Image Credit: EBU // Corinne Cumming
Eurovision 2023 kicks off tonight, live from the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool!
Tonight 16 countries will participate for the chance to qualify for the final. With 10 spots available, the artists will be doing all they can to impress the public at home.
Here’s your guide to Eurovision Semi Final 1!
The Hosts
Alesha Dixon
Alesha Dixon is a British pop singer, presenter and TV judge. She found fame in the 00s girl band Mis-Teeq who became popular for songs such as ‘Scandalous’ and ‘All I Want’, before moving on to a solo career – her biggest hit being ‘The Boy Does Nothing’. In 2008, she won the dance competition Strictly Come Dancing, and a year later became a judge on the show. In 2012, she left Strictly and joined Britain’s Got Talent as a judge, and has remained on the show ever since. She also has presenting experience on shows such as Comic Relief, Dance Dance Dance and The Greatest Dancer.
Hannah Waddingham
Hannah Waddingham is a British actress, singer and presenter. Starting her stage career back in 2000, Hannah moved into TV and film acting in 2002. She’s currently best known as one of the main characters in Ted Lasso and has also appeared in Sex Education and Game Of Thrones. Just weeks before Eurovision 2023, she hosted The Olivier Awards, gaining praise from viewers for her presenting style.
Julia Sanina
Julia Sanina is a Ukrainian singer who is the frontwoman for alternative rock band The Hardkiss. The band was formed in 2011, alongside music producer and Julia’s husband Valerii Bebko, Kreechy and Pol Solonar. The current lineup consists of Julia, Valerii, Klim Lysiuk and Yevhen Kibeliev. As one of Ukraine’s most successful bands, they’ve received the most national YUNA awards for their work, including 5 for ‘Best Ukrainian Rock Band’. They took part in Ukraine’s national selection Vidbir in 2016 with the song ‘Helpless‘, coming 2nd to eventual Eurovision winner Jamala. Julia has been a judge on The X Factor Ukraine, a finalist on Dancing With The Stars and in 2023 was a jury member at Vidbir 2023.
Throughout the show, we’ll also be seeing pre-recorded videos about Ukraine from Eurovision 2017 host, Ukrainian commentator and 2023 ‘Turquoise Carpet’ host Timur Miroshnychenko.
Competing Entries and Running Order
Semi Final 1 features 15 contestants, and viewers will also get snippets of three of the Big 5’s performances from the evening preview on Monday 8th May. The three members of the Big 5 featuring at this semi final are Germany, France and Italy.
The running order for the show is as follows:
The Favourites
Only 10 countries will qualify for the final, meaning 5 countries will miss out on performing their entries again. The current favourites to qualify are:
Sweden 🇸🇪: Loreen – ‘Tattoo’
Loreen is back! After winning Eurovision 2012 with ‘Euphoria’ (which you can read more about by clicking here), 11 years on she’ll return to the stage with her song ‘Tattoo’. Not only is she a favourite to qualify, but also a favourite to win the whole contest. Can she do it again? If so, Sweden will equal Ireland’s total win record of 7, and she’ll be the second artist in history after Johnny Logan to win twice. You can see images from her second rehearsal below!
Finland 🇫🇮: Käärijä – ‘Cha Cha Cha’
Another big favourite to win the contest is Finland, who will this year be sending the song ‘Cha Cha Cha’. The song combines rock, pop and electronic elements – breaking out of the heavier rock section at the start into a dance-pop style second half. This Eurovision season, Käärijä’s catchphrase has been ‘It’s crazy, it’s party’ – and that’s exactly what this entry can be described as! You can see his second rehearsal images below!
Norway 🇳🇴: Alessandra – ‘Queen Of Kings’
Alessandra’s song ‘Queen Of Kings’ went viral on TikTok back in January, and has remained in the top 5 of the odds ever since she won Norway’s national selection Melodi Grand Prix back in February. She’ll be opening the semi-final and it’s sure to get the show off to a great start. You can see her second rehearsal images below:
Israel 🇮🇱: Noa Kirel – ‘Unicorn’
Another song in this semi final that combines multiple musical elements, ‘Unicorn’ is a big pop banger with a dance break just before the end. It also features a catchy, repetitive verse of ‘it’s gonna be phenomen-phenomen-phenomenal, phenomen-phenomenal’. Noa Kirel is one of Israel’s biggest pop stars, and they’ll be hoping she returns them back to the final after falling to qualify for the first time in 7 years in 2022. You can see her second rehearsal images below:
Can’t wait to see the songs on TV tonight? No worries! You can find 30 seconds of each performance from the rehearsals in the compilation below:
The Voting
Alongside the 15 competing countries voting, 3 of the Big 5 (plus the host) will also vote. In semi final 1, France, Germany and Italy will all vote. We’ll also see snippets from their performance at the evening preview on Monday 8th May during the show.
This year the voting has changed. Unlike previous years, where the qualifiers would be determined by 50/50 jury/televote, 2023 will see the return of televote-only semi finals.
New for 2023 (and for Eurovision) is the ‘Rest Of The World’ vote. Countries who aren’t competing in the contest can use this to vote for their own favourites in the contest at a cost of €0.99. More information on this can be found at eurovision.tv.
The Intervals
Opening: Julia Sanina
The host of the contest, Julia Sanina, will open Eurovision 2023 Semi Final 1 with ‘Маяк‘ (‘Lighthouse’ in English) by her band The Hardkiss.
The BBC say this forms part of ‘an incredibly powerful opening act’ that will symbolise how the UK & Ukraine are ‘United By Music’ in Eurovision this year.
Listen to ‘Маяк’ below:
Interval: Rita Ora
The interval in Semi Final 1 will see pop star Rita Ora take to the stage with a medley of her biggest hits & a debut performance of her new single ‘Praising You’.
Rita’s one of the UK’s most successful artists, with over 10 billion streams worldwide, and has the most top 10 singles for a female artist in history on the UK charts.
This isn’t her first dabble with Eurovision: in 2009, she entered the UK’s national final ‘Eurovision: Your Country Needs You’ but withdrew before the contest. Her audition did air and you can watch it below:
Interval: Alyosha & Rebecca Ferguson
Ukrainian singer Alyosha will join forces with British singer Rebecca Ferguson to perform a ‘new, haunting arrangement’ of Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’, telling the story of hope, courage & support for Ukrainians across the world.
Alyosha represented Ukraine at Eurovision 2010, with the song ‘Sweet People’, which came 10th in the final.
Rebecca Ferguson rose to fame after coming 2nd on The X Factor in 2011, and has since had four Top 10 albums, as well as three top 20 solo hits and two number 1s as a featured artist. In recent years, Rebecca has dedicated much of her career to speaking out in support of artists’ rights within the music industry, and will be retiring from music in 2023 after releasing her fifth and final album.
So that’s Semi Final 1 covered! There’s only one thing left to say…
Let The Eurovision Song Contest 2023, begin!
