So, before I get to it because I know people are going to ask:

• Eurovision has been trying to get to the Asian market for two decades, already.
• Asiavision is already trademarked.
• The participating broadcasters want the Eurovision brand tied to it.
• Israel is not in this spin-off, in fact two countries with participating broadcasters do not recognise Israel and ban Israeli passport holders from even entering the country. (Asia is probably more politically complex than Europe – I do not envy Voxovation for having to deal with this.)

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Bhutan – also known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon, which is a badass name. Much more badass than “Great Britain”.

Bhutan’s the first country to get a rep for the first Eurovision Song Contest Asia, set to be aired from Bangkok, Thailand. They picked Nyendra with the song “The Angel” during their national selection show and initially I was like “huh, this is solid”, but I didn’t get too attached to it. Bayeul 301 was my favourite, but that might be my Eurovision-centric tastes cropping up since they were definitely the poppiest of the five acts. Listening to all the studio versions of the shortlisted songs afterwards, Nyendra actually ended up being my favourite.

But something clicked with me watching Bhutan’s national selection. And it was a feeling I’ve missed after watching the absolute shitshow that was Eurovision 2026.

See, I got attached to Eurovision since 2021, and 2023 was when the ADHD hyperfixation really set in. Given it was hosted in the UK, it’s not too surprising. Yet, there was this anxiety that kept coming up due to Israel’s presence, and how they made things hell for other artists particularly in 2024. I gave them the benefit of the doubt in 2025, however come the winter meeting last year, I really wanted to drop Eurovision. It’s been hard, this is not only a recent special interest my autism has latched onto after the trauma of the COVID pandemic and lockdowns, but my ADHD gave me the hyperfixation. This year I was anxious over Israel winning the contest and while I’m happy Bulgaria’s got its first W, I can’t say I’m ecstatic about the European Eurovision at the moment. Add the very stiff and awkward feeling production, the use of generative AI, and the rake-stepping in an attempt to give a tribute to the queer audience of Eurovision by talking about the letters of “LGBTQ+” with “H for Human” during an interval skit (which was apparently bad enough that the BBC apparently did not air this at all) and I was convinced that my special interest in Eurovision had been shot dead thanks to ORF, the host broadcaster for the 2026 European contest. Hell, not even the announcements that Canada would participate next year were able to get me on board.

While I don’t know the financial situation in Bhutan, it was clear their national selection was pretty much on a budget even with the help of Voxovation, the company that is licensed to run shows under the Eurovision brand. There are rough parts of the show – one example I kept seeing in the ESC Gabe Discord was one of the interval acts taking too long. I don’t want to mull on this too much though because if you have the ambition, determination, and enthusiasm, then it’ll shine through no matter what. And Bhutan showed that. Given this was their first (proper) go and I know literally nothing about Bhutan’s or their ESC Asia broadcaster’s situations, it was good! All the songs were good to even great, and it looked like everyone was having loads of fun. Bhutan were clearly ambitious and determined, and overall enthusiastic about this, and it showed even through the rough production. It’s worth pointing out that Eurovision is no stranger to this, broadcasters have to basically work with what they got. Moldova was a great example this year, for their national final they went from a small TV studio with low quality acts to an ambitious arena show that chose a rallying cry that resonated not just with Moldova but the European audience as a whole – with the same budget. This is all on a thin budget that the Moldovan broadcaster has to justify.

Now, I’m not going to delude myself. Asia has plenty of geopolitical issues and in my opinion, Eurovision will inevitably run into these, and if things get really hairy I’ll probably have to jump off the ship. But for now, I’m going to enjoy this for what it is. It’s early days, but Eurovision Asia seems to have something going for it already if the first national final was able to rekindle my Euro-tism.