Review of ESC 2023 – Grand Final

Now that the semi-finals are done, we finally know our Grand Final line-up! As mentioned before, this year's semi-finals were all about the televote, which probably didn't rock the boat all that much. The advancing countries were mostly predictable, with Croatia (yay) and Poland (nay) being the most surprising qualifiers and the entries that likely benefitted the most from the televote-only rule.

The flip side is that some entries that might normally have been carried through by the juries were now left in the semis, such as Georgia (it is not a secret that I love Georgia as an Eurovision country) and in particular Latvia. (Seriously, how did that not qualify with such a great live performance over so many shaky qualifiers? "Aijā" was my absolute favourite this year so Europe, you are cancelled to me).

Regardless, the show must go on and the Grand Final is drawing nearer. So, let's see what we're working with!

Review of ESC 2023 – Semi-final 2

Now that we have gone through the first semi-final (you can find my review of it here), it is time to move on to the second one. It features 16 participating countries, 10 of which will advance to the Grand Final. But which countries are they going to be?

Just like in the first semi, I haven't really heard any of the songs beforehand so these reviews will be based on first impressions. The official live versions (from national pre-selection competitions or the like) will be used whenever possible. Each contestant is rated on a five-star scale and in the end, I will list the 10 entries that I consider the most likely finalists. Alright then, let's listen to some songs, shall we?

Review of ESC 2023 – Semi-final 1

Good evening Europe and welcome to Twelves Across The Board, a brand new music blog dedicated to the eccentric fabulosity that is the Eurovision Song Contest! I am someone who, after running another music blog for years, noticed that the only thing that kept me coming back to writing was the Eurovision season. So, in the end I decided that I might as well start a new blog solely for that purpose – and here we are. But enough about me!

Last year, perhaps rather unexpectedly, we saw the anthemic "Stefania" capture the hearts of Europe (and rightfully so, might I add – the song remains a banger and a half). Just as unexpectedly, war-torn Ukraine found itself unable to host the contest. The hosting duties were then assigned to the runner-up, namely the United Kingdom (who placed second in Turin, thanks to TikTok star and golden retriever in human form Sam Ryder).

Eventually, Liverpool was announced as the host city and "United By Music" as the official slogan. After a global pandemic and a brutal war emerging on European soil, the way the Eurovision Song Contest brings people together across the continent feels perhaps more magical and important than ever before, so it is indeed a fitting theme. Not sure about the migrainous colour scheme theme, though (even if the prominence of blue and yellow is obviously a nod to Ukraine).

There are also notably some changes that were implemented in the voting system this year. Firstly, semi-final results are now entirely dependent on the televote. This consequently means that the jury vote only comes to play in the Grand Final, where they "will, as before, be combined with viewer votes to decide final result". Finally, global viewers in non-participating countries will now be able to vote for their favourites online, with their votes being added together and converted to points equivalent to one participating country. This applies to both the semi-finals and the Grand Final alike.

The contest is clearly trying to branch out to a more worldwide audience while also placing more emphasis on televote appeal. I get the latter point (although I still think that the juries have their place), but I am a little sceptical about the former trend – I just hope that the Eurovision doesn't lose its very special and very specific identity while trying to attract an ever larger global audience. I mean, they already tried and flopped with the American Song Contest, so...

In any event, the BBC will undoubtedly treat us to a phenomenal show with top-notch production value, and hopefully we see a lot of Ukrainian involvement in the show as well. But at the end of the day, it is the music that truly serves as the heart and soul of the contest – so how is our song selection like this year? Let's have a look!