Today accredited press got the chance to watch the full dress rehearsal of the first semi-final, taking place tomorrow (Tuesday May 9th 2023). This is always an exciting moment, because seeing something for yourself and seeing it on a video can be two totally different things.
The opening of the show is impressive, you see a little boy announcing to everyone that the contest will be in Liverpool, and that sequence eventually ends up live on the Eurovision stage. Lots of dancing firework, the whole shebang, in typical Eurovision fashion. The hosts of this Semi-final (Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina, and Hannah Waddingham) come across as spontaneous, although we all know that not one second of Eurovision footage is spontaneous; especially Alesha Dixon stands out as a presenter, but then again, she has experience.
…and then the rehearsal of the contest begins! I will go more into detail in another article, but for this one I will summarize. Let’s start with the “possible” bad news; I do not think that Latvia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan will make it into the final. In my opinion especially Latvia lacks power, thus impact to stick with the audience. The act of Moldova wants to be a little bit of everything, like Loreen in 2012, outfit and movement-wise, but I also get strange Bulgaria 2009 vibes, this act seems to want to be all sorts of everything. Azerbaijan, I feel bad, because the twin boys are really nice, but that song… Then there are the “I’m not sure yet”-acts, which are Portugal and the Netherlands, because the Netherlands got such a bad rep because of the preview parties, but now they are good, they finally pulled it together, and they are the goosebumps ballad-ish moment of the evening. Portugal people might find over-the-top and a little fuddy-duddy, but it is really good.
And we also have a couple of “when they are not in the final, I eat my shoes”-acts, like: Sweden, Finland, Croatia, Norway, and Israel. The buzz surrounding these countries since they won their national final is enormous, so life would be strange if they would not make it to Saturday.
EUROVISION 2023
The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will take place on May 9th, 11th, and 13th 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. 37 countries will compete for the crown. This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be a joint venture, since last year’s winner Ukraine cannot organize the contest on home soil because of the ongoing war with Russia.
