Around the Continent 2023: Week 25

As we continue our weekly series Around The Continent, we will discuss the news and tell the story of each country’s preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

General

Tickets for Eurovision 2023 shows will be available to purchase starting this Tuesday, the 7th of March at 13:00 CET

Tickets must be purchased via ticketmaster. we recommend creating an account in advance.

The Semi-Final shows tickets are priced from £30 to £290 and from £80 to £380 for the Grand Final shows.
The show schedule will be:

Semi-Final 1

Jury Show – Monday 8 May, 21:00 CEST
Family Show – Tuesday 9 May, 15:00 CEST
Live TV Show – Tuesday 9 May, 21:00 CEST

Semi-Final 2

Jury Show – Wednesday 10 May, 21:00 CEST
Family Show – Thursday 11 May, 15:00 CEST
Live TV Show – Thursday 11 May, 21:00 CEST

Grand Final

Jury Show – Friday 12 May, 21:00 CEST
Family Show – Saturday 13 May, 13:30 CEST
Live TV Show – Saturday 13 May, 21:00 CEST

Austrian broadcaster ORF will release the song for Eurovision 2023 on Wednesday, the 8th of March 2023.

The song will first be released on ORF radio, and later on the song will be released on Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
Based on recent years, we can expect the premiere to come around 06:40-08:00 CET.

The song is rumored to be “Edgar (Allan Poe)“.

Based on the Eurovision blog “Songfestival Azerbaijan”, it seems like the Azerbaijani song will be revealed in a few days.

The final 5 artists are:

  1. Mamagama group
  2. Humay Aslanova and Amrah Musayev
  3. Turan and Tural Bagmanovlar
  4. Azer Nasibov
  5. Leyla Izzatova

The team behind Gustaph’s performance for Eurovision 2023 has been revealed.
The director will be Hans Pannecoucke. He is well known for being involved at Eurovision before. Under his umbrella, you can find directoring of the following acts: The Netherlands (2014, 2016, and 2018), Switzerland (2018).
Roen Lommelen (Gustaph’s husband) will be responsible for the the stage design and visual effects.

As part of the preparations for Eurovision 2023, Let 3 band attended the HRT studios in order to work on staging plans.

You can see a snippet of it here:

The Cypriot song for Eurovision 2023 has dropped.
Andrew Lambrou will perform the song “Break a Broken Heart”:

Last Saturday, Finland held its national selection for Eurovision 2023: “UMK 2023”.
The results were as follows:


Käärijä was crowned as the winner of the show with his song “Cha Cha Cha”:

You can watch his live performance here:

Iru (who was internally selected to represent Georgia) is finalizing her song for Eurovision 2023.
The song was co-written by Giorgi (Giga) Kukhianidze, who composed several Georgian songs for Junior Eurovision. Both of them co-wrote the Georgian song for Junior Eurovision 2022, and she won Junior Eurovision 2011 as part of a group.

Yesterday, Germany held its national selection for Eurovision 2023 – “Unser Lied für Liverpool“.
8 artists took part in the selection:

  1. TRONG – Dare To Be Different
  2. René Miller – Concrete Heart
  3. Anica Russo – Once Upon A Dream
  4. Lonely Spring – Misfit
  5. Will Church – Hold On
  6. Patty Gurdy – Melodies Of Hope
  7. Ikke Hüftgold – Lied mit gutem Text
  8. Frida Gold – Alle Frauen in mir sind müde (withdraw due to the illness of the lead singer).
  9. Lord Of The Lost – Blood And Glitter

The results were as follows:

Lord of the Lost will represent Germany with the song “Blood and Glitter“:

Greece‘s song for Eurovision 2023, “What They Say” By Victor Vernikos, will probably be released on the 6th of March

In the last 2 weeks, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV held the 2 semi-finals of “Söngvakeppnin 2023“, where 10 artists performed. 5 of these artists qualified for the final.

The final will be held tonight (Saturday, the the 4 of March). The artists will perform in the following running order:

  1. Sigga Ózk – Dancing Lonely
  2. Bragi – Sometimes the World’s Against Us
  3. Celebs – Dómsdags dans / Doomsday Dancing
  4. Diljá Power
  5. Langi Seli og Skuggarnir – OK

You can find the playlists here:

Live Performance Playlist

Spotify

Apple Music

YouTube (Icelandic Versions)

English Versions

According to the regulations of “Söngvakeppnin“, the songs must be performed in the Icelandic language in the semi-final.
However, in the final, each artist is free to choose the language to perform in, as long as it will be kept for Eurovision.
This year, 9 of 10 artists had 2 versions (Icelandic and English), and only Langi Seli og Skuggarnir  had one version only.

In the final, 4 of the artists will perform in English (Sigga Ózk, Bragi,Celebs and Diljá).

The results will be determined in 2 rounds:

  • Round 1 – Based on a 50% international jury vote and a 50% public vote.
  • Round 2 – Top 2 artists will qualify for the “Super-final”. The results will be based on the public vote.

You can read Doron‘s review of the songs here:

The Israeli song for Eurovision 2023, “Unicorn” by Noa Kirel, will be released on Wednesday the 8th of March 2023

The song premiere will be broadcast on KAN 11.
In the meantime, a very short snippet of the song was published.
Noa gave us some dance moves that will probably be developed into a dance challenge.

It is going to be phenomenal!

The Busker band have started filming the official video clip for “Dance (Our Own Party)”:

Tonight, Moldova will hold its national selection “Etapa Naţională 2023“.
10 artists will perform in the following running order:

  1. Donia – Red Zone
  2. OL – Why You Play It Cool
  3. Victor Gulic – Let’s Dance
  4. Surorile Osoianu – Bade, bădişor, bădiţă
  5. COSMINA – Indestructible
  6. NÖRDIKA – Damn and Down
  7. Aliona Moon – Du-mă
  8. Sunstroke Project – Yummy Mommy
  9. Pasha Parfeni – Soarele şi luna
  10. Corina Ivanov – When Love’s Real

The results will be determined by a 50% public vote and a 50% jury vote.

You can find the playlists here:

Spotify

YouTube

Apple Music

The Netherlands released its song for Eurovision 2023.
Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper will perform “Burning Daylight”:

Alessandra Mele will make some changes to her Eurovision performance, regarding the ones we saw at the “Melodi Grand Prix 2023“.

The potential changes are:

  • Changes in the line-up of the danvers
  • Adding more colors and imrove the lightning.
  • Lengthen the song to 3 minutes

Last Sunday, Poland held its national selection for Eurovision 2023: “Tu Bije Service Europe 2023”.
The winner of the selection was Blanka with the song “Solo“:

You can watch her live performance here:

Portugal will hold the second semi-final of “Festival da Canção 2023“.
10 artists will perform in the following running order:

  1. Edmundo Inácio – A Festa
  2. The Happy Mess O Impossível
  3. Teresinha Landeiro – Enquanto é tempo
  4. Bandua Bandeiras 
  5. Bárbara Tinoco – Goodnight
  6. INÊS APENAS – Fim do Mundo
  7. Ivandro Povo
  8. DAPUNKSPORTIF World Needs Therapy
  9. Lara Li – Funâmbula
  10. Voodoo Marmalade – Tormento

Studio Playlist

Spotify

Apple Music

YouTube

The results will be determined in 2 rounds:

  • Round 1 – based on a 50% public vote, and a 50% national jury vote. The top 5 artists will advance for the final.
  • Round 2 – 5 remaining artists will fight for 1 additional spot in the final. The results will be determined by the public vote only

The semi-final jury will be:

  • Maro (Portugal Eurovision 2022)
  • Neev (“Festival da Canção 2021“)
  • Marcia (“Festival da Canção 2017“)
  • Alex D’Alva Teixeira (“Festival da Canção 2019“)
  • Carlos Mendes (“Festival da Canção” 1968+1972)
  • Pedro Ribeiro (Director of Radio)
  • Sara Coreeia (Fado Singer).

Take a look at the beautiful stage of the festival:

Sónia Araújo and Jorge Gabrie will host semi-final 2.

Last week, 7 artists qualified from semi-final 1 to the final.
Initially, 6 acts were meant to advance to the final, but due to technical issues in the voting lines, one of the acts got a free path to the final:

  1. Churky – Encruzilhada
  2. Cláudia Pascoal – Nasci Maria
  3. SAL – Viver 
  4. Mimicat – Ai Coração
  5. You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown – Contraste Mudo
  6. Neon Soho – Endless World
  7. Esse Povo – Sapatos de Cimento [issues in the voting]

Last Saturday, San Marino chose their act for Eurovision 2023 via “Una Voce Per San Marino 2023“.


The winners are Piqued Jacks with the song “Like An Animal

Earlier this week, Serbia held the 2 semi-finals of “Pesma za Evroviziju 23″.
32 artists performed in the 2 semi-finals (16 each), and 16 of them qualified for the final:

  1. Stefan Maljković Shy – Od jastuka do jastuka (Eng: From pillow to pillow)
  2. Boris Subotić – Nedostupan (Eng: Unavailable)
  3. Nadja Terzić – Devojka tvog dečka (Eng: Your boyfriend’s girlfriend)
  4. Duo Grand (Aleksandar Simić & Nenad Osmanović) – Viva la vida
  5. Nađa – Moj prvi ožiljak na duši (Eng: My first scar on my soul)
  6. Frajle – Neka, neka (Eng: Let Let)
  7. Hurricane  Zumi zimi zami
  8. Chegi & Braća Bluz Bend – Svadba ili kavga (Eng: Wedding or fight)
  9. Dzipsii – Greh (Eng: Sin)
  10. Luke Black – Samo mi se spava (Eng: I’m just sleepy)
  11. Filip Baloš – Novi plan drugi san (Eng: New plan, second dream)
  12. Princ (Stefan Zdravković) – Cvet sa istoka (Eng: Flower from the East)
  13. Filarri – Posle mene (Eng: After me)
  14. Gift – Liberta (Eng: Liberty)
  15. Empathetic Soul Project – Indigo
  16. Zejna – Rumba

The final will be held tonight.
The results will be based on a 50% national jury and a 50% public vote.

Blanca Paloma is working on the official video clip for “Eaea

The 4 heats of “Melodifestivalen 2023” are behind us. So far, 8 artists have made it to the final:

  1. Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods – Where You Are (Sávečan)
  2. Tone Sekelius – Rhythm Of My Show
  3. Maria Sur  Never Give Up
  4. Panetoz  On My Way
  5. Paul Ray – Royals
  6. Marcus & Martinus – Air
  7. Loreen –Tattoo
  8. Smash Into Pieces – Six Feet Under

Tonight, 8 acts will compete in the semi-final.
4 of them will qualify for the final.
They will perform in the following ruuning order:

  1. Theoz  Mer Av Dig
  2. Mariette – One Day
  3. Victor Crone – Diamonds
  4. Tennessee Tears  Now I Know
  5. Elov & Beny – Raggen Går
  6. Melanie Wehbe – For The Show
  7. Nordman  Släpp Alla Sorger
  8. Kiana Blanckert – Where Did You Go?

You can find the full playlists here:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

Remo Forrer will release his Eurovision 2023 song on Tuesday, the 7th of March 2023.
You can listen to a snippet from it:

The BBC will reveal the UK’s act for Eurovision 2023 in the coming days.
According to rumors, it seems there are 4 female singers in the running and these are:

  1. Rina Sawayama
  2. Birdy
  3. Ellie Goulding
  4. Freya Ridings

Doron Lahav is 30-year-old, who lives in Israel. Doron has been watching the Eurovision Song Contest since early 2000s. Doron works as a Data Scientist and shows interest in singing and writing.

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