Eurovision 2023

The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Liverpool, United Kingdom, as , the winner of the with the song "Stefania" by Kalush Orchestra, was unable to host the event due to the Russian invasion of the country. The contest was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) acting as host broadcaster on behalf of the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and a final on 13 May 2023. The three live shows were presented by British singer Alesha Dixon, British actress Hannah Waddingham, and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, with Irish television presenter Graham Norton joining for the final.

Thirty-seven countries participated in the contest, three fewer than in 2022. , , and opted not to participate, primarily due to the economic impact of the global energy crisis.

The winner was with the song "Tattoo", performed by Loreen and written by her with Jimmy Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson, Moa Carlebecker, Peter Boström, and Thomas G:son. , , , and completed the top five. Sweden won the combined vote and jury vote, and came second to Finland in the televote. Loreen became the second performer to win the contest twice, after Irish singer Johnny Logan; it was also the seventh win for Sweden, tying 's record for the most Eurovision victories.

The EBU reported that the contest had a television audience of 162 million viewers in 38 European markets, an increase of a million viewers from the previous edition. A total of 15.6 million viewers watched the contest online on YouTube and TikTok. The broadcast of the contest won the British Academy Television Award for Best Live Event, and Waddingham received a British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance nomination for her role as a co-presenter.

Location

,,,,

The 2023 contest was held in Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was the ninth time that the United Kingdom had hosted the contest, having previously done so in , , , , , , , and . The selected venue was the 11,000-seat Liverpool Arena, a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the ACC Liverpool complex. The "Turquoise Carpet" event, where the contestants and their delegations were presented before accredited press and fans, took place outside the Walker Art Gallery on 7 May 2023, followed by the Opening Ceremony at St George's Hall.

In conjunction with the contest, Liverpool held a cultural festival called "EuroFest", which featured collaborations between British and Ukrainian artists. The Pier Head was the location of the Eurovision Village, where a stage hosted performances by Ukrainian artists, local artists, current and previous Eurovision entrants, and other groups. It also held screenings of the three live shows. Entry to the Village was free of charge except during the final. The EuroClub, which took place at Camp and Furnace, hosted the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants.

Host country selection

The was won by with the song "Stefania" by Kalush Orchestra, which, according to Eurovision tradition, made Ukraine the presumptive host of the 2023 contest. The country had hosted the contest twice before, in and , both times in Kyiv. Between May and June 2022, the Ukrainian government and UA:PBC, the nation's public broadcaster, discussed hosting the contest with the EBU. The chairman of UA:PBC, , Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and other Ukrainian politicians expressed their willingness to host the event, and an organising committee was formed.

Despite this, the EBU announced on 17 June 2022 that the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant that UA:PBC could not give the security and operations guarantees required to host the contest, and that the event could therefore not be held in Ukraine. The EBU then entered discussions with the BBC, the 2022 runner-up, and on 25 July announced that the 2023 contest would be hosted in the United Kingdom. It was the first time since that the contest was not hosted by the previous edition's winning country.

The decision not to host in Ukraine was initially met with disappointment. UA:PBC published a statement in which Chernotytskyi requested further talks with the EBU, and Oleh Psiuk of Kalush Orchestra published an open letter criticising the decision, co-signed by Ukraine's previous Eurovision winners, Ruslana and Jamala, as well as Ukraine's minister of culture Oleksandr Tkachenko. This stance was supported by Boris Johnson, who was the British prime minister at the time, Nadine Dorries, who was the British culture secretary at the time, the Polish broadcaster , and Poland's deputy prime minister and minister of culture Piotr Gliński. The announcement on 25 July that the BBC would host the contest was supported by UA:PBC.

Host city bidding phase

The host city bidding process ran from 25 July to 7 October 2022, with candidates judged against a set of criteria to demonstrate that they could host an event on the scale of the Eurovision Song Contest. During the first stage of the process, the BBC received expressions of interest from 20 UK cities and towns, seven of which were longlisted on 12 August 2022: Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, and Sheffield. These cities had until 8 September to develop their bids in detail for evaluation by the BBC, which also conducted visits to the cities throughout the month. On 27 September, Glasgow and Liverpool were announced to have made the shortlist, and on 7 October, the EBU and the BBC announced Liverpool as the host city.

Key:

Host city
Shortlisted
Longlisted
Submitted a bid

Participants

Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the Eurovision network and broadcasting it live nationwide. The EBU issued an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members. Associate member did not need an invitation for the 2023 contest, as it had previously been granted permission to participate until at least this year.

On 20 October 2022, the EBU announced that 37 countries would participate in the 2023 contestthe lowest number of participating countries in a single edition since with , and , which had participated in the , opting not to participate in 2023 for financial reasons. This was also the first contest where the participated under its shortened English name of Czechia.

Returning artists

The contest featured four representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same country. Two of them had competed in : Loreen won that year's contest representing , while Pasha Parfeni represented and later provided backing vocals for . Also returning as lead artists were Marco Mengoni, who had represented , and Monika Linkytė, who had represented alongside Vaidas Baumila. In addition, Gustaph had previously provided backing vocals for and , and Iru had won Junior Eurovision for as a member of Candy.

Other countries

Several EBU member broadcasters made statements confirming non-participation prior to the publication of the official 2023 participants list. The management board of Bulgarian broadcaster BNT, at a meeting on 7 September 2022, decided not to participate in the 2023 contest, citing an expected increase in participation fees; this was later publicly confirmed in several Bulgarian news outlets on 19 October. The Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG and the Macedonian broadcaster MRT also publicly confirmed on 13 and 14 October 2022 respectively that they would not participate in the contest, citing financial contraints. Both RTCG and MRT however confirmed their intentions to broadcast the 2023 contest. Active EBU member broadcasters in , , and also confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU.

A potential return for to the contest in 2023in what would have been its first participation since was first discussed in November 2021, when it was reported that part of the Monégasque state budget had been reserved for participation in the 2023 contest. However, these plans were curtailed due to the delay in the launch of a new Monégasque public television channel, TVMonaco, which commenced broadcasts in September 2023 instead of the initially outlined period of late 2022. Monaco Media Diffusion, the current EBU member broadcaster for Monaco, subsequently confirmed on 5 September 2022 that the country would not participate in the 2023 event.

Discussions were also reported between the EBU and Kazakh broadcaster Khabar Agency, an associate member of the EBU, which would have led to being invited to participate in the contest for the first time. Kazakhstan has in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest since , with television producer Zhan Mukanov stating that "there is every chance or Kazakhstanto enter the adult Eurovision next year" and that the country's participation in the would have a "significant impact" on its chances of debuting in the adult event. The country, however, did not appear on the final list of participants.

Production

The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was produced by the British national broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The Ukrainian public broadcaster UA:PBC worked with the BBC to develop and implement Ukrainian elements for the live shows, including theme artwork, background music, selection of presenters, and opening and interval acts. The three shows were produced by BBC Studios Entertainment Productions and BBC Studios Music Productions, part of the BBC's commercial subsidiary BBC Studios.

The senior production team consisted of Martin Green as managing director, Rachel Ashdown as lead commissioner, Andrew Cartmell as executive producer, Lee Smithurst as head of show, Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen as head of contest, and James O'Brien as executive in charge of production. Additional production personnel included multi-camera directors Nikki Parsons, Richard Valentine and Ollie Bartlett, lead creative director Dan Shipton, music director Kojo Samuel, stage designer Julio Himede, head of sound Robert Edwards, and lighting designer Tim Routledge. The Ukrainian consultation team was led by Oksana Skybinska, Tetiana Semenova, and . Background music for the shows was composed by Mykhailo Nekrasov.

The budget was contributed to by Liverpool City Council and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority ( each), the British government (), and the BBC ( to ). The overall budget was not made public, but was estimated to be at around (), including expenditures by the host city.

Visual design

On 7 October 2022, along with the host city announcement, the EBU revealed the generic logo for the 2023 contest. The Eurovision heart, which typically has the flag of the host country placed in its centre, contained the Ukrainian flag for this year to reflect the country's win the previous year. The 'Song Contest' text was accompanied below by 'United Kingdom' and further down by 'Liverpool 2023'.

The theme art and slogan for the contest, "United by Music", was unveiled on 31 January 2023. Designed by London-based brand consultancy Superunion and Ukrainian production company Starlight Media, the artwork was built around a string of two-dimensional hearts resembling an electrocardiogram, representing response to rhythm and sound, while the colours were inspired by those of the Ukrainian and British flags. The typeface, Penny Lane, was inspired by 20th-century Liverpool street signs and the city's musical heritage.

Stage design

The stage design for the 2023 contest was revealed on 2 February 2023. Designed by New York-based set designer Julio Himede, the design was based on "the principles of togetherness, celebration and community", taking inspiration from a wide hug and the "cultural aspects and similarities between Ukraine, the UK and specifically Liverpool". The stage is 450 square metres, with 220 square metres of independently rotating LED screens, over 700 LED floor tiles and more than 1500 metres of LED lights. King Charles III and Queen Camilla (whose coronations were held the week before the contest) inaugurated the stage on 26 April, during an official visit to Liverpool.

Postcards

The "postcards" were 40-second video introductions shown on television whilst the stage is being prepared for the next entry. Filmed between February and April 2023 and directed by Tom Cook, with Carlo Massarella and Jane McGoldrick serving as executive producers, the postcards were based on the "United by Music" theme of the contest. Making use of 360° drone technology, each postcard began in a selected location in Ukraine, then one in the United Kingdom, before moving to the artist's country of origin, where the artist took part in an activity of their choice. The three locations appearing in each postcard were connected by a singular theme. Each postcard was bookended with the " little planet effect", which symbolised the interconnections between people. The postcards were produced by London-based production company Windfall Films and Ukrainian production company 23/32, with background music composed by Dmytro Shurov. The following locations were used for each participating country:

Vocal rules

For the third year in a row, delegations had the option to use pre-recorded backing vocals, though each delegation could still use live backing singers—whether on or off stage—or a combination of live and recorded backing vocals. However, all lead vocals and lead dubs performing the melody of the song must still be live. The contest's executive supervisor Martin Österdahl later stated that the use of pre-recorded backing vocals would continue to be permitted for the foreseeable future.

Presenters

British singer Alesha Dixon, British actress Hannah Waddingham, and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina were announced as the presenters for the 2023 contest on 22 February 2023, and they hosted all three shows of the event; Irish television presenter Graham Norton joined them for the final. Norton has served as the BBC's commentator for the contest since , and had previously co-hosted both editions of the Eurovision Dance Contest in and , as well as ''Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits'' in 2015.

The "Turquoise Carpet" and Opening Ceremony events were hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko (who had co-hosted the ) and Sam Quek, with Richie Anderson providing off-screen commentary. Miroshnychenko also moderated the contest's press conferences, along with Jermaine Foster and Mariia Vynogradova.

Format

Voting system and contest structure

On 22 November 2022, the EBU announced changes to the voting system for the 2023 contest. The results of the semi-finals would be determined solely by televoting, as was the case between and , while the results of the final would be determined by a combination of national juries and televoting, as has been the case since the final. In the event that a country cannot deliver a televoting result in a semi-final, a backup jury result would be used instead. In the final, in the event that a country cannot deliver a televoting result, an aggregated result calculated on the basis of countries with similar voting patterns would be used. If a country's jury is disqualified, the televoting points from that country would be doubled and used as a substitute for that country's jury points in the final. The procedure of using calculated points would remain as a last resort in the event that a country cannot deliver a valid jury or televoting result. Viewers from non-participating countries would also be able to vote in all shows, with their votes being aggregated and presented as one individual set of points under "Rest of the World". Those viewers would be able to cast votes via an online platform, which requires ownership of a credit or debit card for verification.

On 8 May 2023, a change to the semi-final qualifiers announcement format was revealed, where the acts would be on stage to anticipate the announcement of the finalists instead of sitting in the green room, similar to ''The X Factor''. This format was trialled during a dress rehearsal for the first semi-final, before being dropped on the same day due to negative responses.

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to determine the participating countries' semi-finals took place on 31 January 2023 at 19:00 GMT (20:00 CET), at St George's Hall. The thirty-one semi-finalists were divided over five pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. The purpose of drawing from different pots was to reduce the chance of "bloc voting" and to increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final each of the six automatic qualifiersthe previous year's winning country and " Big Five" countries , , , and the would broadcast and vote in. The ceremony was hosted by AJ Odudu and Rylan, and included the passing of the host city insignia from Stefano Lo Russo, the mayor of previous host city Turin, to Joanne Anderson

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases