Eurovision 2023: Here are the top 10 finalists

The Scandinavian artists demonstrated their clear strength in the first semi-final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Liverpool, held on Tuesday night.

Loreen, representing Sweden for the second time after her 2012 victory and this year’s favourite, qualified for the Eurovision final on Saturday 13 May. Their dark electro-pop act was a highlight.

The other favorite of the competition, the Finnish Käärijä, was also eliminated for Saturday’s final. Wearing a neon green jacket, the young Finn galvanized the audience with his performance that combined metal, hip hop and electro-pop.

Alessandra from Norway also ranked with a powerful uptempo number with incredible vocals.

Noa Kirel, the Israel entry, also earned a berth in the final with her performance that begins as a typical ESC ballad; by the second verse, it turns into a firework of danceable rhythms and equally impressive dance routines.

Serbia trial entry

Since their successful contribution in 2022, Serbia has continued to happily experiment – and surprised in the first semifinal with the young singer Luke Black, who interpreted a dark and very idiosyncratic electronic song, accompanied by an impressive stage show between fantasy and science fiction. He is also among the finalists.

Croatia’s Let 3 also wowed the crowd with a madcap mix of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Village People, drag revue and military march – an anti-war act that secured their place back on the ESC stage for Saturday’s final.

Moldova also made the final cut with a powerful folk number sung by Pasha Parfeni. Parfeni, who already represented the country in 2012, was accompanied by a traditional flute, dancers and drums.

Czech Republic girl power

The female band Vesna performed around the Czech Republic. Traditional singing, electric rhythms and czech rapping – all this has been well received by ESC fans, which means that Vesna will be on stage again on Saturday.

The entry from Portugal, Mimicat, offered an atmospheric polka that also convinced the public to include it among the finalists.

Switzerland put young singer Remo Forrer in the running with a piano ballad; with his deep and smooth voice, he also sang until the finale.

No solo artists this year

The lineup for this first semifinal clearly demonstrated that singers who sang ballads with their hair in the wind, long common in the ESC, are out of fashion in this year’s contest.

More and more countries – and their music fans – are opting for danceable and electronic pop music with special effects, performed by groups or individual acts backed by dancers.

The “less is more” approach only works with really strong music and a convincing solo performance, as Portuguese Salvador Sobral (2017) and Dutch Duncan Laurence (2019) have demonstrated in recent years.

Emotional performance with a Ukrainian singer

In a break between the semifinalists’ performances, three of the artists performing for the first time in the final on Saturday performed: La Zarra from France, Marco Mengoni from Italy and German band Lord of the Lost.

They are automatically included in the finals without having to qualify, with entries from the “Big Five” countries – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom – being the biggest financial contributors to the contest. Ukraine, as last year’s winner, is also not required to qualify.

In addition to Anglo-Albanian singer Rita Ora, former Ukrainian ESC participant Aljosha (2010) also performed during the interlude. She covered Duran Duran’s hit “Ordinary World” along with Liverpool singer Rebecca Ferguson, delivering a stunning rendition that referred to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine through emotional visuals.

The British hosts went to great lengths to promote Ukraine. Liverpool is stepping in as organizer of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest rather than Ukraine, which won last year with the Kalush Orchestra but was unable to host a song competition of this magnitude during the war.

New rules

This year, for the first time, there is no longer a jury involved in the voting: only the televotes of the fans will be counted.

Another new rule is that viewers from all over the world can vote, including those from countries that are not represented in the contest.

The European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the ESC, created a new stage configuration for the announcement of the finalists, which they tested on Monday during the first dress rehearsal.

All 15 participating artists were placed on stage together during the announcement of the results – so that the cameras could follow the faces of all the artists and the audience at the same time.

The 10 selected artists were visible as they expressed their joy, while the reactions of those who didn’t make it to the finals were also captured on camera.

But the first rehearsal made it clear right away: the concept was an absolute killer for the show. As a result, it was withdrawn for Tuesday’s televised semi-final, allowing athletes who did not make it to the final to express their disappointment in peace.

On Thursday, May 11th, the second semi-final will see 16 other countries competing for a spot in the final event – and the rest of the artists from Ukraine, Spain and the UK will also perform shortly.

This article was originally written in German.