With the selection made of all the songs and once the order of the semifinals is known, we can start the countdown for the European Song Festival: Eurovision 2023 will arrive next May and we will see everything we know about this edition.
Venue and dates
Despite Ukraine’s victory last year with their song “Stefania”, circumstances (the war) prevent the festival from taking place in the eastern country this year. Instead, the United Kingdom will be the country that will host this new edition. Specifically in the city of Liverpool.
The dates will run on May 9, 11 and 13, 2023. As usual, Tuesday and Thursday the Liverpool Arena will host the semifinals and on Saturday, the Grand Final.
Blanca Paloma, the Spanish representative
At the beginning of February, the Benidorm Fest selected the Spanish representative for Eurovision 2023. This time it will be Blanca Paloma with her flamenco nanny EaEa the one that tries to be crowned as the best European song.
Born in El Altet and graduated in Fine Arts, she already achieved fifth place at the Benidorm Fest in 2022.
Which countries participate
37 countries participate in this edition of Eurovision. Three less than those who participated in 2022 after the casualties of Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The reasons, apparently, are economic at the height of the energy crisis.
This is the list, in alphabetical order of the countries and their representative songs:
- Albanian: Albina & Familja Kelmendi – Duje
- Germany: Lord of the Lost – Blood & Glitter
- Armenia: Brunette – Future Lover
- Australia: Voyager – Promise
- Austria: Teya & Salena – Who the Hell is Edgar?
- Azerbaijan: TuralTuranX – Tell Me More
- Belgium: Gustaph – Because of You
- Czech Rep.: Vesna – My Sister’s Crown
- Cyprus: Andrey Lambrou: Break a Broken Heart
- Croatia: Let 3 – Mama ŠČ!
- Denmark: Reiley – Breaking My Heart
- Slovenia: Joker Out – Carpe Diem
- Estonia: Alika-Bridges
- Spain: White Dove – Eaea
- Finland: Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha
- France: La Zarra – Évidemment
- Georgia: Iru – Echo
- Greece: Victor Vernicos – What They Say
- Ireland: Wild Youth – We Are One
- Iceland: Dilja – Power
- Israel: Noa Kirel – Unicorn
- Italy: Marco Mengoni – Due Vite
- Latvia: Sudden Lights – Aijā
- Lithuania: Monika Linkytė – Stay
- malt: The Busker – Dance (Our Own Party)
- moldova: Pasha Parfeni – Soareleşi Luna
- Norway: Alessandra – Queen of Kings
- Netherlands: Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper – Burning Daylight
- Poland: Blanka – Solo
- Portugal: Mimicat – Ai Coração
- United Kingdom: Mael Muller – I wrote a song
- Romania: Theodor Andrei – DGT (Off and On)
- San Marino: Piqued Jacks – Like An Animal
- Serbian: Luke Black – Samo Mi Se Spava
- Sweden: Loreen – Tattoo
- Swiss: Remo Forrer – Watergun
- Ukraine: TVORCHI – Heart of Steel
The presenters
As revealed last February, this year we will have a quartet of presenters for Eurovision 2023. They will be Hannah Waddingham, Graham Norton, Julia Sanina, and Alesha Dixon.
the semifinals
In March it was also revealed how the countries will be distributed in the semifinals. In the first semifinal, on Tuesday May 9, they will face Norway, Malta, Serbia, Latvia, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Switzerland, Israel, Moldova, Sweden, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Finland. The voting countries will be France, Germany and Italy.
On Thursday, May 11, the second semifinal will be held, which will feature Denmark, Armenia, Romania, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino, Austria, Albania, Lithuania and Australia. Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom will be the countries that can vote.
Ten countries will come out of each semifinal, which will qualify for the Grand Final on Saturday.
the grand finale
He Saturday May 13 The grand Final will be held in which the twenty qualifiers from the semifinal will participate together with the “Big Five” (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom) and the winning country on duty (Ukraine). Until Friday the 12th we will not know the order, but we do know that Ukraine will sing in 19th place and that the United Kingdom will close.
the vote
This year we have a couple of changes to the Eurovision voting system. And beware, they are important: for the first time, the jury vote is eliminated in the semifinals: only viewers will vote for their favorites. In addition, they can be from any part of the world, even from non-participating countries.
Yes indeed, the grand finale will continue to have the participation of the juries nationals with a modification: the votes of the public and the jury will be combined to decide the final result.
where to see it
As usual, in Spain we can see Eurovision 2023 through La 1 de TVE and on RTVE Play. Although other years the semifinals have been broadcast on La 2, last year it already went to the first channel. In addition, the event will be broadcast on YouTube, with the international signal (without the comments of the country on duty).
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