02 May 2023

Liverpool 2023 promises to be a Eurovision Song Contest that will unite us by music, and that certainly seems the way it’s going given the energy, resources and associated events that the United Kingdom and host broadcaster, the BBC, are providing. The stage looks stunning, the array of support acts look even more stunning, and if you’re lucky to be there, the Eurovision Village will be rocking every day. Along with Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra and Britain’s Sam Ryder from last year’s Eurovision who were integral in bringing the event to Liverpool, there’ll be a plethora of local British and Ukrainian talent as support acts, and former participants including Duncan Laurence (Netherlands), Netta (Israel), Cornelia Jakobs (Sweden), Mahmood (Italy) and Dadi Freyr (Iceland) involved as well.

This year’s Eurovision will be the first since 1998 that the UK hosted the event after Katrina And The Waves won with Love Shine A Light in 1997, and the first since 1980 that the host is from the country that didn’t win the previous year. While Israel didn’t want to be lumbered with the expense in 1980, especially as they hosted Eurovision in 1979 and won again, the war in Ukraine would never make that country a viable option in 2023. Given the ridiculous sympathy vote that propelled Ukraine’s win last year, there’s some justice in the UK hosting, as their second place in Turin essentially made them the winner based on music.

One big change set for Liverpool 2023 will be the voting in the semi finals. They will be decided by the public only rather than the traditional mix of jury and public. The main reason given was that jury influence is minimal when deciding the 10 qualifiers, with typically just one variation, and that’s often near the tail of the top 10 and involves a ballad promoted. A side issue were voting anomalies between some juries last year (allegedly exchanging votes), although, this ignores the biggest voting anomaly, albeit a legal one: bloc voting by the public.

Something totally ignored with this decision to dump juries is that juries, given they do lean towards artistic songs, attract a more diverse range of artists and songs to Eurovision in the first place. During the nadir of public bloc voting, many countries became demoralised with the unfairness of the process, and either sent low grade artists or stopped attending at all. Ireland even sent a puppet turkey one year to mock the entire situation. Without juries to help balance the public voting, there would never have been winners like Conchita Wurst, Salvador Sobral, Duncan Laurence or even Måneskin. Måneskin is bit different because juries will still play their usual role in the grand final. Otherwise Italy, along with the likes of Austria and Portugal, would not be in Eurovision at all. At this point it’s prudent to keep an open mind, while acknowledging already that 2023 attracted a couple of joke entries like Croatia and Romania (even Malta is cheap) and there’s very few ballads.

One consolation for any of those artistic songs that ordinarily would appeal to the jury is that qualifying for the final is a very low bar in 2023. With only 37 songs, you only need finish top 10 of 15 or 16, depending on the semi final. Numbers are down from last year’s 40 due to Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia withdrawing (primarily due to costs of competing), while Russia and Belarus remain banned for their role in the invasion of Ukraine. There’ll also be one extra “country” voting in all shows, that being the rest of the world. So someone in Japan can vote in all three shows, whereas someone from Finland can only vote in their semi final and the grand final. Wild stuff.

As for those 37 songs in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, it’s a solid year without offering anything spectacular.

My Top 37 and Review of all songs here

Semi Final 1

01 Norway – Alessandra – Queen of Kings
02 Malta – The Busker – Dance (Our Own Party)
03 Serbia – Luke Black – Samo Mi Se Spava
04 Latvia – Sudden Lights – Aijā
05 Portugal – Mimicat – Ai Coracao
06 Ireland – Wild Youth – We Are One
07 Croatia – Let 3 – Mama SC
08 Switzerland – Remo Forrer – Watergun
09 Israel – Noa Kirel – Unicorn
10 Moldova – Pasha Parfeni – Soarele si Luna
11 Sweden – Loreen – Tattoo
12 Azerbaijan – TuralTuranX – Tell Me More
13 Czechia – Vesna – My Sister’s Crown
14 Netherlands – Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper – Burning Daylight
15 Finland – Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha

In deciding my 10 qualifiers, I first mark all the hot entries with red hearts, then the warm entries with orange hearts, and then the cool ones (if necessary) with blue hearts, until I reach 10. With six hot entries (Azerbaijan, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Norway and Sweden) and five warm ones (Czechia, Latvia, Moldova, Netherlands and Switzerland), I was at 11 qualifiers, so had to cut one. It was either Moldova or Switzerland, so goodbye Remo, primarily because Moldova adds some variety. Of those I left out, Croatia and Serbia are probably the strongest contenders to qualify, with Ireland and Latvia the most at risk of missing out. Croatia is the only one I don’t want to see qualify, which is a contrast from the previous two years when Croatia were massive injustices with Mia Dimsic and Albina. The irony!

My qualifiers…

01 Norway – Alessandra – Queen of Kings
04 Latvia – Sudden Lights – Aijā
06 Ireland – Wild Youth – We Are One
09 Israel – Noa Kirel – Unicorn
10 Moldova – Pasha Parfeni – Soarele si Luna
11 Sweden – Loreen – Tattoo
12 Azerbaijan – TuralTuranX – Tell Me More
13 Czechia – Vesna – My Sister’s Crown
14 Netherlands – Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper – Burning Daylight
15 Finland – Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha

Semi Final 2

01 Denmark – Reiley – Breaking My Heart
02 Armenia – Brunette – Future Lover
03 Romania – Theodor Andrei – D.G.T. (Off and On)
04 Estonia – Alika – Bridges
05 Belgium – Gustaph – Because Of You
06 Cyprus – Andrew Lambrou – Break A Broken Heart
07 Iceland – Dilja – Power
08 Greece – Victor Vernicos – What They Say
09 Poland – Blanka – Solo
10 Slovenia – Joker Out – Carpe Diem
11 Georgia – Iru – Echo
12 San Marino – Piqued Jacks – Like An Animal
13 Austria – Teya & Salena – Who The Hell Is Edgar?
14 Albania – Albina & Familja Kelmendi – Duje
15 Lithuania – Monika Linkyte – Stay
16 Australia – Voyager – Promise

Clearly a weaker semi final when I need to dive into the cooler entries to find my top 10. Just four hot ones with Albania, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, and four warm ones with Armenia, Australia, Austria and Slovenia. The two cool ones are Greece and Iceland. The rest I don’t care about. Perhaps Romania, due to their good record of excellent staging, is the main one likely to dump one of my ten out. Cyprus will get an automatic 12 points from Greece, so that will help them. Again, Eurovision organisers still don’t know how to create pots to ensure Cyprus and Greece are in separate semi finals. Simple: put them in a pot of their own and randomly draw them into a semi final. When you include four other countries in the pot, then there’s a 33% chance Cyprus and Greece end up in the same semi final, and it actually happens more often than that. In fact, half the time they are together, including four straight years from 2016 to 2019.

My qualifiers…

02 Armenia – Brunette – Future Lover
04 Estonia – Alika – Bridges
07 Iceland – Dilja – Power
08 Greece – Victor Vernicos – What They Say
09 Poland – Blanka – Solo
10 Slovenia – Joker Out – Carpe Diem
13 Austria – Teya & Salena – Who The Hell Is Edgar?
14 Albania – Albina & Familja Kelmendi – Duje
15 Lithuania – Monika Linkyte – Stay
16 Australia – Voyager – Promise

Grand Final

– France – La Zarra – Evidemment
– Germany – Lord of the Lost – Blood & Glitter
– Spain – Blanca Paloma – Eaea
– Italy – Marco Mengoni – Due Vite
19 Ukraine – Tvorchi – Heart Of Steel
26 United Kingdom – Mae Muller – I Wrote A Song

Just noting my favourites here, with France and United Kingdom the hot songs, Germany and Italy the warm ones, and Ukraine the cool one. Not interested in Spain at all, and it’s officially my worst of this year’s Eurovision.

Betting Odds

Remember, betting odds are not “what the bookies say”. They are a response to people betting, so essentially it’s another public poll. The difference being the public is voicing their decision through their wallet, so there’s generally more substance and less emotion involved in their decisions. Generally!

It certainly looks a big Nordic fight involving Sweden and Finland, with Loreen and Käärijä, respectively, engaging in public fun about it. That Ukraine is third can only be because there’s a perception of another massive sympathy vote. With countries like France and Spain, you must consider these are countries with large populations, which means more people betting, and so there is some emotion here. Their high place could be a little inflated. Norway is the only other realistic chance based on the betting, and will obviously get good votes from neighbours.

Beyond those 6 countries, the rest will need to rely on dramatic staging to improve their positions. This can happen, as was most notable in 2014 with Austria (Conchita Wurst) and Netherlands (The Common Linnets) finishing first and second. Austria was barely top 10 in betting and Netherlands in the lower third. Curiously, Azerbaijan, my favourite song this year, is in the bottom tier of songs to win and is ranked the least likely to qualify for the grand final from their semi final.

Mr Eurovision Jury

With myself, my sister, and someone we pulled off the street called Z, these are out top songs. Myself and my sister already watched each song more than once, while Z only watched them once. We each scored them out of 10 for a possible total of 30 points for each song.

Sweden – 26 (8/10/8)
Norway – 24.5 (8/9/7.5)
Ireland – 24 (7/10/7)
Australia – 23.5 (7/8/8.5)
Netherlands – 22.5 (7/8/7.5)

Then followed a whole bunch of songs ranging from 22 points to 20 points: Greece, Albania, Italy, Austria, Azerbaijan, Israel, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Iceland and UK. Z only gave Finland 4 points compared to 8 from the other two. At the bottom were Portugal (8.5), Spain (9) and Belgium, Croatia and Malta (all 10 points).

Prediction

Finland
Sweden
Austria

It certainly looks like a fight between Nordic neighbours, Finland and Sweden, and I’m leaning towards Finland because it’s more quirky and for the endearing and charismatic qualities of Käärijä himself. I’m throwing in Austria for third because it’s something a little different. Who really knows. France is distinctive and different enough to grab some attention, while Norway could make it a Nordic domination at the top. Down in the odds, Australia, with their unique synth-metal rock song, and with the potential of a powerful, memorable performance, look the best chance to shake it up. Either way, as long as we’re united by music and we get a winner based on music, we are all winners.

Liverpool 2023: My Top 37 – All Songs Reviewed