Eurovision 2023: National broadcaster participation window closing today!

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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.

 

Portugal: RTP Confirms Eurovision 2023 Participation and Opens Submissions for Festival da Canção 2023!

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Portugal’s national broadcaster, RTP, confirmed that the country will participate in Eurovision 2023. At the same time, it gave an official announcement regarding the submissions for Festival da Canção 2023. They are opening for the artists that are interested.

Like last year, the Festival will host 20 acts, 16 songs of those being written from songwriters of different genres invited by RTP. The remaining 4 will be selected by the open submission process.

The applications are open from today, September 2nd, until 21st of October under the following rules:

  • Every Portugese resident, regardless of having the Portugese nationality or not, is eligible for competing. This includes the Portugese not residing in Portugal.
  • Those interested must provide their demo song files to RTP at festivaldacancao@rtp.pt, accompanied by various data (specified in the regulation).

Full rules can be read here

In Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Portugal was represented by MARO with the song “saudade, saudade”, finishing at 9th place. This marks the best placing Portugal has had since their only win in 2017, and remains one of the best Portugese results ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQul-rkcGPQ&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: Eurovoix

Eurovision 2023: The new season has just started!

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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!

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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 Portugal and Croatia!

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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.

Today, it is the turn of two 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 Portugal and Croatia.

As the live-on-tapes of Portugal and Croatia were published, we learned that apart from the Netherlands, which only yesterday announced that it would not publish its own performance, Moldova also decided not to publish its live-on-tape.

  •  Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of  “Saudade, saudade” by Maro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcUaP_T0UxM

  •  Watch the Live-on-Tape performance of  “Guilty Pleasure” by Mia Dimšić:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiOyTKQZF8k

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!

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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: The Family Show Of The Grand Final! (Updated)

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The big day is finally here and the Grand Final is taking place at the PalaOlimpico. The family show of the final has just started! It is addressed, as the title says, to families. Αll entries will once again perform their song, with the show being used more as a warm-up, a final rehearsal for minor corrections before the TV show, tonight!

We are at the press center and will bring you live everything that happens here in real time. We remind you that the jury rehearsal took place yesterday, with 50% of the total score having already been judged. Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for the family show.

The show

The program begins with a large group of people singing “Give peace a chance“! Then we see Mika and Alessandro Cattelan on stage and Laura Pausini songs are performed accompanied by a percussion group.

The parade of countries follows!

Then the presenters of the night appear  and give us all the details about the night that will follow and the voting process.

Czech Republic

We are Domi and “Lights off“  opens the grand final with an energetic performance. We can tell that the singer is  holding back a bit so she can be 100% on point for the final show today! Apart from that, the stage looks great and they can bring a decent result on the final today!

Romania

WRS is bringing the heat on the Eurovision stage this year! For many it came as a surprise that he advanced to the final but he delivers a great performance on stage with not as much differences from what we saw on the 2nd semi-final!

Portugal

Third act for today is MARO with an atmospheric perfomance! Vocally is great and she receives a big applause from the audience in the middle of the song!

Finland

After the soft and calm performance of Portugal, The Rasmus are rocking the stage with a great show! We don’t any differences from the semi final and Lauri delivers good vocals for one more time! The arena seems to love “Jezebel” as they sing a long and they received big applause!

Switzerland

Next up on the stage is Marius Bear with an emotional performance. He delivers great vocals but is hard for him to surprise the audience and have a good result on the grand final!

France

A song that the press center and the crowd on the arena  love and may have a great chance have a good results on tonight show! The staging is beautiful, the vocals on point and France can be the surprise of Grand Final!

Norway

From evocative and mysterious France we go to a party rhythm. Also a participation that can stand out both due to appearance and due to dancing.

Armenia

After the party song of the wolves of Norway we continue with a snap! Armenia delivers good vocals and she really seems to enjoy her performance! The arena claps along the whole song but the running order might be a hard place for her to shine on tonight’s show.

BREAK

Mika and “Laura” show us some shots from the semifinals. Then the presenters are in the green room and talking to us about the plants that surround it.

Italy

The Italian duo are doing an amazing job and they seem like they are back for another great result for Ιtaly! The vocals were improved and the arena went crazy!

Spain

One of the fan favourite to win the show is coming to the stage to bring the party back! Chanel did not gave the energy we know she can deliver and we are sure that tonight can be a great night for Spain after many years!

The Netherland

S10 managed to impress the audience with another captivating performance! She was great vocally but will this be enough after Spain and before Ukraine performances?

Ukraine

The booking favourite to win this year edition is making a great rehearsal with good energy and the receive a big applause from the audience inside the arena!

Germany

One of the calmest entries of this year is undoubtedly that of Germany, with Malik Harris being excellent vocally, but with a weak song. For another year, Germany seems to be heading for the bottom of the standings. Another “bell” for the leaders of the German radio and television, the most powerful in the Old Continent.

Lithuania

Lithuania’s turn to take the stage, with Monika appearing in a different dress compared to the semifinals. It will be difficult, however, to see the maintenance of this dress in the evening show as well. A song with an atmospheric character that is unlikely to be supported by the average Lithuanian viewer. Particularly probable is the end of the last ten of this year’s competition.

Azerbaijan

Next on stage comes the clipped Nadir, who once again is to the point vocally. His voice led him so far and his voice will lead him until two in the evening and the announcement of the final results. Most likely to end up in the top ten.

Belgium

One of the qualifiers-surprises of this year’s competition is Belgium, which many expected to be left out of the final. Nevertheless, Belgium is here, it will compete in the grand final and most likely end up in places 16-25. Moderate response from spectators inside the stadium.

There is a break between Belgium and Greece with Mika and Laura Pausini promoting the official Eurovision 2022 CD and at the same time snapshots from the two semifinals are shown.

Greece

The last rehearsal of Greece before the grand final tonight is next. Amanda once again gives her best, more focused than ever on her goal. Everything went perfectly, with the audience singing with her at the peak of the song in the finale. No special differences compared to the previous days and with the audience adoring Amanda.

Iceland

Greece is followed by one of the surprises of this year’s final, Iceland. A country ballad, which, however, is dug by its presence between our country and Moldova. Their presence is almost certain between 18 and 25.

Moldova

The whole stage on foot for Moldova, which is one of the biggest winners of recent days. A participation that has stood out due to its diversity and its ethnic elements that are so much missing from the grand final. Their impact on the public at night is certain, it remains to be seen what the opinion of the juries will be.

Sweden

The series now has one of the big favorites of this year’s competition, Sweden. Cornelia Jakobs once again raises the crowds at PalaOlimpico, being determined to bring the best possible result for Sweden. Once again in the finale of the song she brings out a crown, which did not exist until yesterday in her appearances.

Australia

Sheldon performs “Not the same” perfectly once again. First male ballad in a series that follows, but the overall result was breath-taking!

 

The presenters are in the green room and talking to various representatives.

United Kingdom

Probably the best male voice of the year. Another favorite for this year with an epic setting on stage and a performance that is simply riveting, especially towards the end of the song with the guitar. A very warm reaction from the audience. This song will probably do very well, especially on the juries.

Poland

Third consecutive male ballad and another very good interpretation. Will all three ballads go equally well?

Serbia

Konstrakta may be one of the biggest surprises from this edition of Eurovision! She delivers a great performance and she will definitely be high on the televote on tonight’s show!

Estonia

Last act from the final is Stefan with “Hope”! He seems to enjoy his time on the stage and the audience love the performance!

The three presenters tell us how we can vote for our favorite songs and see the tab with the phones.

Voting begins!

First recap of the songs.

Interval Act

We are now ready for the interval act of the final. The Maneskin (to be precise their replacements) appear on stage and perform their new song, supermodel (in this rehearsal we only hear the music). Alessandro Cattelan then invites them to the stage where he asks them about their experiences after their victory and then they perform their new song from the movie Elvis that will be released in June.

Laura Pausini then introduces Gigliola Cinquetti, winner of the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest.

Last but not least, Mika makes an appearance on the stage to perform his greatest hits!

Then countdown to closing telephone lines! 

Voting begins with the juries. Then the televoting points are added.

 

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

Eurovision 2022: Jury Show of the Grand Final!

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The Jury Show of the Grand Final took place today. Twenty-five finalists performed their song once again in front of the experts and audience.

One of the hosts – Laura Pausini opened the show. Right after her performance we witnessed the famous flag parade where all twenty-five acts showed up with their flags when their country’s name was announced.

Here’s the review of all performances:

Czech Republic

Excellent vocals, confident performance. A very jury-friendly song, so juries should’ve definitely paid attention to this. In terms of results, this is probably gonna get a similar result to Cyprus 2021, could be 2-3 places higher or even lower.

Romania

WRS was very happy with his qualification and you definitely could see it, he was happier than ever. The crowd sang the song at the same time with him. Unfortunately, he is performing under statistically the worst slot, so I doubt this will be high enough tomorrow. Not sure juries liked this or not either.

Portugal

Juries should DEFINITELY like this one. So soothing, professional, just wow.

Finland

There were issues vocally as per usual, but it looks effective. Knowing juries pay attention to the vocals, I don’t think juries have ranked this one high, although many jurors could have received nostalgic vibes from the performance and from them as a very famous band.

Switzerland

Marius added some vocal changes and was much better this time. Should definitely come top 10 with the jury voting, even though the televise is gonna rank this one down.

France

Visually excellent, however vocally – lowkey not good. This one is definitely relying on the televoting.

Norway

Professional and slick performance from Norwegian wolves. On other hand, this should be loved by juries since they appreciate quality production, on other hand, this is not ‘jury bait’. Somewhere in the middle with jury voting and relying more on televoting.

Armenia

Rosa was a little bit nervous, but overall a strong vocal performance. Unlike Finland, France and maybe Norway this should be appreciated by professional juries.

Italy

Vocally on the same level as Finland. Atmospheric, the beginning looked fascinating. The outfits were completely different from the rehearsals. As a song, it’s jury bait, but I don’t think it’ll be liked by juries that much.

Spain

First winner vibes here. Nothing else to say.

Netherlands

A very emotional performance from S10, absolutely magnificent. First candidate for jury top 5 maybe?

Ukraine

Their best performance BY FAR. HAS to do well.

Germany

Very emotional, personally enjoyed it a lot. Impressive, but juries won’t go for a rap song.

Lithuania

Excellent! Juries have to have this in their top 10!

Azerbaijan

Everything was on point. Juries should like this one!

Belgium

Jeremy delivered a great performance, even though visually it’s kitschy.

Greece

The jury winner so far. Touching performance, the vocals were astounding! Has to come top 5 overall. Good job, Ellada!

Iceland

This one stands out a lot in the lineup. After so many vocal challenging songs in a row, this feels like something we exactly needed to hear. Probably won’t do that well.

Moldova

FUN!!! However, juries definitely won’t like this one!

Sweden

Professional and slick. Remember, how bookies underestimated Moldova before the rehearsals and how high Sweden was in the odds. Well, it was kind of boring to watch that performance after Moldova. Nevertheless, juries will go crazy about this one. Top 3 contender.

Australia

Sheldon delivered an amazing performance. Kind of worse vocally compared to his other performance but a lock top 10 with juries.

United Kingdom

An obvious jury winner.

Poland

Ochman’s one of the best vocalists of this year’s Eurovision. Only for his vocals alone he should be in the top 10!

Serbia

Winner vibes, but I don’t think juries will support it as much as tele.

Estonia

Everything is on point! Excellent closer.

Prediction of the Jury Voting

Winner: United Kingdom

Top 3: Greece, Australia

Top 5: Sweden, Spain

6-10: Ukraine, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland

11-15: Portugal, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Norway

16-20: Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia, France,

21-25: Moldova, Iceland, Finland, Romania, Germany.

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

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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!

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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