melodi Grand Prix 2021, but not its Gold Final. 

Lovad – Allting är precis likadant (Sweden)

One of those Swedish semi-final songs that were brutally “robbed”. Not only in Melodifestivalen, but also in SongHunt (with only 48 semi-final spots available, it had to happen to some). Nothing really spoke against helping this into the semi-finals, but again, our priorities were elsewhere and it missed out in the end.

Allting är precis likadant only came sixth in the fourth semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2021.

Ella Orešković – Come This Way (Croatia)

There are good songs, and then there are good songs that the singer has absolutely no interest in. We never considered this for a wildcard, but we certainly want to remember it and its memorably disconnected performance.

Come This Way got an average score of 5.76 in the chat, and came 9th in Dora 2021.

Evita Cololo – Be paslapčių (Lithuania)

This awkward, but weirdly cosy song got mentioned as a potential wildcard candidate at least twice, both within the editor’s team and in the chat. 

Be paslapčių got an average score of 5.55 in our chat, and came fifth (out of six) in the final of Pabandom iš naujo 2021.

Marianne Petha & Mikkel Gaup – Pages (Norway)

Something from the list of potential Editor’s Choice candidates, but never high enough to be seriously considered.

Pages’ Eurovision journey came to an end in the Sistesjansen round (Last Chance) of Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2021.

Nadine – Cheguei aqui (Portugal)

Sometimes our chatters make suggestions for SongHunt, and we try to integrate them where we can. But our capacities are limited, so this wish of a regular SongHunter unfortunately couldn’t be fulfilled, mostly for reasons of ensuring variety in the line-up. 

Cheguei aqui came 9th in the first semi-final of Portugal’s Festival da Canção 2021.

Therr Maitz – Future Is Bright (Russia)

The only reason why this didn’t make the SongHunt semi-finals is simply explained: There was no usable YouTube video. Otherwise, it would have had its safe spot by way of a wildcard. But if the broadcaster doesn’t want us to be able to watch a song, what can we do?

Future Is Bright got an average score of 6.02 in our chat, and came last (out of three) in the Russian selection.

and finally…

Redel – Tartu (Estonia)

Why not end this “SongHunt heat that never was” with something that most of us had an absolutely strong sense of dislike for?

Every year, one song has to end up right at the bottom of the SongHunt score list. This year it was Tartu – despite a high score or two from among our chatroom voters, this “difficult” and, well, very Estonian number ended up with an average score of 2.98 in our chat, and came 9th in the final of Eesti Laul 2021.

What did you love and hate from the above songs? What else should have made it into the SongHunt semis? Let us know in the comments!

Image sources: LRT / JUSTINAS STACEVIČIUS – Pedro Pina | RTP – NRK / JULIA MARIE NAGLESTAD