Eurovision 2023: What We Know So Far (as of January)

As usual, I'll first go through the general facts, and then go into each country and what news, if any, I could find regarding them. Most of the irrelevant details have been truncated, and you can read about them on my previous blogs.

Eurovision 2023

Host Country: United Kingdom

The EBU has confirmed that Ukraine, the winner of Eurovision 2022, cannot fulfil required safety standards for hosting the contest, thus the runner-up, being the United Kingdom, will be hosting the contest instead, with the BBC taking over most of the hosting operations and UA:PBC, the Ukrainian broadcaster, will work with the BBC to implement Ukrainian elements in the live show. The two broadcasters will cooperate on: 1. design and music, 2. use of Ukrainian locations in postcards and show programming, 3. use of Ukrainian cultural elements, and 4. selection of hosts.

Host City: Liverpool (Liverpool Arena / M&S Bank Arena)

On 7/10, Liverpool was announced as the host city for the 2023 contest. The arena will be the M&S Bank Arena, which for Eurovision purposes will simply be known as the Liverpool Arena. It has a capacity of about 11000, and is situated right next to the river Mersey.

EuroClub Location: Camp and Furnace

The Baltic Triangle location is only a 5-minute walk from the arena, and is also located on the riverfront. The club will take place between the 5th and 13th of May. It will be hosted by OGAE, and tickets for the club (both day passes and week passes) will be available in the New Year. A pre-general public allocation will also be available for OGAE members.

Hosts: Timur Mirošnyčenko, Maša Éfrosinina + 2 British hosts?

Timur is the resident Ukrainian commentator for UA:PBC, and co-host of JESC2009, JESC2013, ESC2017, and most recently the Ukrainian selection for Eurovision 2023. Éfrosinina is a Ukrainian TV host, and was one of the co-hosts of Kyiv 2005. On 8/12, MUZVAR reported that 2 pairs of presenters were planned - one Ukrainian, one British - making up 4 total presenters, and that the Ukrainian pair, according to insiders, would consist of Mirošnyčenko and Éfrosinina. The pair also jointly hosted Vidbir, the Ukrainian national selection, for 2022.

Many have floated Graham Norton, the resident BBC Eurovision commentator, as a potential host, but he said on BBC Breakfast that he does not yet know the role he will fill in the upcoming contest, but he also does not want to give up commentating. Norton had previously also co-hosted televised national finals for the UK.

Of course the BBC semi-final commentators, Rylan and Scott Mills are also possible. And/or other big British TV presenters, such as Davina McCall. But nothing concrete at this stage for the British names.

Show Dates: 9 May (SF1), 11 May (SF2), 13 May (Grand Final)

First odd-number dates Eurovision since 2017, which incidentally was hosted on the exact same days as 2023.

Slogan & Theming: United By Music

Rule Changes: voting changes

Backing vocals are still permitted to be put on the backing track rather than having live singers provide said vocals, although the latter is still permitted as always. Lead vocals must still be sung live, as in the previous two contests. That said, the EBU has this time specified that it is forbidden to lip sync to vocals.

The EBU also announced voting changes, those being the exclusion of juries from semi-finals, and inclusion of a rest-of-the-world (ROTW) vote in both the semi-finals and final, amounting to the same number of points as the televote of one participating country. The list of eligible voting countries will be released by the EBU in due course.

Tickets: expected by late February

As announced in a graphic posted by the BBC on 31/1.

Not only is the M&S Bank Arena on the smaller side in terms of recent Eurovision arenas, but there are also rumours of prioritizing tickets and seats for Ukrainians. All this may make ticket procurement more difficult than other years.

Allocation Draw: 31st January, St. George's Hall, Liverpool, 20:00 CET

Was hosted by Rylan (BBC semi-final commentator) and AJ Odudu (UK 2022 spokesperson). The two had first been co-presenters of a show 10 years ago on Big Brother, but now they co-hosted a very successful semi-final allocation draw.

During the draw, the Big 5 and Ukraine were drawn to see which semi-final they will vote in, while the rest of the countries will be drawn into the two semi-finals. The art and slogan were also revealed during the draw, although ahead of the draw itself, the Eurovision Twitter account has tweeted a banner hung on the exterior of St. George's Hall, stating the slogan to be "United By Music", with theme art consisting mostly of concentric hearts in light blue, dark blue, yellow, and pink.

As usual, the host city insignia was handed over from the previous host city mayor, in this case Stefano Lo Russo (the Turin mayor), to Joanne Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool. Young people from a local Liverpool school and members of the Ukrainian community who have settled in Liverpool since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine also assisted in the draw by holding the Big 5 + Ukraine cards while Rylan shuffled and drew the halves.

Germany, France and Italy will vote in the first semi-final, while Spain, the UK, and Ukraine will vote in the second semi-final. The 31 non-automatic-finalists were also drawn into one of the two semi-finals via a 15-16 split. Consensus among fans at the moment is that the first semi-final is far stronger than the second. Norway, Sweden and Finland were all drawn into the first semi, while Cyprus and Greece were both drawn into the second semi.

Budget: ~12 million pounds (or just under 14 million euros)

Of which £2 million come from Liverpool City Council, and the rest are covered by the BBC, the EBU and the British government.

Administrative Directors: Rachel Ashdown, Martin Green, Andrew Cartmell, Lee Smithurst, Twan van de Nieuwehuizen, James O'Brien; Nikki Parsons, Richard Valentine and Ollie Bartlett, Dan Shipton, Kojo Samuel, Julio Himede, Robert Edwards, Tim Routledge

You may find detailed descriptions of these directors either on my blog post from December, or just on the Eurovision website.

Pre-parties:

• Barcelona Eurovision Party (23rd - 25th March, Sant Jordi Club, Barcelona, Spain)

Featuring names such as Barei, Beth, Dami Im, Destiny, Efendi, Gustaph, Poli Genova, Ronela Hajati, Rosa Lopez, Susanne Georgi, Suzy and WRS.

• Polish Eurovision Party (1st April, Praga Centrum, Warsaw, Poland)

To be hosted by Poli Genova (Bulgaria 2011, 2016) and Konrad Zemlik. Will feature several 2023 acts. Tickets on sale since the 15th of January.

• PrePartyES (7th - 8th April, Sala La Riviera, Madrid, Spain)

50 acts have been promised and around 16 hours of concerts. Confirmed names so far include Joker Out.

• Eurovision in Concert (15th April, AFAS Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

No exact lineup yet, but as per tradition a mix of old Eurovision acts and upcoming 2023 acts are expected, although the Dutch and Belgian 2023 acts have already been confirmed. To be hosted by Cornald Maas and Hila Noorzai.

• London Eurovision Party (16th April, TBA, London, United Kingdom)

Little is known as of now but Wiwibloggs will provide live coverage of the event as usual.

Additional Events: cultural festival, Douze Points!, Eurovisioncast

Culture Liverpool has made a call for artists to take part in this festival, which will showcase UK and Ukrainian music as well as Ukrainian culture. Support will be provided to match a British artist with a Ukrainian artist.

"Douze Points!" is a show taking place on the 12th of May at 7:30pm UK time where the Philharmonic Orchestra Liverpool will perform a series of Eurovision hits, ranging from ABBA's Waterloo to Kalush Orchestra's Stefania. Tickets to attend the performance from the orchestra will range from £35 to £75. The show will be hosted by Owain Wyn Evans.

Eurovisioncast is a BBC podcast which will feature Måns Zelmerlöw, Nina Warhurst, Daniel Rosney and Ngunan Adamu. The podcast will "bring the inside scoop on plans and unique insights on the competition", and will also have former participants, 2023 participants and "celebrity fans" as guests. The weekly podcast launched on the 31st this month and will be available on BBC Sounds, BBC Radio 5 and BBC Radio Merseyside.

Important Dates:

• 4th of February: national selections for Norway and Spain

• 11th of February: national selections for Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Malta and Romania

• 25th of February: national selections for Finland and San Marino

• 4th of March: national selections for Iceland and Serbia

• 11th of March: national selections for Portugal and Sweden - last national finals of the season

• some time after the 26th of March: stage construction (the Gymnastics British Championships will take place from the 23rd to the 26th)

Next Known Eurovision Entry: Ireland (3/2)

Non-participating Countries: Andorra, Belarus, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Slovakia

You can read their reasoning on the Wikipedia page. It largely revolves around disinterest and/or financial inability.

Also Enisa (New York, American Song Contest 2022) tweets that she was allegedly supposed to represent Montenegro in Eurovision 2023, but the broadcaster could not find a way to finance it. She also tweeted later on that her song that was meant for Montenegro 2023 was named "OLÈ", and released the full song on 8/12.

Some Turkish politicians have called for Turkey to return to Eurovision. Most of these politicians are of opposition parties, and they have in fact made a pledge to return Turkey to Eurovision should they be elected into office.

Fazla (Bosnia and Herzegovina 1993) says that he, now as a politician (a senior advisor to the minister of defence to be exact), will be working to get BiH back into Eurovision. The funding shortfalls could be dealt with, in his words, as quickly as 2024.

The prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, who is also the Minister for Communications and Media, has begun communications with RTL, the Luxembourgish national broadcaster, as well as the Council of Luxembourg, regarding potentially returning to the contest in 2024; and in fact the Luxembourgish government has created a special team to focus on returning the country to the contest. Other than Morocco, Luxembourg remains the only previous participant which has not made any appearance at the contest in the 21st century. But this could very well change in 2024.

Participating Countries: 37 countries, which are as follows:

• Albania

Festivali I Këngës 61 took place from the 19th to the 22nd of December, and was hosted by Arbana Osmani. Crucially, there were two winners: one being the jury-picked winner, where the top 3 was announced one by one as usual; but there was now also a public winner, which was determined by SMS voting during the festival. The Albanian representative to Eurovision would be the public winner, rather than the jury winner. In other words, as far as Eurovision is concerned, FIK is now 100% televote.

One big name was Elsa Lila, while Fifi was another hyped name that some speculated could win the televote. Ultimately, "Duje" by Albina and the Kelmendi family won the public vote, especially being propped up by the Kosovar public as Albina Kelmendi (and her family of course) is from Kosovo. Elsa Lila meanwhile won the jury vote with "Evita", becoming a 3-time winner of the festival. Albina & Familja Kelmendi will now be representing Albania in Liverpool, becoming the third Kosovan representative of Albania after Rona Nishliu (2012) and Lindita (2017). Albina has confirmed that the song will undergo a revamp, although there will not be any English lyric additions.

• Armenia

No official information from AMPTV yet, as is usual this time of year. However, there have been various rumours that Brunette, an artist with two very popular songs in Armenia as well as a JESC2022 juror, has been close to the Armenian delegation lately and may even soon be announced as the Armenian representative to Liverpool.

In fact, on the 25th, Armenian news outlet Hraparak reported that Brunette will indeed represent Armenia in Eurovision 2023, specifically with an R&B song which will be released in late February. According to other sources, she is the main producer of the song alongside Artem Valter, who was responsible for revamping "Chains On You" after Athena Manoukian had won Depi Yevratesil 2020.

• Australia

It was announced on 14/11 that Australia Decides will not be returning for a fourth edition on the Gold Coast. Instead, an internal selection will be held. So far, publicly interested artists include Jaguar Jonze, Dami Im, Sheppard and Voyager.

More recently, rumours have appeared of Delta Goodrem possibly representing Australia, as her recent tour dates coincide with the Spanish pre-parties as well as Eurovision itself in the UK, although SBS has not made any official announcements since November of 2022.

• Austria

On 3/12, Kleine Zeitung reported on more details regarding the selection for Austria. Once again there will be an internal selection, and 15 acts were selected. Crucially, these 15 acts were now required to attend a live casting session. The recordings of those castings were then sent to a jury of around 25 Austrian and international Eurovision experts, as well as Eurovision fan clubs in a number of countries. Once feedback had been received from those parties, ORF will then find out the favourites, and the ORF program director, the entertainment director and his editors then chose the Austrian representative.

On the 31st, ORF announced that Teya & Salena will be representing Austria in Liverpool. Teya is Thea Devy, who participated in the Serbian national final in 2020. Their uptempo pop song will be released on the 8th of March, however according to rumours their song will be named "Edgar Allan Poe".

• Azerbaijan

Earlier there were concerns that they would withdraw, owing to instability on the Armenia situation and "poor results", but this was later refuted by an official from Ictimai, the Azerbaijani broadcaster. Dihaj (Azerbaijan 2017, "Skeletons") has said that she would be willing to write a song if İctimai made an offer.

On 7/12, Isa Melikov, the Azerbaijani head of delegation, resigned from his post. He was replaced by Vasif Mammadov, Deputy Director-general of İctimai TV. Just a day later, İTV officially opened calls for singers and/or composers to apply to represent Azerbaijan in Eurovision 2023. On 11/12, Eldar Gasimov, part of the winning duo in 2011, joined the Azerbaijani delegation as the official music producer. Interested names included Mamagama and Rauf Kingsley. Submissions closed on the 31st of December, although it was suddenly extended to the 15th this month a few days AFTER submissions had initially already closed.

On the 1st this month, 12xal, the main Azerbaijani Eurovision news site, reported that more than 200 submissions were received, most of which came from foreign composers. That said, Mammadov appears to prefer Azerbaijani talent this time around, and says that they will select the local song if a local and foreign song met the same criteria. Mammadov also says that the selection process of song and representative is expected to be completed by the end of January. Some names which have confirmed sending submissions include Lala Zeynalli, Amrah Musayev, the aforementioned Mamagama and Rauf Kingsley, as well as Sarkhan Jafarov.

Recently, rumours have emerged that Mamagama have been selected to represent Azerbaijan in Liverpool, although this is yet to be confirmed by İTV. Mamagama had previously participated in Albanian music competition Kënga Magjike 2022, alongside such names as Alvan, Stefan, We Are Domi, and Andrea (North Macedonia 2022). They placed 4th overall, becoming the highest-placed international artist in KM that year and winning the "Best New International Artist" category.

• Belgium

VRT returned to their national final Eurosong for the first time since 2016. It was hosted by Peter van De Veire, the VRT commentator for Eurovision as well as (co-)host of previous Eurosongs.

On 8/11, the 7 artists participating in Eurosong 2023 were officially revealed. Among them were Loredana (Eurosong 2014) and The Starlings (Tom Dice (Belgium 2010) and Kato), and each artist will present two songs. Initially it was proposed for the public to choose their preferred song for each artist to go to the final, however on 20/12 VRT announced that the artist themselves would get to choose the track instead. The final was broadcast live on the 14th, but preliminary shows were broadcast every day starting from the 9th.

On 15/12, snippets of the 14 songs were released. Some fan favourites included "Ça M'Ennuie Pas" by Chérine, "T'Inquiète" by Gala Dragot and "Oceanside" by The Starlings. The full songs were released on the 13th of January, one day before the final selection itself.

On the 2nd, VRT revealed the 15-member jury whose vote would take up 50% in the results of the Belgian selection, including Nikkie De Jager, Alexander Rybak, Laura Tesoro and Jérémie Makiese.

7 songs competed to represent Belgium on the 14th in the Paleis 12, and despite the initial favourites, it was Gustaph who unexpectedly (even to himself) came out on top, scoring just one point more than The Starlings. Regardless, Gustaph, who had previously been a backing vocalist for Sennek and a vocal coach for Hooverphonic, will now represent Belgium in Liverpool.

• Croatia

Confirmed participation. The national final Dora will take place in February in the city of Opatija on the 11th of February.

On 9/12, the 18 names in Dora 2023, plus the 4 reserves, were revealed alongside their song names and songwriters, among which was Damir Kedžo. However, unlike 2020, his song this year is in English, rather than Croatian. All the songs were released at once on the 12th this month. Current favourites include Harmonija Disonance, Đana, and Hana Mašić. On the 29th, HRT announced that the show will be hosted by Duško Ćurlić, Mario Lipovšek Battifiaca, and Marko Tolja.

• Cyprus

It was announced on 17/10 that Andrew Lambrou will be representing Cyprus. Andrew Lambrou is an Australian singer with Cypriot ancestry. He lives and works in Sydney, and entered a song named "Electrify" into Australia Decides 2022. Ultimately, he ended up 7th out of 11 entries.

It is not known whether his song for Liverpool will be of a similar style to Electrify. However, it was revealed later that he went to Stockholm to record his track, and some of his songwriters include Jimmy Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson and Thomas Stengaard, all of which are co-authors of numerous Melodifestivalen entries, so it seems there will be a Swedish flavour(?) in the Cypriot entry for 2023.

On the 6th, OGAE Greece reports that Lambrou's song will include a recording of the Stockholm String Orchestra, and the music video will be filmed between late January and early February, and released in mid-February. Lambrou on a TV interview also described the performance to be "epic". According to various rumours from Greek and Cypriot sources, Lambrou's song is said to resemble the style of Imagine Dragons.

• Czech Republic

This edition of ESCZ took place on the 30th this month. It was also a live national final, for the first time in 15 years. On the 4th, it was announced by the Czech broadcaster that more than 170 songs had been received, more than that from last year.

And on the 16th, it was announced that not 3, but 5 finalists will compete to represent the Czech Republic in Liverpool. They include Pam Rabbit (ESCZ 2019, 2020), Markéta Irglová (Söngvakeppnin 2022), Vesna, Maella and RODAN. Vesna's song was co-written by members of We All Poop.

Furthermore, the voting system will be 100% public vote, and it will take a 70/30 split between the international vote and the domestic Czech vote. The voting opened on the Eurovision app and escz2023.com after the show ends, and will end on the 6th of February, after which the winner and Czech representative will be announced. The show was broadcasted on the official Eurovision YouTube channel for international viewers, and on iVysílání for Czech audiences. The national final itself took place in the Kavčí Hory television centre in Prague.

On the 30th, Adam Mišík, a Czech actor and artist, hosted the 38-minute-long national final, while Rob Lilley and James Rowe, the hosts of the Euro Trip Podcast, acted as co-hosts in the green room, interviewing the artists before their performances. The entries were as follows:

1. Maella - Flood

2. Pam Rabbit - Ghosting

3. Markéta Irglová - Happy

4. Vesna - My Sister's Crown

5. RODAN - Introvert Party Club

The grand favourite is Vesna, with the Czech Republic rising from 28th to *5th* in the Eurovision 2023 winning odds after the release of "My Sister's Crown", and with many fans saying that the song can win Eurovision. It should be reiterated that the international vote, which will most likely consist of Eurofans, is worth 70% of the public vote, as opposed to 30% for the Czech vote. Regardless, voting is open until the 6th of February.

• Denmark

Confirmed participation. The final of DMGP will take place on the 11th of February in the Arena Næstved in the city of Næstved. The hosts will be Tina Müller and Heino Hansen.

On the 19th, the 8 songs competing in the national final were released at once. Current favourites include Eyjaa and maia maia. On the 22nd, it was reported that Reiley, one of the participants and also a TikToker of Faroese origin, may be disqualified as he performed his song in October in Seoul, which violated DR regulations. These regulations stipulate that any performance prior to the official artist announcement must be approved by DR, which this October performance in Seoul was not. However, DR later released a statement clarifying that Reiley would not be disqualified, as the performance did not provide any competitive advantage in relation to the Danish audience. The competitor list thus remains unchanged.

• Estonia

Returning to Eesti Laul for their selection. The two semi-finals took place on the 12th and 14th this month in the Viimsi Atrium, while the final will take place on the 11th of February in the Tondiraba Ice Hall. The hosts will be Tõnis Niinemets and Grete Kuld, who also hosted together in 2021.

During 1-2/11, the 20 artists participating in Eesti Laul 2023 were revealed, while the selected songs were revealed on 2/12 on a special ETV broadcast. Current favourites among fans include Alika, Ollie, and Sissi.

On the 14th, the second semi-final concluded. Public SMS voting then continued until the 16th, where the two most voted non-qualifiers would be entered into the final as televote wildcards. These wildcards were later revealed to be Elysa and Mia. These two singers will now join the other 10 in the final on 11/2.

On the 19th, the running order for the final was released by ERR. Meelik will open the show, while Sissi will close it. The two big favourites, Ollie and Alika, are in the 10th and 8th positions respectively.

• Finland

Returning to Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu for their national final. The host of the show will be Samu Haber, former frontman of Sunrise Avenue. The show will be hosted on the 25th of February in Logomo in Turku, just like 2022, and there will be an after-party that goes on until 4am, just like 2022. There are seven finalists, just like 2022, and their songs were revealed one-by-one on each weekday, just like 2022, from the 12th to the 20th this month.

On 19/12, Iltalehti, a Finnish newspaper, reported a few possible names for UMK 2023, which include Robin Packalen (who expressed interest back in 2021), Portion Boys, Lxandra (who had already been rumoured the year prior) and Benjamin Peltonen.

The official UMK Instagram account began posting their annual artist hints on the 4th, and the artists were officially announced on the 11th. Sure enough, all the names reported by Iltalehti appeared, as well as Keira (full name Keira Lundström), Käärijä, and KUUMAA. The songs, 4 of which were in Finnish, were then released over the next two weeks, starting with Keira and concluding with Portion Boys. Current favourites include Käärijä and Benjamin.

• France

After months of near silence from the French delegation, on the 12th this month, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, the head of delegation, announced that La Zarra had been internally selected as the French representative for Eurovision 2023.

La Zarra, real name Fatima Zahra Hafdi, is a Quebecoise singer of Moroccan origin that currently lives in Paris. She is described as combining "the class and style of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, with the sense of tragedy of Edith Piaf, the post-modern intoxication of Lady Gaga, the naked frankness of Barbara (not Pravi), and the fragility of Dalida". Another famous song of hers is "Tu T'En Iras". Earlier on in the season, Alexandra Redde-Amiel also mentioned that they would like to win Eurovision 2023, and this was reiterated at the press conference. It was also announced that La Zarra's song, which is entirely in the French language, will be released in two to three weeks from the date of the press conference. The song is expected to be a French chanson. It was later also revealed that the duo of producers behind Tu T'En Iras will be responsible for her Eurovision 2023 entry, and the song will feature a "surprising mix of genres".

The song was recorded on the 24th this month, with the French head of delegation also having been present in the recording studio as revealed by various Instagram stories.

• Georgia

For the first time since 2020, Georgia is set to return to selecting their act via a talent show, though this time the show is The Voice Georgia, as opposed to Georgian Idol for 2019 and 2020. The final of the show will take place on the 2nd of February, although it is expected that only the singer will be selected on that day while the song will come later.

The members of the judging panel on The Voice Georgia include Stephane Mgebrishvili, Dato Evgenidze, Sopo Toroshelidze, and Dato Porchhidze. The show is being hosted by Gvanca Daraselia. The blind auditions began on 8/12, and the show is set to last for 10 weeks.

One of the successful participants was Iru Khechanovi, who was in fact one of the members of Candy (Georgia JESC2011), and even shared a moment with one of the judges singing a part from Candy Music. The auditions took place over 4 shows, and the successful participants will now take part respectively in the remaining 6 shows to find out the ultimate winner.

On the 12th, the first quarterfinal took place, before which a week was provided for viewers to vote for their favourites. During the show, 8 total contestants progressed, while 4 were eliminated, including initial favourite Sopho Batilashvili. And on the 19th, Iru Khechanovi performed a mashup of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana and Around The World by Daft Punk and qualified comfortably, receiving more than 35% of the vote out of the 6 participants of her coach's team. 7 other participants from the two remaining teams also qualified.

The semi-final took place on the 26th, during which Iru sang Rise Like A Phoenix by Conchita Wurst, while a group named Trio Allegro sang Grande Amore by Il Volo, although the latter did not qualify. Meanwhile, Iru qualified with over 44% of the televote within her coach's team. Another major favourite was Lika Siradze, who qualified with over 40% of the televote in her group. Ahead of the final, Twitter user Kjet has made a thread of the 8 finalists and snippets from their performances all throughout the talent show:

Regardless, after the conclusion of The Voice Georgia, the winner has one month to compose their entry for Liverpool. We therefore may not get the Georgian song for Eurovision 2023 until early March at the earliest.

• Germany

The German selection, named "Unser Lied Für Liverpool", will be broadcasted on the 3rd of March at 22:20 German time live from the MMC Studios in Cologne, to be hosted once again by Barbara Schöneberger.

On 9/11, more details about the German selection were revealed. There will be a TikTok wildcard, where the most voted song on the platform complying with the rules will be entered into the selection. Voting will once again involve a pre-show online vote and a televote during the show. The TikTok submissions ended on 28/11, as did the online submissions.

Stefan Leidner from NDR also revealed that the online voting results will not be announced regional broadcaster by regional broadcaster, as was in the case in 2022, but instead put together in one bundle or even combined with the televote outright.

On 30/12, more details relating to the selection were revealed on the German Eurovision podcast "ESC Update". More than 600 potential entries were received on the normal song portal. The German head of delegation also suggests that while nominally they are looking for only one wildcard, they do not discard the option of including multiple such songs in the national final.

On the 12th, it was announced that TikTok voting will start on the 27th this month and end on the 3rd of February, with the voting results being revealed the day after the voting ends on the show "Alles Eurovision" being broadcasted at 18:00 German time.

On the Euro Trip Podcast, Benjamin Hertlein from ESC kompakt revealed that there will indeed be an international jury for the pre-selection, although its members or its voting power are not known yet. He also suggested that the pre-voting will only occupy a very small percentage of the public vote, perhaps less than 10% of the total as opposed to 50% on Germany 12 Points.

On the 27th, the first 8 acts for Unser Lied Fur Liverpool were announced. They include Patty Gurdy, Lord Of The Lost, TRONG (with a song co-written by Elsie Bay from Norway), Lonely Spring, Will Church, Frida Gold, René Miller and Anica Russo. Some of these names, such as Will Church, initially only put themselves up as TikTok candidates, however it appears NDR has decided to include them outright in the selection. Current favourites include Patty Gurdy and Anica Russo.

The final act for the national final will, as previously mentioned, be decided via TikTok voting, and the 6 candidates there are Betül, Leslie Clio, From Fall To Spring, Ikke Hüftgold, JONA, and Mitchy & André Katawazi ft. NASHUP. Voting is now open.

• Greece

ERT returns to the internal selection for 2023. On 28/12, 70 demoscopic jury members which had been randomly selected earlier went to the ERT studios to listen to the seven remaining songs in the running, and voted for their favourites. The seven artists in the running to represent Greece in Eurovision 2023 were also revealed. Eurovisionfun reported that the favourites among the demoscopic jury were Melissa Mantzoukis, Victor Vernikos and Klavdia; Leon of Athens seems to have been in the middle; while the other three were less preferred.

On the 19th, ERT announced that the shortlist had been narrowed down to Melissa Mantzoukis with "Liar", Victor Vernicos with "What They Say", and Maria Maragou & Antonia Kaouri with "Shout Out".

And on the 30th, ERT announced that Victor Vernicos had been selected. Victor Vernicos, full name Victor Vernicos Jørgensen, is a 16-year-old singer of Greek and Danish descent. His song, "What They Say", is described as an emotional ballad. Part of the song was (possibly accidentally) released on TikTok on the 31st.

• Iceland

Returning to Söngvakeppnin for their national final. The semi-finals will take place on the 18th and 25th of February, while the final will take place on the 4th of March. The show will be hosted by Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson, Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir, and Sigurður Þorri Gunnarsson. Submissions closed on the 4th of October, and it was later revealed that 132 songs had been received. The competing artists and songs were revealed on the 28th on a special show named "Lögin í Söngvakeppninni 2023".

The finalists are BRAGI, MÓA, Benedikt, Celebs, Diljá in the first semi-final, and Kristín Sesselja, Langi Seli og Skuggarnir, Silja Rós & Kjalar, Úlfar, and Sigga Ózk in the second semi-final. All finalists have brought both Icelandic and English versions of their songs, although as usual it is up to them which version they would like to sing in the final, while they are required to sing the Icelandic version in the semi-final. A further introductory show named "#12 Stig" will take place on the 11th of February, one week before the first semi-final.

• Ireland

Participation has been confirmed by RTÉ. The national final is named Eurosong, to be held once again on the Late Late Show. The selection will take place on the 3rd of February, and will have 6 candidates.

Interested names included Wild Youth, a band based in Dublin, as well as Cruachan, an Irish folk metal band who confirmed that they have written and submitted a song to RTÉ. Later, Cruachan revealed on their Instagram that their song "The Blacksmith" was rejected, although it had apparently done well in the jury.

Speaking to the Éirevision podcast, Michael Kealy, the Irish head of delegation, has confirmed that around 320-330 submissions were received, and unlike in 2022, the studio jury will no longer vote. On the 9th, all 6 songs were released at once by RTÉ. Among the names are, sure enough, Wild Youth, as well as John Lydon, formerly the lead singer of Sex Pistols and was known as Johnny Rotten. Regardless, the fan favourites are ADGY and CONNOLLY. Both favourites have pledged to make changes to their songs, with Adgy adding a 20-second part in the Irish language, while Connolly may add vocal moments among other things.

• Israel

Noa Kirel was selected by KAN in July, and she officially confirmed participation in August. Her song is set to be a pop song.

In a recent interview with local media, Noa Kirel says that her song will have "an Israeli colour", which will be expressed either in the lyrics or production, and will bring ethnic, Mediterranean(??), and Israeli directions. Furthermore, the budget for the Israeli participation in 2023 will be set at 900,000 EUR, two-thirds of which will be covered by Kirel's team and the rest by the public broadcaster KAN. Finally, she reveals that she and her team will have artistic freedom in the selection of the song.

On 23/12, Kirel gave an interview to Yedioth Ahronoth, in which she reveals that her song will mostly be in English, but also contain some Hebrew. Furthermore, she reveals to Channel 12 that there have actually been two songs recorded so far, one about love and the other about power. The ultimate decision on which proposal to bring to Liverpool will depend on officials at KAN, Doron Medalie (who recently joined the Israeli delegation and was a songwriter for Toy), and ultimately herself.

On the 17th, KAN announced that Noa Kirel's song is named "Unicorn", and was co-written by herself, Doron Medalie, Yinon Yahel and May Sfadia. The song will be released in early March.

• Italy

Sanremo will continue as Italy's selection method for Eurovision 2023. The event will take place between the 7th and 11th of February. Amadeus remains as the main host, although he is joined by Gianni Morandi this year, and also Chiara Ferragni for the first and last nights. Francesca Fagnani will also be a co-host for one of the nights.

On 4/12, Amadeus announced the first 22 of the 28 contestants, the "big" names. Notable returnees include Elodie, Marco Mengoni, Tananai, Anna Oxa, Coma_Cose, Leo Gassmann, Madame, Colapesce Dimartino (Sanremo 2021 "Musica Leggerissima"), Levante and Giorgia. The songs themselves will not be premiered to the public until the shows happen, that is to say early February.

On 16/12, the song titles were released. Notably, Madame's song was originally named "Puttana" (Bitch) but had to be renamed "Il Bene Nel Male" (The Good In The Bad). The song is also described as being minimalistic.

A day later, Sanremo Giovani took place, and the top 6 were revealed as (in no particular order) gIANMARIA, Colla Zio, Shari, Sethu, Will, and Olly. These 6 will join the previously announced 22 names to take part in Sanremo 2023.

Later, it was revealed that Madame may have forged her Covid vaccination certificate assisted by anti-vax doctors to avoid getting a vaccine and is being investigated. Whether this will affect her Sanremo participation is unknown.

On the 15th, it was announced that American group Black Eyed Peas and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky (via video call) will appear at Sanremo 2023 as guests. A day later, it was announced that the superfinal will now have five superfinalists, up from three previously. Maneskin, the 2021 winner, will also perform on the 3rd night. On the 25th, Adnkronos reported that former First Lady of France, Carla Bruni, will appear at Sanremo 2023, possibly in a duet on covers night. Peppino Di Capri will also appear on the third night, as reported by Ansa. She will sing a duet with Colapesce & Dimartino.

Current favourites include Marco Mengoni, Ultimo and Colapesce & Dimartino.

• Latvia

Returning to Supernova for their selection. The semi-final will take place on the 4th of February, while the final will take place on the 11th. On 2/12, it was announced that 121 song submissions had been received, 9 down from last year.

On the 5th, LTV released the list of artists and songs at the same time. Notable returnees include Markus Riva, Inspo (both from Supernova 2022), Justs (Latvia 2016) and Sudden Lights (Supernova 2018). A day later, Saule with the song "Finally Happy" was disqualified from the national final, as the song had been performed before September of 2022. There will not be any replacement. Current favourites include Patrisha, Luize, Inspo, and Raum.

• Lithuania

Returning to the national final Pabandom Iš Naujo. The selection will consist of at most 5 shows, those being 2 heats, 2 semi-finals and 1 final. The two heats will take place on the 21st and 28th this month, the semi-finals on the 4th and 11th of February, and the final on the 18th.

On 20/12, LRT announced the 30 participants of the national final, as well as their song titles. There is no unified song release date, as several of the entries are already available on Spotify, and the rest are expected to come gradually according to the artists' own schedules.

On 23/12, Lina Štalytė with the song "My Body" was disqualified from the selection due to the song having been on Youtube since 2020. She was replaced in the selection by The PiXLS with the song "Šaukt".

Current fan favourites include Petunija, with the song "Love Of My Life", who had participated in PIN 2020 with the song "Show Ya", as well as Gebrasy with "Saw Your Ghost" who had also been in PIN 2021 (coming second after The Roop) and PIN 2022.

The first heat took place on the 21st, with Rūta Mur receiving 12 points from both the jury and the televote, and Gabrielius Vagelis and Alen Chicco rounding out the top three. Meanwhile on the second heat on the 28th, Beatrich received 12 points from the jury and televote with the song "Like A Movie", while Petunija got 2 televote points and Gebrasy none; the latter two of which qualified largely due to jury points. Monika Linkytė and Mario Junes rounded off the top 3 in the second heat.

• Malta

They will be returning to MESC, or Malta Eurovision Song Contest, for their selection method. Rules largely remain the same, but quarter-finals have now been re-introduced into the national final, giving us a total of 40 songs and 6 shows (three QFs (13/13/14), one semi, one final) which started on the 13th this month, and ending on the 11th of February. Confusingly, voting does not take place during the quarterfinals, but rather opens all at once on the 3rd of February, and the results will be revealed on the 9th ahead of the semi-final.

On 28/12, 30-second snippets of all 40 songs were released by TVM. On the 9th this month, it was announced that Ryan and Josmar, previously the MESC and MJESC hosts in 2022, would be hosting the quarterfinals, while the semi-final and final will be hosted by Glen Vella (Malta 2011) and Amber (Malta 2015). Current favourites include Brooke and Aidan, although on the 23rd Aidan was disqualified for excessive advertisement which violates TVM regulations. He has since tried to reverse that decision by taking legal action, although TVM remained firm on their action and Aidan will stay out of MESC2023.

• Moldova

The selection is now named Etapa Națională, and live auditions were then held on the 28th. A live show will take place on the 4th of March, consisting of 10 acts. Around Christmas of 2022, a new head of delegation was also appointed, that being Daria Căpățînă, who is also the head of children's content at TRM.

Another possible name is SunStroke Project, who represented Moldova in 2010 and 2017 with the famous "Epic Sax Guy". On the 15th, they announced that they submitted the song "Yummy Mommy" to the Moldovan broadcaster.

On the 17th, Moldovan broadcaster TRM revealed the 33 artists taking part in the live auditions, as well as their songs. Among which, sure enough, we have SunStroke Project with "Yummy Mommy", as well as the 2012 and 2013 Moldovan representatives, Pasha Parfeni ("Lăutar") and Aliona Moon ("O Mie"), this time with songs named "Soarele Și Luna" and "Du-mă" respectively. Regardless, all 33 songs can be accessed on www.eurovision.md . The main favourites appear to be the three aforementioned returning acts, as well as Lola with "Temperatura".

On the 23rd, two acts were disqualified from the national final: Massimo Sinceri ft. DA-MUSE did not meet the 50% Moldovan singers rule, while NÖRDIKA had released their song in *2012*, although they had entered two songs, and the other one appears to remain eligible. NÖRDIKA thus remain in the national final, but only with one song.

On the 28th, the live auditions took place, during which the jury voted on their favourites and decided on the 10 finalists to appear on the live show. SunStroke Project came out on top, followed closely by Pasha Parfeni. Aliona Moon placed fourth with the jury, although it should be noted that this jury will not vote in the national final. Lola was disqualified, as she was stuck in traffic and could not attend the live casting on time.

• Netherlands

On 1/11, it was announced that Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper would be representing the Netherlands in Liverpool. Their song is not known yet, but we know that it was co-written by Duncan Laurence, the 2019 winner. And someone found on a song database that one song was registered with the three aforementioned names, as well as a certain Jordan who Laurence also says that he co-wrote the song with. We can't hear this song yet, but we can see the title, which is "Chasing Highs". So this could very easily be their song for Eurovision 2023. Regardless, when the song will be revealed is still unknown.

• Norway

Returning to Melodi Grand Prix for their national final. The songs were be released weekly, specifically on the 9th, 16th, and 23rd. The semi-finals themselves took place 5 days after each song release, i.e. on the 14th, 21st, 28th respectively, in Nydalen in Oslo. The final will take place on the 4th of February in Trondheim. The hosts for this year's edition of MGP are Arianrhod "Arian" Engebø as well as Stian "Staysman" Thorbjørnsen.

On 30/12, NRK announced major changes to the MGP format:

1. The 5 semi-finals became 3. The number of competitors remains unchanged from 2022, with now 7 acts in each semi-final.

2. There will also be NO duels. The three qualifiers in each semi-final will be determined solely based on the most voted songs, and there will not be any "second chance" round.

3. There will be NO pre-qualifiers. All artists must go through a semi-final to qualify for the final.

4. There will be an international jury made up of non-Norwegian industry experts in the final. The jury will take up 50% of the voting power, with the other half going to the televote.

On the 4th this month, NRK revealed the contestants in a live press conference, among which were Ulrikke Brandstorp (winner of MGP 2020), JOWST (Norway 2017) ft. Byron Williams Jr., Stig Van Eijk (Norway 1999), Kate Gulbrandsen (Norway 1987), Akuvi, and Elsie Bay (MGP 2022, "Death of Us").

It was also announced during the live presentation that now people can only vote for ONE artist per semi-final, as opposed to previously where one could give three votes, either all to the same artist or distributed between two or three artists.

On the 6th, VG.no reported that for the first time ever, artists taking part in MGP will be able to use autotune to correct 'sour' tones in their singing, which NRK claims is to keep up with the rest of the concert industry. This brings it on par with Sanremo, where autotune is also allowed. Autotune is currently still not allowed at Eurovision, although some are speculating that this is a test run to see whether introduction to Eurovision could be looked at. Regardless, usage of autotune appears to be optional and depends on whether an artist wants to use it.

Current favourites include Alessandra Mele, Ulrikke, Maria Celin, Akuvi and Elsie Bay. In the first heat on the 14th, JOWST and Kate Gulbrandsen were eliminated. In the second heat on the 21st, initial fan favourite Ella A was eliminated, as well as Sandra Lyng whose song was only the second one from this heat to make it into the daily Spotify charts in Norway. In the third heat on the 28th, fan favourites Maria Celin and Akuvi were BOTH eliminated.

Furthermore, Ukrainian Eurofan eurovanya uploaded a TikTok of Miss Ukraine from Miss Universe 2022, with Queen of Kings by Alessandra Mele as the soundtrack. This TikTok subsequently went viral and the song with it, making Queen of Kings now the most streamed national final song of the 2023 season, with 1.3 million streams and counting. Whether this will affect the televote in MGP is unknown.

On the 30th, NRK released the running order for the final. JONE will once again open the show after having done the same in his semi-final, while Alessandra Mele will close the show. Ulrikke and Elsie Bay are in the 4th and 8th positions respectively.

• Poland

TVP revealed on 19/10 that they will be returning to a national final for 2023, named "Krajowe Eliminacje", which was the Polish selection's name in 2010, 2011, and from 2016 to 2018. Submissions are now open, and were going to remain open until the 15th this month, but have since been extended to the 10th of February. The selected names will be announced by the 15th.

The selection itself will take place on the 26th of February, and will consist of 10 songs. The voting will be made up of 50% televote and 50% jury. Two rounds of voting will occur: the first one with all 10 songs, and then a second round where the top 3 most voted songs in the previous round go to a new separate vote. Ties will be broken by the jury.

Possible names include Jann, Dominik Dudek, Patrick Silvar, Natasza Urbańska, Nick Sinckler, Maja Hyży, Maria Niklińska, Kamil Hussein, and Blanka Stajkow.

• Portugal

RTP has confirmed Portugal's participation in the upcoming contest, as well as their annual national final of Festival Da Canção. There will now be a televote wildcard for each semi-final, giving us 12 songs in the final.

On 9/11, RTP announced the songwriters for FdC 2023, as well as the dates for the festival. It will take place on the 25th of February, and the 4th and 11th of March. The announced songwriters included such names as Barbara Tinoco, as well as Claudia Pascoal (O Jardim, Portugal 2018), and also a group named You Can't Win Charlie Brown.

On 22/12, RTP released the semi-final draw for the 20 artists, and on the 19th, the songs were released all at once. It was announced that the first semi-final will be hosted by Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and José Carlos Malato, the second semi-final by Sónia Araújo and Jorge Gabriel, and the final by Filomena Cautela (Eurovision 2018 co-host) and Vasco Palmeirim. Favourites include the aforementioned Barbara Tinoco and Cláudia Pascoal, as well as Mimicat and Edmundo Inácio.

• Romania

Returning to Selecția Națională for their selection, and will take place on the 11th of February. The team however is a new one, who have announced that SN2023 will be 100% televoting, instead of the 17% like 2022.

85 songs were finally received, 12 of which were announced on 17/12 to be the finalists in February. On 23/12, the randomly drawn running order was released, and the songs were released 6 days later. Current favourites include Aledaida, Andrei Duțu and Andreea D & Folclor Orchestra. Starting from the 30th, TVR started posting live performances (akin to the Moldovan live auditions) of each artist with their song, starting with Amia.

• San Marino

Returning to Una Voce Per San Marino for their national final. However, this year there will NOT be a "big artists" group that get pre-invited to the grand final, although famous artists may still be invited to the semi-finals without going through the casting round. Senhit and Jonathan Kashanian are to return as hosts having already hosted the inaugural edition, while Achille Lauro will perform during the show as well.

There will be, as usual, two sets of auditions. From there, approximately 60 artists will proceed to the semi-finals. The grand final will take place on the 25th of February, with 5 semi-finals (one of which acts as the second chance round) taking place between the 18th and 20th of February, ahead of the grand final which will contain 20 artists from the semi-finals.

One interested big name is Elettra Lamborghini, who had participated in Sanremo 2020. If she signs up then it is possible that she can skip the auditions and directly get put into a semi-final. And on the 18th, some Italian media reported that she has indeed made a submission to the Sammarinese broadcaster. Regardless, the submission deadline has been extended from the 15th this month to the 13th next month. SMRTV also reported that over 1000 submissions have been received thus far, with submissions even coming in from such countries as Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, and Mexico.

On the 19th, SMRTV posted the casting schedule between the 20th and 29th this month. The names on the list include Mirud, FIK59 and 60 participant; Luquisha Lubamba, a drag queen who had been on Drag Race Italia; and Elettra Lamborghini's less well-known younger sister, Ginevra Lamborghini.

On the 23rd, it was announced that Al Bano, a very famous Italian artist, as well as the Italian Eurovision representative in 1976 and 1985 alongside his wife, will be chairing the jury which will select the Sammarinese act for 2023.

The *60* semi-finalists will be announced in a press conference on the 20th.

• Serbia

Returning to Pesma Za Evroviziju for their national final. The dates for Pesma Za Evroviziju 2023, will be the 1st and 2nd of March for the two semi-finals, and the 4th for the final. The Head of Entertainment of RTS also says that 200 songs in total were submitted to the selection.

The participating names were announced on the 9th. Artists such as Tijana Dapčević (North Macedonia 2014) and the rebooted Hurricane were included on the 32-long list, alongside such names as Angellina who had sung "Origami" as a semi-fan-favourite the year prior.

On the 27th, the running order of the semi-finals were revealed, and the songs were also announced to be releasing on the 2nd of February all at once.

• Slovenia

On 8/12, RTVSLO announced in a press conference that they had internally selected Joker Out, a Slovene pop-rock band, to represent Slovenia in Liverpool in May. Joker Out have confirmed that their song for Liverpool will also be in Slovene. This will only be the third-ever internal selection for Slovenia, the first two being in 2013 and 2020. Joker Out recorded their entry last month in Hamburg, and they describe their song as "retro, lively and sexy". The music video was filmed on the 22nd and 23rd this month.

The song will be released on the 4th, and more specifically it will be presented on a show named "Misija Liverpool", which will be hosted by Miša Molk, the Slovene spokesperson in 1993 and commentator in 1992 and 1996-2000. However, the show was pre-recorded a week prior, and fans were able to apply to attend the live filming of the show to listen to the song before anyone else. On the 29th, RTVSLO revealed that Joker Out's song will be named "Carpe Diem".

• Spain

Returning to Benidorm Fest for their national final, for a second time. The national final will take place on the 31st of January for the first semi-final, the 2nd of February for the second semi-final, and the 4th for the grand final.

The voting system remains the same, but there will now be two more participants in each semi-final, bringing the total number of participants up to 18. The president of the jury is set to be Nacho Cano, while Christer Bjorkman is set to be one of the international jury members. The main presenter of the show is set to be Monica Naranjo, Inés Hernand is set to return as a co-presenter, while Máximo Huerta will be headlining a pre-show leading up to Benidorm Fest. It was also later reported that Rodrigo Vázquez would be joining Naranjo and Hernand as co-hosts of the show as well.

Finally, the list of participants was released on 26/10. Blanca Paloma returns to the festival, after having just participated in it the year prior. A TikTok singer was also selected, that being Twin Melody. And the rumours that Alfred Garcia from Amaia and Alfred would return have come true, as well as the return of a number of other former Operacion Triunfo singers.

The songs were released all at once on 19/12. Current favourites include Alice Wonder, Blanca Paloma, Agoney, and Fusa Nocta. The semi-final splits were released on the 11th during an RTVE press conference, although the exact running order is not yet known.

On the 25th, RTVE released the 8-long list of jurors. Nacho Cano is no longer present, although there are such names as Nina (Spain 1989, new jury president), Katrina Leskanich (from Katrina and the Waves, UK 1997), Tali Eshkoli (Israeli head of delegation) and William Lee Adams (founder of Eurovision fan site Wiwibloggs). Christer Bjorkman also remains part of the jury.

The opening ceremony took place on the 29th in a (very rainy) Benidorm, with journalists from Eurovision fan media being invited to attend the event. It was announced as well that Edurne (Spain 2015, "Amanecer") and Gloria Trevi will be the interval actst during the semi-finals.

• Sweden

Returning to Melodifestivalen for their national final. The two hosts will be Farah Abadi (reprising her role from 2022) and Swedish comedian Jesper Rönndahl. Melodifestivalen is set to tour the country over several heats, starting on the 4th of February and concluding in a grand final in Stockholm on the 11th of March.

The full list of Melodifestivalen participants were revealed by SVT on the 29th and 30th of November. It includes Wiktoria, Loreen, Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Eva & Ewa, Theoz, Tone Sekelius, Nordman, Mariette, Laurell Barker (as a singer), among others. Torbjörn Ek, the primary Melfest reporter at Aftonbladet, said on a podcast that Nordman may be one to look out for in terms of local popularity in Sweden, and may even become this year's Anders Bagge in terms of public results.

It was also announced that the semi-final (still known to most fans as Andra Chansen) will no longer feature duels. Instead, it will be a simple vote where the 4 most voted entries out of the 8 will get to progress to the final. However, halfway through the voting, the four highest ranked as well as lowest ranked will be displayed separately (in no particular order within each group), and viewers will get to vote again for their favourites. At the end, for the first time, the scores will be presented live and the viewers will be able to see which of the four finalists were comfortably voted the highest and which ones had to fight for the final.

Linda Bengtzing will be hosting pre- and post-shows for Melodifestivalen, which will be broadcasted online by SVT.

Torbjörn Ek also revealed more details regarding some of the participants. You can check my December blog post for those details.

On the 11th, the running orders for the heats were announced. Tone Sekelius, Wiktoria, Paul Rey and Kiana will open their heats, while Jon Henrik Fjällgren, THEOZ, Marcus & Martinus and Loreen will close those heats. 1-minute snippets of the songs in each heat will be posted on the Thursday of the same heat at 7:00 CET, while 30-second rehearsal clips will be posted by SVT 24 hours later.

• Switzerland

Continuing to use an internal selection for their Eurovision act. The resulting song and artist will be revealed in "early 2023". On 27/11, Ovi Jacobsen (Romania 2010 and 2014) posted on Facebook as an international juror that the Swiss selection this year was now in its "last round".

• Ukraine

Returned to Vidbir for their national final, although it was pushed early, from the usual date of February to now December of 2022. The event was held in the Majdan Nezaležnosti (Independence Square) metro station in Kyiv, and 10 songs competed.

The national final took place on 17/12, and despite the initial status as favourites, neither KRUTЬ nor Jerry Heil won the selection, with them ending in second and third place respectively. The winner of the selection was instead TVORCHI, a duo consisting of Ukrainian producer Andrij Hucuľak and Nigerian vocalist Jeffrey Kenny (real name Jimoh Augustus Kehinde), with their song "Heart Of Steel". TVORCHI, who had previously also participated in Vidbir back in 2020, will now represent Ukraine in Liverpool.

A participation confirmation agreement between Suspilne and Tvorchi was signed on the 28th. This will thus mark the first time since 2018 that a winner of Vidbir from the same year actually goes to Eurovision. In several interviews, Tvorchi have stated that Heart Of Steel will receive a revamp, especially to strengthen the chorus of the song.

• United Kingdom

Selection method is internal and will once again involve TaP Music. The artist announcement is expected sometime in February or March of 2023.

The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, reported on 10/12 that Molly Rainford could be in the running to represent the UK on home turf. Molly Rainford, 22, was a finalist on Strictly Come Dancing 2022, and had in fact rejected Simon Cowell's offer to be under his label 10 years prior at Britain's Got Talent.

On the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, Rainford responded to these rumours saying: "After seeing how brilliant Sam was, it's definitely something that I'd be up for, so we'll see. We've gotta find a good song first."

Others however are speculating that Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama with the song "Frankenstein" may be selected to represent the UK instead. The rumours involving Rina Sawayama were further stoked when James Rowe, co-host of the Euro Trip podcast and a Newcastle DJ with contacts in the BBC, hinted in a tweet that one of the BRITs Best New Artist nominees (Sam Ryder, Kojey Radical, Rina Sawayama, Mimi Webb, Wet Leg) would be the 2023 UK representative. However, on the 24th, RadioTimes.com reported that Rina's freed-up schedule coinciding with the Eurovision rehearsal schedule is merely a coindence. Others have also speculated Freya Ridings, with the song "Weekends", could be the UK representative.

On the 20th, Ben Mawson from TaP Music has ruled out specifically the song Frankenstein as the British entry, and implied in another Instagram reply that unlike with Sam Ryder the previous year, the song had not been played on air yet, or even the artist decided. In a separate post, he also says that TaP Music "continues the hunt" for the UK entry.

On the 31st, the BBC posted an article, in which there was a graphic stating that the UK entry is expected to be confirmed by early March. Furthermore, on the 30th, the Daily Mirror interviewed Ben Mawson, who said that the selection is now down to four acts "in varying forms of established", while TaP co-founder Ed Millett said that they “should, perhaps, not have a guy”. The act may also not be ethnically English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish, with Ben alluding to the multicultural population in the UK.

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So that's all I know about Eurovision 2023 so far! If you know anything else, tweet me @BlueRigel4 or comment on this blog. I fully anticipate making regular updates within the month to this post. Here's the monthly video, although it's already out of date as I write this:

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