2023 NF Review & Preview: March, Week 2

So I'm doing a new little series called Review & Preview, where I'll look at the national finals that happened the week gone by, and also check out the national finals that will take place the next week. To be clear, this will NOT replace What We Know So Far; this blog series will not get updated once released, nor does it concern itself with internal selections. It will talk about televised national finals, and ONLY televised national finals. It will end on the week of the Melodifestivalen grand final, and possibly return next year if I can be bothered.

This will probably be updated throughout the week, but the video was recorded on Sunday because I'm abroad right now and didn't bring my mic out.

Review

Germany

Unser Lied Für Liverpool, the German national final, took place on the 4th. Online voting had started on the 24th of February, and ended shortly before the show. The winner was decided by 50% international jury and 50% televote. The show was hosted by Barbara Schöneberger, long-time German national final host as well as German jury spokesperson. Fan favourites included Patty Gurdy, Lord Of The Lost, and Frida Gold; however Ikke Hüftgold is a massively popular figure in Germany with what many viewed as an inferior song, and who was also viewed as a possible winner of the national final, given that he had previously won the TikTok wildcard, as well as the German tendency to reward wildcards.

In the end however, Ikke did not even win the televote; he got 101 points from the televote, but Lord Of The Lost had gotten 146 points. Neither of them were in the jury top 3, but that did not make a difference, as they ended up as the final top 2. Therefore, Lord Of The Lost will represent Germany in Eurovision 2023 with the gothic rock song "Blood & Glitter".

Iceland

Söngvakeppnin 2023 concluded on the 4th, with 5 acts taking part in the final. Favourites included Diljá, Celebs (who only qualified for the final via a wildcard), and Bragi. Subwoolfer performed "Give That Wolf A Banana" as an interval act.

Finally, Diljá and Langi Seli & Skuggarnir were the two contestants to enter the superfinal, where a further round of televote took place. There was a scare when Diljá's voting number was wrongly displayed, but this was addressed live by the hosts. Sam Ryder filmed a segment for the countdown of the final vote, and Diljá emerged victorious. She will now represent Iceland with the song "Power", taking part in the first half of the second semi-final.

After the show, RUV reported that over 250000 votes were cast in this final. For reference, Iceland has a population of 372520, meaning *more than 2/3 of the whole Icelandic population* voted in the national final, a new record.

Moldova

Etapa Națională took place on the 4th, with 10 acts competing to represent Moldova. The three main favourites were the three returnees: Aliona Moon (2013), SunStroke Project (2010, 2017), and Pasha Parfeni (2012). The broadcaster TRM invited confirmed Eurovision 2023 representatives from other countries to perform at the national final, and in the end Sudden Lights from Latvia and Theodor Andrei from Romania performed as interval acts. Other interval acts included Zdob Și Zdub and Fratii Advahov, although separately with different songs. (Blanka from Poland was supposed to perform as well, however she alleged that her Warsaw-Chisinau flight had been cancelled, and a replacement flight could not be found. No such cancelled flight has been found so far.)

Despite scares earlier that TRM were trying to sabotage Pasha Parfeni, he won the national final comfortably, having won the jury with one more point than Aliona Moon, and winning the televote with *double* the votes of SunStroke Project. So 11 years on, Pasha Parfeni will once again represent Moldova in Eurovision with the song "Soarele Și Luna" (Sun And Moon), having been in Baku 2012 (alongside Loreen no less!) with the song "Lăutar".

Portugal

Festival Da Canção continued on the 4th of March with the second semi-final. There were 6 qualifiers: 5 from a combination of jury and televote, and 1 more from just the televote. Qualifiers included Voodoo Marmalade, Ines Apenas, Barbara Tinoco, Ivandro, Edmundo Inacio, and DaPunkSportif. Carlos Mendes, Nicolas Alves, Filipe Sambado, and Surma performed as interval acts.

Serbia

The Serbian national final, Pesma Za Evroviziju, started on the 1st of March. Milan Marić and Dragana Kosjerina hosted the main show, while Kristina Radenković and Stefan Popović were the green room hosts. Favourites included Luke Black, the rebooted Hurricane, Filip Baloš, and Zejna.

The first semi-final took place on the 1st this month. Initial fan favourites Angellina and Savo Perović did not qualify for the final, although other fan favourites Filip Baloš and Luke Black did.

The second semi-final took place on the 2nd. Fan favourites Zejna and the rebooted Hurricane qualified for the final, in addition to 6 other acts. During the show, one of the interval acts was a Eurovision medley, where Zorja (PZE22) covered "Lane Moje", Sanja Vučić (Serbia 2016, 2021 as part of Hurricane) covered "Wild Dances", and other Eurovision classics such as "Fairytale" and "Euphoria" were also covered.

The final took place on the 4th. In the end, the new Hurricane only got *1* point, and placed 12nd out of 16. Zejna placed 7th with 6 points; and the top 5 in ascending order of points was Dzipsii, Filip Baloš, Nađa (jury winner), Princ (televote winner), and Luke Black, with Luke Black getting second place in both the jury and televote. Luke Black will therefore represent Serbia in Eurovision 2023 with the song "Samo Mi Se Spava" (I just want to sleep), performing in the first half of the first semi-final.

Sweden

The semi-final, known to many fans as the second chance round, took place in Örnsköldsvik on the 4th. Theoz opened the show, while Kiana closed it. The other participants were Mariette, Victor Crone, Tennessee Tears, Elov & Beny, Melanie Wehbe, and Nordman. During the show, Lucianoz performed Picadilly Circus by Pernilla Wahlgren as an interval act.

Four of these participants qualified for the final, and the semi-final was a simple vote where the 4 most voted entries out of the 8 got to progress to the final, instead of a duel. However, halfway through the voting, the four highest ranked were displayed (in no particular order), and viewers got to vote again for their favourites.

Those final favourites were revealed to be, in ascending order of points: Mariette, Kiana, Theoz, and Nordman. Those 4 participants will join the other 8 in the final next week in Stockholm.

Preview

Here's what you need to know for the second week of March, and indeed the last preview this season:

Portugal

The final of Festival Da Canção will take place on the 11th of March. Favourites include Claudia Pascoal, Mimicat, Barbara Tinoco, Ivandro, and Edmundo Inacio.

David Fonseca, Salvador Sobral, and Maro will perform as interval acts.

Sweden

The final of Melodifestivalen will also take place on the 11th of March, in the Friends Arena in Stockholm. Nominally, Marcus & Martinus with "Air" and Maria Sur with "Never Give Up" are favourites, but really the only one that people are talking about is Loreen with "Tattoo". She currently has over 75% probability of winning Melodifestivalen in the bookmakers, and Sweden is at first place in the *Eurovision* winning odds.

Shortly after the semi-final, SVT released the running order for the final. Jon Henrik Fjällgren will open the show, while Paul Rey will close it. Marcus & Martinus are performing 4th, Maria Sur 6th, and Loreen 10th, which was also the position Cornelia Jakobs performed at last year. Theoz will be following Loreen.

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So that's a round-up of the national finals that happened this week, and the national finals that will happen next week! Do let me know what you think of these national finals. Here's the blog post in video form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgbACYz6pbo