Background
Following the first dress rehearsals, we learned about a change in the way the semi-finals qualifiers will be presented to the public.
Watching the rehearsals from the media press, the suggested change was as follows:
- The 15 artists who compete in semi-final 1 stood together on the stage.
- The hosts started calling the name of the qualifying countries, pausing after 5 countries.
- These first 5 qualifiers were interviewed by the hosts.
- Thereafter, additional 4 countries were announced as qualifiers.
- For the last qualifiers, we have seen a split screen with 6 artists, but only one of them announced as a qualifier.
The Criticism
Many Eurovision fans, as well as journalists and delegation, expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the new method. According to them (And us as well) this new method can put a lot of artists in uncomfortable place, especially the ones who wouldn’t qualify.
In a moment of pressure like these, many artists would like to stay by their delegation members, family members and so on. They can cheer them and embrace them, whenever they will qualify or not.
The Statement
After trying a new system of presenting the qualifying countries in Dress Rehearsal 1 of the First Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 it was decided by the production team to revert back to the previous reveal sequence used in recent years with artists learning whether they will progress to the Grand Final together with their delegations in the Green Room. Whilst this change will not now be implemented this year there are other innovations in the show for viewers to look forward to
Therefore, the semi-final qualifiers will be announced as previously!
Good luck to all the artists who will represent their countries this week!
Don’t forget to visit our full guide to Eurovision 2023: Our Eurovision 2023 homepage
