What is the Eurovision Song Contest?
Started way back in 1956 as a way of drawing a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to all active members of the European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the competition.
Each country is permitted to submit one three-minute song to the contest – a song which is selected by a variety of means, usually a winner-takes-all competition such as Sweden’s renowned Melodifestivalen – which their selected entrant performs in one of two semi-finals in the hopes of making it to the glittering grand final.
Only six countries have direct entry into the grand final:
- The Big Four who fund most of the contest – UK, Germany, France and Spain
- The host country (which is the winner of the previous year’s contest)
- Italy, who didn’t take part for many years and was re-admitted in 2011 after a 14 year absence (it was one of seven countries that competed in the first event), making the Big Four the Big Five.
The winner is chosen by a 50/50 mix of viewer votes (you cannot vote for your own country) and a jury of music industry professionals in each country, a method which was chosen to counter the alleged skewing of votes based on political and/or cultural lines when voting was purely the preserve of viewers at home.
Past winners include, of course, ABBA in 1974 with “Waterloo” and Celine Dion who won for Switzerland in 1988 with “Ne partez pas sans moi”.Above all though, the Eurovision Song Contest is bright, over the top and deliciously camp, a celebration of music, inclusiveness and togetherness that draws annual viewing figures in the hundreds of millions.
This year’s event
Sporting the theme “United by Music”, the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 is being co-hosted by 2022’s winner Ukraine (“Stefania” by Kalush Orchestra) and runner-up the UK. Traditionally the winner would host but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which is ongoing, has meant that’s not possible so the contest will be held in Liverpool, with the event hosted by Ukrainian and UK presenters and a clear emphasis on the unity in music that Eurovision has always celebrated.
NORWAY: Queen of Kings by Alessandra
THE ARTIST
Her parents may have named her Alessandra Watle Mele but Norway’s representative to Eurovision 2023 has chosen to go down the Madonna/Prince route, using her first name as a mononymic stage name.
An alum of the seventh season of The Voice – Norges beste stemme (The Voice – Norway’s Best Voice), Alessandra is the daughter of an Italian dad and a Norwegian mum who grew up in Italy before moving back to Norway after she finished up high school.
While she first landed at her maternal grandparents, she ended up in Lillehammer, studying at the Lillehammer Institute of Music Production and Industries, a course of musical learning that has clearly played a key role in the creation of her debut single, “Queen of Kings”.
The eagle-eyed among you will know it’s the song she is taking to Liverpool but is it the track to put her name up in lights across Europe, and indeed the whole world?
THE SONG
Absolutely, definitely, YES.
Written by the artist herself, in partnership with Norwegian composer Henning Olerud, globe-trotting ghostwriter Linda Dale, and writer-producer Stanley Fernandez, “Queen of Kings” is tremendous belter of song, kicking off with ethereally removed choir-like vocals before gathering speed at a furiously appealing pace.
With a lyrical enjoinder for listeners to embrace their inner “queen of kings”, the song is brilliantly, soul-liltingly inspiring, a slice of power pop that throws in toe-tapping energy of the highest order.
If this folk-infused, drumbeat-heavy slab of jaunty pop doesn’t have people up and dancing like maniacs then something is very wrong in the heart of Europe.
This song has it all – stellar vocals, captivating emotiveness and real presence which will surely translate to a stunningly good stage performance, an assured grand final placing for Norway and a top 5 finish with a real chance of taking out the whole shebang.
PORTUGAL: “Ai Coração” by Mimicat
THE ARTIST
Her Eurovision bio assures eager readers that Mimicat aka Marisa Mena possesses a “‘sassy-badass’ stage presence”, the result, we are told, and who are we to doubt this, of the artist’s predisposition for marrying “her soulful voice with catchy melodies in the songs she writes”.
A musical prodigy who kicked things off nice and early at the age of 9, Mimicat really got things humming along nicely with her debut album, For You, in 2014 which struck a, no doubt soulful, major chord with the music-buying public.
But if she thought that was the peak of her success, then 2023 is proving that good things come to those who wait … nine years.
Not only has she got the nod to head to Liverpool to represent Portugal – she tried previously in 2001 to get the nod under the stage name Izamena but didn’t make it past the semi finals in Portugal’s Eurovision selection process, Festival da Canção – but she also has a new album which if 2014 taught us anything, is going to do very nicely, thank you very much.
And yes, if you were wondering, and how could you not be, her bio says she does indeed have a cat, named Brownie, thus revealing her mononym does indeed come with a truth in advertising certification.
THE SONG
Feline ownership aside, and yes, of course, it’s important, Mimicat definitely has a sassy-badass stage thing going on.
Her stage presence if magnetically fun and impressive, helped along by her intensely soulful song “Ai Coração” which has a playful cabaret feel to it, augmented by an Iberian-influenced presentation which is all sexy stage posturing and vocal stylings that scream sensuality.
The song has its quiet moments too, allowing the audience to catch their breath, before the chorus kicks in big time once again, absolutely commanding attention at every turn.
This is a song with emotion, sexiness and a great deal of intelligent fun sung by someone who knows it’s not enough to just hit the notes, you have to LIVE the song which Mimicat does extravagantly well.
This will propel Portugal, dancing sexily all the way, into the grand final and could see them place very highly.
Brownie will be pleased … or he or she may not care at all … cats, you know?
SERBIA: “Samo Mi Se Spava” by Luke Black
THE ARTIST
Ladies and gentlemen and those who wisely chose not to slot themselves into narrow binary definitions of gender, meet Luke Back (no, not Joe Black – that’s a whole other thing), an artist whose “unique brand of indie-techno-pop has won him the title of the ‘Serbian pop alchemist’” (you can thank his Eurovision bio for that delicious designation).
Known to his parents and the Serbian government’s tax department as Luka Ivanović, Black made history in 2015 with his debut EP Thornes which was the first released by a Serbian artist signed to the Universal Music Group.
His musical career, notes his official bio, has only gone places, quite literally and geographically as it turns out, from there.
“In the last 12 months he’s performed both a sold-out tour in China and created a techno-opera style show in Berlin’s Berghain, the world’s most famous nightclub for electronic music.”
Drawing from a gloriously mixed-bag of influences which includes Queen, Elton John, Stromae, Lady Gaga, Maria Callas, and Eartha Kitt, Black is all about epic moments and storytelling high points, all delivered through music which can’t help but make its point with arresting exclamation marks of sound and “fresh crossover melodies”.
But has all that amazing imaginative music making translated to a song that will make its mark in the annals of Eurovision?
THE SONG
You can only hope so.
Delivered with a sizeable slab of drama on stage, dramatic and visual with intense vocal stylings and strobe lights utilised to full-on effect, “Samo Mi Se Spava” (“I Just Wanna Sleep”) is all dark melodies, emotional longing and stunning vocals.
It does have a little of the overdone Eurovision vibe to it, and for those of us who adore this contest, overdone is always a good thing without exception, some metal moments thrown into and a rock sensibility that drives and drives and DRIVES the momentum.
This may not be to everyone’s taste but it’s refreshingly alive, creatively original and genuinely, affectingly theatrical which you can only hope Europe will embrace with the same gusto Black brings to his all-or-nothing song and performance.
SWEDEN: “Tattoo” by Loreen
THE ARTIST
Loreen is back people!
Vibrant proof that you can indeed go back, and this time to 2012 when Loreen won the whole damn contest for Sweden in emphatic Kate-Bush-evocative style, the artist better known to her mum and dad as Lorina Zineb Noka Talhaoui, a beauty of Moroccan Berber descent, came to public attention in 2004 when she competed as a wild card entry in Sweden’s version of Idol.
She followed her time on that show with a single release “The Snake” in 2005 and competed unsuccessfully to represent Sweden at 2011’s Eurovision contest, losing only in a sudden death “sing-off” in a semi-final to Sara Varga.
No surprises for guessing where all those experiences led her, but what followed 2012 for her? Did she do an ABBA and go onto greater success … or not?
Happily, she’s done rather well for herself, performing in all kinds of tours and artistic endeavours, not least her 2014 tour of a number of key European countries, and releasing albums such as Paperlight and Ride and EPs such as Nude, and even making her acting debut in the Netflix film JJ+E.
So, career goals ticked well and truly and no sign of the one-hit wonder Eurovision curse (if such a thing exists at allow which is doubtful) but can she truly have a second coming to Eurovision with the song “Tattoo”?
THE SONG
Quite possibly.
“Tattoo”, which won her this year’s Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s entry selection contest, and giving Loreen her second number one in Sweden, has all the makings of a standout Eurovision moment.
It has soaring vocals, a building melody and the ethereally intense drama that made 2012’s winning song “Euphoria” such a hit; however, you slice it, this is a piece of pop royalty that you can’t ignore.
But that could be both its blessing and curse.
It’s undoubtedly a brilliantly, captivatingly good song delivered with Loreen’s trademark soulfulness and extraordinary stage presence, but it feels and sounds a little too much like “Euphoria” mark II to really stand out as its own original pop animal.
It will undoubtedly get Sweden into the grand final because it’s a brilliantly catchy song sung and performed well but whether it will win the contest is a million dollar question that hinges on whether people want exactly more of the same or opt for something totally new.
SWITZERLAND: “Watergun” by Remo Forrer
THE ARTIST
A graduate of reality TV, Remo Forrer won the third season of The Voice of Switzerland in April 2020 (he got chair turns from all four judges!), following his telegenic success with participation in German TV talent show I Can See Your Voice (which sounds a tad supernatural, something I’m totally her for).
His success on TV talent show was the result, it won’t shock you to learn, of a childhood steeps in music, where he learned to play the flute, the accordion and the piano, the last instrument purely by ear which denotes real talent at work here (in honour of which we will not, expressly not, make the obvious dad joke about playing with ears and not fingers; see we are mature).
But did that immediately lead to an immediate career in music?
No, readers, it did not, with Forrer completing “an internship as a retail specialist in a sporting goods store” before climbing on stage and wowing The Voice judges, and armed with a face so fresh supermarkets want to use him in advertising their fruit and veggies (no proof of this but how could they not?), getting the nod to represent Switzerland at Eurovision 2023.
THE SONG
Styled by his Eurovision bio as “an impressive young voice with wise words”, Forrer has a voice that feels like its coming from the depths of the earth, armed with an emotiveness that makes him sound, winningly, like a world-weary person looking upon life with a sorrowful musing.
All of which means that “Watergun” is a standout track, replete with a musical and lyrical intensity that recalls previous Swiss entrants such as Gjon who wowed audiences back in 2021, and which leaves you breathless with an emotionalism that reaches right down into your soul.
The song, in a rather timely manner, carries a softly strident anti-war message that will really hit home given the reason why Ukraine’s hosting of Eurovision is taking place in Liverpool, UK.
“No, I don’t wanna be a soldier, soldier. I don’t wanna have to play with real blood…can’t turn around, no water guns, just body bags that we’ve become.”
It’s hard to turn away from the beauty and intensity of this track which should place Switzerland comfortably into the grand final and likely see it places very highly.
Has a lot happened in the world of Eurovision of late? Why, yes, yes it has and you catch up on it all here …
The one-person votes are in … behold, my semi-final 1 top ten in no particular order.
- Sweden
- Czechia
- Finland
- Croatia
- Serbia
- Portugal
- Moldova
- Malta
- Switzerland
- Netherlands