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

Happy new Eurovision year! And I thought to start off the Eurovision year right, we should take a look at what we already know about the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, plus an extra bit on Junior Eurovision. I'll first go through the general facts, and then go into each country that has confirmed participation, or at least the ones where we have a considerable degree of knowledge regarding their next participation. So let's go!

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.

Host City: either Glasgow (OVO Hydro) or Liverpool (M&S Bank Arena)

The shortlist previously contained 5 other cities, those being Birmingham (Resorts World Arena), Leeds (First Direct Arena), Manchester (AO Arena), Newcastle (Utilita Arena), Sheffield (Utilita Arena (a different one)). Prior to the shortening of the shortlist, Sheffield's chances were further scuppered by the fact that the Doncaster Sheffield Airport was going to close down due to it incurring economic losses. Other cities which had declared interest in bidding for host status included Aberdeen, Belfast, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, London, and Wolverhampton.

With the omission of London from the shortlist, this means that for the fourth year running, the contest will NOT be held in a capital city, with the most recent capital-city-hosted contest being 2018, in Lisbon, Portugal. Since then, we have had Tel Aviv in Israel, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Turin in Italy, and for 2023 it will not be the capital city neither of the UK (London), nor of Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff) or Northern Ireland (Belfast).

This is contrasted with Junior Eurovision, where the 2022 contest will be the third consecutive contest to be hosted in the host country's capital. The most recent non-capital-city-hosted contest was 2019, where JESC was hosted in Gliwice in Poland. Since then, we have had Warsaw in Poland, Paris in France, and for 2022 it will be Yerevan in Armenia.

On the 27th, it was announced that the shortlist was now down to only two cities: Glasgow, and Liverpool. Shortly before the announcement, Liverpool shot up the host city odds inexplicably to number 1, overtaking Glasgow for the first time since the odds were set up.

The big favourite to win the bid according to bookmakers was Glasgow, however Liverpool are now neck and neck with them following the announcement on the 27th. They each have their pros and cons, however this article is meant more as a fact package, and you can find many articles of local newspapers (and Wiwibloggs) cheering on their shortlisted city.

Host City Announcement Date: between late September and early October

The above was revealed to the Liverpool Echo by Liverpool councillor Anna Rothery. And indeed the following tweet from Twitter user @thereorderboard also confirms a similar date range: they wrote on the 25th of August that the 2023 city will be announced within the next 25-40 days:

This 25-40 days range works out to between the 19th of September and the 4th of October, with which the statement from Anna Rothery corroborates.

I also saw a post from a Spanish Eurofan who claimed that the exact date will be the 25th of September, however I don't speak Spanish so if anyone reading this does, do let me know what exactly he says in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DI8Uovt5C9Q

And if indeed the host city is announced by the 4th of October, it will be an earlier host city announcement than Turin, which was announced on the 8th, although it was meant to be announced in late August.

Although with the death of Queen Elizabeth II, there are now concerns that the host city announcement may yet be delayed further, because a good amount of commercial activity has been restricted or outright prohibited during the so-called "mourning period", during which personnel from the BBC may have arranged to visit the host city candidates. But of course it remains to be seen whether this has hampered operations at all.

On the 26th, Graham Norton, the principal Eurovision commentator for the BBC, tells BBC Breakfast that the host city will apparently be decided using a point-based system. Furthermore, he says 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.

STV News also reports that the BBC host city committee will visit Glasgow on the 30th. Probably safe to assume we're not getting the host city announcement this month then. As yet it is unknown when the committee will visit Liverpool.

Show Dates: in May; either on 2-4-6, 9-11-13, 16-18-20, or 23-25-27 for the two semi-finals plus the grand final.

This much is obvious if you just open the calendar, but I might also suggest that everything points towards 16-18-20. The last contest where we had odd-number dates was Kyiv 2017, when we had 9-11-13. Since then, we have had 8-10-12 in Lisbon, 14-16-18 in Tel Aviv, 12-14-16 for the theoretical 2020 Rotterdam, 18-20-22 for the actual 2021 Rotterdam, and 10-12-14 for Turin. 2-4-6 is far too early for Eurovision, at least according to recent precedent, so there's really only one even-number week choice. I know some people who are already displeased at that, but it's what the numbers are saying. I could be wrong of course, but I would personally watch out for that set of dates.

Rule Changes: none specifically

Controversially, the pre-recorded vocals rule remains in place for a third year in a row, that is, backing vocals are permitted to be put on the backing track rather than having live singers provide said vocals, although the latter is still permitted, seen in acts such as Denmark 2021 where the backing singers were clearly visible onstage clapping in addition to singing. 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. One could only assume that this was brought about due to Subwoolfer, but that is just speculation on my part.

Administrative Directors: Rachel Ashdown (Lead Commissioner)

On the 28th, 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".

Now, the BBC are seeking a production company to deliver the coverage of the Insignia Handover and Allocation Draw. A very short opening window; this is being written in the early hours of the 29th, and it closes at 7pm UK time. Might as well just write "it closed on blah blah blah" by the time anyone reads this.

Non-participating Countries (for now): Andorra, Belarus, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Russia, Slovakia

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

Though it should be noted that in the case of Slovakia, a new director-general was elected in June, that being Ľuboš Machaj who displaced the incumbent Jaroslav Rezník. He had previously been involved in the participation of Slovakia in Eurovision 2011, although their participation that year was only due to the newly-established Slovak national broadcaster, RTVS, forgetting to withdraw. According to Eurocontest.cz, RTVS was supposed to announce their decision on Eurovision participation by August, however this has not yet been done. Notably though, Jaroslav Rezník was (obviously) very anti-Eurovision, while Ľuboš Machaj has not made any statement regarding Eurovision as of late. The Rezník-run RTVS had confirmed non-participation back in June, however Machaj has not reaffirmed it nor denounced it.

Also Monaco has officially confirmed non-participation. This came as little surprise to anyone, since for one, Monaco had been absent for many years already; and secondly, the new public Monegasque broadcaster, Monte-Carlo Riviera, has delayed its launch, such that it will not be able to join the EBU in time for Eurovision 2023. So 2024 maybe, but definitely not 2023.

Kosovo should also be given a brief mention: the director of the Kosovar broadcaster, RTK, confirmed that they are aiming to join the EBU by the end of the year. However RTK isn't even in the International Telecommunications Union, which is a prerequisite to joining the EBU. Furthermore, and this is just my own thinking here: is the deadline of participation not in November or some such? Therefore how would they be able to apply in time and also meet the deadline for Eurovision participation? I don't know. I haven't put them on the non-participating countries list for now however I don't see it as very likely at all.

And Kazakhstan I don't think will debut this year. Maybe in the next few years, but for now Kazakhstan is still using the same regional dialing prefix as Russia, i.e.+7, which makes it problematic for televoting. I think I might touch on this in more detail in a dedicated post (and maybe video) about Kazakhstan, but the transition to a new dialing prefix (that being +997) is expected to start in January of 2023 and conclude by 2025. So I don't envisage them being invited to adult Eurovision until 2024 at the earliest. Now, onto countries that have confirmed participation.

Participating Countries (for now): 33 countries, which are as follows:

• Albania

Returning to Festivali I Këngës for their selection, specifically the 61st edition. No exact dates for FIK61 yet, but December 2022 is expected and indeed confirmed by RTSH. 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. Apparently such casting is showing possible signs of modernization of the festival, according to Albanian Eurofans.

Rumoured names include Arilena Ara (Eurovision 2020), DJ Sardi, Noizy, Rina, and Mirud (again). Apparently Elvana Gjata is all but confirmed to NOT participate. Update 11/9/22: someone allegedly saw her in the RTSH building. This is the rumour section so just take it with a pinch of salt. Update 13/9/22: there are now further rumours that Elvana is working with Dhurata Dora for a new FIK song and that they will participate if the televote is guaranteed to be added. Again, RUMOURS. (And yes I will keep spelling it with a U. Born and raised in an ex-British colony; what can you do about it.)

Update: there are now rumours that the *televote* will return to FIK. According to OGAE Greece, apparently this option is being discussed and no solid decision has been made yet.

• Australia

Does not need to confirm participation, as the EBU's invitation for SBS to participate in Eurovision goes until 2023 inclusive. Beyond that, their future in the contest remains unknown.

No announcements yet, but the selection method is expected to be Australia Decides, to be hosted by Joel Creasey and Myf Warhurst who are also the Australian commentators for Eurovision. The event is expected to take place sometime in February of 2023.

Some are speculating now that Dami Im (Australia 2016) might do Australia Decides. Apparently she said in an interview with Songfestival.be that were she to do Eurovision again, then she would want to attend all of the pre-parties. And it just so happens that she has already been confirmed to appear at the Barcelona Eurovision Party, taking place in March next year. But this is purely speculation - after all she said that she wanted to show up for 2022 as well, and of course she didn't end up on the AD2022 lineup. But we certainly can't rule it out for the time being.

• Austria

Not much on Austria yet other than participation confirmation. Expected to use another internal selection. Someone posited the idea of Austrian-born Felicia Lu going for Austria rather than Germany, but I don't know if it's all that likely. I will say, her sudden re-appearance on Eurovision Twitter right around ESC New Year is...interesting to say the least. The artist announcement date is not yet known, though it is expected to be in 2023 rather than December or November of 2022.

• Belgium

It's VRT's turn this year. Returning to their national final Eurosong for the first time since 2016, where Laura Tesoro got 10th which for recent standards is pretty damn good for VRT. The host is set to be Peter van De Veire, the VRT commentator on Eurovision as well as previous (co-)host of previous Eurosongs. The show is set to last a whole seven weeks.

Many rumoured names, some of which Songfestival.be has been asking about:

1. Negative reaction (i.e. confirmed non-participation): Pommelien Thijs, Camille

2. Neutral reaction (e.g. wait and see/to be discussed): Natalia, Laura Tesoro, Pauline

3. Somewhat positive reaction (i.e. will participate but only under circumstances): The Starlings (incl. Tom Dice), Margriet Hermans

4. Positive reaction: 2 Fabiola (Pat Krimson, Loredana; Eurosong 2014)

Nothing from Luka Cruysberghs yet, though Songfestival.be didn't explicitly go and ask her. The national final is set to take place over five to seven weeks, and will most likely conclude in February or early March.

Songfestival.be also reported on the 21st that there will not be an 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. The time at which more details regarding Eurosong 2023 will be announced is as yet unknown.

• Croatia

Confirmed participation, and opened submissions for Dora 2023. These submissions will be open until the 28th of November. Between 14-28 songs will be selected, and the national final will take place in February in the city of Opatija.

• Cyprus

Continuing to use an internal selection for 2023, although there are plans to use All Together Now for 2024. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Not much else has been divulged. But Eurovisionfun, a Greek Eurovision news site, speculates that Andrew Lambrou (Australia Decides 2022) might be in talks to represent Cyprus. Read this for more details: https://eurovisionfun.com/en/2022/08/andrew-lambrou-with-which-country-is-the-singer-in-discussions-for-eurovision-2023/

Otherwise they might continue down the path of choosing someone from Panik Records and then getting someone else to write a song for them.

Update 20/9/22: apparently a certain artist named Antigoni has just signed to Panik Records, as revealed by her on an Instagram story. This leads to speculations that she might be doing Eurovision 2023 for Cyprus, but of course only time will tell.

• Denmark

Confirmed participation. DR opened submissions for DMGP on the 8th of September, and submissions will remain 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, instead of the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning which hosted the previous few editions. No rumoured names just yet.

• 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, while the final will take place on the 11th of February. 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 is expected to be 20, as opposed to 40 this year.

Submissions opened on the 13th of September, and will close on the 20th of October. The songs are to be revealed on the 3rd of December.

• 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.

• 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, though one has the feeling that we will not get any Breton-language songs, at least for this year.

Update: just saw a tweet from Igit who wonders whether he should write a song for the French national selection. Let's see if that goes anywhere. It took me way too long to find this out but Igit was a co-composer of Voila (France 2021), as well as Les Chansons D'Amour from CVQD 2022. So he might be involved in CVQD for the third year in a row.

• 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. It is not yet known when The Voice Georgia will take place, but going by the first three seasons, it looks likely to start in October of 2022 and conclude in January of 2023. Submissions opened on the 23rd of August and closed on the 20th this month.

• Germany

Confirmed participation. Germany 12 Points is expected to be the selection method. No rumoured names nor changes in format yet.

Update: Felicia Lu has now tweeted that she's not gonna enter national finals anymore, but still views Eurovision as "a dream and goal" of hers. Does this mean she's going for Austria, or what?

• Greece

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

No huge rule changes, although this time ERT has specified, and I quote: "Until the completion of their (the applicants') evaluation, they may not have submitted simultaneously to a corresponding procedure of another body participating in the Eurovision Song Contest." It seems a reasonable guess that this was more or less aimed directly at Evangelia, who last year (or in any case for 2022) submitted her songs to BOTH ERT and CyBC, and had initially announced a few months back that she would repeat such a process for 2023. Now it looks like she will have to choose her loyalties, and it makes you wonder whether she would've made it onto the ERT 5-person shortlist, had she not submitted to CyBC as well. Either way, Evangelia seems hellbent on wanting to go to Eurovision, be it for Cyprus or her half-native Greece. Also stream Onira for clear skin.

Now Eurovisionfun is a Greek Eurovision site, and as such it is no surprise that they have a roster of rumoured artists that will send songs to ERT. These include our aforementioned Evangelia, as well as Vassilis Kourtis, Melissa Mantzoukis (who is actually Greek-German), Leon of Athens, Joanne (who was also rumoured for 2022), Katerina Stikoudis who I mentioned in my national finals blog post, Kalomira (yes, the Secret Combination one), and Klaudia.

And apparently we already have one confirmed name (other than Evangelia) who plans to submit a song to ERT. That is Artemis Matafia, who in late August released one of her songs which she had submitted to ERT for 2022, titled "Dreamers". She announced through Instagram that she would be submitting a proposal to ERT again for 2023.

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. Incidentally, good job nicky's all-time favourite Eurovision song is apparently Nocturne. It's not known whether he plans to submit a song for 2023 or not, though he seemed displeased that he had not been selected with Heaven Is Sin.

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.

Update: Josephine Wendel has now said during an interview that she would only want to represent Greece at Eurovision, never Cyprus. However, she also acknowledges that ERT has been going down an artistic path very different from her own. Furthermore, she would only do Eurovision if she was *asked* by ERT. ERT doesn't do asking - they invite artists to send in their proposals rather than building a proposal and then asking an artist to do it. That latter one is Cyprus' way. So if anyone was wanting to see Josephine at Eurovision in the near future, it ain't happening.

Update 2: apparently there's a certain Marina who is rumoured to be interested in Eurovision? I don't know anything about this artist so I'm just repeating what I saw on Twitter. Let me know of the actual circumstances.

Update 15/9/22: two more rumoured names now. The first one is Mike Connaris, who co-wrote the Cypriot entries for 2004 and 2015. He's only a songwriter, but he wrote a song for a certain Cynthia Verazie, who was apparently living in Limassol, but is of Polish origin? And then moved to Norway?? No idea. But that's what Eurovisionfun is reporting, that Connaris has written a song for Verazie and has submitted the proposal to ERT.

The second name is Leon of Athens. A Greek-American singer like Evangelia, he has been on Eurofans' wishlists for many years now, also like Evangelia. OGAE Greece reports that he is preparing a proposal to submit to ERT. We'll see what happens there. Further reports suggest that he will be working with the Dream Team for his proposal, most likely for the staging in the same way that Good Job Nicky did last year.

And speaking of Evangelia, she has announced on an Instagram live that she is in the process of preparing a new song specifically for ERT, and not CyBC, assuming that she knows about the new rule that was put into place for 2023. On the same livestream, Amanda Tenfjord (with whom Evangelia just released a new collab; Aman now out on all streaming platforms) said that she will do whatever she can to get Evangelia to Eurovision. (FYI, they've actually been besties for quite a while now. I remember seeing them posting Instagram stories of having breakfast together in Athens a few months back.)

And Eurovisionfun is posting so many rando Greek (or even non-Greek) singers that I'm not gonna relay any more of them unless it's Good Job Nicky. Go check their site if you care. Other than GJN, I'm only gonna report if a huge name submits a song, such as Kalomira who was gonna do so last year. And of course I'll write about it when the submission period ends.

On the 31st, ERT announced that they had received over 50 submissions.

• 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 are now open, until the 4th of October. By January, the artists taking part in the national final will be revealed.

• Ireland

Participation has been confirmed by RTE. On the 31st, 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, 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 submitted an entry 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 USD, 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, even including Diodato from 2020, and a full participant list is expected to be published in December. And notably, all participants are now required to sign a form, where in the event they win Sanremo 2023, they *must* represent Italy at Eurovision 2023. However apparently it's also not mandatory to submit the form? In which case Rai will select another act from Sanremo to represent Italy at Eurovision 2023. I don't really get it.

• Latvia

Returning to Supernova for their selection, Submissions opened on the 22nd, 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

Confirmed participation. Pabandom Iš Naujo is expected to be the selection method, and it is expected to take place in February of 2023.

• Malta

They will be returning to MESC, or Malta Eurovision Song Contest, for their selection method. Submissions will be open between the 17th and 31st of October. 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.

• Netherlands

Continuing to use an internal selection. Applications closed on the 31st of August, before which AVROTROS was seeking "an entry with preferably a contemporary, but in any case authentic sound. A song that is able to survive in a competition. By a Dutch artist who can and wants to present a personal song in a distinctive way, in any genre, and if possible a personal story." The submissions will now be looked at by the jury, which consists of Jan Smit (co-host of Eurovision 2021), Cornald Maas (fellow Dutch commentator of Eurovision alongside Jan), among others.

An initial rumoured name was Froukje, a good friend of S10 and also a Dutch-language singer. However on an interview she did alongside S10, she said that she was not ready for Eurovision yet. So most likely not this year. Maan and Lakshmi had been in the selection for 2022, and it may be possible that they will return to the selection.

Another rumoured name is Blanks, who had previously won a talent show named Beste Zangers. He had expressed interest in submitting a song for Eurovision, as has a certain Dany, who won The Voice of Holland.

It is unknown when AVROTROS will announce the Dutch representative. It can range from between November and January, and last year we got S10 in December. Either way, generally said representative's song is only revealed in March.

Update 4/9: in an interview, Cornald Maas says that he does not expect the number of submissions for 2023 to exceed that of 2022, and also that they hope to select the act within November. So there's a date range to look out for.

• Norway

Returning to Melodi Grand Prix for their national final. The page "Eurovision Norway" on Twitter made a series of polls asking how fans would like to see the pre-selection to be improved, such as re-introducing a jury or removing the automatic qualifiers. The owners of the page do have direct contact with Stig Karlsen, the Norwegian head of delegation, although sentiments are generally pessimistic about any actual meaningful reform happening to the format.

Part of this pessimism is due to the fact that the MGP songwriting camps, which have long been criticized as lacking authenticity, have already gone ahead in Rena in eastern Norway. OGAE Greece(?!) reports that many Norwegian artists from previous editions have shown up at said camps, including Ben Adams and Gaute Ormåsen from Subwoolfer, Elsie Bay, Oda Gondrosen, Emmy, Imerika, among others. It remains to be seen whether said artists will return to MGP, and if so whether as a songwriter or singer or both.

The artist reveal is expected to take place in early January, while the national final is expected to conclude in mid February.

• Poland

TVP revealed on the 19th that they will be returning to a national final for 2023. But unlike 2022, the name of the selection will return to "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.

Also TVP recently got a new president, that being Mateusz Matyszkowicz, replacing the incumbent Jacek Kurski. It remains to be seen how this will affect their Eurovision participation, if at all.

• 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 will close on the 21st of October.

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.

• Romania

Confirmed participation, despite continuing to discuss whether to sue the EBU. In the meantime, the selection method is expected to remain as Selecția Națională, and is expected to take place either in February or early March.

The main rumoured name is Olivia Addams, who is under the same record label as WRS and Roxen (that being Global Records), and is apparently very popular in Romania and also Poland. Earlier on she said she would consider sending a song to the selection; later during an Instagram Q&A, when someone asked "Eurovision 2023?", she responded "that's the plan". Her style is generally just pop, and according to some Romanian Eurofans she can sing live (unlike a dragged-around Roxen), and some Romanians claim that Selecția Națională is being rigged by TVR to favour Global Records artists, so let's see what happens.

Update: and speaking of Roxen, Roxen has now also asked on a poll on an Instagram story whether their followers would like to see them do Eurovision 2023, presumably meaning whether they should enter a new song into Selecția Națională. (Does Roxen go by she/her or they/them? Genuine question.) So far the response has been resoundingly positive. But if there's two Global Records singers, then who should TVR rig it for? A question for the ages.

Update 13/9/22: apparently another famous Romanian singer named Holy Molly has asked on her Instagram stories to her followers whether they would want to see her do Eurovision. Haven't checked the responses so far but that first part is what I've heard.

• 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. As of the 31st of August, it was reported that 80 submissions had already been received over a period of 10 days. The grand final will take place on the 25th of February.

On the 21st this month, it was reported that submissions have been received from these countries: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

A further press conferencce on the 30th revealed that over 300 applications have now been received, and the production team expect to get over 1000 applications by the deadline.

• Serbia

Returning to Pesma Za Evroviziju for their national final. Submissions opened on the 1st of September, and is set to end on the 15th of November. (little side note: they specified that songs must be in one of the official languages of Serbia, which apparently includes Hungarian, Romani, Slovak, and even Rusyn!) The actual national final is expected to take place in February.

No rumoured names yet, though some think Sara Jo may make a return, and the new male version of Hurricane (which I can't remember the name of) may make an appearance as well. I might also suggest Sanja Vučić making another appearance as a soloist, but only time will tell.

• Slovenia

Confirmed participation publicly, on the deadline of participation confirmation for EBU broadcasters. The selection method is expected to be EMA, though whether there will be any format changes to either the main show or Freš is yet to be revealed. No rumoured names yet.

• Spain

Returning to Benidorm Fest for their national final, for a second time. Submissions opened on the 1st of September, and is set to close on the 12th of October. The actual 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 event will once again take place in the Palau D'Esports L'Illa de Benidorm.

The voting system remains the same, but there are now 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.

MANY rumoured names, but Megara have confirmed that they have sent a song named "Arcadia", while Ana Mena has more or less confirmed that she will not. Furthermore, a Galician singer named hydn has tweeted that a "temacísimo" or a very big song is on the way and she intends to submit it to RTVE. The winner of the eurovision-spain.com "internal selection", Maria Jose Llergo, has been rather unclear on whether she will participate this year. In the last internal selection (basically a Spanish fan vote), Tanxugueiras and Rayden both appeared as fan favourites, and they of course ended up in the national final. Other names that appeared on the internal selection include GuitarricaDeLaFuente, Solea Morente, Amatria, Paula Koops, Dani Fernandez, Tatiana Delalvz, Alice Wonder, Neomak, Belen Aguilera (who confirmed that she will not send a song to BF), and Ptazeta.

There are also rumours going around in the Spanish community that a singer that was previously involved with Eurovision will return and send a very good song (or in their words, "temazo") to Benidorm Fest. Speculations range from Miki Núñez, to Amaia in Amaia and Alfred, to Pastora Soler or Ruth Lorenzo, to Maria Isabel, the winner of JESC2004, although we can rule her out early because she's pregnant now and the baby is due right around Eurovision time. Either way, the full participant list of Benidorm Fest is expected to be released before Christmas at the latest, as RTVE apparently plans to hold a Christmas gala with all the BF2023 participants.

Submissions were opened on the 1st this month, to be closed on the 10th of October.

• Sweden

Returning to Melodifestivalen for their national final. The director continues to be Karin Gunnarsson, who took over from Christer Bjorkman.

Some rumoured names, such as Darin and Wiktoria. The latter had recently been seen with the songwriters who wrote "Move" for The Mamas in Melfest 2020. Furthermore, RedOne, who had previously launched Love Generation and gave us "Dance Alone" for Melfest 2011(?) and obviously Cornelia Jakobs, has just launched a new girlband in late August, named "4Love". Let's see if this goes anywhere w.r.t. Melfest.

Can't find the exact quotation, but Cornelia said somewhere that she's not gonna do Melfest 2023, which is fair enough I suppose. (Update: in an interview with an LRT journalist when she went to sing at a festival in Vilnius, she says that she does not have an opinion on the matter yet, but says that there are other things in life that she wants to do first before returning, if at all.) Likewise, indirectly, Dotter also confirmed her non-participation, since she announced her pregnancy during the ESC2022 grand final, and her baby is presumably due around April or May. Anna Bergendahl's off doing her medical degree, and Alvaro Estrella has done Melfest three years in a row now so by Melfest tradition, he will likely get "timed out", which may come as a relief to several Eurofans.

The list of artists is expected to be revealed sometime in December. Melodifestivalen is set to tour the country over several heats, concluding in a grand final in Stockholm on the 11th of March.

On the 16th, SVT revealed that they have 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. As mentioned above, the list of the final 28 selected artists is likely to be revealed sometime in December. Furthermore, Tobbe Ek reports over on Aftonbladet that Farah Abadi is set to return as one of the two hosts of the show, and there were some hints that the other host is going to be John Lundvik, although later on Tobbe made a further report which stated that the other host will be Jesper Rönndahl, a famous Swedish comedian who hosts a parody news show, akin to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. This was confirmed several days later in a press conference held by SVT.

On the 24th, the selection of 14 of the 28 songs was completed by a jury, and the other half will come from artists under record labels that were contacted by SVT.

• 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". Keep in mind that for 2022, this meant the 8th of March. Their selection process is VERY secretive, and we won't even get teasers until just one or two weeks before the announcement.

• 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. The event will be held in the Kyiv metro station, which saw UA:PBC stage a unique performance of Solovey on the 24th of August, Ukraine's independence day, for their national day concert.

Rumoured/interested names include Tayanna (Vidbir runner-up on two occasions, Ukrainian spokesperson in 2021), Roxolana from Vidbir 2022 with Girls, Christina/Khrystyna Soloviy (who was also the head juror for Junior Vidbir) as well as Artem Pivovarov. There's probably more but I can't find any at the moment.

Submissions are now open until the 15th of October, and as of the 8th of September, UA:PBC reports that 42 songs have been received so far.

On the 28th, MUZVAR reported on an potential longlist for Vidbir. It includes Christina Soloviy, Jerry Heil, KRUTЬ, TVORCHI, Tember Blanche, among others. They also reported that the deadline to submit demos of their tracks is the 15th of October, and the event itself is expected to take place around the 17th of December. The aforementioned Artem Pivovarov is unfortunately ineligible to enter as he had hosted concerts in Russia sometime ago. Roxolana and Tayanna as yet nowhere to be seen.

• United Kingdom

Confirmed participation (obviously). Selection method is internal and will once again involve TaP Music. Announcement itself may be completely inconspicuous, as was the case for Sam Ryder, where a too-long-for-Eurovision cut of Space Man had been played on BBC Radio 2 for roughly two weeks before they officially announced Sam Ryder as the British representative for Turin. Regardless, said announcement is expected sometime in February or March of 2023.

We also have several quasi-confirmed countries, such as the likes of North Macedonia, which recently produced a comprehensive report on how to improve results at the contest. But to quote the Wikipedia page, "an official confirmation of participation is pending". Though concerns have been raised over the fact that MRT recently posted a draft budget for 2023, and it explicitly mentioned Junior Eurovision 2023, but not the adult contest, leading to withdrawal speculations.

And with Azerbaijan, the Turkish Eurovision news site ESChalley reports that Azerbaijani media are claiming 2023 participation is uncertain, due to "poor results" and instability due to the conflict with/against Armenia. However, the Azerbaijani Eurovision news site 12xal has refuted this, saying that there is not even a mention of such a circumstance in the news. Make up your own mind.

Either way, the deadline for broadcasters to confirm participation was the 15th of September, after which they have just under a month, until the 11th of October, to withdraw with no financial penalty. More public participation confirmations are expected, largely from the countries that already participated in Eurovision 2022. Finally, if we take precedent, the full country list should be released around mid-October.

Junior Eurovision 2022

Now that we've gone through all the countries in adult Eurovision, let's take a quick look at Junior Eurovision! On the 26th, the official Junior Eurovision website posted the theme art, slogan and participant list, and they will be detailed as follows:

Host Country: Armenia

They won last year. It wasn't always the case that the winning country would host, but it has been the case since 2019. Not much to say here.

Host City: Yerevan

There wasn't really a vetting process because there (to my understanding) unfortunately aren't any other cities with an arena large enough to host the contest. So it came as little surprise when the capital city was confirmed as the host city of the next Junior contest just two days after Malena's victory.

Host Arena: Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex

Same location as in JESC2011. Note that Karen is not a female name here, and if my understanding of Armenian is correct, the stress should be placed on the last syllable, as in Kuh-REN, rather than KAE-ruhn. But I guess for Anglophone purposes that second pronunciation is fine. Soviet-era arena, and it appears they do not have any other suitable location and have not constructed one since independence in the 90s.

Slogan: Spin the Magic

The theme art as shown here features a spinning top, as does the trailer for the event. To quote the AMPTV CEO: "While developing the idea, we realised that a lot of countries have spinning tops, each of them unique. This perfectly reflects the values of Junior Eurovision - everyone is united around the idea of magic, music and joy, and at the same time presenting a different song and performance."

The article then goes on to explain that "while known the world over, this particular variety of spinning top is unique in Armenian culture; featuring traditional patterns that appear on historical architecture, carpets, and costumes across the Host City of Yerevan. These old-school wooden toys have been given a neon twist - quite literally - to reflect a modern Armenia." Furthermore, 16 spinning tops have been produced in the colours of the flags of each participating country.

Non-participating Countries: Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Montenegro, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Wales

Some are more obvious than others. I may have missed a few but that's because the Wikipedia page removed the broadcasters that confirmed non-participation without explanation. Germany is still broadcasting the show despite their absence due to a "creative break" and travel restrictions.

Participating Countries: Albania, Armenia, France, Georgia (Mariam Bigvava), Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan (David Charlin), Malta, Netherlands (Luna - La Festa), North Macedonia (Lara and Irina), Poland (Laura Bączkiewicz - To The Moon), Portugal (Nicolas Alves), Serbia, Spain, Ukraine (Zlata Dziunka - Nezlamna), United Kingdom

Worth noting that the UK is not only returning, but they are also broadcasting the show on *BBC One*, on which day there happens to be no World Cup match. Likewise, Italy is broadcasting the show on Rai 1. Something going on with these Big Five countries? Anyways, the UK is returning, but Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Germany and Russia are not. It had been rumoured that the EBU were seeking to have 20 countries for the 20th edition of the contest but alas it was clearly not to be.

On the confirmed representatives:

Georgia: Mariam Bigvava won the usual Georgian JESC selection of Ranina, and became the first confirmed representative for the 2022 contest.

Kazakhstan: David Charlin was the highest-ranked eligible participant (as in the winner and other higher-ranked contestants incl. weirdly enough Melani Garcia (Spain JESC2019) were too old and/or non-Kazakh in origin) in a Kazakh song contest called "Baqytty Bala". He recently posted Instagram stories of him filming some sort of music video. He looked to be singing a ballad in the video, although this video was later revealed to not be linked to JESC.

Netherlands: they used their usual Junior Songfestival for the selection, and this year it was be hosted by Stefania (Greece ESC2021, Netherlands JESC2016) and Matheu Hinzen (Netherlands JESC2019) in Rotterdam Ahoy, the same location as ESC2021. There were four songs, sung respectively by a solo girl, a boy band, a girl group, and a mixed group. The selection took place on the 24th of September, and the favourite among Eurofans was "La Festa" by Luna, the solo female act. Ultimately, La Festa did win the selection with maximum points, so Luna will be representing the Netherlands in Yerevan.

Poland: went back to Szansa Na Sukces for their selection. The final took place one day after Junior Songfestival, and resulted in the selection of Laura Bączkiewicz with the song "To The Moon".

North Macedonia: Lara and Irina were internally selected after a series of auditions. One of them (I can't remember which) is the daughter of a famous Macedonian pianist, and has a lot of public singing experience. The other girl in stark contrast has little, if any, public singing experience. Not much else is known, including song release time range. Update: Eurovoix has learned that their song is set to be released by the end of September. I'll do my JESC song reviews either on another blog post or in a long tweet thread.

Portugal: Nicolas Alves won The Voice Kids Portugal, or rather he was the runner-up because the actual winner was too old for JESC by just over 2 weeks. He does a GREAT Michael Jackson singing impression, although you can tell he is young. And interestingly, he was born in England, but is not of direct Portuguese heritage but rather Brazilian, and has only been living in Portugal since 2019.

Ukraine: UA:PBC held a public vote for the three jurors of their junior national selection (or I guess you can call it Junior Vidbir), and they were been revealed to be Christina Soloviy, Myroslava Saliy, and Anzhelika Rudnicka, with Soloviy as the head juror. The shortlist also included the likes of Sophia Ivanko (Ukraine JESC2019), KRUTЬ from Vidbir 2020, among others. A televised selection for the Ukrainian representative in Yerevan was held on the 18th. The favourite among Eurofans was "Zamovliannia" by Sofia Artemenko and DJ Polinka, however "Nezlamna" by Zlata Dziunka ultimately won out by a single point, in a tiebreaker broken by Soloviy. Dziunka will now represent Ukraine in Junior Eurovision 2022.

With the other countries:

Albania is going back to Junior Fest, which will take place in September. On the 28th, the full participant list was revealed, although the date of the selection is not yet known. It looks likely to be in October rather than the original intended September, given the late announcement date of the participants.

Armenia has conducted a series of auditions, where over 100 applicants were whittled down into 30 by a jury consisting of Rosa Linn, Dalita (JESC2011 "Welcome To Armenia"), David Tserunyan (the head of delegation), among others. No Depi Mankakan Evratesil this year; it is going to be entirely internal. The song which will represent the host country will be composed shortly after the selection of the representative.

Bulgaria initially announced participation earlier on in the year, however the BNT account (which for all we know might not even be run by BNT) tweeted this on the 25th:

And ultimately, they did not appear on the participant list.

Ireland is going back to Junior Eurovision Eire for their selection, but unlike previous years where the whole show, including the determining of the winner, was pre-recorded in the summer, this time, according to Brooke on an interview, only the performances and jury voting were pre-recorded. A new televote has been added, and the winner will only be revealed by the time the show is broadcasted and the televote has happened. Brooke, by the way, was on the jury, alongside Niamh Kavanagh, Ryan O'Shaughnessy, among other Irish Eurovision names. The format this year consists of four "rounds", followed by a semi-final and then a final. The first round took place on the 18th this month; the final takes place on the 23rd next month. So even if you won't watch the first couple shows, it's still probably a good idea to watch out for the last.

Malta is using MJESC as their selection, and as of writing this, the names and song titles have JUST been released, and only one song out of 16 is in Maltese. Regardless, the show is set to take place on the 2nd of October, and 40+-second snippets of the songs were released on the 23rd this month.

Serbia has opened calls for auditions, and RTS says that they may hold a televised selection if they get enough applicants, which was not the case last year.

Likewise, Spain has also opened calls for auditions. Eva Mora, the new head of delegation, says that a televised selection may be possible in the future, but not this year. Submissions closed on the 15th.

The United Kingdom appears to be selecting their representative internally, via CBBC, and in cooperation with the agency named "Buzz Talent", which put out a post on Instagram seeking "incredible singers aged 9-14 years old that live in the UK", more specifically pop singers.

And finally, two countries to look out for that I thought* might either return to or debut at Junior Eurovision:

1. Croatia. A Twitter account named "Eurovision Croatia" tweeted that Croatia is returning to Junior Eurovision after 7 years of absence. The account is unofficial, and the Croatian Eurovision Club has contacted HRT for confirmation or denial, but no response has been received thus far. Update 7/9/2022: This unofficial Eurovision Croatia account now claims that a certain Lana Carić will be representing Croatia in Yerevan. Of course Lana quickly denied this upon being asked on Instagram, but her elaboration was interesting. I quote: "I have been thinking about going but I'm not sure yet". So could this imply that she has already been approached by HRT? Or applications are open internally? Who knows. Either way, it seems like there's more below the surface.

2. Slovakia. This sounds weird but in both 2019 and 2021, spokespersons at RTVS made statements that they were "considering" debuting in Junior Eurovision. Of course this did not happen, but the fact that the consideration happened when a Eurovision-hating director-general was in charge is huge. And now, RTVS has elected a new, seemingly not Eurovision-hating director-general, so let's see what happens.

Of course we now know that they did not appear on the final participant list, but hey, it's (was?) off-season, I had to find something to do.

So that's all I know about Eurovision 2023 and Junior Eurovision 2022 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 September 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.