“Controversy Over Eurovision 2023 Semi-Finals Finalist Announcement Format”

A lot of fuss today on social media. The way the finalists in the two Eurovision 2023 semifinals would be announced would change compared to previous years. In the meantime, that decision has already been reversed in a press release, which you will also find in this article. The exact plans of the EBU are explained in the article below.

Bee the first dress rehearsal of the first semi-final, on Monday afternoon, the press were on hand at the Liverpool Arena to watch the show live. Songfestival.be was also present and saw that the announcement looked different than in other years.

We still love the necessary reservation; after all, there is still the chance that there will be changes in the run-up to the actual live show.

UPDATE: in the meantime, the EBU sent the following press release into the world. As you can read, the change will not be implemented anyway. An explicit reason is not given, but the negative reactions on social media may have something to do with it.

breaking! Everything back to go. pic.twitter.com/55MJrKuRVf

— ESC compact (@ESC_kompakt) May 8, 2023

A special staircase

Important: the rules themselves remain unchanged. Ten countries qualify for the final and will be announced in random order by the presenters at the end of the broadcast. Exact results are not given.

The way in which that announcement is made is completely different. All candidates stand on a special staircase on the podium, in an order that does not seem to have a very clear logic. Then it’s just about the main performers. Well, the six singers of Vesna from the Czech Republic, because it is a group that participates, but Käärijä from Finland without his dancers.

Q&A

Presenters Hannah Waddingham and Julia Sanina announce the finalists one by one. The artist of the country in question appears on screen for a few seconds while he, she or he waves to the camera and walks off the stage from the steps. The image alternates from the artist to the greenroom, where the rest of the entourage is located. That happens five times.

Afterwards, the announcement of finalists will be interrupted. Presenter Alesha Dixon conducts interviews with the five finalists, who in a separate room backstage to stand. Each candidate was asked a question during the first run-through.

Tension increased

Then Waddingham and Sanina repeat the previous process, then with the final five finalists. Just before the final announcement, the tension is raised to a climax. The remaining countries are called one by one and there is even An split screen on which the candidates of all remaining countries can be seen at once. This will remain the case until the last country name has been pronounced.

After a second round of short talks backstage with the last five finalists, there is finally a big round of applause asked for the candidates who failed to qualify for the final.

Little positive reception

There has been little support for the proposed changes on social media and in the press room. Several journalists speak of it as a ‘disgrace’ ‘speechless’ and speak of a lack of respect for the candidates.

New qualifier announcement. Absolutely speechless. pic.twitter.com/NLK1QFcFXL

— Sean | ESC United (@SeanESCUnited) May 8, 2023