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Eurovision 2023

So, the allocation draw has been done. France, Germany, and Italy will be voting in Semi-Final 1, with Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom voting in Semi-Final 2. But which country is in which semi-final? I've listed them in alphabetical order according to which half of each semi-final they're in.

Semi-Final 1
Croatia
Ireland
Latvia
Malta
Norway
Portugal
Serbia
Azerbaijan
Czech Republic
Finland
Israel
Moldova
Netherlands
Sweden
Switzerland

Semi-Final 2
Armenia
Belgium
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Greece
Iceland
Romania
Albania
Australia
Austria
Georgia
Lithuania
Poland
San Marino
Slovenia

The running order for each semi-final will be confirmed once all entries have been announced - we'll likely get this towards the end of March or beginning of April. With regard to tickets, further information is expected towards the end of February.
 
Hype is building. We've had the announcement of the hosts for this year, and further details can be found here. On main presenting duties, we have Graham Norton, Alesha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham (yes, Septa Unella is presenting Eurovision), and Julia Sanina (frontwoman of a Ukrainian band). Co-commentating for the final will be Mel Giedroyc, and the semis (which are on BBC One for the first time) will have Scott Mills and Rylan Clark doing the commentary as per usual. Also being involved will be Timur Miroshnychenko, Claire Sweeney, and Sam Quek.

Now if they can hurry up with details about the tickets, I'll be very happy. :p
 
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Enjoyed seeing the Eurovisioned up Liverpool sign by Liverpool One at the weekend.

Was actually heading over to the Auditorium next to the Arena.
 
A (not so) little story from this past week courtesy of myself and @Sammy's Eurovision/Melfest discussions this week, as I've finally managed to catch up on national finals. Melodifestivalen, Sweden's national contest for a Eurovision entry is taking place in Sweden at the moment, and it's heat 4 this weekend. To say it's the most highly anticipated one would be a bit of an understatement. As some of you will know, 2012's Eurovision winner Loreen has entered for a 4th time with a song called Tattoo. Her previous entries were My Heart is Refusing Me in 2011 (an absolute banger which didn't get through, not helped by the terrible arrangement before it was improved for release after the contest), Euphoria in 2012 (we all know what happened there) and Statements in 2017 which was an excellent and should have won instead of I Can't Go On (I wish you didn't).

Now Melfest is a weird beast, they're super secretive about the songs prior to the heats taking place. The press will get dragged to the national broadcaster SVT to have a listen in complete secrecy to allow for written reactions, then a 60 second clip of the track will be released, then rehearsal pictures along with further written reviews before the actual broadcast of the final on Saturday night.

With Sweden having the pedigree that they do in the contest, they're normally fairly high in the odds. A chance of winning usually before any of the national finals take place. On Monday, the press were allowed to hear Loreen's song for the first time. They were pretty damn positive, describing it as upbeat and drawing comparisons to how anthemic Euphoria was and saying it sounds like a winner.

So after seeing that, I chucked my traditional bet on - £20 to win, the odds already dropping to 6/1. Fast forward to Thursday, out comes a 60 second clip of her song while I was asleep after work which Sam kindly advises me of. I grab a listen...

I give him a not so subtle nudge letting him know the odds are still. a relatively decent 5/1, but already they were dropping. Thursday evening arrives, and some performance photos and reviews arrive from rehearsals. Having watched the last few heats, this is on a whole other level:

Then over the course of the evening, the odds drop like a stone. Sweden are now favourites to win with the best odds at 2/1, surpassing Ukraine who have been sat as favourites since last year.

Now of course, this relies on the absolutely useless Melfest audience not ruining it for us all and voting for someone else - which to be honest on past years is entirely possible. If they don't vote this through so we get Petra Mede presenting next year, we riot.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
 
A (not so) little story from this past week courtesy of myself and @Sammy's Eurovision/Melfest discussions this week, as I've finally managed to catch up on national finals. Melodifestivalen, Sweden's national contest for a Eurovision entry is taking place in Sweden at the moment, and it's heat 4 this weekend. To say it's the most highly anticipated one would be a bit of an understatement. As some of you will know, 2012's Eurovision winner Loreen has entered for a 4th time with a song called Tattoo. Her previous entries were My Heart is Refusing Me in 2011 (an absolute banger which didn't get through, not helped by the terrible arrangement before it was improved for release after the contest), Euphoria in 2012 (we all know what happened there) and Statements in 2017 which was an excellent and should have won instead of I Can't Go On (I wish you didn't).

Now Melfest is a weird beast, they're super secretive about the songs prior to the heats taking place. The press will get dragged to the national broadcaster SVT to have a listen in complete secrecy to allow for written reactions, then a 60 second clip of the track will be released, then rehearsal pictures along with further written reviews before the actual broadcast of the final on Saturday night.

With Sweden having the pedigree that they do in the contest, they're normally fairly high in the odds. A chance of winning usually before any of the national finals take place. On Monday, the press were allowed to hear Loreen's song for the first time. They were pretty damn positive, describing it as upbeat and drawing comparisons to how anthemic Euphoria was and saying it sounds like a winner.

So after seeing that, I chucked my traditional bet on - £20 to win, the odds already dropping to 6/1. Fast forward to Thursday, out comes a 60 second clip of her song while I was asleep after work which Sam kindly advises me of. I grab a listen...

I give him a not so subtle nudge letting him know the odds are still. a relatively decent 5/1, but already they were dropping. Thursday evening arrives, and some performance photos and reviews arrive from rehearsals. Having watched the last few heats, this is on a whole other level:

Then over the course of the evening, the odds drop like a stone. Sweden are now favourites to win with the best odds at 2/1, surpassing Ukraine who have been sat as favourites since last year.

Now of course, this relies on the absolutely useless Melfest audience not ruining it for us all and voting for someone else - which to be honest on past years is entirely possible. If they don't vote this through so we get Petra Mede presenting next year, we riot.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

I don't know why, but I've struggled to watch Melfest this year through SVTPlay (they seem to be geoblocking it for some reason). Either that, or I'm just being thick. :p
 
Got Melfest to work on my computer, so yay! Loreen was killing it…and then a moronic stage invader forced the performance to be stopped halfway through. The presenters did a great job filling in while they reset everything, and Loreen’s going for it again. Nailed it once more.
 
Has the UK act and song been announced yet?

Really hope they've realised after last year if you get someone with a decent song whose prepared to do the promotion they'll actually do well come the event itself.
 
Has the UK act and song been announced yet?

Really hope they've realised after last year if you get someone with a decent song whose prepared to do the promotion they'll actually do well come the event itself.
Nothing's been confirmed as of yet, but a number of fans think it could be Rina Sawayama with 'Frankenstein'.
 
UK had a guy off tik tok and he did well so we're repeating the formula this year. But with a contestant that ticks the "diversity" checkboxes.

I'm not against anyone because of their background if they're talented but sometimes it feels like someone get picked because of their heritage.
 
UK had a guy off tik tok and he did well so we're repeating the formula this year. But with a contestant that ticks the "diversity" checkboxes.

I'm not against anyone because of their background if they're talented but sometimes it feels like someone get picked because of their heritage.
Oh come on don't go play the Daily Mail card....

2013: Bonnie Tyler (white)
2014: Molly (white)
2015: Electro Velvet (white)
2016: Joe and Jake (white)
2017: Lucie Jones (white)
2018: SuRie (white)
2019: Michael Rice (white)
20/21: James Newman (white)
2022: Sam Ryder (white)

For clarification to those who don't know we haven't officially announced an act yet, but there's three major rumours:
  • Rina Sawayama (Japanese but has lived in Britain since she was 5)
  • Freya Ridings (white)
  • Birdy (white)
Considering the huge spectrum of diversity in the UK, if anything we appear to have actively avoided "ticking" those checkboxes in the last decade. So if we're choosing someone who happens to be of an ethnic minority for this year's entry, then I frankly consider them to have got that purely on merit over anything else. Hell, listen to some of Rina's stuff and she's got a lot of varying styles which could make for a really good entry.
 
I'm in the queue for the jury final. The queue seems to be moving at a decent pace, but whether I'll get tickets or not is another thing. Might have to look at resale tickets if/when any become available.
 

From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsfAWzQiA44


In a surprising turn of events, Germany are sending something that isn't completely dreadful.

Further listening to this over the course of this week - god damn it I'm on the hype train for it. Which usually means I get overly excited and it fails miserably 😂. I do have a gut feeling this could be a massive dark horse this year though.

There's a LOT of "rocky" stuff this year from the likes of Latvia (bland), Australia (meh) and Finland (damn it, it's catchy) as competition which makes me wonder whether there's too much of it and it'll split the vote - assuming they all get through the Semis, which I don't think they will. Blood and Glitter feels like there's just a lot more there to be more widely liked. The shock factor of the start, the campness, some real pop-esque melodies in there, the synths and some meaningful lyrics too. The stage is TINY for Germany's National Finals, and apparently they couldn't chuck in as much pyro as they wanted to. So can't wait to see what they do on the big stage in Liverpool. It'll certainly be a huge moment in the show, regardless of where they end up in the results.
 
It's catchy, sounds like one of those songs you heard on holiday. But, I don't think it has that sort of "wow" factor that Sam Ryder had last year, it's a bit on the bland side for me. Think it'll do ok, but it will get lost amongst the other unique stuff being entered this year.
 
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