Czechia 2020 - Benny Cristo – Kemama

The Czech selection is a bit like a mini macrocosm of contemporary Eurovision. You've got your character-led tropical pop of Elis Mraz and Čis T giving out all the wannabe Fuego chemicals, a sadboi at a piano from Karelll (three Ls, remember), the try hard tricksters who've delivered a sadly usual boy group plod in We All Poop, the glacial spine-tingler from Barbora Mochowa and the standard sounds-a-bit-Swedish faux mystical mid tempo job from Olga Lounová. Heck, they've even got yet another vaguely Eilish flavoured romp from Pam Rabbit.

But there's one song that's slipped almost completely under the radar from nearly every front that I reckon would do a lovely job on stage in Rotterdam. And that's the quietly fabulous Benny Cristo here with his Iron Maiden t-shirt and massive party atmosphere. When everyone else is giving it the Eurogenre cookie cutter treatment, young Benny here is ploughing his own groove and doing a spectacularly effective fist of it.

He's clearly got a hard job on his hands, as each faction of Eurovisionia seems to be backing their own archetypes heavily, and, well, who knows what the folks at home in České Budéjovice and Hradec Králove will make of his less traditional stylings. But there's always the chance that all the others will cancel each other out and something fresh and original will creep its way through the middle to take the prize. Well, we can hope at least. But however well the lad does in the influencing app vote, one thing's for sure - we're rather glad he's there!