Published by Mason Oldridge, 23 May 2023
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Eurovision legend Graham Norton opened this year’s commentary with “welcome to the United Kingdom… from the United Kingdom”. He, along with millions of fans, were truly excited to see Eurovision hosted in the UK for the first time in 25 years. As last year’s winners Ukraine couldn’t host due to the Russian invasion, the United Kingdom was given the privilege as second place.
The journey to Liverpool began with the 2022 edition. TikTok star Sam Ryder was chosen to represent the UK with his perfect pop song Space Man. In his sparkling jumpsuit, aided by epic lighting and staging, he gave the performance of a lifetime to uproarious applause. In a contest dominated by Ukraine, he broke the UK’s curse of last place and being the target of geopolitical hatred to top the jury vote and come 2nd place overall. Characterised by catchy music and incredible falsetto on the chorus, Space Man launched Sam Ryder’s wider career as well as bringing the world’s largest music competition to the UK. With several bids from various locations, they were whittled down and shortlisted until Liverpool was eventually chosen as host city. Despite this, the contest promised to pay tribute to Ukraine with an ode to Ukrainian culture throughout.
Hosting the shows were British actress Hannah Waddington, who was able to provide the French translation (she jokingly commented “you see, Europe, some of us Brits do bother to learn another language” in the first semi-final), Ukrainian rock singer Julia Sanina from The Hardkiss, who represented the Ukrainian element of the show, and British singer Alesha Dixon, who was chosen for some unknown reason as she has no ties to the contest or has ever expressed interest prior. Celebrity superfans Scott Mills and Rylan Clark commentated on the semi-finals as per usual, though it would have made more sense for them to take the valuable spot that Dixon had. Joining the presenters for the Grand Final was Graham Norton, who we’d been told would be splitting his time between the commentary booth and the main stage. Mel Giedroyc lent their voice while Norton was in front of the cameras, which was more often than assumed as he co-presented the entire results with Waddington while the others were in the green room. It was heartwarming to see Norton get his fair share of screen time after being a staple of Eurovision in the UK for such a long time.
The show was opened by last year’s winners Kalush Orchestra, who performed their winning song Stefania as well as their new single Changes. The flag parade was set to some epic British classics such as The Chemical Brothers’ Hey Boy Hey Girl and Blur’s Song 2, with interludes of past Ukrainian entrants such as Go_A and Verka Serduchka.
The running order began with fun entry Who The Hell Is Edgar by Teya and Salena for Austria. The catchy dance song about the ghost of Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe made for a great start to the performances. The final provided a strong mix of genres as always; there was electronic from Serbia with Samo mi se spava by Luke Black, disco from France with La Zarra’s Évidemment, metal from Germany’s glam rockers Lord of the Lost with their fantastically loud track Blood & Glitter and a beautiful piano ballad from Estonia’s Alika with Bridges. Australia’s Voyager got the room excited with their multigenre track Promise, blending dance, rock and metal. Czechia’s female folk group Vesca also championed this by blending their traditional sound with modern pop to make for a unique and enjoyable performance. Croatia provided a novelty act with long-running and controversial shock rock band Let 3, who performed their outrageous anti-war song Mama ŠČ! Female pop was at its finest this year and dominated the show. Blanka from Poland performed her catchy pop song Solo, which drew similarity to SloMo by Chanel from Spain last year, Alessandra from Norway delivered her female empowerment track Queen of Kings, Noa Kirel of Israel provided a strong performance of her song Unicorn, which contained a show-stopping dance break, and the UK’s very own Mae Muller closed the running order with her dance-pop breakup anthem I Wrote a Song. Muller’s vocals sounded weak on the night in contrast to the studio version; it is unclear whether there were audio issues but this surely hindered her success and impacted the final result. However, there were two acts that stood out as frontrunners. The favourite from the start was Sweden’s Loreen, returning after winning in 2012 with her international hit Euphoria, with her new emotional entry Tattoo. Then there was Finland. Käärijä was the other one to watch with his hyperactivate tech banger Cha Cha Cha. If there was one act that sparked something in the crowd, this was it.
As voting opened, on came our Eurovision saviour Sam Ryder to perform his new single Mountain, joined on stage by an ensemble including Queen drummer Roger Taylor. The performance, as always guaranteed with Ryder, was incredible and appeared to really draw the attention of the audience. This was followed by The Liverpool Songbook, a selection of previous notable entrants performing their take on classic Liverpudlian hits. This included both past winners such as Netta and Duncan Laurence but also provided a welcome return for high-scoring non-winners such as Mahmood, Daði Freyr and Cornelia Jakobs, whose waterbed performance, matched with her husky voice, was the standout.
Nervous entrants awaited in the green room as the results commenced. This year marked the first time that non-participating countries could vote as part of the collective Rest of the World. As the jury results progressed, the influence of Loreen became clear as Sweden received an overwhelming amount of 12 points which would be hard to override with public votes. Finland won the public vote though came second overall to Sweden, who frankly couldn’t be caught up. Female pop provided some success too as Israel came 3rd and Norway 5th, with Italy in 4th. However, some things don’t change as Germany came last and the UK’s success last year proved to be a one-off as they returned to the bottom of the board in second to last. Muller’s disappointing result has been attributed to the sound issues as well as being overshadowed by Ryder’s performance. Unfortunately, it appears that geopolitics still exists in the contest, consistently penalising the two bottom countries. Throughout the voting process, the audience chanted Cha Cha Cha, proving there was more love for Käärijä in the arena, which also reflected public opinion. There were many cries that Finland was robbed and it can be argued that Sweden won because of Loreen’s existing popularity with her previous winning song and professionals wanted the contest to be held in Sweden next year to mark the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s victory.
Regardless, Loreen became only the second entrant to win the contest twice and also means Sweden now ties with Ireland as the country with the most wins, which better reflects modern Eurovision. The main feeling coming away from this year's contest is disappointment that Käärijä didn’t win but it isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time the results are unsatisfying. Despite this, the UK put on a good show and here’s to many more. Onwards to Stockholm 2024!