Eurovision 2023: What We Know So Far (as of November 2022)

Another edition of this blog, which will cover only ESC2023 this time because I started a separate blog post for JESC2022. 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 October blog.

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.

On 13/10, the BBC and UA:PBC signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. It stipulates that they 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. That second point would strongly imply that green screen technology will once again be used for 2023 postcards, but there is yet to be confirmation of this.

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

On the 7th last month, Liverpool was announced as the host city for the 2023 contest, beating out favourites such as Glasgow and Manchester. The arena will be the M&S Bank Areena, 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.

Eurovillage Location: Pier Head

The location is very close to the arena, and is also located on the riverfront. A tender document has revealed that the provisional opening schedule is between the 5th and 13th, although those dates could change by 1 or 2 days. The location for the Euroclub is as yet unknown.

Hosts: unknown

Many have floated Graham Norton, the resident BBC Eurovision commentator, 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.

Others have named Timur Mirošnyčenko, the resident Ukrainian commentator for UA:PBC, and co-host of JESC2009, JESC2013, ESC2017, and most recently the Ukrainian selection for Junior Eurovision 2022. In fact, on 13/10, he presented an award for the National Television Awards for the British ITV, and gave a passionate speech in front of the audience. So speculations are rife.

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.

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.

Rule Changes: none specifically

Controversially, 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.

Tickets: not available yet

Unlikely to be available by the end of 2022, but may be earlier than April 2023 as last year's ticket rollout was hampered due to Covid considerations. 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.

It was also confirmed by an SVT official that participation fees for Eurovision have gone up, which may lead to subsequent ticket price increases. All these combined may make the procurement of tickets particularly difficult this year.

Administrative Directors: Rachel Ashdown (Lead Commissioner), Martin Green CBE (Managing Director), Andrew Cartmell (Executive Producer, head of BBC Studios), Lee Smithurst (Head of Show), Twan van de Nieuwehuizen (Head of Contest), James O'Brien (Executive in Charge of Production)

On the 28th of September, Ashdown was appointed as Lead Commissioner of the Eurovision Song Contest by the BBC. She was briefly the HOD for the UK and formerly a member of the Reference Group, and she will "work with a variety of Product Companies to work on developing new content and the BBC’s hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023".

The BBC sought a production company to deliver the coverage of the Insignia Handover and Allocation Draw. Submissions closed at 7pm UK time on 29/9.

On 17/10, Green was announced as the Managing Director of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. He was, among other things, the Chief Creative Officer of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and CCO of Unboxed 2022; CEO of Hull UK City of Culture in 2017; and Head of Ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics in London. He will lead the team responsible for overseeing all aspects of Eurovision 2023.

Andrew Cartmell was also appointed the Executive Producer of the show. This post is usually given to the host country's head of delegation, which is the case for Cartmell. He will head the BBC Studio team, and will take overall responsibility for the semi-finals and grand final. He has also worked on a number of other projects for BBC Studios, such as the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

Lee Smithurst has been appointed Head of Show for Eurovision 2023. He will be responsible for editorial content and "take the creative lead" for the three live shows. Smithurst was assistant HOD in Turin, and will be the UK HOD for Junior Eurovision in Yerevan in December. He played a vital role in the "revival" of the UK at Eurovision, as much of the discussions between the BBC and TaP Music as well as Parlophone, Sam Ryder's label, was conducted by him and a few colleagues, as revealed in an exclusive interview with the Euro Trip podcast.

Twan van de Nieuwehuizen returns as the Head of Contest for 2023, after fulfilling that role in 2021 and 2022. He will have specific responsibility working with the national delegations to deliver their creative on-stage ambitions. Given this role, it should come as little surprise that he was the one who said to "keep an eye on the UK" earlier this year in Turin with regards to staging, and also revealed that Maneskin's staging document was *88 pages long*. He was also chiefly responsible for putting together the running order for both the grand final and the semi-finals, and will most likely reprise that role this year.

James O'Brien, not to be confused with the LBC political commentator, has worked on large events such as the 2012 London Olympics and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. His team will be responsible for the technical delivery for the live shows as well as the broadcast, and all other technical elements within the venue.

Pre-parties:

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

Featuring names such as Barei, Beth, Dami Im, Destiny, Efendi, Poli Genova, Ronela Hajati, Suzy and WRS.

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

50 acts have been promised and around 16 hours of concerts.

• 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. To be hosted by Cornald Maas and Hila Noorzai.

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

Similarly, little is known as of now but Wiwibloggs will provide live coverage of the event as usual.

Additional Events: cultural festival

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.

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.

I should also point out though that during a press conference on 5/10, Khabar Agency (Kazakh EBU broadcaster) officials said that there is "every chance" that they can participate in Eurovision next year, and that whether they debut will highly depend on their result at Junior Eurovision 2022. But we'll have to see what happens.

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. (Apparently her parents are of Albanian origin but from Montenegro.) Go figure. Update: a day later, she tweets that "maybe there's a chance". For which country that could be, is as yet unknown. At this late stage I'm fairly certain only San Marino is still open. She also tweeted later on that her song that was meant for Montenegro 2023 was named "OLÈ", and shared a snippet. (Fairly certain it's supposed to be an acute accent rather than grave accent, but I'm just repeating what she wrote.)

Turkish politicians are also calling for the return of Turkey to Eurovision. Upon the recent death of longtime Turkish Eurovision commentator, Bülend Özveren, some politicians have called for Turkey to return to Eurovision. However, this is unlikely to materialize as most of these politicians are of the opposition party, and they have in fact made a pledge to return Turkey to Eurovision should they be elected into office.

In an interview with the Euro Trip podcast, 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. In particular, he pledges that if his party is elected into government, he will strongly deal with the funding shortfalls caused by the ethnic Croat and Serb parties, which is what caused Bosnia's absence from the contest since 2016. This could be dealt with, in his words, as quickly as 2024.

Participating Countries: 37 countries, which is the lowest number of participants since 2014 which also had 37, as did 2006. The previous lowest number before that was 2004, with 36 participating countries. For 2022, the 37 countries are as follows:

• Albania

Returning to Festivali I Këngës for their selection, specifically the 61st edition. The show will take place from the 19th to the 22nd of December. They have also confirmed that the presenter will be Arbana Osmani, while Flori Mumajesi will be the artistic director, and Eduart Grishaj (husband of Arbana Osmani) will be the stage director.

Crucially, there will be two winners: one being the jury-picked winner, where the top 3 will be announced one by one as usual; but there will now also be a public winner, which will be determined by SMS voting during the festival. The Albanian representative to Eurovision will be the public winner, rather than the jury winner. In other words, as far as Eurovision is concerned, FIK is now 100% televote. Last year (and many years before that), the winner was simply the jury-chosen winner, which opened up the festival to rigging accusations.

On 27/10, RTSH quietly revealed the 26-long participant list. Despite the initial rumours of the show being rigged for Noizy and Eugent Bushpepa, neither were to be found on the list, nor Dhurata Dora. No Elvana Gjata or Mirud as expected, but we do have the return of Rezarta Smaja, Evi Reçi, Gjergj Kaçinari, Urban Band, as well as Kastro Zizo (as part of 2 Farm) from FIK60. One big name is Elsa Lila, while Fifi is another hyped name that some speculate could win the televote.

It was also announced that instead of premiering the songs during early December as usual, the songs will only be premiered during the show, just like Sanremo.

• Armenia

No selection details nor rumoured names yet. Would usually use the national final of Depi Evrtesil, however I imagine they're pretty busy with Junior Eurovision preparations at the moment. Someone did notice however that Athena Manoukian had started following members of the Dream Team, a group of Greek songwriters and staging personnel. Whether she wants to participate in Eurovision for her heritage country, Armenia, or her actual country of birth, Greece, is unknown.

• Australia

Does not need to confirm participation, as the EBU's invitation for SBS to participate in Eurovision goes until 2023 inclusive.

After months of speculation on the status of Australia Decides, their usual national final, it was finally announced on the 14th that Australia Decides will not be returning for a fourth edition on the Gold Coast. Instead, an internal selection will be held instead. So far, publicly interested artists include Jaguar Jonze, Dami Im, Sheppard and Voyager.

• Austria

On the 3rd this month, Kleine Zeitung reported on more details regarding the selection for Austria. Once again there will be an internal selection, and 15 acts have been selected. Crucially, these 15 acts were now required to attend a live casting session, which was held on the last weekend of October. 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 has been received from those parties, ORF will then find out the favourites, and the ORF program director, the entertainment director and his editors will then choose the Austrian representative by "early 2023".

• 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. Likely to continue with internal selections, possibly from The Voice of Azerbaijan. Dihaj (Azerbaijan 2017, "Skeletons") has said that she would be willing to write a song if Ictimai made an offer.

• Belgium

It's VRT's turn this year. Returning to their national final Eurosong for the first time since 2016. The host is set to be Peter van De Veire, the VRT commentator on Eurovision as well as (co-)host of previous Eurosongs. The show is set to last five to seven weeks.

Songfestival.be also reported that there was no open submission period, due to the late decision to organize this pre-selection. Instead, the A&R (artists and repertoire) team of VRT has been contacting record labels and managers to find interested and available artists.

On the 3rd, Het Laatste Nieuws further reports that there will be a jury, but allegedly they are only there to make comments, and the final result will be televote-only. In addition, the selection of songs and singers allegedly happened separately.

On the 8th, 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 in the end each artist will only present two songs. The final will indeed be broadcast live on the 14th, but preliminary shows will be broadcast every day starting from the 9th, presumably pre-recorded.

Luka Cruysburghs (Belgium 2020, then-lead singer of Hooverphonic) also confirmed that she had in fat submitted an entry to VRT, however she was rejected because she had planned to play the song at her album release party in October, and VRT said that they did not want any of the Eurosong entries to be released before a certain date. This planned Eurosong track was likely to be "Lied To You", a collaboration between Luka and Andromedik.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0AnaNcL0CE

• Croatia

Confirmed participation, and opened submissions for Dora 2023, which closed on the 20th of November. Between 14-28 songs will be selected, and the national final will take place in February in the city of Opatija. Sources claim that three shows are planned, and the songs will be released earlier than they were last year. Furthermore, allegedly HRT have also been attempting to contact more well-known artists to join the national final, however no big names have been directly invited just yet. On the 9th, it was revealed that some of the jury members will be Eurovision fans. In particular, those Eurovision fans will also be part of the actual song selection process *for* the show, as in selecting the songs from the various submissions. After the submissions closed, it was revealed that 196 songs had been received, a new record for Dora which saw 184 submissions arrive last year.

One possible name is Damir Kedžo, who had won Dora back in 2020 with his song Divlji Vjetre, and was due to represent Croatia before the contest was cancelled. On the 20th, he posted an Instagram story confirming that he has submitted a song for Dora 2023. Other reported names include Vlatka Pokos, Ibrica Jusić, Dražen Žanko, Željko Krušlin Kruška, Siniša Vuco, Daniel Popović, and Igor Cukrov.

• Cyprus

Earlier in the summer, Eurovisionfun reported that in their attempt to contact Andrew Lambrou for an interview, his management replied to them that he was currently in negotiations to go to Eurovision. At the time it was not known with whom he was negotiating - perhaps he could just be considering to enter Australia Decides again - but it was announced on 17/10 this month that he will indeed be representing Cyprus, much like Sandro in 2020, who was also not part of the Panik Records label, but struck a temporary deal for Eurovision.

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. The song had a verse in Spanish, and 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, nor the timescale of the song release. However, it was revealed later that he went to Stockholm to record his track, and some of his songwriters include Jimmy Jansson and Thomas Stengaard, so it seems there will be a Swedish flavour(?) in the Cypriot entry for 2023.

• Czech Republic

There were scares earlier when Ahmad Halloun, the Czech Head of Press tweeted that "in the current circumstances you're asking for a VIP entry to heaven" in response to a Eurofan wanting to see ESCZ be confirmed but also televised, however as we now know, they will indeed be participating in the contest in Liverpool despite the poor results in the grand final in Turin as well as a decreased Eurovision viewing figure.

On the 2nd this month, submissions were opened for the next edition of ESCZ, and will remain open until the 8th of December. And unlike previous editions this edition will feature only 3 candidates, as opposed to say 6 or 7 as had been usual. No date is known yet for the selection, but we do know that the winner will once again be decided by a combination of a professional jury, Czech televote and international televote. The three selected artists will perform their songs live, although whether that means a televised selection or live-on-tape is as yet unknown.

No rumoured names yet, although we can already rule out Giudi because she is pregnant.

• Denmark

Confirmed participation. DR opened submissions for DMGP on the 8th of September, and submissions remained open until the 28th of October. 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, the latter of which is from Næstved. Tickets will go on sale on the 18th. One possible name is Shaya Hansen, a Greek-Danish singer, who confirms that she has submitted a song to DR. On the 12th, Erik Stuve Hansen, the executive producer of DMGP posted on Facebook that the sorting of songs and artists has begun, and according to him it "bodes really well".

• Estonia

Confirmed participation. They will be returning to Eesti Laul for their selection. The two semi-finals will take place on the 12th and 14th of January respectively in the Viimsi Atrium, while the final will take place on the 11th of February in the Tondiraba Ice Hall. The quarter-finals will NOT return, as confirmed by Eesti Laul producer Tomi Rahula on ERR Radio 2. As such, the number of songs participating in Eesti Laul 2023 will be 20, as opposed to 40 this year. The hosts will be Tõnis Niinemets and Grete Kuld, who also hosted together in 2021.

Submissions opened on the 13th of September, and closed on the 20th this month. ERR reports that 217 songs were received, of which 92 are in Estonian. On the 1st and 2nd this month, the 20 artists participating in Eesti Laul 2023 were revealed on Ringvaade, 10 per day. Notable returnees include Sissi (2021 spokesperson, Eesti Laul 2019 and 2021, daughter of Dave Benton (Estonia 2001)), as well as Elysa who had entered the superfinal last year with her song "Fire". Either way, the selected songs are to be revealed on the 2nd of December on a special ETV broadcast.

On the 23rd, Ultima Thule withdrew from Eesti Laul, following the death of their lead vocalist Riho Sibul on the 20th. Their partner, Wiiralt, will continue to sing the original intended entry, "Salalik" (Secretive).

• Finland

Returning to Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu for their national final. It is expected to take place in February. Song submissions opened on the 1st of September, and closed on the 5th. No rumoured names yet.

On 25/10, more news was revealed about UMK 2023. 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 will be revealed one-by-one on each weekday, just like 2022, from the 12th to the 20th of January. The full list of artists will be revealed on the 11th of January.

These 7 finalists were selected from 363 submissions. The UMK head of jury says thaat expectations are very high after the success of last year. (I assume this refers to the success of the national final, not The Rasmus at Eurovision.) The head of jury also had this to say about the 7 entries: "The seven finalists include familiar faces and new, up-and-coming talents. We have, among others, the best dance song in UMK history sung by an unbelievably strong new singer, a song that just oozes sexuality by a well-known artist, a heartbreakingly beautiful ballad by one of Finland’s biggest export hopefuls, well-known and up-and-coming bands, and one of the strongest rap bangers in UMK history." I don't know about you, but that sounds very promising to me.

• France

Confirmed participation. Eurovision France: C'est Vous Qui Decidez is expected to be the selection method, making it apparently the longest-running continuous French national final since the 1980s. No rumoured names yet, but I saw a tweet from Igit (co-composer of Voila (France 2021), as well as Les Chansons D'Amour from CVQD 2022) who wonders whether he should write a song for the French national selection. Let's see if that goes anywhere. He might be involved in CVQD for the third year in a row, that is if CVQD will even continue.

• 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. Submissions opened on the 23rd of August and closed on the 20th of September.

The members of the judging panel on The Voice Georgia include Stephane Mgebrishvili ("We Don't Wanna Put In", Georgia 2009), Dato Evgenidze (Ranina judge), Sopo Toroshelidze (Eldrine, Georgia 2011), and Dato Porchhidze (The Voice coach 2012-14). The event will be hosted by Gvanca Daraselia. The blind auditions will begin on the 8th of December, and the show is set to last for 10 weeks, ending in the second week of February.

• Germany

According to an article from ESC kompakt on 10/10, Electric Callboy have no plans to submit a song for the 2023 selection. Furthermore, "several independent sources" have apparently stated that there will be 8-12 songs this time, up from 6 this year, in the selection which will take place in February, with a 50% vote share for the audience. It will also be broadcasted at prime time on ARD. Peter Urban will also remain as the German commentator for NDR for 2023.

On the 9th, more details about the German selection were revealed. Firstly, the selection name will return to the "Unser" series, as the 2023 selection will be named "Unser Lied Für Liverpool". The number of acts is not known yet according to eurovision.de, but they encourage singers of any genre to apply. The decision of who makes the selection will be made by industry experts, the German delegation, ARD pop radio stations, among others. NDR will also approach artists themselves. There will also be a TikTok wildcard, where the most voted song on the platform complying with the rules will be entered into the selection. Contrary to the report from ESC kompakt, the selection is set for early March rather than February. Voting will once again involve a pre-show online vote and a televote during the show, although NDR has said that how exactly the online voting will take place is yet to be determined. The TikTok submissions will end on the 28th, as will the online submissions.

On the 20th, ESC kompakt reported on more news regarding the meeting between the German delegation and representatives of German Eurovision fan clubs. It was revealed that more than 250 songs have already been received via the official application platform, and that even bigger names are also not averse to the idea of Eurovision. Record companies, which NDR have been contacting, are also positive towards it, due to the radio success of some of the songs this year.

Stefan Leidner, the NDR representative, did not believe that the TikTok wildcard would automatically become a favourite to win the whole selection, referring to the 9th place that Australian TikTok wildcard Erica Padilla got in Australia Decides 2022. Currently, some of the favourites in the TikTok selection include "Heaven" by Betül Akmar, a musician with Turkish roots living in Berlin, Will Church with the song "Hold On", Lonely Spring with "Misfit", From Fall to Spring with their metal song "Originalton", as well as Marie Celestine with the song "Traces In The Wind". Many of the entries are in English, but one German-language entry is named "Ich Will Dich Nicht Verlieren" (I don't want to lose you) by Senta. Susan (Germany JESC2020) and her sister also applied through TikTok. For those without TikTok, here are some of those names in a Twitter thread:

For the normal online song submission portal, some names there include Ikke Hüftgold, Leslie Clio (who was on the German ESC jury for 2015) and EES, a Namibian-German artist.

The number of songs in the national final will probably be between 8 to 10. It is not known which city will host the pre-selection, although Leipzig, Berlin, Cologne and Munich are in the running. Leidner 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. It has also not been decided yet whether there will be an international jury.

• Greece

ERT returns to the internal selection for 2023. On the 26th of August, ERT opened submissions for selection, which closed on the 9th of October.

And if the routine follows what we saw last year, if all goes well, we should have a 5-person shortlist by either late November or early December, which we will know a lot about because much TV coverage was given to the shortlist in December of 2021, asking the participants various questions about Eurovision and music more generally. And finally, the selected artist is expected to be announced in mid-to-late December, just like with Amanda, while the song is expected to come later while the track is being fine-tuned and optimized.

On an Instagram livestream, Amanda Tenfjord (with whom Evangelia recently released a new collab) said that she will do whatever she can to get Evangelia to Eurovision.

After submissions closed, ERT announced that they had received 106 songs, which is more than double that of last year, which was 43. According to Eurovisionfun and OGAE Greece, some names that submitted songs include: Jimmy Sion, Melissa Mantzoukis, Antonia Kaouri, Antigoni, Klavdia, Vasilis Kourtis, Aretha Kosmidou, Mike Connaris ft. Cynthia Verazie, Panagiotis Tsakalakos, Angeliki Vrana, Victor Vernicos, Evangelia, and Leon of Athens. Notably, Kalomira, who was also planning to submit songs last year, has also decided to not submit songs this year.

According to some sources, the finalists of the internal selection will be revealed on the week of the 14th. Other sources however are suggesting that there may be a public vote for the representative. Whether this entails a televised national final is as yet unknown.

• 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. Submissions closed on the 4th of October, and it was later revealed that 132 songs had been received. By January, the 10 artists taking part in the national final will be revealed.

• Ireland

Participation has been confirmed by RTE. On the 31st of September, they opened submissions for the next Eurosong, to be held once again on the Late Late Show. The submissions will remain open until the 28th (which has now been extended to the 4th of November), and RTE are particularly looking for "accomplished songwriters with a proven track record of success in the music industry" and are implying that beginners should not sign up to this. The performers are also required to have "intrinsic and obvious appeal to the core youth audiences". When exactly the selection will happen is still unknown (the official statement says "early 2023"), although it is expected to happen in January or early February.

Interested names include 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 RTE.

• 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, and a songwriting camp reportedly hosted by Kirel's managers is set to take place to create Kirel's song for Eurovision 2023, featuring Israeli songwriters that had previously worked with her. Rumoured names include: Doron Medalie, Ron Beaton, Jordi, Nitzan Kaykov, Itay Shimoni, and Eitan Peled.

Whether multiple songs will be composed resulting in an Eden Alene-style national final is unknown, as is the release date of Kirel's song(s).

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. However, a potential release date range is still unknown.

• 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. Rumours are already brewing about names, and a full participant list is expected to be published in December.

What we do know however is that for the pre-selection for Sanremo, that is Sanremo Giovani, there is now ANOTHER pre-selection for that, named Area Sanremo. Or so I read on Twitter. Do correct me if I got anything wrong.

Amadeus announced at the Milano Music Week that he will be announcing the Sanremo 2023 names on the 4th of December, at 13:30 CET during TG1.

• Latvia

Returning to Supernova for their selection, Submissions opened on the 22nd of September, and will close on the 1st of December. The selected artists and songs will be announced in January of 2023, and the final will take place in February as usual.

• Lithuania

LRT opened submissions for Pabandom Iš Naujo on the 11th, which will remain open until the 12th of December. At least 20 songs will be selected by the 20th. The selection will consist of at most 5 shows, those being 2 heats, 2 semi-finals and 1 final. The first heat will take place in early January, and although we do not yet know the time period of the final, we can assume that it will be in February.

• Malta

They will be returning to MESC, or Malta Eurovision Song Contest, for their selection method. Submissions opened on 17/10, and closed on the 31st. 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 (four QFs, one semi, one final) starting on the 13th of January, and ending on the 11th of February.

On the 21st, the quarter-finalists were revealed. Notable returnees, whether from ESC, JESC or MESC, include Fabrizio Faniello, Aidan, Giada, Brooke (not the Irish one), Eliana Gomez Blanco, Jessika, and MATT BLXCK.

• Moldova

Selection method is unknown, although they may return to auditions and either a subsequent national final or a direct internal selection. One rumoured name is Vera Turcanu (O Melodi Pentru Europa 2019, "Cold"), who recently appeared on The Voice of Greece.

• Netherlands

Applications for their internal selection closed on the 31st of August. The submissions were then looked at by the jury, which consisted of Jan Smit (co-host of Eurovision 2021), Cornald Maas (fellow Dutch commentator of Eurovision alongside Jan), among others.

On the 1st this month, 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 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.

Some controversy has arisen over this selection, as Nicolai had posted on Instagram back in mid-May that "6 months from now" a project very dear to her will be out in this world, leading to accusations against the committee of favouritism towards Duncan Laurence and other such big Dutch Eurovision names. AVROTROS later responded that the Instagram post was unrelated to Eurovision. Furthermore, Nicolai and Cooper refused to do any interviews with Dutch media, and had apparently even gotten into a car and driven off when being approached by a journalist on the street.

• Norway

Returning to Melodi Grand Prix for their national final.

Potential artists include Ben Adams and Gaute Ormåsen from Subwoolfer, Elsie Bay, Oda Gondrosen, Emmy, Imerika and Sandra Lyng, all of which attended the MGP songwriting camp in the summer. Regardless, the artists will be revealed on the 4th of January, and the songs will be released weekly, specifically on the 9th, 16th, and 23rd of January. The semi-finals themselves will take 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, only the 4th time the final was not hosted in Oslo. The hosts for this year's edition of MGP will be Arianrhod "Arian" Engebø as well as Stian "Staysman" Thorbjørnsen.

On the 30th, NRK announced major changes to the MGP format. Firstly, the 5 semi-finals will become 3. The number of competitors remains unchanged from 2022, with now 7 acts in each semi-final. Secondly, 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. Thirdly, there will be NO pre-qualifiers. All artists must go through a semi-final to qualify for the final. Finally, there will be an international jury made up of non-Norwegian industry experts in the final. The jury, whose identity will not be revealed until after the final, will take up 50% of the voting power, with the other half going to the televote.

• 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 will remain open until the 15th of January.

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.

Not a lot of rumoured names yet, however a Polish artist named Jann recently released a song named "Gladiator", and his response to people telling him to submit the song to the national final was positive. Another interested name is Dominik Dudek, who won The Voice Poland.

• Portugal

RTP has confirmed Portugal's participation in the upcoming contest. Submissions have now been opened for their annual national final of Festival Da Canção, and closed on 21/10.

The rulebook remains largely the same, however this year instead of just having 5 songs qualify from each semi-final creating a grand final of 10 songs, there will now be a televote wildcard for each semi-final, giving us 12 songs in the final. Exact dates for the national final are not yet known but the final is generally expected to take place in early to mid-March.

On 28/10, RTP announced that 667 songs had been received through public submissions. Just 4 of those will be selected for the national final, with the other 16 being made up of songwriters invited personally by RTP.

On the 9th, 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 include 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". Curious.

• Romania

Returning to Selecția Națională for their selection, and is expected to take place either in February or early March. The team however is a new one, who have announced that SN2023 will be 100% televoting, instead of the 17% like 2022. Greater promotion and presence will also be given to SN and Eurovision more generally on TVR, both on television and on social networks. Rumoured/interested names include Olivia Addams, Roxen (yes, again), Holy Molly, and Mihai Trăistariu (Romania 2006).

The national final will take place on the 11th of February. Submissions will open on the 14th and will close on the 11th next month. Between the 14th and 16th next month a jury will listen to all the songs, and 12 finalists will be announced by the 17th.

• 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: the first set taking place during 2022, from 28/10 - 4/11, 6/11, 9/11 - 18/11, and the second set which will take place in the first half of January 2023. 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 also in February before the grand final which will contain 20 artists from the semi-finals.

On 17/10, SMRTV posted the first auditions schedule. Among the participants was a certain CHRISTOPHER, who Twitter Eurofans might be more familiar with as Christopher Grevener, who performed Loco Loco in San Marino last year. And speaking of Loco Loco, he's back with a new original song, named Live Once. Lyrics by none other than THE Sanja Vučić. AKA black-haired girl from the former Hurricane. AKA lead vocalist for Serbia 2016. Music by Nemanja Antonić, the producer of Hurricane. Let's see how this plays out.

An interview also revealed that they have so far received over 500 submissions from 32 countries.

One interested big name is Elettra Lamborghini, who had participated in Sanremo 2020 with a song named "Musica (e il resto scompare)", which did not do so well at the festival but was rather popular otherwise. In a recent interview, she says that she has little chance of winning Sanremo, but she always has the choice of San Marino. She would also like to bring a reggaeton song. If she signs up then it is possible that she can directly skip the auditions and get put straight into a semi-final.

• Serbia

Returning to Pesma Za Evroviziju for their national final. Submissions opened on the 1st of September, and is set to end on the 1st of December. The actual national final is expected to take place in February. Not many rumoured names yet, although the rebooted Hurricane (with three new girls) are reportedly interested in entering.

• Slovenia

Confirmed participation publicly, on the deadline of participation confirmation for EBU broadcasters. The editor-in-chief of RTVSLO entertainment programming has confirmed the selection method to be EMA, though whether there will be any format changes to either the main show or Freš is yet to be revealed. Rumoured names include Raiven, July Jones and Gaja Prestor.

• 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 one more participant in each semi-final, bringing the total number of participants up to 16. 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, and on the 14th, RTVE revealed that Inés Hernand is set to return as a co-presenter, while Máximo Huerta will be headlining a pre-show leading up to Benidorm Fest, and Alaska who was also a co-presenter in BF2022 will be hosting the Christmas gala containing the BF2023 participants. It was also later reported that Rodrigo Vázquez would be joining Naranjo and Hernand as co-hosts of the show as well.

Shortly after the closing of submissions, RTVE announced that they had received 876 submissions, 10 fewer than last year. However, there were more artists from record companies (more specifically, 394) and professionals in general. The age range of the artists also greatly varied - the youngest would only turn 16 come 2023, and the oldest is *76*. Furthermore, on the last day of submissions alone, 150 proposals were received. Some of the proposals came from familiar Eurovision faces, while some others came from TikTok singers. In fact, they also reported receiving songs from some of the artists who had already participated in Benidorm Fest 2022 (which were allegedly Marta Sango and Blanca Paloma according to rumours on Twitter).

Finally, the list of participants was released on 26/10. Initially only 16 participants were planned, however this has now been raised to 18, due to the high quality of submissions they have received. This was done last year as well - the initial planned number I believe was 12, not 14. But sure enough, we saw Blanca Paloma return to the festival, after having just participated in it the year prior. One of the TikTok singers was also selected, that being Twin Melody, who had previously also released a song with Emma Muscat named "Ciao" (who have now brought a song named "Sayonara"). 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 76-year-old was confirmed to be Karina (Spain 1971). Although ultimately Karina was not selected, she nonetheless made an appearance at the introductory show on the 28th.

On the 3rd this month, an RTVE event was held where the artists' song names were revealed, as well as a brief description of the songs. And on the 14th, tickets for Benidorm Fest went on sale, and it was revealed that the tickets were sold out in under 30 SECONDS. The songs will be released all at once on the 19th next month.

• 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.

We can rule out Cornelia for 2023, as well as Dotter, Anna Bergendahl, Klara Hammarström, and probably Alvaro Estrella because of the infamous "3-year rule".

SVT revealed that they had received 2824 songs, up almost 300 from last year (2530) and reaching the highest number of submissions since *2012*, when 3485 songs were received then. The list of the final 28 selected artists is likely to be revealed sometime in December.

On 18/10, Aftonbladet reported that Wiktoria [✓], LouLou LaMotte (from The Mamas) [✓] and Nordman (with a song co-written by Jimmy Jansson) [✓] will take part in the next edition of Melodifestivalen. Furthermore, there are rumours of Darin, Frans and Clara Klingenström participating as well. In particular, the latter two were spotted at an SVT party, while the former has teased participation on his Instagram. Later, Torbjörn Ek, the primary Melfest reporter at Aftonbladet, said on a podcast that Nordman may be one to look out for in terms of popularity in Sweden, and may even become this year's Anders Bagge in terms of public results.

Other singers/artists that Aftonbladet have since reported to be taking part in the next Melodifestivalen include: Marcus & Martinus [✓], Theoz (2022 "Som Du Vill") [✓], Emil Henrohn [✓], Panetoz [✓], Smash Into Pieces [✓], Melanie Wehbe [✓], Paul Rey [✓], Tennessee Tears [✓], Elov & Beny [✓], Victor Crone (Estonia 2019) [✓], Ida-Lova Lind [✓], Maria Sur [✓], ***Loreen*** [✓], Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos [✓], Axel Schylström [✓], Laurell Barker (as a singer) [✓], Tone Sekelius [✓], Kiana Blanckert [✓], Rejhan Bellani (working with Albin Johnsén and Mattias Andréasson) [✓], Mariette Hansson [✓], and an unnamed sister duo whose grandfather is a "great Swedish artist" (bringing an original Swedish folk song) [✓(Signe & Hjördis - grandfather is Valter Bornemark) ]. Keep in mind that Aftonbladet are relatively reliable on Melfest names, and only got one or two wrong last year. Other rumoured names include Tareq Taylor, Jon Henrik Fjällgren [✓], Eric Saade, and Cazzi Opeia.

Aftonbladet later reported on the 15th that there will not be an in-person artist announcement conference this year, with SVT rather opting for a digital one. Or two, since Aftonbladet also reported that the artist announcement will take place over two days: the 29th and 30th of November.

It was also announced by the new project manager of Melodifestivalen, Anders Wistbacka, 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.

On the 29th and 30th, SVT announced the names that would be taking part in each heat of Melodifestivalen. Those with [✓] appended after their name above are the Aftonbladet-rumoured names that have since been confirmed. The remaining announced names were Eden Alm, Uje Brandelius, and Casanovas.

• Switzerland

Continuing to use an internal selection for their Eurovision act. Submissions opened on the 25th of August, and closed on the 8th of September. The resulting song and artist will be revealed in "early 2023". On the 27th, Ovi Jacobsen (Romania 2010 and 2014) posted on Facebook that the Swiss selection this year is now in its "last round".

• Ukraine

Returning to Vidbir for their national final, although it has been pushed early, from the usual date of February to now December of 2022, specifically on the 17th. The event will be held in the Majdan Nezaležnośti (Independence Square) metro station in Kyiv, and 10 songs will be competing.

Submissions closed on the 15th of October, and UA:PBC reported that 384 songs from 299 participants had been received, and the longlist of 36 participants was announced on the 27th. It included Jerry Heil, KRUTЬ, TVORCHI, and Tember Blanche, but no Christina Soloviy nor Roxolana.

On the 17th, the final 10-long shortlist was released, along with the song names. Among them were the 4 aforementioned names, as well as 2Tone, Angelina, DEMCHUK, FIINKA, Moisei, and OY Sound System.

Similarly to Junior Eurovision, UA:PBC opened a public online vote on the "Diya" app for people to choose their 3 jurors for Vidbir. Among the candidates were Tina Karol, Kateryna Pavlenko (Go_A), and Zlata Ognevich, however in the end Taras Topolya (husband of Alyosha (Ukraine 2010), Ukrainian artist), Jamala and Yulia Sanina (lead vocalist, The Hardkiss (Vidbir 2016 runner-up)) were selected to be the Vidbir jurors.

The songs will be presented in early December, specifically on the 1st on the UA:PBC Eurovision channel on YouTube.

• United Kingdom

Confirmed participation (obviously). Selection method is internal and will once again involve TaP Music. Lee Smithurst, BBC assistant HOD and one of the main architects that got TaP Music involved, has said on the Euro Trip podcast that TaP are now more familiar with the process and timescale and are currently searching for songs and artists. The artist announcement is expected sometime in February or March of 2023.

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 of November to this post. And rest assured that I won't mention the national selections that took place this month in any great detail in the blog post for next month. If you want to watch me read out some of the stuff mentioned here in video form, you can do so right here:

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