Last Saturday, May 15th 2023, Eurovision press and fans could rejoice, because it was time for the biggest Eurovision pre-party out there, “Eurovision in Concert 2023”, in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). The venue for this event was the AFAS Live (right next to the Johan Cruijff soccer stadium). Of course, ESCplus was present too, with our on-site reporter, Denis.
Eventually 27 out of the 37 competing countries of this year were present during the actual concert of this event. Poland was also said to be present, but Blanka had to skip the whole event due to being ill, and France did not perform during the concert due to personal reasons, La Zarra was present during the press time though.
The press moment
In the afternoon the press had the chance to have one-on-one interviews with the present 2023 entrants, and ESCplus was there to register everything. We had interviews with fan favourite Loreen (Sweden), but also with Alessandra (Norway), Gustaph (Belgium), Reiley (Denmark), and more. We had a blast covering all there was to see, and we were amazed by the friendliness and patience of all the artists present. Below you can find a small selection out of the literally hundreds of pictures we made during the hours we had the chance to speak to this year’s participants.
Below you can find some of the pictures we made with this year’s entrants.
The concert
In the evening 27 all-new Eurovision acts took the stage; as said, France’s La Zarra did not perform due to personal problems, but was present during the press moment in the afternoon. Obviously this year’s frontrunners got a huge welcome and applause at the end, these were Loreen (Sweden), Käärijää (Finland), and Alessandra (Norway). We have to say that the mightiest performance, when it comes down music, the performance of the song, and lighting was the one of Australia’s Voyager, they rocked the house down, which was amazing.
The Netherlands
There has been a lot of negative buzz when it comes down to the Dutch duo, Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper, with the song “Burning Daylight”, nationally as well as internationally, but we have to say that it was not as bad as we see in the media in the past couple of days. Were they the best performers of the evening? No. Were they as bad as they are portrait after their performance? Also no. There is still lots to work on from them, but the way these Duncan Laurence protegees are being bashed online makes one wonder…
The afterparty
And of course, there was an afterparty, and naturally ESCplus was present to dance the night away on all sorts of Eurovision songs from yesteryear all the way up to 2023. The night was full of trips down memory lane, which we absolutely loved. There were also life performances by Eurovision artists, like: Eldar Gasimov (Azerbaijani winner of the contest of 2011, together with Nikki, “Running Scared”), Linda Wagenmakers (Dutch contestant of the 2001 contest, “No Goodbyes”), and this year’s Romanian contestant, Theodor Andrei). It was a blast, especially to listen and dance to songs that everybody present during the party knows. Let’s just say that the party kept on rollin’until the wee hours.
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.
