LIVERPOOL, U.Okay. — The Eurovision Music Contest 2023 kicked off Tuesday with a jubilant celebration of elaborate PVC costumes, hovering rock ballads and tacky Euro pop, as contestants competed within the first of two semi-finals to find out which 20 acts would transfer on to Saturday’s Grand Closing.
The semi-final on the 11,000-capacity M&S Financial institution Area, standing on Liverpool’s waterfront subsequent to the River Mersey, marked the official begin of the annual competitors. The ten acts transferring on had been Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czechia, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Norway. Meaning the Netherlands, Malta, Latvia, Eire and Azerbaijan had been eradicated.
The UK is internet hosting this 12 months’s Eurovision Music Contest – well-known for introducing ABBA to the world – on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, which gained final 12 months’s competitors with “Stefania” by Ukrainian rap-folk band Kalush Orchestra (the U.Okay. completed second by means of Sam Ryder’s “House Man”).
It’s the first time that the U.Okay. has held the competition in 25 years with Liverpool – whose illustrious music historical past contains The Beatles and Echo & the Bunnymen — totally embracing its position as host metropolis.
Memorable highlights (though not all the time for the correct causes) included Croatia’s Let 3, who stripped all the way down to their underwear as they wielded big missile props for his or her music “Mama ŠČ!”, and Israel’s Noa Kirel along with her marauding dance pop monitor “Unicorn.”
A number of the night time’s greatest cheers went to 2 of this 12 months’s favorites to take residence the principle prize: Sweden’s Loreen, who gained the competitors in 2012 and carried out “Tattoo” on Tuesday; and Finnish rapper Käärijä, who sung his catchy music “Cha Cha Cha,” semi-topless, sporting solely black spiky trousers and shiny inexperienced Unbelievable Hulk-style sleeves.
In a mid-show interval of the two-and-a-half-hour present Rita Ora additionally carried out a medley of her greatest hits, together with singles “Anyplace,” “I Will By no means Let You Down” and Praising You.”
Different non-competition performers included Liverpool singer Rebecca Ferguson and Ukraine’s Alyosha in a duet of Duran Duran’s “Peculiar World,” which they devoted to refugees who had been pressured to go away their nation.
The semi-final was hosted by British TV persona and singer Alesha Dixon, “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina — who opened the present along with her band The Hardkiss. It was broadcast dwell on tv within the U.Okay. and all through Europe.
In complete, 37 international locations are collaborating on this 12 months’s contest. Ukraine robotically qualifies for the ultimate as 2022 winners, as do the so-called ‘large 5’: the U.Okay., France, Germany, Italy and Spain, who all get a free move to the principle present due to their monetary contributions to the occasion.
Viewers in taking part international locations vote to determine the winner, though folks can’t vote for an act from their very own nation. The second semi-final takes place on Thursday when one other 16 acts will carry out.
Within the runup to the competitors, Liverpool has been remodeled right into a vibrant show of Eurovision banners and Ukrainian flags.
Forward of Thursday’s semi-final, the English Nationwide Opera placed on a free present on the purpose-built fan village on Liverpool’s Pier Head, the place they had been joined by a sequence of former Eurovision contestants, together with singer Ruslana, who gained for Ukraine in 2004, and worldwide opera stars who carried out classical preparations of a number of the contest’s previous hits.
“I carry one message: Pay attention my sisters and brothers, we have to cease this bloody horrible battle as quickly as potential,” Ruslana stated. “And I ask you, simply assist Ukraine to win. As a result of we’re preventing for freedom. We’re preventing for gentle. The sunshine of human coronary heart.”
