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Eurovision 2023: Guest artists of the Grand Final revealed!

Today the BBC has confirmed the line-up of the guest stars in the Grand Final. Last year’s winners Kalush Orchestra, runner up Sam Ryder, and established Eurovision icons – joining the 26 acts competing in the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final on May 13.

The Grand Final for this year’s Contest will open with last year’s winners Kalush Orchestra and a powerful performance titled ‘Voices of a New Generation’. Kalush Orchestra captured the hearts of Eurovision viewers around the world last year – they’re back to kick off the 2023 Grand Final with a performance that’s sure to be unforgettable including their smash hit winning song Stefania.

During the Eurovision Flag Parade of all 26 Grand Finalists, viewers will be treated to a unique performance by some iconic past Ukrainian Eurovision contestants. GO_A, Jamala, Tina Karol, and Verka Serduchka take to the stage and remind us their Eurovision entries.

For the first interval performance, during which voting across Europe and the world takes place, the UK’s very own spaceman Sam Ryder will make his triumphant return to the Eurovision stage after leading the UK’s biggest success in last year’s Contest for over two decades.

The final interval act “The Liverpool Songbook”, is a celebration of the host city’s incredible contribution to the world of pop music. The BBC have brought together six iconic past Eurovision acts – Italy’s Mahmood, Israel’s Netta, Iceland’s Daði Freyr, Sweden’s Cornelia Jakobs, Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands – plus Liverpool’s very own Sonia, celebrating 30 years since she came second at Eurovision in 1993.

Kate Phillips, BBC’s Director of Unscripted, says: “What a way to bring in the winner of the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. These live performances, with their twists on iconic Eurovision moments and countless creative collaborations, will ensure that we’re in for an utterly unforgettable Grand Final!”

Eurovision 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra say: “We’ve been looking forward to performing in Liverpool ever since it was announced as host last year. The city has a world-renowned musical heritage and we’re delighted to finally be able to announce what an honour it will be for us to be there.

“While we’re sad that we couldn’t bring the Eurovision Song Contest back to our home country, we’re really grateful to the UK for hosting this party on our behalf. We will perform for everyone in Ukraine to remind us that better days and our country’s victory is ahead, as well as to show the world what Ukraine is fighting for.”

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Source: BBC

Ukraine: Voting for Vidbir 2023 jury members started!

Earlier today, the Ukrainian public begun voting in order to determine the three jury members for Vidbir 2023, the country’s national final for Eurovision 2023.

UA:PBC, the public broadcaster of Ukraine, started the voting process a few hours ago, in order for the public to decide the jurors they want to see voting in the national final. Nine music professionals have been shortlisted , from which three artists have also represented Ukraine in the contest.

The nine possible jurors are:

  • Jamala – Winner of Eurovision 2016
  • DZIDZIO (Mykhailo Khoma) – Singer and Composer
  • Zlata Ognevich – Representative of Ukraine in Eurovision 2013
  • Kateryna Pavlenko (Member of GO_A) – Representative of Ukraine in Eurovision 2020 και 2021
  • Yulia Sanina – Lead singer of  THE HARDKISS
  • Kostyantyn Tomilchenko – Creative Producer of The Masked Singer,  X-Factor and Ukraine’s Got Talent
  • Tara Topolya – Head of the Antitila band
  • Valery Kharchyshyn – Head of Druha Rika

The voting is taking place through the Diya app and will be open until November 7 at 10:00 Ukrainian time. The three jurors that will get the most amount of points will be invted in the jury of the Ukrainian selection.

Vidbir 2023

The final of Vibdir 2023 is set to take place on the 17th of December 2022 in Kyiv at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti metro station. The winner of the final will represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in the United Kingdom. The voting system will once again be a combination of public voting and a jury.

These are the 36 shortlisted artists, from which the 10-12 will advance to compete in the national final:

  1. 2TONE
  2. Angelina
  3. DAYTON
  4. DEMCHUK
  5. Drevo
  6. Elysees
  7. FIINKA
  8. Havkа
  9. Jerry Heil
  10. Iana Kovaleva
  11. Kozak Siromaha
  12. KRUTЬ 
  13. Lue Bason
  14. Moisei
  15. Olivan
  16. OOHLA
  17. Oy Sound System
  18. SASHA
  19. Seréen
  20. sexnesc
  21. Shy
  22. SKYLERR
  23. SOWA
  24. Tember Blanche
  25. Tery
  26. TVORCHI
  27. Victoria Niro
  28. Vynohradova
  29. Zetetics
  30. Лилу45 (Lilu45)
  31. Макс Пташник (Max Ptashnik)
  32. Мія Рамарі (Mia Ramari)
  33. Роялькіт (Royalkit)
  34. Саша Фадєєва (Sasha Fadeeva)
  35. ТÓНКА (Tonka)
  36. Циферблат (Chiferblat)

Despite coming second in Vidbir and Ukraine’s reprentatives, Kalush Orchestra were also the winners of Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with their song “Stefania”:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Ukrainian participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in Liverpool!

Source: suspilne.media

Ukraine: Kateryna Pavlenko of Go_A will announce the 12 points in the Grand Final!

According to the announcement of the Ukrainian broadcaster UA: PBC, Kateryna Pavlenko, the lead singer of Go_A, who represented the country in 2020 and 2021 and finished 5th in last year’s competition, will announce the 12 points of the Ukrainian jury in the Grand Final of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest.

“I am very happy to be part of this year’s Eurovision. I remember our joy when the first 12 points were announced. “It’s nice to realize that I have the opportunity to make someone even happier,” Katerina commented.

The following countries have already announced their spokespersons :

  • Greece – Stefania
  • Spain – Nieves Álvarez
  • France – Élodie Gossuin
  • Sweden – Dotter
  • Lithuania – Vaidotas Valiukevičius
  • Belgium – David Jeanmotte
  • Slovenia – Lorella Flego
  • Croatia – Monika Lelas Halambek
  • United Kingdom – AJ Odudu
  • Montenegro – Zombijana Bones

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

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On Instagram

On TikTok

On YouTube

On Spotify

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

Ukraine: Tomorrow the announcement of Go_A’ s entry | Listen to the three candidate songs!

Ukrainian public television has chosen its entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest by internal selection. The jury in charge of the selection of the song, with which Go_A will compete in Rotterdam, made its choice and tomorrow (4/2) we will find out who it is.

The band submitted a total of three songs to the committee. Excerpts from all three songs can be heard below:

As we informed you in our previous article, the jury consisted of five members:

  • Jamala, Winner of Eurovision 2016
  • Evgeny Filaton, Member of The Maneken
  • Ruslan Kvinta, Music Producer
  • Yarloslav Lodigin, UA Board Member: PBC
  • Dmitry Khorkin, UA Board Member: PBC

The video clip of the Ukrainian entry in the contest is expected to be released in March! Ukraine has been drawn in the second half of the first semifinal of Eurovision 2021.

Which song is your favorite and do you think should represent Ukraine in the contest?

Go_A: “Ukraine has its own language and culture and we have a chance to show it” | Exclusive interview! (video)

EurovisionFun had the pleasure and the honor of hosting Go_A in an exclusive interview. Go_A is a Ukrainian electro-folk band and consists of Kateryna Pavlenko, Ihor Didenchuk, Taras Shevchenko και Ivan Hryhoriak. This year, after their victory in the national final Vidbir 2020, they were set to represent Ukraine in Eurovision with the song “Solovey“, while from very early, after the cancellation of the competition, it was announced that they will internally represent the country in 2021 in Rotterdam.

Info: The idea to form a band that will combine modern electronic music with ethnic motifs first came to Taras Shevchenko in 2011, but the first attempts to work with actual musicians were in 2012. At the end of that year, in December, the first song “Koliada” was released. The band’s name means “return to the roots” and was made by combining the English word “Go” with the Greek letter “Alpha“, which symbolizes the beginning of everything.


Interview with Go_A

First of all, thank you for this interview. You won Vidbir 2020 and you would represent Ukraine in Eurovision 2020 with the song “Solovey”. How you felt after winnng your country’s national final this year?

Actually it was quite a surprise for us. We couldn’t believe that a band that had been staying in musical underground for 7 years without a manager or label support could win such contest. So our first impression was “Ok, what’s the catch?”. But then we felt a great responsibility, because we understood we were the first band in Eurovision history that would perform a song fully in Ukrainian. We find it very important. As one of our European fans said, not many people in Europe or the rest of the world know that Ukraine has its own language and culture – and we have a chance to show it.

How you felt after the heartbreaking announcement that this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled?

Taras: When Eurovision was cancelled everything happened so fast, there hadn’t any time for feelings.  We were working in the studio when we received two messages on my phone. The first one – Eurovision was cancelled, the second one – UA:PBC (which is responsible for Eurovision in Ukraine) had decided that we would be the Ukraine’s entry for Eurovision 2021.

Could you tell us more about your team behind “Solovey”? Will be the same team for your next year’s entry?

The song was written by Taras & Kate so next year it will be the same way. As for the performance team – we are looking for professionals that will help us implement our ideas.

“Solovey” has a unique and traditional sound and it’s in Ukrainian language. What that, singing in your own language, means to you? Will you still use traditional sounds and Ukrainian in 2021?

Our aim is to show our cultural heritage to the whole world because we believe it should take its place in pop music the same way it has already happened with Indian, Arabian and Latin folk music. And of course it includes us singing in Ukrainian and using traditional Ukrainian sound techniques.

As I said before, your song was among the few traditional songs this year. Do you believe that in the future contests, the countries should prefer to use traditional sounds and their own language?

We think that depends on the artist. Every artist expresses his/her thoughts and emotions through the song’s lyrics. Some of them are great in writing songs in English, others prefer to do it in their own language. Our song Solovey wouldn’t sound like Solovey any more if it was translated in English but still there are a lot of great songs in English and I can’t imagine them being performed in a different language. Again, it’s all about the artist’s attitude.

In 2016, Jamala won Eurovision for Ukraine. How would you feel if you were the 3d act which will bring the contest in your country?

We would consider it to be a great honor and responsibility. But based on our experience of winning Ukraine’s national selection we understand it’s difficult to predict one’s feelings till the very moment.

The last years, Ukraine used to organize a national final. How did you feel when you noticed that you have internally selected for 2021?

We had very little time to feel anything. For us it was like “Ok, we need to write another song for the next year, so lets get started”.

As you already let us know, you will create five songs for your personal national final so people will choose the best one. Have you already some songs on hand? Have you started the preparation about that?

The idea first came up as a joke but then we realized it was a good way to show some respect to people who voted for us this year. We started to work in the studio right after Eurovision had been cancelled and so far we have several pieces of music. But you’d never know which song will be THE song or in our case – one of several songs. I mean, in the past we had situations when we did a song, put it on the shelf, then listened to it in several days and realized it wasn’t “us”, it didn’t feel like a Go_A song – so we just threw it away. Maybe we’ll treat our song we did for the last two months the same way. Maybe not. Time will tell.

This year, Greece would be represented by the 17 years old Stefania with the song “Supergirl”. Stefania also already confirmed for 2021. What do you think about her?

“SUPERG!RL” is incredibly powerful and yet very tender song, and so is Stefania herself. Can’t wait to hear her new song for Eurovision 2021.

*In closing, Go_A sent a message to EurovisionFun as well as to all Greeks who will be invited to vote for Ukraine at Eurovision 2021!*

We warmly thank Go_A for this interview and we wish them best of luck next year in Rotterdam!

Ukraine: With Go_A in Eurovision 2021

The official public broadcaster of Ukraine, UA: PBC, has announced on its website that it will be represented at Eurovision 2021 by Go_A! Go_A were announced as Vidbir 2020 winners and were due to compete in the Netherlands with “Solovey”.

Thus, the Public Channel of Ukraine will not make any additional national choice regarding the election of its representatives. UA President: PBC said in a statement:

“If nothing changes in the life of Go_A in the coming months and they are ready to compete on the Eurovision stage, we will help! This applies to their preparation, song selection and other organizational issues.

In this decision all parties involved converge. So our intention is that Go_A will represent Ukraine at Eurovision 2021!”

https://youtu.be/zNetXPSld50

Source: UA:PBC