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?