Eurovision 2023: EBU refused Zelensky’s request to address the audience at Eurovision 2023!

The 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is hosted in Liverpool after last year’s winner, Ukraine, inability to host because of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. This year’s Eurovision balances both British and Ukrainian elements. The postcards travel from Ukraine to the United Kingdom while many Ukrainian artists have the chance to take on the stage of the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

EBU has published a statement, in which is mentioned that it refused the request made from Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to address the audience at Eurovision 2023.

More specifically, it is mentioned that:

The Eurovision Song Contest is an international entertainment show, and governed by strict rules and principles which have been established since its creation. As part of these, one of the cornerstones of the Contest is the non-political nature of the event.  

This principle prohibits the possibility of making political or similar statements as part of the Contest.  

The request by Mr Zelensky to address the audience at the Eurovision Song Contest, whilst made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted by the European Broadcasting Union management as it would be against the rules of the event.  

The best way to reflect and celebrate Ukraine’s win, as it is mentioned by EBU, is through displaying the Ukrainian culture, something that is precisely done by the British production team. Also, this year’s slogan is “United by Music” and indeed music has the power to unite us during hard times.

https://youtu.be/F1fl60ypdLs


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USA: Partners looking at options for the American Song Contest!

The EBU provided an update on the status of the American Song Contest following its cancellation by NBC earlier this year.

The American Song Contest was cancelled after its first season on NBC due to disappointing ratings and lack of impact on the music charts. Martin Österdahl the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest commented at a press conference in Liverpool earlier today:

Partners in America are looking at other options

The Eurovision franchise in the US is operated by Voxovation, which holds the exclusive rights to the Eurovision brand beyond the European region.

The winner of the 2022 Contest was AleXa, from Oklahoma, with the song Wonderland.

Source: Eurovoix

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Canada: Eurovision Canada Has Taken a Step Back!

It seems like the launch of Eurovision Canada in 2023 is unlikely after what was said at the EBU press conference today in Liverpool.

Martin Österdahl talked about Eurovision Canada at a press conference for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. He said that ever since the contest was announced in 2022:

“We thought it would happen and it kind of took a step back, we are still hoping. The original avenue that was pursued closed, but we are hopeful”

The Eurovision franchise in Canada is operated by Voxovation, which holds the exclusive rights to the Eurovision brand beyond the European region. The announcement of the competition was made for the very first time in April of 2022.

The competition was designed to feature artists from every Canadian province and territory, who would vie for victory through a series of Qualifying rounds, Semi-Finals, and a Grand Final.

Source: Eurovoix

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Eurovision 2023: Second Semi-Final takes place tonight!

The moment that every Eurofan waited for is finally here! The 67th Eurovision Song Contest officially begun on Tuesday, with the First Semi-Final, and is now continuing, as the Second Semi-Final takes place tonight, live from Liverpool!

The sixteen remaining countries will take part in tonight’s show, with ten of them qualifying to the Grand Final of Saturday, where the winner of Eurovision 2023 will be decided.

The hosts of this evening will be Julia Sanina from The Hardkiss, Hannah Waddingham and Alesha Dixon.

The 16 countries that take part in tonight’s first semi-final are:

Running Order

Country

Performer

Song

01 🇩🇰Denmark Reiley Breaking My Heart
02 🇦🇲Armenia Brunette “Future Lover“
03 🇷🇴Romania Theodor Andrei “D.G.T.”
04 🇪🇪Estonia Alika “Bridges“
05 🇧🇪Belgium Gustaph “Because Of You“
06 🇨🇾Cyprus Andrew Lambrou “Break A Broken Heart“
07 🇮🇸Iceland Diljá “Power“
08 🇬🇷Greece Victor Vernicos “What They Say“
09 🇵🇱Poland Blanka (Beijba) “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 & Kelmendi Family “Duje“
15 🇱🇹Lithuania Monika Linkyte “Stay“
16 🇦🇺Australia Voyager “Promise“

Apart from the 16 countries taking part, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom also have the right to vote in the Semi-Final as part of the BIG 5 and previous winner. In addition, there is a new category that can vote in both Semi-Finals, Rest Of The World.

The second semi-final will be broadcasted on 21:00 CET and you can watch it live from your country’s public broadcaster, or from the livestream on the official Eurovision YouTube channel:


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Eurovision 2023: Russia will not be able to vote in the “Rest of the World” category!

An interesting change coming to Eurovision 2023 is the introduction of the “Rest of the World” category, which means that people from non-participating countries will be able to vote for their favorites in this year’s contest. The votes received from all around the globe will be counted as the votes from a single country, which translates to a total of 58 points. There is slight advantage to the audience votes this year, because there will not be a “Rest of the World” category in Jury votes.

In today’s press conference, the executive supervisor of Eurovision, Martin Österdahl, mentioned that the “Rest of the World” category was inspired by Junior Eurovision that uses an Online vote since 2017.

I was taken aback that 182 countries voted in Junior Eurovision 2020 in Warsaw, and says something about Eurovision becoming a global phenomenon.

It was also confirmed that EBU will not publish the list of countries that will be eligible to vote using the “Rest of The World” platform. On the other hand, it was known that some countries will not be eligible to vote. One of these is Russia, because payment providers have suspended operations in the country.

Russia, as a result of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war since February 2022, is expelled from the European Broadcasting Union(EBU), losing its rights to participate and broadcast the EBU programs, including Eurovision. The same might apply also to Belarus, that had its broadcaster expelled from the EBU in 2021 and can reapply for membership in 2024.


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Eurovision 2023: An X-Factor style for the qualifiers’ announcement in Eurovision 2023?

With a big change regarding Eurovision 2023 expected for a while, GJ Kooijman, the host of the Dutch Eurovision podcast, posted on his Twitter account a draft which indicates the plans of the organizers about the announcement of the qualifiers in the 2 Semi finals.

The qualifiers’ announcement method will allegedly change in order to make it more tense and keep the audience interest high.

https://twitter.com/gjkooijman/status/1654018115275988994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1654018115275988994%7Ctwgr%5E705d5fc974673b91b8ad0e1293e1dd3e48afde95%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Feurovisionfun.com%2F2023%2F05%2Feurovision-2023-CF83CEB5-CF83CF84CF85CEBB-x-factor-CEB7-CEB1CEBDCEB1CEBACEBFCEAFCEBDCF89CF83CEB7-CF84CF89CEBD-CEB1CF80CEBFCF84CEB5CEBBCEB5CF83%2F

From what we see, all the contestants will be lined up on stage and the presenters, namely Hannah and Julia, will announce the first 5 qualifiers. Then, Alesha Dixon will chat with them in the small stage. The same procedure will be repeated for the 5 remaining finalists.

After announcing all the 10 finalists, the contestants not qualified for the Grand Final will leave the stage and the show will finish with the 10 finalists on stage and the recap from their performances.

With this change, the hosts want to keep the excitement, after being accused for many years that the qualifiers’ announcement has lost its suspense being conducted really fast.

The above-mentioned information is not 100% accurate and confirmed by the hosts. We will have to wait until the dress rehearsals on Monday in order to find out!


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Eurovision 2023: All the footage we will see through Eurovision.tv!

The EBU has officially published via eurovision.tv blog a “guide” to all the exclusive coverage fans will have for the contest.

For the next two weeks, everyone who’s interested in the Eurovision Song Contest will be able to see some of the behind-the-scenes, getting to know a little more about the participants on the association’s official channels.

“Be My Guest” with Clara Amfo and Rylan

A brand new series is being launched in Liverpool by the organizers, with two iconic presenters, a Clara Amfo and Rylan. The series will air on YouTube, where the duo will meet all the contestants and ask them submitted questions from social media. The series will start airing from May 4th on the official Eurovision YouTube Channel.

The first rehearsals on TikTok

TikTok has announced that it will be the official entertainment partner for this year’s Eurovision for the second consecutive year. As last year, this year the organizers and the EBU have decided that the first rehearsals will not be available to accredited journalists. Instead and exclusively, we will get the first taste of these rehearsals from the related videos that will be available on TikTok. In addition to their performances, we will also have a small look backstage before they take the stage for the first time. The first rehearsals start this Sunday, April 30th.

The second rehearsals on YouTube

As we know every year, after the second rehearsals, we watch a thirty-second preview where we see each country’s stage presence, just as we would see it on TV on the nights of semi-final and grand final. The second rehearsals start on Wednesday May 3rd and the videos will be posted every evening after each rehearsal.

“Tea” with Timur

Apart, from the first rehearsals, on TikTok, we will watch some “tea” with the Ukrainian presenter Timur Miroshnychenko. Timur will meet each artist individually right after their second rehearsals. The presenter will challenge the contestants to spill some of their gossip from their experience in Liverpool. In addition, the members of the Big Five who have not been drawn – more specifically France, Germany, Italy and Spain will have the opportunity to day which half of the Running Order they will appear in the Grand Final on 13th of May. This series will be released on the official Eurovision TikTok profile from Wednesday May 3rd to Saturday May 6th.

The official Podcast of the Contest

For a more behind-the-scenes look at what goes on inside the M&S Liverpool Arena will be given by the Podcast host Steve Holden. Steve will be giving us access to all the venues, talking to contestants, capturing exclusive behind-the-scenes footage as well as the contestants reaction to the upcoming results.

The Live Blog of Eurovision.tv

From the first day of the rehearsals until the moment of the big winner of this year’s contest, the Live Blog will be active covering everything that happens in the stadium area as well as the first assessments of the rehearsals.

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Eurovision 2023: Ten countries oppose the EBU’s decision for a closed press centre!

Several broadcasters protested against the EBU‘s decision to hold the first and second rehearsals and press conferences of the first week of the competition behind closed doors. It is to be noted that last year, for the first time, the EBU decided to close the media centre for the first technical rehearsals. However, this year in a statement informed journalists that the second rehearsals will also be held without the presence of accredited journalists, with the press centre of the competition opening one day before the first semi-final for the dress rehearsals.

This provoked a strong reaction from both fans of the contest and some of the national delegations of this year’s Eurovision.

According to exclusive information reported by Aftonbladet, a heated debate had been preceded by 30 delegations which resulted in eight competing countries sending a letter of protest to the EBU asking for this decision to be changed.

More specifically, in discussions that had taken place in mid-March between the chiefs of the 37 competing countries, but also the press officers, the problem of non-journalistic coverage of the first and second rehearsals of the entries arose. For this reason, countries such as Portugal, Malta, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, San Marino, Azerbaijan, Latvia, and Poland signed a letter of protest to the EBU’s Eurovision press officer, Dave Goodman. Belgium, and Estonia were also due to sign the letter, but when they announced their support, the letter had already been sent.

Unfair to those competing in the A’ semi-final.

The letter highlights the unfairness for those competing in the first semi-final, as the press centre does not open until the day before the semi-final. For this reason, concerns are expressed as without the press centre being open and without interviews with journalists in attendance, it would lead to most accredited journalists not being there until the opening ceremony on Sunday 7 May. Thus, the countries competing in the first semi-final have very limited time for interviews and meetings with journalists compared to those competing in the second semi-final.

Specifically, the letter states:

“We believe that this decision is not fair to the countries involved in the first semi-final.”
In previous years, we have all experienced that the vast majority of interviews have taken place in the first week, when there is more free time between rehearsals.
On 8 May, as you can imagine, the artists competing in the first semi-final will have no time to spend with the media. The schedule is very tight and they have to concentrate on their performances.”

The response from the EBU was not long in coming:

“The cost is excessive. The cost of maintaining a press centre is high and the vast majority of traditional media outlets do not
tend to reach Eurovision city only during the week of the broadcast.
The EBU took the decision to close all rehearsals to the media to protect the artists from negative comments online and allow them to complete their performances in privacy.”

In his response Dave Goodman , also highlighted the fact that the EBU allowed voluntary “meet & greet” events at off-site venues where fans and journalists could meet the artists who chose to participate in the press centre

Source: Aftonbladet

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Eurovision 2023: The running order of the semifinals has been revealed!

With a month and a half left for the first semifinal of Eurovision 2023 on May 9, the EBU today announced the order of appearance of the songs in the semifinals.

The running order was determined by the EBU in collaboration with the British organizers, taking into account where each country was drawn to appear (first or second half), but also in such a way that the show is more interesting.

So, through the official Eurovision channel on YouTube, the official running order of the songs in the semifinals of this year’s contest was announced a few minutes ago.

Running Order

First Semifinal – May 9

  1. Norway
  2. Malta
  3. Serbia
  4. Latvia
  5. Portugal
  6. Ireland
  7. Croatia
  8. Switzerland
  9. Israel
  10. Moldova
  11. Sweden
  12. Azerbaijan
  13. Czechia
  14. Netherlands
  15. Finland

Second Semifinal – May 11

  1. Denmark
  2. Armenia
  3. Romania
  4. Estonia
  5. Belgium
  6. Cyprus
  7. Iceland
  8. Greece
  9. Poland
  10. Slovenia
  11. Georgia
  12. San Marino
  13. Austria
  14. Albania
  15. Lithuania
  16. Australia

The analyzes of the fans and not only for a few minutes have been on fire, since the theories based on the prehistory of the countries in the contest, are a first picture of how passable is the qualification to the final or not. In other words, it’s time to make our predictions about who will advance to the final and who are the favorites to say goodbye to Liverpool early…

Turin will host the 67th Eurovision Song Contest from May 9th to 13th at the Liverpool Arena. The motto of this year’s event, as chosen by the organizers is “The Sound of Beauty”.

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Eurovision 2023: Semi-Final running orders will be revealed tomorrow!

Τhrough the official Eurovision account on Twitter, it became known that tomorrow the running order of the countries in the two semi-finals of May 9 and 11 will be announced.

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 31 January at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, where the official handover of the tournament emblem from Turin to Liverpool took place. After a draw, the distribution of the 31 countries competing this year in two semi-finals as well as in which half of the show each country will appear. 15 countries compete in the first semi-final, while 16 countries compete in the second.

The results obtained were the following:

First Semi-Final

semi 1

Second Semi-Final

semi 2

The exact running order  will not be random but will be determined in a way that serves the flow of the show and keeps the viewer interested!

The running order will be announced with the first broadcast on the Eurovision channel on YouTube, tomorrow at 19:00 CET  in the form of a recap of the two semi-finals that will also include the exact running order.

What are your prediction about the running order of the two Semi-Finals?

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