Eurovision Song Contest: Liverpool 2023 (review)

Published by Mason Oldridge, 23 May 2023

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 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.

Interval acts included both past winners, such as Netta and Duncan Laurence, and high-scoring non-winners such as Mahmood, Daði Freyr and Cornelia Jakobs, whose waterbed performance, matched with her husky voice, was the standout.

As the results began, there were two acts that stood out as frontrunners. The favourite from the start was past winner Loreen for Sweden with her new emotional entry Tattoo and Käärijä for Finland with his hyperactivate tech banger Cha Cha Cha. However, 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. Finland won the public vote though came second overall to Sweden.

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 UK put on a good show and here’s to many more!

9/10