EXCLUSIVE | Bulgaria and Montenegro will not participate in Eurovision 2023!

We can exclusively reveal that both Bulgaria and Montenegro will not take part in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, that is set to take place in Liverpool, in May.

The main reason behind RTCG’s (Radio and Television of Montenegro) decision not to participate seems to be the latter’s financial difficulties. It is not the first time that RTCG has withdrawn from ESC due to financial difficulties. They did so in 2010, 2011, 2020 (RTCG announced that it would not participate before the Contest was cancelled due to Covid-19), and 2021.

The BNT’s (Bulgarian National Television) decision not enter the Contest seems to be the result of both BNT’s financial difficulties and the political uncertainty in the country. Bulgaria did not enter the Contest in 2014 and 2015 for similar reasons.

As of this time, only the following 34 countries have publicly confirmed their intentions to participate in the 2023 ESC:

Semi-finals (28 countries)

Albania
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Georgia
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland

Final (Big Five & Ukraine)

France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Ukraine
United Kingdom

Countries that took part in ESC 2022 but have not expressed any intention about ESC 2023

Armenia
Czech Republic
Moldova
North Macedonia

If the above four countries do not enter the Contest, ESC 2023 is set to become the ESC edition with the fewer participants since 2003. Semi-final(s) format was introduced in 2004 with just one semi-final, and was replaced with the two semi-finals’ setting in 2008 and onwards.

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the details about the upcoming ESC!

Eurovision 2023: National broadcaster participation window closing today!

The national broadcasters from the countries having an active EBU membership, have a deadline until today (15/9), in order to confirm their participation in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest.

We might not know the city at United Kingdom that we are going to travel to for Eurovision 2023 yet, but today is the deadline for the national broadcasters-EBU members to confirm their participation in the contest.

Until October 11th, according to the rules, the possibility of withdrawal is provided without the imposition of a fine. From this date on, the broadcasters that applied for participating and are willing to withdraw, are going to face the imposition of a fine, which is varying, depending on the time of withdrawal (before or after the semi-finals draw etc.).

31 countries, with one way or another, have announced their will to participate in Eurovision 2023. Among them there’s Greece, and Cyprus too. Those countries are:

  • Albania
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Cyprus
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Malta
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • San Marino
  • Serbia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • The Netherlands
  • Ukraine
  • United Kingdom

The number from the countries above is expected to grow, because nine countries that participated in this year’s contest, haven’t clarified their intentions yet. Those are:

  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Moldova
  • Montenegro
  • North Macedonia
  • Slovenia

There’s always a chance, although slight, for a country to return or for another one to debut. The participating countries and their exact number will be confirmed through EBU’s official announcement. The respective announcement for Eurovision 2022 was made on October 20th.

 

Eurovision 2023: The new season has just started!

For many, including us on Eurovisionfun, Eurovision never ends! However, September 1st is a special date. Any song that is released after that date is eligible to be chosen to take part in the next years contest. Therefore, any song from now on can be a potential Eurovision 2o23 entry!

What we know so far

After the landslide victory of Ukraine and Kalush Orchestra in Turin, EBU has already announced that due to the ongoing war since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the contest will be held in the United Kingdom instead, to ensure safety of everyone involved in the production.

During August, BBC announced a shortlist of seven cities that will compete to host the contest next year, while the deadline to submit the finalized bids is set for September 8th. BBC and EBU representatives will visit these cities to inspect the facilities and discuss with local authorities on the proposed bids.

Around late September/early October and after there is potentially a dialogue with the British government, BBC and EBU will announce the Eurovision 2023 hosting city.

The shortlisted cities are:

  • Birmingham
  • Glasgow
  • Leeds
  • Liverpool
  • Manchester
  • Newcastle
  • Sheffield

Betting odds are every year a topic of discussion within and outside the Eurovision fandom. As of the time of writing, the odds about which city will host Eurovision 2023 predict Glasgow as the hosting city, with 65% chances, indicating a one-horse race for the hosting of the contest next year.

Participating countries

As of now, 27 countries have officially or unofficially confirmed that they will take part in Eurovision 2023. These are:

  • Albania
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Cyprus
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Iceland
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Romania
  • San Marino
  • Serbia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Ukraine
  • United Kingdom

Within the next months more countries are expected to confirm their participation, with the goal to have 40 countries as in 2022. Russia and Belarus are not eligible to take part in the contest, since their broadcasters are not EBU members anymore.

Certain countries have already announced that they will not take part in Eurovision 2023, with some of them extending their long-lasting absence from the contest. Andorra, Monaco, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, Maroco and Hungary will not be present in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, while Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina are yet to announce their plans but the chances to see them returning are low for various reasons.

Until March 14th the announcement of all the entries

It won’t be before March 14th until we know all competing artists and entries for 2023, since on that day is the meeting of the Head of Delegations where all entries will be officially submitted. However, Israel has already selected its artist and its Noa Kirel, a local superstar with many of her songs conquering the charts.

Albania and Ukraine will be the next to select their entries before the end of 2022, unless there is a surprise as with Czech Republic last year.

Join us on the road to Eurovision 2023!

Eurovisionfun will bring you Eurofun-tastic news throughout the season, while you should be ready for exclusives and surprises! Our 24/7 coverage in Greek and English includes articles, reactions, discussions and many more!

Don’t forget to follow us on our social media, we are always online and we love interacting with you! You can check us out on:

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Let the Eurovision 2023 season begin! Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun!

 

 

 

The most successful Eurovision countries in the 20s!

Eurovision is heading to the third decade of the 21st century and it has clearly changed not only in comparison with the past, but also with the recent years. In this article we investigate how countries scored during the first 2 years of the 20s, as well as their average score.

As you can see below, we cannot identify a group of 5-6 performing performing always well, as it used to happen the last years. Only a few countries are consistently doing well, despite the fact that the scores studied are only of the last 2 years. Tougher competition, the success of the contest on social media (TikTok had a business partnership with the contest this year featuring exclusive clips of the first rehearsals on the platform), as well as the high interest by record labels are only some of the reasons why it is harder to perform consistently well, since entries are of higher lever than the past.

Lets see in detail the average score of the countries during this decade:

Country        2022   2021    Average

  1. Ukraine           1          5             3
  2. Italy                 6          1            3,5
  3. Greece             8         10            9
  4. Sweden           4         14             9
  5. Russia             –           9             9
  6. Switzerland    17        3             10
  7. Moldova          7        13            10
  8. Serbia              5         15            10
  9. Portugal          9         12           10.5
  10. Lithuania       14         8             11
  11. France            24         2             13
  12. Spain               3         24           13.5
  13. Iceland          23          4            13.5
  14. Finland          21          6            13.5
  15. United Kingdom 2     26           14
  16. Norway           10         18            14
  17. The Netherlands 11     23          17
  18. Azerbaijan     16          20            18
  19. Belgium          19         19             19
  20. Armenia         20          –              20
  21. Malta               35          7             21
  22. Estonia           13         31             22
  23. Poland            12         33            22.5
  24. Cyprus            29         16            22.5
  25. Romania        18          28            23
  26. Israel              30          17           23.5
  27. Albania          28          21           24.5
  28. Australia        15          34           24.5
  29. Bulgaria         38          11           24.5
  30. Germany        25          25            25
  31. Croatia           26          27           26.5
  32. St. Marino     33          22           27.5
  33. Czech Republic 22     36             29
  34. Denmark        31         29             30
  35. North Macedonia 27 35             31
  36. Austria           36         30             33
  37. Ireland           34         37            35.5
  38. Latvia             32         39            35.5
  39. Slovenia         40        32              36
  40. Montenegro   37         –                37
  41. Georgia           39       38             38.5

As you can see in the table above, there are very few countries where the average of their positions in these two years is below 10. This proves how difficult it has become to be in the top ten. It is even more difficult to have continuous results within top 10, since only three countries have achieved this, Ukraine, Italy and Greece!

It is evident that Italy and Ukraine are the two powerhouses of the competition for this decade (so far). Sweden remains high on the list, but far from the first place it was in the last decade. Greece is recovering dynamically since it is in third place, when in the previous decade it was out of the 20s. Cyprus gets lower scores year by year, unfortunately making us believe that 2018 was just a coincidence and is currently in 24th place!

Regardless of personal taste and opinions, the numbers speak themselves and is clear that Ukraine, Italy and Greece are doing great during this decade. The new strategy of the management of ERT to chose the artist and the song internally, is proven to be successful, after years of bad results and 2 NQ (2016,2018).

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun because the journey to Eurovision 2023 has already begun!

Eurovision 2022: Watch the Live-on-Tape performances of Switzerland, Slovenia and Bulgaria!

The live-on-tape of the countries that participated in the 66th Eurovision Song Contest in May in Turin will be shown this year through the official Eurovision channel on YouTube.

From June 14 to 23, Eurofans will have the opportunity to watch the live-on-tape appearances of about thirty of the forty countries that took part in this year’s contest. Yesterday was the first day of the live-on-tape screening and, thus, we had the opportunity to watch the alternative appearances of Albania, Latvia and Lithuania.

Today, it is the turn of three other countries of the first semi-final. Since the EBU decided to show the live-on-tapes based on the running order of the first semifinal, this means that today it is the turn of Switzerland, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

We remind you that while we were normally going to see the live-on-tape of Ukraine, the Ukrainian delegation was excluded from the creation of live-on-tape due to the ongoing war on Ukrainian territory since the end of February.

The three Live-on-Tapes will be released one every thirty minutes from 16:00 to 17:00 CET.

  • Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of  “Boys Do Cry” by Marius Bear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdu0H9UU6c

  • Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of “Disko” by LPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuJEDkLOb0c

  • Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of “Intention” by Intelligent Music Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9U-WZ1-ZZw

What do you think about the first Live-on-Tape videos of Eurovision 2022? Do you like them or do you prefer the live performances?

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!

 

 

Eurovision 2022: See the results of Press Poll just before the grand final!

As we informed you in our article, Press Poll 2022 has begun. After all countries have had all technical rehearsals, it is now time for the accredited to vote for the country that believes she will be the winner of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest.

Below are the results of the final of today’s 14/5 at 20:30:

In the vote for the winner, UK leads, Sweden is second, and Spain is third!


Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a moment of what will happen in Turin:

Source: Ogae International

Eurovision 2022: See the results of the fifth day of Press Poll!

As we informed you in our article, Press Poll 2022 has begun. After all countries have had their three technical rehearsals, it is now time for the accredited to vote for the countries that will advance to the two semifinals, as well as the country that believes she will be the winner of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest.

Below are the results of the semifinals and finals of today’s 13/5 at 21:00:
First Semifinal

Second Semifinal

Grand Final

In the vote for the winner, UK leads, Sweden is second, and Greece is third!


Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a moment of what will happen in Turin:


Stay tuned to Eurovision Fun for daily updates on Press Poll 2022!
Source: Ogae International

Eurovision 2022: See the results of the fourth day of Press Poll!

As we informed you in our article, Press Poll 2022 has begun. After all countries have had their three technical rehearsals, it is now time for the accredited to vote for the countries that will advance to the two semifinals, as well as the country that believes she will be the winner of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest.

Below are the results of the semifinals and finals of today’s 12/5 at 21:00:
First Semifinal

Second Semifinal

Grand Final

In the vote for the winner, UK leads, Sweden is second, and Greece is third! Greece is ranked first among the accredited journalists here in Turin.


Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a moment of what will happen in Turin:


Stay tuned to Eurovision Fun for daily updates on Press Poll 2022!
Source: Ogae International

Eurovision 2022: See the results of the third day of Press Poll!

As we informed you in our article, Press Poll 2022 has begun. After all countries have had their three technical rehearsals, it is now time for the accredited to vote for the countries that will advance to the two semifinals, as well as the country that believes she will be the winner of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest.

Below are the results of the semifinals and finals of today’s 11/5 at 21:00:
First Semifinal

Second Semifinal

Grand Final

In the vote for the winner, UK leads, Greece is second, and Spain is third! Greece is ranked first among the accredited journalists here in Turin.


Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a moment of what will happen in Turin:


Stay tuned to Eurovision Fun for daily updates on Press Poll 2022!
Source: Ogae International

Eurovision 2022: Jury Show of the First Semi-Final!

One day before the actual shows the so-called Jury Show happens which isn’t visible to the usual audience (only to those who received press accreditation and to the experts). The Jury Show of the First Semi-Final took place today. Professional jurors have already ranked all 17 acts of today’s show.

Albania

Very sensual and sexual performance with a good camerawork. Ronela is very charismatic and it looked like a worthy opener. The choreography was fierce. Overall, it was a great performance. Let’s see whether juries liked it or not.

Latvia

Amazing and very energetic performance from Citi Zeni. The camerawork is on point and vocally it was perfect. Is it a song that would be appreciated by juries? No clue.

Lithuania

Elegant, minimalistic but impactful performance from Monika Liu. Stunned by this.

Switzerland

Visually – gorgeous, vocally – I wouldn’t really say.

Slovenia

It was fun, although the soloist got lost in the light! Vocally excellent, nothing else to add.

Ukraine

Timofiy improved a LOT. Energetic, impactful and mesmerising performance from Kalush Orchestra. One of the bests, for sure.

A break before Bulgaria

Bulgaria

This staging is exactly what a rock song needs. One of the best vocals.

Netherlands

Very minimalistic and simple staging. S10 was nervous, hopefully she’ll be better for the actual show.

Moldova

It’s indeed fun. Personally enjoyed this one a lot. The audience did it too.

Portugal

Very emotional and atmospheric. The staging is perfection.

Croatia

Such a cute performance from Mia! Amazing camerawork and excellent vocals. Croatian was added to the song (she sung the last chorus in Croatian completely).

Denmark

Great performance, nothing else to say.

There’s a break after Denmark. We see some from Sunday’s Turquoise Carpet.

Austria

Vocally not really great, but it has a very effective staging!

Iceland

Atmospheric performance and a very easy song to listen to. Impressive!

Greece

Massive winner vibes there…

Norway

Such an astounding performance from the wolves from Norway! Enjoyed it a lot.

Armenia

Flawless vocals and fascinating staging.

We see the recap of all 17 songs once all artists finished performing.

Dardust is on the stage playing a drum. Sophie and the giants are on the stage. Tons of pyro as we see Daniel Benassi at the back of the stage at a DJ booth.

A tribute to Raffaella Carra. Laura talks about her and then Fiesta is played!

Afterwards the second recap is on!

Diodato performs his ESC 2020 song – Fai Rumore. In the dark, he sits and plays at his piano and sings. A choir softly sings along in the chorus. Diodato starts off behind the stage and is on the front side with lots of people dancing around him on stage in smoke. Perfection.

Alessandro chats with the JESC 2021 winner – with Maléna. We see a small clip of her JESC victory and of her song. Promo clip for Yerevan is shown as well right after the clip.

Mika has a conversation with Alvan & Ahez and Mahmood&Blanco. 

France

In the beginning it was very shaky, but then everything went very well. Energetic, impressive and outstanding performance from France! WOW!

Italy

Vocally they’ve improved a lot since the second rehearsal. They don’t engage with camera which makes it at some point better. Brilliant performance!

The announcement of the qualifiers right after Italy’s performance!

The qualifiers of the Jury Show were:

  • Latvia
  • Portugal
  • Lithuania
  • Norway
  • Denmark
  • Greece
  • Armenia
  • Switzerland
  • Austria
  • Netherlands

P.S these are not the real results.

The actual show will be broadcasted tomorrow.

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Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun for all the updates regarding Eurovision 2022!