The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a rich tapestry of new music and new artists, from National Final entries right through to the Grand Final itself. Much has been written about the 43 songs which appeared in Lisbon at the 63^rd Song Contest in May, but is there more to the compositions that is yet to be heard?

Cover versions have become a mainstay of YouTube with literally thousands of fans and professional singers alike putting their spin on our favourite tunes.

I thought it would be prudent to have a look through this year’s offerings, and pick out the best so that you don’t have to!

I will try and cover (!) everything, from the straight down the line cover version, right through to complete reworks.

Vasya & Nina Boykova – Fuego (Russian Cover)

Starting off, we are headed to Ukraine and a couple of talented singers with a very professional looking video, giving a different slant on our beloved super sexy original presentation by Eleni Foureira. Nina is no stranger to Eurovision, having tried to represent Ukraine at JESC in 2015, losing out to Anna Trincher. Enjoy!

Martin Fitch – Mercy (Polish)

Eurovision fans will know Martin better as Marcin Mroziński, the actor, singer and presenter, who represented Poland at Eurovision in Oslo 2010 with his song “Legenda”. Now known as Martin, he has remained part of the Eurovision family, appearing at many fan events as well as forging a successful career both in London and his native Poland.  Martin took to Facebook to tell us that his favourite 2018 entry was France’s “Mercy” by Madame Monsieur, and that he had found a cupboard which gave him the best acoustics to present his Polish cover version!

Víctor López – Toy (Rock version)

The above two entries are fairly standard and in keeping with the original versions, so it must be time for something different! Victor is a Spanish teacher and part of the rock band “Mysterika” His take on the winning song from Lisbon gives a different slant to Netta’s original and is definitely worth a listen!

Danny McEvoy – La Forza (Acoustic Cover)

Danny is from the UK and has been covering Eurovision songs for many years, check out his youtube channel for some surprising covers! None more so than when he took to his stool, with his guitar and gave us a fairly impressive rendition of Elina Nechayeva’s operatic masterpiece

Rui Andrade – X My Heart

It was no secret that Azerbaijan looked towards Portuguese singer Rui to head up the backing vocals for Aisel at this year’s contest. Rui is no stranger to Eurovision fans, having competed in the national selection  Festival da Canção and appearing as a back up singer for the likes of the Tolmachevy Sisters for Russia in 2014.  Here, he shows us how this song could have been presented, along with some lovely (presumably Portuguese) scenery!

Páran Zenélnek – Viszlát nyár

We saw above how Víctor López put a rock slant on a Eurovision favourite, how about taking it the other way? AWS represented Hungary with their high energy rock number “Viszlát nyár” and here we have the band Páran Zenélnek, who are university students from Debrecen in Hungary, giving us their gorgeous interpretation, complete with key change!

So that’s a few of our favourites out there, hope you enjoyed them and let us know if there are any gems we have missed!

Stay with us here at ESCBubble as we are ready to open our doors for 2019 and the 64^th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. We will bring you all the news, reviews and interviews as it happens