KLE 37 was the thirty-seventh annual edition of the Luxembourgeois national festival, whose winner is always invited to represent the Grand Duchy at the subsequent Eurovisn't Song Contest. After the victory of Vesna Vatra at the previous contest with Pivo na stolu, Musselland won for the fourth time and had the rights to host - the first time they ever won twice in the same decade. They chose to host the festival in Echternach, also the host city of the most recent Eurovisn't to be held on Luxembourgeois soil in the year 29.
It was the sixth consecutive year, and seventh overall, of Alexa Rotaryphone's involvement as part of the song selection committee, and Lirina Jocit', brought in as the new head of delegation last year, remained in the rôle for her sophomore year in 37. Curiously, though, neither appeared as hostesses - the first time since KLE 32 that Alexa did not steer the show live. MMR, the local broadcasters, instead insisted on fielding their own presenting team, last year's winner, Vesna Vatra, and Pérola do Tejo, winner of KLE 15 and multiple time participant.
KLE 37 was the fourth straight year with a two-way vote, with jurors sending their ranking of the songs comprising 50% of the vote and criteria-based 'televoting' comprising the other half of the points. The winner was ?
Before KLE 37[]
MMR, Musselland's regional broadcasters, have been an increasingly prominent voice on the national scene in recent years, and with both an EV hosting and KLE hosting in the past decade that were almost entirely their responsibilities, they were keen to host again and stamp their own unique regional flavour on the contest, inserting Vesna and Pérola as collaborators on the task of choosing the year's artists and picking them as sole hostesses.
There was a lively amount of interest in hosting from Remich, Schengen and Dalheim, and local press were convinced that MMR would finally host in Musselland's southernmost canton for the first time, but citing its superior size and technical capacities, they decided to return to the Echternach Arena, the host of KLE 32 and EV30. All three of Musselland's hostings happened here, with KLE 19 happening in the nearby Abbey.
Round one[]
In randomised order of performance in the first round after a drawing of lots, these were the seven competitors:
| RO | Artist | Song | 👥 | ☎️ | 🟰 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Léa Vidal
|
Painted Island | 57 | 52 | 109 |
| 02 |  Aubades
|
Carry you | 60 | 85 | 145 |
| 03 |  Ylva Åseth
|
« reputation » | 78 | 91 | 169 |
| 04 |  Juin à Genève
|
Will I ever be loved? | 91 | 87 | 178 |
| 05 |  De Poedel
|
De Poedel smiljt niet | 75 | 63 | 138 |
| 06 |  Yalin Gui
|
Winter Flower in Spring | 93 | 75 | 168 |
| 07 |  Peak Times
|
cause célèbre | 46 | 47 | 93 |
- Born in Occitania’s lavender-washed landscapes and now rooted in Luxembourg’s east, Léa Vidal has made a name for herself blending the poetic softness of her origins with darker, moodier pop textures. Painted Island, sung mostly in Occitan with touches of English, drifts through grungy undercurrents and ghost-soft synths as it traces the return of a love who once vanished, only to pull at her heart again. The track lives in the uneasy space between yearning and self-protection, between shadow and glow. It’s intimate, atmospheric, and steeped in the gravity of past connection: “Chasing new golden shores in vain / you find no light there without my flame.”
- Minett, in particular its capital, Esch-sur-Alzette, is Luxembourg’s molten core of rock and metal, but metalcore itself has never graced the KLE stage, until Aubades. Led by Elisa Müller and forged through fifteen years of friendship, sweat, and battered rehearsal rooms, the band brings a debut that cuts as deep as it burns. Carry You is one of their most personal songs: a blistering, tender tribute to a close friend Elisa lost before she came out as a trans woman. His courage became both wound and compass, a reminder of a life she wasn’t yet brave enough to claim. The track erupts with grief, transformation and fierce loyalty, its fire lit from ashes. “I carry you in every fight, running towards my true life.”
- In third this year, representing the northern powerhouse of Éislek is someone from even further north still. Ylva Åseth grew up in Svalbard before trading Longyearbyen’s polar nights for the gentler climate of Esch-sur-Sûre over a decade ago, arriving as a translator and unexpectedly finding a second life in music. What began as hobbyist experiments in sharp-edged electronic vanguard pop, laced with social commentary, slowly gathered a cultlike following across her adopted province. Now stepping onto the KLE37 stage at last, she offers reputation, a darkly sardonic banger in English and Norwegian. The track seethes with exasperation at the contradictory archetypes women are held to, flipping them back at the listener with a smirk, a synth blade, and the fatal question that drives the song’s pulse: “Virgin, mommy, whore; what’s the gap you want me for?”
- From the vine-lined banks of Musselland comes a return to a sound seldom heard since The Lone Stars’ victory: Luxembourgeois country. Juin à Genève, sisters Jeanne and Marie Kirsch, spent years building their name in the local folk and roots scene, their harmonies shaped during their student days in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Europe’s answer to Nashville. Their KLE entry, Will I ever be loved?, co-written with their mentor Alexa Rotaryphone, is their most vulnerable piece yet. Stripped back and lyrically raw, it sifts through the fear of loving alone: the yearning for someone who’d run into a burning building for you, and the dread of being a placeholder in someone else’s story. “I’ve no use for clever words / staring out into an empty universe.”
- De Poedel steps onto the KLE37 stage for Südeifel with the self-assurance of a poodle who has conquered banking, academia, cuisine, and the performing arts… and decided hyperpop was next. Her track, De Poedel smijlt niet, fires off sugar-glitch synths and razor-spark vocals while reminding everyone that maintaining her approval is both an art form and a survival tactic. It’s chaotic, shiny, and threaded with the unshakeable poedel mystique that has already turned her into a minor deity in several fan forums. Consider this a cultural reset wrapped in bubblegum static and couture fur.
- Äischdall, long past its era of chronic near-misses and now one of KLE’s most unpredictable provinces, sends a long-rumoured name into the spotlight at last. Yalin Gui has been a quiet pioneer in bringing East Asian–tinted indie into Luxembourg’s charts, but for years she resisted the contest’s pull—until now. Her entry, Winter Flower in Spring, moves with the hush of a sleepless night and the glow of rediscovery. Sung in Japanese, Hakka, Mandarin and English, the track blends city-pop shimmer with her signature gentle melancholy, tracing the moment where reinvention becomes possible again. It’s the sound of a winter bloom warming under its first sunrise, a heart remembering its own courage: “I’m a winter flower who finally understands spring; in the depths of the night, I learnt what the sun is.”
- Representing the restless capital, Peak Times arrive as four former philosophy students who discovered that a 3 a.m. warehouse rave can outargue any dissertation. They traded academic theory for something more urgent: music that makes thought kinetic. Their sound—techno, electro, and whatever unexpected influence sparks in their shared studio—carries that mission forward. cause célèbre, their KLE37 entry, is a jagged, pulsing critique of the modern spectacle of the “cancelled” celebrity who somehow keeps growing richer, louder and more algorithmically amplified. The track calls out pundits and provocateurs who weaponise outrage while posing as victims, and urges listeners to starve that cycle rather than feed it. Sharp, defiant and tightly wound, it hits where it hurts.
After all the songs were performed, other competing nations were invited to vote on the songs from most to least favourite, giving 22, 15, 10, 6, 3, 1 and 0 points. They were also invited to take part in the televote, giving as many points from 1 to 5 as they wished to all songs on different criteria.
20 foreign broadcasters participated on the jury, down three on KLE 35 but up one from the previous year, whilst thirteen also televoted, the same as last year. Ylva Åseth, Juin à Genève and Yalin Gui were the jury's top 3, with De Poedel coming closest to the podium, just three points short of X. Yalin Gui won the jury, but with just two points ahead of JàG, who had a thirteen point margin over Ylva in 3rd. In the televote, Ylva won and Juin à Genève also made the podium with just four points less, but were joined this time by Aubades, who came just six points away from winning that half of the vote. In the end, the jury got their way, with all three juror-favoured songs making it into the final. De Poedel's televote tank and Aubades' jury tank overcame their strong positions in the other half of the vote. On the other side of the table, there was consensus on sixth and seventh between televote and jury, but Peak Times got the third strongest last place finish ever behind Kaile Kaa and the False Brentwoods with just two points more.
Superfinal[]
Four countries joined the 20 that voted in the first round to choose their favourite in the jury of the superfinal, up two from KLE 36 but down seven compared to KLE 35. Eight countries chose to vote for a second time in the televote too.
| Draw | Artist | Song | 👥 | ☎️ | 🟰1 | 🟰2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03 | Ylva Åseth
|
« reputation » | 104 | 190 | 294 | ??? |
| 04 | Juin à Genève
|
Will I ever be loved? | 229 | 160 | 389 | ??? |
| 06 | Yalin Gui
|
Winter Flower in Spring | 167 | 150 | 317 | ??? |
The new-form televote was announced first, category by category. Ylva Åseth swept three of five categories, picking up Best Concept, Best Composition and Best Overall Package. Out of the finalists, she was also the strongest in Composition, behind the fourth place Aubades. Yalin came away with no nods, whilst Juin à Genève just picked up one, albeit a prestigious one, narrowly beating Aubades to the Best Lyrics trophy. This gave Ylva a 30 pt lead over JàG, and 40 over Yalin.
Things took a turn when the juries began to vote - at first, it seemed neck and neck between Ylva and Juin à Genève, but then the latter broke away with 5 votes in a row. Yalin then picked up 5 of the next 6 jurors' preferences to get back into the game. The latest voters strongly favoured Juin à Genève, with 4 out of 7 opting for the duo compared to two for Yalin and one for Ylva.
Adding televote and jury, Juin à Genève enjoyed a comfortable 72 pt lead over Yalin in second, who beat Ylva to third by 23 points. The strongly tipped northern Televote favourite ended up out in third. When Ylva's votes were reällocated, Juin à Genève had 487 points to Yalin's 409, meaning that all five of the jurors who preferred Reputation would have to have Winter flower in spring as their second pick. In the end, only 3 out of 5 did, meaning a 528-472 win for the hosts.
Gëllen Liewen awards[]
| Award | Recipient |
|---|---|
| ✍🏼 Lyrical | 🥀 Juin à Genève - Will I ever be loved? |
| 🎼 Composition | 🗣️ Ylva Åseth - « reputation » |
| 💭 Conceptual | 🗣️ Ylva Åseth - « reputation » |
| 🎙️ Performance | 🩵 Aubades - Carry you |
| 🎁 Overall package | 🗣️ Ylva Åseth - « reputation » |
The winners picked up just one gong in the Gëllen Leuwen awards, with Reputation being the televote clear fave.
Observations and Firsts[]
- Musselland won on home soil - only the third time this happened, after Äischdall (24-25) and Éislek (26-27) did the doubles too.
- This win positioned Musselland on 5 wins, tied with Haapstad as the second most successful province ever, just one behind Éislek. They are the winningest province of the thirties, with three wins in the past eight editions.
- Fourth position in the starting order had always been considered rather unlucky - with the first ever performer in that position, Lirina, narrowly missing out on the win, and it taking until the year 31 for a song in fourth to ever win, St Christopher by the Lone Stars. Since then, 4th place has won another two times in the 30s - once in 32 with Leaving here with me, and now this year.
- It was the second year in a row that the show closer failed to qualify to the superfinal - something that had not happened once between 31 and 35.
- The triumph of newcomers over veterans in year 36 - with two big names flopping and the top two ending up being newbies - definitely had its impact, with the field being entirely new faces once again.
- This year marked the first normal edition since KLE 30 that a song performed in third made it to the superfinal - the last song that managed this feat was A luz by Mãe da lua
- The show featured the first appearance of Hakka and "Poedelands" and the return of Norwegian, Japanese, Occitan, Czech and Mandarin.
- Winning with a margin of 5.6%, Juin à Genève ended up in the middle of the pack of historic winning margins, after one of the biggest winning margins in 35 and narrowest in 36.
- More often than not, the artist who wins the jury in the first round at least gains silver in the final, but for two years in a row now, for Adélaïde Dumont and now Ylva Åseth, this has not been true.
- This edition marked the first time in the modern era that the 3rd and 5th positioned songs both went through.
- Juin à Genève are the first duo to win since their Mussellander compatriots, The Lone Stars, in 31.
- Alexa Rotaryphone became the first former KLE winner to be credited with a win as co-writer since Pérola do Tejo with Coimbra in 26.
