ESC 2023 – Selezioni Nazionali – 1ª Semi-Finale | L'Europazzia NEWS

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La selezione dei partecipanti all’Eurovision Song Contest spetta alle emittenti televisive competenti dei singoli stati. A loro spetta la scelta del metodo di selezione: una selezione interna (quindi cantante e/o brano vengono scelti dall’emittente stessa), come accade solitamente per San Marino o Australia, oppure può organizzare un festival musicale (il pubblico sceglie un vincitore che viene invitato a partecipare all’Eurovision Song Contest), come accade in Norvegia (Norsk Melodi Grand Prix), Svezia (Melodifestivalen), Italia (Festival di Sanremo), Grecia (Ellinikós Telikós) e molti altri. Il vincitore dell’eventuale festival però non è obbligato a partecipare all’Eurovision Song Contest né tanto meno è obbligato ad esibirsi con la canzone vincitrice, ad esempio Iva Zanicchi ha vinto il Festival di Sanremo nel 1969, in coppia con Bobby Solo, con la canzone “Zingara”, ma all’Eurovision Song Contest si presentò da sola con il brano “Due grosse lacrime bianche”. Con il tempo buona parte delle emittenti sta abbandonando la selezione interna in favore del festival musicale.

I partecipanti non devono obbligatoriamente avere vincoli di nazionalità (ad esempio nel 1988 la Svizzera vinse con la cantante canadese Céline Dion) e le canzoni non hanno restrizioni riguardanti la lingua (anche se nelle prime edizioni vigeva un obbligo di cantare in una delle lingue ufficiali del proprio paese).

L’Eurovision Song Contest 2023 sarà la 67ª edizione dell’annuale concorso canoro. Il concorso si svolgerà presso la Liverpool Arena di Liverpool, nel Regno Unito, dopo che l’Ucraina, vincitrice dell’edizione precedente in seguito alla vittoria della Kalush Orchestra con “Stefania”, è stata dichiarata non in grado di ospitare il concorso a causa dell’invasione russa del territorio ucraino; sarà la nona edizione della manifestazione musicale a svolgersi in terra britannica, dopo le edizioni del 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982 e 1998.

A seguito della vittoria ucraina all’edizione 2022, ospitata dalla città italiana di Torino, l’EBU-UER ha invitato il paese, come da tradizione, a ospitare l’evento l’anno seguente, divenendo così la terza edizione della manifestazione musicale a svolgersi in Ucraina dopo quelle del 2005 e del 2017. Tuttavia, alla luce dell’invasione russa del territorio ucraino, è stato ipotizzato che un paese facente parte dei Big Five (Francia, Germania, Italia, Regno Unito e Spagna) avrebbe ospitato l’evento in cooperazione con l’emittente UA:PBC. A stretto giro ha seguito l’interesse ad ospitare l’evento di diversi paesi tra cui il Belgio (RTBF), l’Italia (Rai), i Paesi Bassi (NPO/AVROTROS), la Polonia (TVP), il Regno Unito (BBC) e la Svezia (SVT). Originariamente anche la Spagna (RTVE) aveva mostrato interesse a ospitare l’evento ma il 14 giugno 2022 ha ufficialmente ritirato la sua candidatura.

Il 17 giugno 2022 l’EBU-UER tramite un comunicato ha annunciato che l’Ucraina non sarebbe stata in grado di ospitare l’evento, facendone così la prima edizione dal 1980 a non essere ospitata dal paese vincitore, e che sarebbero state avviate discussioni con la BBC per una potenziale organizzazione nel Regno Unito, secondo classificato nell’edizione 2022.

Il 25 luglio successivo l’EBU-UER ha annunciato che il Regno Unito, con un’organizzazione congiunta tra BBC e UA:PBC, avrebbe organizzato la manifestazione, confermando inoltre che l’Ucraina avrebbe avuto un posto automatico nella finale in qualità di vincitrice dell’edizione precedente.

Dopo che l’EBU-UER ha annunciato che sarebbero iniziate le discussioni con la BBC, a stretto giro ha seguito l’interesse a ospitare l’evento di venti città britanniche: Aberdeen (P&J Live), Belfast (SSE Odyssey Arena), Birmingham (Resorts World Arena e Utilita Arena Birmingham), Brighton (Brighton Centre), Bristol (YTL Arena), Cardiff (Principality Stadium), Darlington (Darlington Arena), Derry (Millennium Forum), Edimburgo (Highland Hall), Glasgow (OVO Hydro), Leeds (First Direct Arena), Liverpool (Liverpool Arena), Londra (O2 Arena, Copper Box e Wembley Arena), Manchester (Manchester Arena), Newcastle (Utilita Arena), Nottingham (Motorpoint Arena), Prudhoe, Sheffield (Sheffield Arena), Sunderland (Stadium of Light) e Wolverhampton (Molineux Stadium, Dunstall Park e Civic Halls).

Il 5 agosto la BBC e l’EBU-UER hanno annunciato e presentato il bando per ospitare la manifestazione, tramite il quale tutte le città interessate avrebbero potuto presentare ufficialmente la propria candidatura. Le prime città ad annunciare una mancanza d’interesse sono state Cardiff (citando la lista già ampia degli eventi previsti all’interno della città), Derry (che avrebbe appoggiato la candidatura di Belfast in assenza di una sede adatta), Nottingham (poiché la città non rispettava i criteri di disponibilità),^[46] Brighton (per la mancanza di una sede idonea) e Sunderland (per la mancanza di disponibilità della sede proposta).

Il 12 agosto la BBC e l’UER hanno annunciato che la scelta era stata ristretta alle città di Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle e Sheffield. Queste città sono passate alla seconda fase della selezione, dove hanno avuto tempo fino all’8 settembre per sviluppare un dossier dettagliato, che rispettava tutte le necessità per ospitare il concorso, da sottoporre alla valutazione della BBC, che avrebbe successivamente visitato le città candidate.

Il 27 settembre la BBC e l’EBU-UER hanno comunicato che la scelta era stata ristretta ulteriormente alle città di Glasgow e Liverpool, che rispettavano tutte le necessità del concorso, scartando di conseguenza Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle e Sheffield.

Il successivo 7 ottobre, durante il programma di BBC One The One Show, è stato confermato che la sede dell’Eurovision Song Contest 2023 sarebbe stata la Liverpool Arena dell’omonima città.

~~Eurovision Song Contest 2021~~ ← Eurovision Song Contest 2022 → Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Contest

🇳🇴 Norway • 🇲🇹 Malta • 🇷🇸 Serbia • 🇱🇻 Latvia • 🇵🇹 Portugal • 🇮🇪 Ireland •🇭🇷 Croatia • 🇨🇭 Switzerland • 🇮🇱 Israel • 🇲🇩 Moldova • 🇸🇪 Sweden • 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan • 🇨🇿 Czechia • 🇳🇱 The Netherlands • 🇫🇮 Finland

• Country: 🇳🇴 Norvegia

• National selection:

Selection process: ‘Norsk’ Melodi Grand Prix – MGP 2023 (Norwegian Melodi Grand Pris)
Selection date(s): Semi-finals: Semi-final 1: 14 January 2023; Semi-final 2: 21 January 2023; Semi-final 3: 28 January 2023 Ι Final: 4 February 2023
Host venue: Semi-finals: Screen Studios, Nydalen Ι Final: Trondheim Spektrum, Trondheim
Presenter(s): Arianrhod «Arian» Engebø, Stian «Staysman» Thorbjørnsen
Host broadcaster: NRK
Participants – Number of entries: 21 (9 FI)
Voting system: 100% televoting (Semifinals); 50% televoting
50% international jury (Finale)
Selection entrant: Alessandra (Alessandra Watle Mele)
Selection song: “Queen of Kings” (Dronningen av Konger)
Selected songwriter(s): Henning Olerud, Stanley Ferdinandez, Alessandra Mele, Linda Dale

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 1º SF 1: Qualified (6th, 102 points)
Final result: 5th, 268 points

Norway participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Queen of Kings” performed by Alessandra. The Norwegian broadcaster Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix 2023 in order to select the Norwegian entry for the 2023 contest. 21 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consists of four shows: three semi-finals and a final. Nine entries ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 4 February 2023, and the winner was determined following the combination of votes from ten international jury groups and a public online vote. Norway qualified from the first semi-final to compete in the grand final on 13 May, ultimately finishing in fifth place with 268 points, the country’s highest placing since 2013.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Norway participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-one times since its first entry in 1960. Norway has won the contest on three occasions: in 1985 with the song “La det swinge” performed by Bobbysocks!, in 1995 with the song “Nocturne” performed by Secret Garden and in 2009 with the song “Fairytale” performed by Alexander Rybak. Norway also has the two dubious distinctions of having finished last in the Eurovision final more than any other country and for having the most nul points (zero points) in the contest, the latter being a record the nation shared together with Austria. The country has finished last eleven times and has failed to score a point in four contests. Following the introduction of semi-finals for 2004, Norway has finished in the top ten nine times. In 2022, “Give That Wolf a Banana” performed by Subwoolfer qualified to the final and placed tenth.

The Norwegian national broadcaster, Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), broadcasts the event within Norway and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. NRK confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 June 2022. The broadcaster has traditionally organised the national final Melodi Grand Prix, which has selected the Norwegian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in all but one of their participations. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster revealed details regarding their selection procedure and announced the organization of Melodi Grand Prix 2023 in order to select the 2023 Norwegian entry.

2.Before Eurovision.

Melodi Grand Prix 2023: Melodi Grand Prix 2023 was the 61st edition of the Norwegian national final Melodi Grand Prix which selected Norway’s entry for the 2023 contest. The competition consisted of three semi-finals at Screen Studios in Nydalen on 14, 21 and 28 February 2023 and a final at the Trondheim Spektrum in Trondheim. The four shows were hosted by Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen and were televised on NRK1 and NRK TV as well as streamed online at NRK’s official website nrk.no. In each semi-final, seven songs competed and the top three entries were selected to proceed to the final. The results in the semi-finals were determined exclusively by online voting, while the results in the final were determined by online voting and ten international jury groups.

Semi-finals:

The first semi-final took place on 14 January 2023. “Queen of Kings” performed by Alessandra, “Geronimo” performed by Umami Tsunami and “Honestly” performed by Ulrikke Brandstorp advanced to the final, while “Wave” performed by Eirik Næss, “Tresko” performed by Rasmus Thall, “Tårer i paradis” performed by Kate Gulbrandsen and “Freaky for the Weekend” performed by Byron Williams Jr. & Jowst were eliminated.
The second semi-final took place on 21 January 2023. “Ekko inni meg” performed by Jone, “Prohibition” performed by Swing’it and “Love You in a Dream” performed by Elsie Bay advanced to the final, while “Drøm d bort” performed by Sandra Lyng, “Fuego” performed by Alejandro Fuentes, “Waist” performed by Ella and “Turn Off My Heart” performed by Bjørn Olav Edvardsen were eliminated.
The third semi-final took place on 28 January 2023. “Love Again” performed by Skrellex, “Not Meant to Be” performed by Eline Thorp and “Masterpiece” performed by Atle Pettersen advanced to the final, while “Triumph” performed by Akuvi, “Break It” performed by Tiril, “Someday” performed by Stig van Eijk and “Freya” performed by Maria Celin were eliminated.

Final. The final took place on 4 February 2023.

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Jone	“Ekko inni meg“	40	30	70	5
2	Eline Thorp	“Not Meant to Be”	42	18	60	6
3	Skrellex	“Love Again”	14	40	54	7
4	Ulrikke Brandstorp	“Honestly”	60	78	138	2
5	Umami Tsunami	“Geronimo”	19	30	49	9
6	Atle Pettersen	“Masterpiece”	94	28	122	3
7	Swing’it	“Prohibition”	8	43	51	8
8	Elsie Bay	“Love You in a Dream”	49	34	83	4
9	Alessandra	“Queen of Kings”	104	129	233	1

2.0.Melodi Grand Prix 2023. Melodi Grand Prix 2023 was the 61st edition of Melodi Grand Prix (MGP), the annual Norwegian music competition that serves as the country’s preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was organised by Norway’s public broadcaster NRK, and consisted of three semi-finals and a final, held throughout January and February 2023. The winner of the competition, Alessandra with “Queen of Kings”, went on to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom in May 2023.

2.0.1.Format. The contest consisted of three semi-finals at Screen Studios in Nydalen, and a final at Trondheim Spektrum. From 2020 to 2022, a number of artists were formerly pre-qualified for the final, but this was no longer the case in 2023. Moreover, there were no duels nor a “last chance” round, and voting began once all of the artists have performed. A total of 21 entries competed, with seven songs for each semi-final. The three performers who obtain the most votes qualified for the final. In addition, the international jury was re-introduced in the final, consisting of industry professionals from multiple countries. The jury and the public each contributed 50% to the final result.

According to Stig Karlsen [no], who is in charge of the organization of the event for NRK, the contest would “now [be] going for a competition model that is easier to understand, and where all the artists compete with the same starting point.”

In October 2022, it was announced that the contest would be hosted by Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen.

Competing entries. About one month after the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, NRK officially opened submissions for songwriters to submit entries for Melodi Grand Prix 2023. The submission window closed on 18 September 2022.

The competition is open to all songwriters, and each songwriter can submit up to three songs. Each song should have at least one Norwegian contributor, in order to “prioritise and promote the Norwegian music scene”. In addition to the open submission, NRK also looked for possible entries through targeted search and direct dialogue with the Norwegian music industry, and through songwriting camps held in August 2022.

In October 2022, it was announced that 21 entries were selected to take part in the contest. The competing artists were announced on 4 January, with the respective entries to be released on a weekly basis, starting from 9 January. Among the competing artists are Kate Gulbrandsen, Stig van Eijk, Jowst and Ulrikke Brandstorp, winners of Melodi Grand Prix in 1987, 1999, 2017 and 2020, respectively.

**Competing entries**
Artist	Song	Composer(s)
AKUVI (Beatrice Akuvi Hosen Kumordzie)	“Triumph”	Anderz Wrethov, Andreas Stone Johansson, Beatrice Akuvi Hosen Kumordzie, Konstantinos Vlastaras
Alejandro Fuentes (Alejandro Javiero Fuentes)	“Fuego”	Alejandro Fuentes, Chris Young, Mateo Camargo, Nermin Harambasic
Alessandra / (Alessandra Mele (Alessandra Watle Mele)	“Queen of Kings”	Alessandra Mele, Henning Olerud, Linda Dale, Stanley Ferdinandez
Atle Pettersen	“Masterpiece”	Andreas Stone Johansson, Atle Pettersen, Hannah Dorothy Bristow
Bjørn Olav Edvardsen	“Turn Off My Heart”	Bjørn Olav Edvardsen, Christian Ingebrigtsen, Henrik Thala
Byron Williams Jr. and JOWST (Joakim With Steen)	“Freaky for the Weekend”	Byron Williams Jr., Joachim With Steen
Eirik Næss	“Wave”	Amalie Olsen, Eirik Næss, Viktor Ljungqvist
Eline Thorp (Eline Thorp Steffensen)	“Not Meant to Be”	Andreas Stone Johansson, Eline Thorp, Elsa Søllesvik, Jonas Holteberg Jensen
Ella (Raphaela Antônia Souza Silva)	“Waist”	Isabell Røren Hannevig, Raphaela Antônia Souza Silva, Timothy John Adam Gosden, Tristan Henry
Elsie Bay (Elsa Søllesvik)	“Love You in a Dream”	Andreas Stone Johansson, Elsa Søllesvik, Tom Oehler
JONE (Jonas Nes Steinset)	“Ekko inni meg“	Audun Guldbransen, Christine Ekeberg, Christopher Colin Archer, Jonas Nes Steinset, Morten Franck, Silje Blandkjenn
Kate Gulbrandsen	“Tårer i paradis“	Kate Gulbrandsen, Kjetil Mørland
Maria Celin (Maria Celin Strand)	“Freya”	Anna Timgren, Benjamin Alasu, Eirik Fjeld, Gaute Ormåsen, Sindre Timberlid Jenssen
Rasmus Thall (Rasmus Simon Vedvik Thallaug)	“Tresko”	Farida Louise Bolseth Benounis, Rasmus Simon Vedvik Thallaug, Robin Alexander Vedvik Helmersen
Sandra Lyng (Sandra Lyng Haugen)	“Drøm d bort“	Erlend Torheim, Ferdinann West, Kristina Blakli, Sandra Lyng
Skrellex (Kai Thomas Larsen)	“Love Again”	Jonas Gladnikoff, Kai Thomas Ryen Larsen, Michael James Down, Primož Poglajen, Will Taylor
Stig van Eijk (Stig André van Eijk)	“Someday”	Beate Helen Thunes, Stig van Eijk
Swing’it (Martin Jarl Velsin, Leif Peter Vilhelm Grahn, Edvard Bondi Knowles, Jan Ivar Ekroll, Vebjørn Mamen, Håvard Mathisen Tanner og Håkon Kvam)	“Prohibition”	Jonah Charles Hitchens, Martin Jarl Velsin, Sam Peter Norris, Vebjørn Mamen
Tiril Beisland	“Break It”	Benjamin Pinkus, Emelie Hollow, Emma Steinbakken, Lars Rossnes
Ulrikke (Ulrikke Brandstorp)	“Honestly”	Ben Adams, Christoffer Gunnestad, Helge Moen, Jim Bergsted, Joshua Oliver, Ulrikke Brandstorp
Umami Tsunami featuring Kyle Alessandro, Kristian Haugstøyl & Magnus Winjum (Kyle Alessandro, Kristian Haux og Magnus Winjum)	“Geronimo”	Bjørn Olav Edvardsen, Carl-Henrik Wahl, Kristian Lund, Lasse Nymann, Sindre Jenssen, Torgeir Ryssevik

Semi-finals

2.1.1.Semi-finals.

2.1.1.1.Semi-final 1. The first semi-final took place on 14 January 2023.

**Semi-final 1: 14 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Alessandra	“Queen of Kings”	Advanced
2	Eirik Næss	“Wave”	Eliminated
3	Rasmus Thall	“Tresko“	Eliminated
4	Kate Gulbrandsen	“Tårer i paradis“	Eliminated
5	Umami Tsunami	“Geronimo”	Advanced
6	Ulrikke Brandstorp	“Honestly”	Advanced
7	Byron Williams Jr. & Jowst	“Freaky for the Weekend”	Eliminated

2.1.1.2.Semi-final 2. The first semi-final took place on 14 January 2023.

**Semi-final 2: 21 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Jone	“Ekko inni meg“	Advanced
2	Sandra Lyng	“Drøm d bort“	Eliminated
3	Alejandro Fuentes	“Fuego”	Eliminated
4	Swing’it	“Prohibition”	Advanced
5	Elsie Bay	“Love You in a Dream”	Advanced
6	Ella	“Waist”	Eliminated
7	Bjørn Olav Edvardsen	“Turn Off My Heart”	Eliminated

2.1.1.3.Semi-final 3. The third semi-final will take place on 28 January 2023.

**Semi-final 3: 28 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Akuvi	“Triumph”	Eliminated
2	Tiril	“Break It”	Eliminated
3	Skrellex	“Love Again”	Advanced
4	Eline Thorp	“Not Meant to Be”	Advanced
5	Stig van Eijk	“Someday”	Eliminated
6	Maria Celin	“Freya”	Eliminated
7	Atle Pettersen	“Masterpiece”	Advanced

2.1.2.Final. The final took place on 4 February 2023. The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of public televoting and ten international juries. In addition to the competing entries, Subwoolfer, who represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, also performed as an interval act.

**Final: 4 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Jone	“Ekko inni meg“	40	30	70	5
2	Eline Thorp	“Not Meant to Be”	42	18	60	6
3	Skrellex	“Love Again”	14	40	54	7
4	Ulrikke Brandstorp	“Honestly”	60	78	138	2
5	Umami Tsunami	“Geronimo”	19	30	49	9
6	Atle Pettersen	“Masterpiece”	94	28	122	3
7	Swing’it	“Prohibition”	8	43	51	8
8	Elsie Bay	“Love You in a Dream”	49	34	83	4
9	Alessandra	“Queen of Kings”	104	129	233	1

**Detailed International Jury Votes**
Draw	Song
1	“Ekko inni meg“	8	6		4	4		4		6	8
2	“Not Meant to Be”	1	1	6	6		12	2	8	4	2
3	“Love Again”	2		2				1	6	2	1
4	“Honestly”	4	8	1	10	6	8	8	1	8	6
5	“Geronimo”		10			1	4		4
6	“Masterpiece”	10	4	12	8	10	10	6	12	12	10
7	“Prohibition”			4	1	2	1
8	“Love You in a Dream”	6	2	8	2	8	6	10	2	1	4
9	“Queen of Kings”	12	12	10	12	12	2	12	10	10	12
International Jury Spokespersons
United Kingdom – Simon Proctor Finland – Matti Myllyaho Azerbaijan – Nigar Jamal Spain – Luismi Palao Ukraine – Oksana Skybinska Czech Republic – Jan Bors France – Alexandra Redde-Amiel Iceland – Sigurður Þorri Gunnarsson Netherlands – Lars Lourenco Sweden – Natalie Carrion

**International Jury Members**
Country	Jury Members
Azerbaijan	Aysel Adigozalzada Mahammad Diana Hajiyeva Elnur Hüseynov Nigar Jamal Isa Melikov
Czech Republic	Jan Bors Kristýna Coufalová Stiliana Dimitrova Antonín Hrabal Kryštof Kodl
Finland	Elias Koskimies Vilma Alina Lähteenmäki Matti Myllyaho Aija Puurtinen Sofia Ruija
France	Sebastien Barké Moë Bennani Alexandra Bouchou Alexandra Redde-Amiel Frédéric Valencak
Iceland	Sigurður Þorri Gunnarsson Vigdís Hafliðadóttir Baldvin Snær Hlynsson Helga Möller Karl Olgeir Olgeirsson
Netherlands	Glen Faria Sophie Hijlkema Corné Klijn Lars Lourenco Hila Noorzai
Spain	Natalia Calderón Estefanía García Guille Mostaza Dangelo Ortega Luismi Palao
Sweden	Natasha Azarmi Mathias Bridfelt Natalie Carrion Robert Sehlberg Helene Wigren
Ukraine	Iryna Bubnova Nienov Herman Tetiana Semenova Dmytro Shurov Oksana Skybinska
United Kingdom	Ellie Dixon Alex Mansuroglu Simon Proctor Ste Softley Namrata Varia

Ratings.

**Viewing figures by show**
Show	Air date	Viewers (millions)	Share (%)	-.
Final	4 February 2023	0.957	—	^–

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Norway has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

At the end of the show, Norway was announced as a qualifier for the final.

3.1.Voting.

3.1.1.Points awarded to Norway.

**Points awarded to Norway (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	–
10 points	Czech Republic, Finland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Sweden
8 points	Moldova
7 points	–
6 points	Croatia
5 points	The Netherlands, Serbia
4 points	Latvia
3 points	Germany, Portugal, Switzerland
2 points	Azerbaijan, Ireland
1 point	France

3.2.1.Points awarded by Norway.

**Points awarded to Norway (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	–
10 points	Denmark, Israel, Italy, Sweden	Denmark, Israel
8 points	Belgium, Iceland, Poland, Spain	Sweden
7 points	Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Malta, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United Kingdom	–
6 points	Australia, Greece, Moldova	Germany
5 points	Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia	–
4 points	Albania, Armenia, Portugal, Rest of the World, San Marino	Armenia, Iceland, Switzerland
3 points	Latvia	–
2 points	Azerbaijan, Georgia, Switzerland	Malta, Spain
1 point	France	Portugal, San Marino

3.2.2.Points awarded by Norway.

**Points awarded by Norway (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Sweden
8 points	Switzerland
7 points	Czech Republic
6 points	Moldova
5 points	Israel
4 points	Croatia
3 points	Ireland
2 points	Portugal
1 point	The Netherlands

**Points awarded by Norway (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Finland
10 points	Sweden	Sweden
8 points	France	Moldova
7 points	Italy	Cyprus
6 points	Poland	Italy
5 points	Switzerland	Australia
4 points	Belgium	Czech Republic
3 points	Israel	Israel
2 points	Cyprus	Switzerland
1 point	Ukraine	Spain

Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Norwegian jury:

Jonas Nes Steinset
Raymond Enoksen
Eli Kristin Hanssveen
Emmy Kristine Guttulsrud Kristiansen
Mimmi Tamba

**Detailed voting results from Norway (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	19	22	8	21	4	12	–	19	–
02	Portugal	10	8	23	16	16	16	–	24	–
03	Switzerland	5	10	15	6	22	9	2	6	5
04	Poland	15	21	14	18	9	18	–	5	6
05	Serbia	22	14	16	7	6	13	–	20	–
06	France	7	15	11	19	19	15	–	3	8
07	Cyprus	11	2	3	17	11	4	7	9	2
08	Spain	9	24	18	4	8	10	1	23	–
09	Sweden	2	3	1	2	3	2	10	2	10
10	Albania	16	20	20	23	18	24	–	16	–
11	Italy	6	4	7	5	17	5	6	4	7
12	Estonia	13	11	21	22	7	14	–	18	–
13	Finland	1	1	2	1	2	1	12	1	12
14	Czech Republic	21	5	19	8	5	7	4	14	–
15	Australia	3	16	4	15	13	6	5	15	–
16	Belgium	12	18	17	20	12	20	–	7	4
17	Armenia	20	13	22	14	20	23	–	25	–
18	Moldova	4	7	12	3	1	3	8	12	–
19	Ukraine	23	17	25	9	21	21	–	10	1
20	Norway	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
21	Germany	25	6	6	10	14	11	–	17	–
22	Lithuania	18	9	9	24	15	17	–	13	–
23	Israel	8	12	5	12	10	8	3	8	3
24	Slovenia	14	23	13	11	23	19	–	22	–
25	Croatia	24	25	24	13	24	25	–	11	–
26	United Kingdom	17	19	10	25	25	22	–	21	–

• Country: 🇲🇹 Malta

• National selection:

Selection process: Artist: Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Selection date(s): MESC 2023: Quarter-finals: Quarter-final 1: 13 January 2023, Quarter-final 2: 20 January 2023, Quarter-final 3: 27 January 2023 Ι Semi-final: 9 February 2023 Ι Final: 11 February 2023
Host venue: Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre, Ta’ Qali, Malta
Presenter(s): Ryan Borg u Josmar (Quarter-finals), Amber Bondin u Glen Vella (Semi-final & Final)
Host broadcaster: PBS
Participants – Number of entries: 16 songs will compete in the Final (Quarter-finals: 10 songs will compete in Quarter-final 1, 10 songs will compete in Quarter-final 2, 10 songs will compete in Quarter-final 3, 10 songs will compete in Quarter-final 4, Semi-final: 24 songs will compete in the Semi-final, 16 songs will qualify for the Final)
Voting system: 50% jury, 50% televoting
Selection entrant: The Busker (David “Dav.Jr” Grech, Jean Paul Borg and Sean Meachen)
Selection song: “Dance (Our Own Party)”
Selected songwriter(s): David Meilak, Jean Paul Borg, Sean Meachen, Matthew James Borg, Michael Joe Cini

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 2º SF 1: Failed to qualify (3th, 15 points)
Final result: —

Malta participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The Maltese entry for the 2023 contest was performed by the band the Busker, who won the national final Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with their song “Dance (Our Own Party)”, organised by the Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). The competition consisted of three quarter-finals, a semi-final and a final, held in January and February 2023.

Malta was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 2, “Dance (Our Own Party)” was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Malta placed last out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 3 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Malta had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-four times since its first entry in 1971. Malta briefly competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s before withdrawing for sixteen years. The country had competed in every contest between their return in 1991, and 2022. Malta’s best placing in the contest thus far was second, which it achieved on two occasions: in 2002 with the song “7th Wonder” performed by Ira Losco and in the 2005 contest with the song “Angel” performed by Chiara. In 2022, Malta failed to qualify for the final with the song “I Am What I Am” performed by Emma Muscat.

The Maltese national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), broadcast the event within Malta and organised the selection process for the nation’s entry. The broadcaster opted to select the Maltese entry for the 2022 contest during a national selection show titled Malta Eurovision Song Contest, a process that will be continued for their 2023 entry.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The competition consisted of three quarter-finals, a semi-final and final held between 13 January 2023 and 11 February 2023. All shows were broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) as well as on the broadcaster’s website tvm.com.mt.

2.1.1.Format. The competition consisted of 40 songs competing in three quarter-finals on 13, 20 and 27 January 2023. The top twenty-four entries qualified to compete in the semi-final on 9 February 2023 where the top sixteen entries qualified to compete in the final on 11 February 2023. Five judges evaluated the songs during all phases and their votes were combined with the results of the public televote, each having an equal weighting in the final result. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the judges. Monetary prizes were also given to the competing artists. The winner received €10,000, the runner-up received €4,000, the second runner-up received €2,000 and the remaining artists received €300 each. Former Maltese Eurovision entrants Paul Giordimaina (1991), Moira Stafrace (1994), Mike Spiteri (1995) and Ludwig Galea (2004) were appointed as consultants of the competition in order to offer support to the artists. The five members of the jury that evaluated the entries during all phases consisted of:

Sergio Gor – Publisher
Corazon Mizzi – Singer-songwriter
Matthew Bugeja – Conductor
Antoine Farrugia – Artistic director of Notte Bianca
Dorothy Bezzina – Singer

2.1.2.Competing entries. Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 17 October 2022 and 31 October 2022. Songwriters from any nationality were able to submit songs as long as the artist were Maltese or possessed Maltese citizenship. Artists were able to submit as many songs as they wished, however, they could only compete with one in the quarter-finals. 2022 Maltese Eurovision entrant Emma Muscat was unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous winner from competing in the following competition. The 40 songs selected to compete in the quarter-finals were announced on 21 November 2022. Among the selected competing artists are former Eurovision entrants Fabizio Faniello who represented Malta in the 2001 and 2006 contests, Jessika who represented San Marino in the 2018 contest, Francesca Sciberras who represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009, and Eliana Gomez Blanco who represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019.

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
~~Aidan (Aidan Cassar)~~	~~“Reġina” (Queen)~~	~~Aidan Cassar, Boban Apostolov~~
Andrè	“Broken Hill”	Toby Farrugia, David Cassar Torreggiani, Andre’ Portelli
Bradley Debono	“Blackout”	Christina Magrin
Brooke	“Checkmate”	Brooke Borg, Gerard James Borg, Christian Rabb, Dino Medanhodzic, Lukas Meijer
Cheryl Balzan	“La La Land”	David Cassar Torreggiani, Cheryl Balzan, Toby Farrugia
Chris Grech	“Indescribable”	Joakim Dubbelman, Gerard James Borg, Jesper Rune, Arve Furset
Christian Arding	“Eku ċar” (Clear echo)	Jan van Dijck, Emil Calleja Bayliss
Clintess	“Lura qatt” (Never backwards)	Dominic Cini, Etienne Micallef
Dan	“It’ll Be OK”	Daniel Muscat Caruana
Dario	“Pawn in a Game”	Henric Pierroff, Emil Vaker, Karin Pierroff
Dario Bezzina	“Bridle Road”	Martin Älenmark, Darren Michaels, Charlie Mason
Dominic and Anna	“Whatever the Wind May Blow”	Alexander Berger, Michael Tauben, Will Taylor, Jonas Gladnikoff
Eliana Gomez Blanco	“Guess What”	Ray Agius, Alfred C. Sant
Fabrizio Faniello	“Try to Be Better”	Johan Bejerholm
Francesca Sciberras	“Masquerade”	Macro Debono, Rita Pace
Geo Debono	“The Mirror”	Daniele Moretti, Natasha Turner, Niall Mooney
Giada	“I Depend on You”	Melanie Georgiou
Greta Tude	“Sound of My Stilettos”	Antoine Farrugia, Muxu, Cyprian Cassar
Haley	“Tik Tok”	Philip Vella, Gerard James Borg
Ian	“On My Own”	Melanie Georgiou
Jake	“Love You Like That”	Primož Poglajen, Jonas Gladnikoff, Michael James Down
James Louis	“Dream”	James Mifsud
Jason Scerri	“Anything Can Happen”	Jason Scerri
Jessika (Jessica Muscat)	“Unapologetic”	Jessica Muscat, Stefan Moessle
John Galea	“Trailblazer”	John Galea
Kirstie	“Girls Get Down”	Muxu, Cyprian Cassar
Klinsmann	“Piranah” (Piranha)	Mats Ygfors, Robin Svensson, Magdalena Ohlin, Gerard James Borg
Lyndsay	“Haunted”	Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Primož Poglajen, Jonas Gladnikoff, Johnny Sanchez, Sara Ljunggren
Maria Christina	“Our Flame”	Erik Horvath, Rickard Bonde Truumeel, Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Emil Calleja Bayliss
Maria Debono	“X’allegrija” (What joy)	Maria Debono
Marie Claire	“Thankful”	Thorghy Landgren, Thomas Rodin, Rickard Bonde Truumeel, Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Emil Calleja Bayliss
Mark Anthony Bartolo	“Tears”	Mark Anthony Bartolo
Matt Blxck	“Up”	Matthew Caruana, Cyprian Cassar
Maxine Pace	“Alone”	Shaun Farrugia, Steve Manovski
Mike	“Leħen fiċ-ċpar” (A voice in the fog)	Cyprian Cassar, Cliff Casha
Nathan	“Creeping Walls”	Dominic Cini, Jonas Gladnikoff, Emil Calleja Bayliss
Ryan Hili	“In the Silence”	Aaron Sibley, Natan Dragur, Cyprian Cassar
Stefan Xuereb	“What Do You Want?”	Richard Micallef, Aidan O’Connor
Stefan Galea (Stefan Paul Galea)	“Heartbreaker”	Stefan Galea, Rikki Lee Scicluna, Muxu
The Busker (David “Dav.Jr” Meilak, Jean Paul Borg, and Sean Meachen)	“Dance (Our Own Party)”	David Meilak, Jean Paul Borg, Sean Meachen, Matthew James Borg, Michael Joe Cini

Shows.

Quarter-finals. The three quarter-finals took place on 13, 20 and 27 January 2023 were hosted by Ryan and Josmar. On 23 January 2023, Aidan was disqualified from the quarter-finals for violating the competition’s social media promotion policy. The remaining thirty-nine songs competed for twenty-four qualifying spots in the semi-final. The allocation for the quarter-finals was announced on 6 January 2023.

**Quarter-final 1 – 13 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Haley	“Tik Tok”	Eliminated
2	Stefan Xuereb	“What Do You Want?”	Eliminated
3	Clintess	“Lura qatt“	Eliminated
4	Fabrizio Faniello	“Try to Be Better”	Advanced
5	Eliana Gomez Blanco	“Guess What”	Advanced
6	Christian Arding	“Eku ċar“	Advanced
7	Jason Scerri	“Anything Can Happen”	Eliminated
8	Maria Debono	“X’allegrija“	Eliminated
9	Geo Debono	“The Mirror”	Advanced
10	Mikhail	“Leħen fiċ-ċpar“	Advanced
11	~~Aidan~~	~~“Reġina“~~	Disqualified
12	Nathan	“Creeping Walls”	Advanced
13	Klinsmann	“Piranha”	Advanced

**Quarter-final 2 – 20 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Francesca Sciberras	“Masquerade”	Eliminated
2	The Busker	“Dance (Our Own Party)”	Advanced
3	Lyndsay	“Haunted”	Eliminated
4	Maxine Pace	“Alone”	Advanced
5	Marie Claire	“Thankful”	Eliminated
6	Ian	“On My Own”	Advanced
7	Kirstie	“Girls Get Down”	Eliminated
8	Dario Bezzina	“Bridle Road”	Advanced
9	Brooke	“Checkmate”	Advanced
10	Mark Anthony Bartolo	“Tears”	Advanced
11	Dan	“It’ll Be OK”	Advanced
12	Dario	“Pawn in a Game”	Eliminated
13	Matt Blxck	“Up.”	Advanced

**Quarter-final 3 – 27 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Andre’	“Broken Hill”	Advanced
2	Bradley Debono	“Blackout”	Advanced
3	Cheryl Balzan	“La La Land”	Advanced
4	James Louis	“Dream”	Eliminated
5	Dominic and Anna	“Whatever Wind May Blow”	Advanced
6	Greta Tude	“Sound of My Stilettos”	Advanced
7	Ryan Hili	“In the Silence”	Advanced
8	Jessika	“Unapologetic”	Eliminated
9	Stefan Galea	“Heartbreaker”	Advanced
10	Giada	“I Depend on You”	Advanced
11	John Galea	“Trailblazer”	Eliminated
12	Jake	“Love You Like That”	Eliminated
13	Chris Grech	“Indescribable”	Advanced
14	Maria Christina	“Our Flame”	Eliminated

2.1.3.Semi-final. The semi-final took place on 9 February 2023 at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in Ta’ Qali and was hosted by former Maltese Eurovision entrants Glen Vella, who represented Malta in 2011, and Amber, who represented Malta in 2015. The twenty-four entries that qualified from the quarter-finals competed for sixteen qualifying spots in the final. The show was opened with a guest performance by Paul Giordimaina, Moira Stafrace, Mike Spiteri and Ludwig Galea, while the interval act featured a guest performance by the 2022 Maltese Junior Eurovision entrant Gaia Gambuzza performing “Diamonds in the Skies”, and a medley of past non-winning songs in the Malta Eurovision Song Contest performed by Catherine Vigar, Claudia Faniello, Eleanor Cassar, Janice Mangion, Lawrence Gray, Olivia Lewis, Pamela Bezzina, Richard Micallef and Pamela Bezzina.

**Semi-final – 9 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Greta Tude	“Sound of My Stilettos”	Eliminated
2	Fabrizio Faniello	“Try to Be Better”	Advanced
3	Eliana Gomez Blanco	“Guess What”	Advanced
4	Andre’	“Broken Hill”	Eliminated
5	Dan	“It’ll Be OK”	Advanced
6	Ian	“On My Own”	Advanced
7	Ryan Hili	“In the Silence”	Advanced
8	Mark Anthony Bartolo	“Tears”	Eliminated
9	Cheryl Balzan	“La La Land”	Advanced
10	Dario Bezzina	“Bridle Road”	Eliminated
11	Nathan	“Creeping Walls”	Advanced
12	Chris Grech	“Indescribable”	Advanced
13	Brooke	“Checkmate”	Advanced
14	Christian Arding	“Eku ċar“	Advanced
15	Klinsmann	“Piranha”	Eliminated
16	Bradley Debono	“Blackout”	Eliminated
17	Geo Debono	“The Mirror”	Advanced
18	The Busker	“Dance (Our Own Party)”	Advanced
19	Maxine Pace	“Alone”	Advanced
20	Dominic and Anna	“Whatever Wind May Blow”	Eliminated
21	Giada	“I Depend on You”	Advanced
22	Stefan Galea	“Heartbreaker”	Advanced
23	Mikhail	“Leħen fiċ-ċpar“	Eliminated
24	Matt Blxck	“Up.”	Advanced

2.1.4.Final. The final took place on 11 February 2023 at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in Ta’ Qali and was hosted by former Maltese Eurovision entrants Glen Vella, who represented Malta in 2011, and Amber, who represented Malta in 2015. The sixteen entries that qualified from the semi-final were performed again and the 50/50 combination of votes of a five-member jury panel and the results of public televoting determined the winner. The show was opened with a guest performance by the Annalise Dance Studio, while the interval act featured the show hosts Glen Vella and Amber, and performances by Aidan and the 2022 Maltese Eurovision entrant Emma Muscat performing “I Am What I Am”. After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, “Dance (Our Own Party)” performed by the Busker was the winner.

**Final – 11 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Nathan	“Creeping Walls”	3	9	12	11
2	Chris Grech	“Indescribable”	27	7	34	6
3	Maxine Pace	“Alone”	28	45	73	4
4	Fabrizio Faniello	“Try to Be Better”	12	9	21	8
5	Geo Debono	“The Mirror”	0	3	3	15
6	Brooke	“Checkmate”	39	31	70	5
7	Ian	“On My Own”	19	3	22	7
8	Eliana Gomez Blanco	“Guess What”	10	10	20	9
9	The Busker	“Dance (Our Own Party)”	41	80	121	1
10	Giada	“I Depend on You”	1	2	3	14
11	Matt Blxck	“Up.”	45	31	76	3
12	Cheryl Balzan	“La La Land”	5	4	9	13
13	Christian Arding	“Eku ċar“	11	6	17	10
14	Ryan Hili	“In the Silence”	41	44	85	2
15	Dan	“It’ll Be OK”	8	2	10	12
16	Stefan	“Heartbreaker”	0	3	3	16

**Detailed Jury Votes**
Draw	Song	S. Gor	C. Mizzi	M. Bugeja	A. Farrugia	D. Bezzina	Total
1	“Creeping Walls”		2	1			3
2	“Indescribable”	6	8	4	4	5	27
3	“Alone”	2	6	6	10	4	28
4	“Try to Be Better”	4	1	2			12
5	“The Mirror”						0
6	“Checkmate”	12	5	10	6	6	39
7	“On My Own”	8	3		5	8	19
8	“Guess What”	7				3	10
9	“Dance (Our Own Party)”	5	7	5	12	12	41
10	“I Depend on You”	1					1
11	“Up.”	10	10	7	8	10	45
12	“La La Land”			3	2		5
13	“Eku ċar“			8	1	2	11
14	“In the Silence”	3	12	12	7	7	41
15	“It’ll Be OK”		4		3	1	8
16	“Heartbreaker”						0

2.2.Ratings.

**Viewing figures by show**
Show	Date	Viewers	-.
Final	11 February 2023	265,000	^–

Controversy.

Disqualification of Aidan. On 23 January 2023, Aidan was disqualified from the competition due to “the engagement of marketing personnel, marketing officials, marketing companies or the engagement into some sort of marketing or promotional campaign or activity by the artists to promote themselves, the song, their participation, or in some way to influence the public vote” and “the publication of any social media posts, promotion material, interviews or any media presence from the announcement of the quarter-finalists onwards”, which is in breach of the rules. Aidan had posted multiple unauthorised social media posts, despite having been warned repeatedly by PBS of potential disqualificaiton. An online petition was launched to bring the singer back into the competition, gaining over one thousand signatures. In response, Aidan’s team threatened to take legal steps, unless he was allowed to participate in the contest, arguing that he had been singled out for punishment by the broadcaster, and claiming other contestants had also published a number of unauthorised social media posts.^[11] Aiden dropped his threat of a lawsuit on 31 January, citing the possibility that such an action could cause the cancelation of the entire selection event. The singer was instead invited to perform as an interval act during the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023, with the stipulation that he not sing his disqualified entry “Reġina”.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Malta has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

At the end of the show, Malta was not among the ten countries announced as qualifiers for the final.

3.1.Voting.

3.1.1.Points awarded to Malta.

**Points awarded to Malta (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points	Israel
1 point	Rest of the World

3.1.2.Points awarded by Malta.

**Points awarded by Malta (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Sweden
10 points	Norway
8 points	Israel
7 points	Finland
6 points	Switzerland
5 points	Serbia
4 points	Portugal
3 points	Ireland
2 points	Czech Republic
1 point	Moldova

**Points awarded by Malta (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Italy	Sweden
10 points	Sweden	Italy
8 points	Finland	Finland
7 points	Norway	Israel
6 points	Israel	Switzerland
5 points	Ukraine	Cyprus
4 points	United Kingdom	Lithuania
3 points	Albania	Portugal
2 points	Serbia	Norway
1 point	France	Austria

3.1.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Maltese jury:

Emil Calleja Bayliss
Gerard James Borg
Ludwig Galea
Brooke Borg
Moira Stafrace

**Detailed voting results from Malta (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	17	4	13	12	11	10	1	13
02	Portugal	6	22	18	5	7	8	3	25
03	Switzerland	4	5	8	7	4	5	6	11
04	Poland	20	25	17	23	14	22		12
05	Serbia	19	26	24	26	12	21		9	2
06	France	15	17	7	15	18	15		10	1
07	Cyprus	9	6	12	6	6	6	5	14
08	Spain	16	24	19	14	25	20		26
09	Sweden	3	1	1	9	1	1	12	2	10
10	Albania	22	15	20	11	19	17		8	3
11	Italy	1	7	4	1	2	2	10	1	12
12	Estonia	21	23	23	17	24	25		24
13	Finland	2	2	2	4	5	3	8	3	8
14	Czech Republic	24	11	21	25	26	19		22
15	Australia	12	9	14	16	10	13		23
16	Belgium	7	16	15	20	13	14		20
17	Armenia	13	10	9	8	15	11		15
18	Moldova	14	21	22	18	23	23		18
19	Ukraine	11	12	10	13	8	12		6	5
20	Norway	8	8	5	10	17	9	2	4	7
21	Germany	25	20	26	24	22	26		16
22	Lithuania	10	18	11	2	9	7	4	19
23	Israel	5	3	3	3	3	4	7	5	6
24	Slovenia	23	13	25	21	21	24		21
25	Croatia	26	19	6	22	20	16		17
26	United Kingdom	18	14	16	19	16	18		7	4

• Country: 🇷🇸 Serbia

• National selection:

Selection process: Pesma za Evroviziju ’23 (Песма за Евровизију ’23)
Selection date(s): Semi-finals: Semi-final 1 – 1 March 2023, Semi-final 2 – 2 March 2023 Ι Final: 4 March 2023
Host venue: Studios 8 and 9 of RTS in Košutnjak, Beograd, Serbia
Presenter(s): Dragana Kosjerina, Milan Marić / Драгана Косјерина, Милан Марић; Stefano Popović, Kristina Radenković / Стефан Поповић, Кристина Раденковић (GreenRoom)
Host broadcaster: RTS / PTC (RTS1, RTS Planeta, rts.rs)
Participants – Number of entries: 32
Voting system: 50% jury, 50% public voting. The jury and the televoting award one set of 12, 10 & 8–1 points each.
Selection entrant: Luke Black
Selection song: “Samo mi se spava” (Само ми се спава)
Selected songwriter(s): Luka Ivanović (Luke Black)

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 3º SF 1: Qualified (10th, 37 points)
Final result: 24th, 30 points

Serbia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Samo mi se spava” performed by Luke Black. The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), organised the national final Pesma za Evroviziju ’23 in order to select the Serbian entry for the 2023 contest. The final took place on 4 March 2023, with a combination of jury voting and televoting selecting Black to represent Serbia at the 2023 contest in Liverpool.

Serbia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023 and was later selected to perform in position 3. At the end of the show, “Samo mi se spava” was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and hence qualified to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Serbia placed tenth out of the fifteen participating countries in the semi-final with 37 points. In the final, Serbia performed in position 5 and placed twenty-fourth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring a total of 30 points, marking Serbia’s worst result ever in a Eurovision grand final

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Serbia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 14 times since its first entry in 2007, winning the contest with their debut entry “Molitva” performed by Marija Šerifović. Since 2007, 11 out of 14 of Serbia’s entries have featured in the final with the nation failing to qualify in 2009, 2013 and 2017. Serbia’s 2022 entry, “In corpore sano” performed by Konstrakta, qualified to the final and placed fifth.

The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), broadcasts the event within Serbia and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. The broadcaster confirmed Serbia’s participation in the 2023 contest in Liverpool on 25 August 2022. Between 2007 and 2009, Serbia used the Beovizija national final in order to select their entry. However, after their 2009 entry, “Cipela” performed by Marko Kon and Milaan, failed to qualify Serbia to the final, the broadcaster shifted their selection strategy to selecting specific composers to create songs for artists. In 2010, RTS selected Goran Bregović to compose songs for a national final featuring three artists, while in 2011 Kornelije Kovač, Aleksandra Kovač and Kristina Kovač were tasked with composing one song each. In 2012, the internal selection of Željko Joksimović and the song “Nije ljubav stvar” secured the country’s second highest placing in the contest to this point, placing third. In 2013, RTS returned to an open national final format and organized the Beosong competition. The winning entry, “Ljubav je svuda” performed by Moje 3, failed to qualify Serbia to the final. In 2015, RTS selected Vladimir Graić, the composer of Serbia’s 2007 winning entry “Molitva”, to compose songs for a national final featuring three artists.^[9] RTS internally selected the Serbian entries in 2016 and 2017 with the decision made by RTS music editors. In 2018 and 2019, RTS returned to using the Beovizija national final in order to select their entry, managing to qualify to the final on both occasions. In 2022, RTS returned to organising a national final under the name Pesma za Evroviziju ’23. On 1 September 2022, RTS confirmed that Pesma za Evroviziju would be organised for a second time in order to select the country’s entry to the 2023 contest.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Pesma za Evroviziju ’23 (Песма за Евровизију ’23). The 2023 edition of Pesma za Evroviziju featured two semi-finals and a final, and saw 32 acts compete. All three shows took place at Studios 8 and 9 of RTS in Košutnjak, Belgrad.

Pesma za Evroviziju ’23 was the second edition of Pesma za Evroviziju, Serbia’s national final organised by Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) to select the Serbian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The selection consisted of two semi-finals held on 1 and 2 March 2023, respectively, and a final on 4 March 2023.All shows were hosted by Milan Marić and Dragana Kosjerina with backstage interviews conducted by Kristina Radenković and Stefan Popović. The three shows were broadcast on RTS1, RTS Svet and RTS Planeta as well as streamed online via the broadcaster’s website rts.rs and the broadcaster’s Eurovision dedicated Youtube channel.

Format. In 2023, RTS decided to once again organize Pesma za Evroviziju to decide its representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. On the same day as the submission window had opened, the rulebook was published. The selection consisted of two semi-finals, held on 1 and 2 March, and a final on 4 March 2023.

Voting.In all 3 shows, the jury and the televoting award one set of 12, 10 & 8–1 points each to their 10 favourite entries. Eight entries that scored the most points in each semi-final progressed to the final. The act with the most points in the final is declared the winner.

Hosts. All shows were hosted by Milan Marić and Dragana Kosjerina] with greenroom interviews conducted by Kristina Radenković and Stefan Popović.

2.1.1.Competing entries. The submission window for competing entries opened on the 1st of September 2022, and was due to close on the 15th of November the same year, but was later pushed back to the 1st of December. Artists were required to be Serbian citizens and submit entries in one of the official languages of the Republic of Serbia, while songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit songs.^[10] At the closing of the deadline, 200 submissions were received.

A selection committee consisting of RTS music editors reviewed the submissions and selected 32 entries to proceed to the national final. The selected competing entries were announced on 9 January 2023 and among the competing artists are Tijana Dapčević, who represented Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, and Hurricane (albeit with a different line-up), which represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 and 2021

**Competing entries**
Artist	Song	Songwriter (s)
Nađa Нађа (Нађа Ордагић)	Moj prvi ožiljak na duši Мој први ожиљак на души	Kristina Kovač, Tim Gosden Кристина Ковач, Тим Госден
Angellina Анђелина (Анђела Вујовић)	Lanac Ланац	Anđela Vujović – Angellina Анђела Вујовић – Angellina
Filip Baloš Филип Балош	Novi plan drugi san Колико те сада желим	Filip Baloš Филип Балош
Hurricane Hurricane (Jovana Radić/Јована Радић, Sara Kourouma/Сара Курума, Miona Srećković/Миона Срећковић)	Zumi zimi zami Зуми зими зами	Nemanja Antonić, Ivan Vukajlović, Snežana Antić Немања Антонић, Иван Вукајловић, Снежана Антић
Tijana Dapčević Тијана Дапчевић	Mamim Мамим	Ana Radonjić (Zoe Kida) Ана Радоњић (Зое Кида)
Petar Pupić Петар Пупић	Ako shvatim Ако схватим	Petar Pupić Петар Пупић
Princ (Stefan Zdravković) Принц (Стефан Здравковић)	Cvet sa Istoka Цвет са Истока	Dušan Bačić Душан Бачић
The Frajle Фрајле (Наташа Михајловић, Невена Буча, Јелена Буча)	Neka, neka Нека, нека	Nataša Mihajlović, Nevena Buča Наташа Михајловић, Невена Буча
Eegor Eegor	Starac dana Старац дана	Igor Mišković – Eegor Игор Мишковић – Eegor
Boris Subotić Борис Суботић	Nedostupan Недоступан	Milenko Škarić, Nemanja Antonić, Filip Nestorović Миленко Шкарић
Nađa Terzić Нађа Терзић	Devojka tvog dečka Девојка твог дечка	Konstantin Arsić, Nađa Terzić, Aleksa Vučković, Dimitrije Borčanin Константин Арсић, Нађа Терзић, Алекса Вучковић, Димитрије Борчанин
Luke Black Luke Black (Luka Ivanović, Лука Ивановић)	Samo mi se spava Само ми се спава	Luke Black Luke Black
Filip Baloš Филип Балош	Novi plan drugi san Нови план други сан	Filip Baloš Филип Балош
Zejna Зејна (Зејна Муркић)	Rumba Румба	Nikola Burovac, Miloš Roganović Никола Буровац, Милош Рогановић
Dzipsii Džipsii (Јован Живадиновић)	Greh Грех	Ahmed Hajdarović (Rep Gorila), Jovan Živadinović (Dzipsii) Ахмед Хајдаровић (Рeп Горила), Јован Живадиновић – Dzipsii
Igor Vins i Bane Lalić Игор Винс и Бане Лалић (Бранислав Бане Лалић, Бане Лалић MВП)	Zato što volim Зато што волим	Igor Vins, Bane Lalić Игор Винс, Бане Лалић
Gift Гифт (Јован Матић, Оливера Будошан, Дејан Тошков, Лука Пулетић, Жарко Дунић, Живко Грчић)	Liberta Либерта	Jovan Matić Јован Матић
Ivona Ивона (Ивона Пантелић)	U noćima У ноћима	Ivona Pantelić Ивона Пантелић
Filarri Filarri (Филип Маринков)	Posle mene После мене	Teya Dora – Teodora Pavlovska, Yungkulovski – Miloš Janošević Теодора Павловска (Teya Dora), Милош Јаношевић – Yungkulovski
Mattia Zanatta & Angela Kassiani Матија Цаната и Ангела Касијани	Novi svet Нови свет	Michele Bonivento, Mattia Zanatta, Predrag Cvetković Michele Bonivento, Mattia Zanatta, Предраг Цветковић
Bend “Hercenšlus” Херценшлус	Vremenska zona Временска зона	Boban Dževerdanović Бобан Џевердановић
Adem Mehmedović Адем Мехмедовић	Osmeh Осмех	Adem Mehmedović Адем Мехмедовић
Igor Stanojevi Игор Станојевић	Iza duge Иза дуге	Vladimir Graić Владимир Граић
Aleksandar Simić i Nenad Osmanović Александар Симић и Ненад Османовић	Viva la vida Viva la vida	Nino Ademović, Goran Ratković Rale, Branislav Glušac Нино Адемовић, Горан Ратковић Рале, Бранислав Глушац
Doris Milošević Дорис Милошевић (Дорис Радић)	Tišina Тишина	Ognjan Milošević Огњан Милошевић
Milan Bujaković, Zoran Todorović i Sanja Anastasija Милан Бујаковић, Зоран Тодоровић и Сања Анастасија	Fenomen Феномен	Alek Aleksov, Miro Buljan, Nenad Ćeranić, Dragiša Baša Алек Алексов, Миро Буљан, Ненад Ћеранић, Драгиша Баша
Empathy Soul Project Emphaty Soul Project (Ненад Радаковић, Раде Радојчић, Игор Величковић)	Indigo Индиго	Nenad Radaković Ненад Радаковић
Filip Žmaher Филип Жмахер	Čujemo se sutra Чујемо се сутра	Boban Janković, Filip Tančić, Aleksandar Mastelica Бобан Јанковић, Филип Танчић, Александар Мастелица
Stefan Maljković Shy Стефан Маљковић Shy	Od jastuka do jastuka Од јастука до јастука	Slavko Milovanović, Ana Sekulić Славко Миловановић, Ана Секулић
CHEGI & Braća bluz bend CHEGI & браћа Блуз бенд (Stefan „Čegi”; Dušan „Čegi”; Željko „Čegi”; Marina; Josip; Neš; Stefan; Jovana; Georgije u Aleksandar)	Svadba ili kavga Свадба или кавга	Željko Čeganjac, Dušan Čeganjac, Stefan Čeganjac, Boris Kapetanović Жељко Чегањац, Душан Чегањац, Стефан Чегањац, Борис Капетановић
Jovana Tomašević Јована Томашевић	Kao grom iz vedra neba Као гром из ведра неба	Aleksandar Filipović, Branko Klanšček Александар Филиповић, Бранко Кланшчек
Drai Drai	Loše procene Лоше процене	Ivan Milanov, Nemanja Antonić, Asal Ksinatović, Ana Sekulić Иван Миланов, Немања Антонић, Асал Ксинатовић, Ана Секулић
Savo Perović Саво Перовић	Presidente Presidente	Mahdi, Sajsi MC Mahdi, Сајси MC

Shows.

Semi-finals. The two semi-finals took place at the Studios 8 and 9 of RTS in Košutnjak, Belgrade on 1 and 2 March 2023. In each semi-final 16 songs competed and the eight qualifiers for the final were decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel consisting of Maja Cvetković (singer-songwriter), Ana Stanić (singer-songwriter), Vojislav Aralica (producer), Filip Bulatović (conductor) and Zoran Lesendrić (musician), and the Serbian public via SMS voting.

2.1.2.Semi-finals. The first semi-final took place on 1 March 2023. “Moj prvi ožiljak na duši” performed by Nađa, “Od jastuka do jastuka” performed by Stefan Shy, “Cvet sa Istoka” performed by Princ, “Novi plan drugi san” performed by Filip Baloš, “Svadba ili kavga” performed by Chegi & Braća Bluz Band, “Samo mi se spava” performed by Luke Black, “Indigo” performed by Empathy Soul Project and “Nedostupan” performed by Boris Subotić advanced to the final, while “Novi svet” performed by Mattia Zanatta & Angela Kassiani, “Mamim” performed by Tijana Dapčević, “Iza duge” performed by Igor Stanojević, “Lanac” performed by Angellina, “Vremenska zona” performed by Hercenšlus, “Presidente” performed by Savo Perović, “Osmeh” performed by Adem Mehmedović and “Čujemo se sutra” performed by Filip Žmaher were eliminated from the contest.

The second semi-final took place on 2 March 2023. “Greh” performed by Dzipsii, “Devojka tvog dečka” performed by Nadia, “Rumba” performed by Zejna, “Posle mene” performed by Filarri, “Neka, neka” performed by Frajle, “Zumi zimi zami” performed by Hurricane, “Viva la Vida” performed by Duo Grand and “Liberta” performed by Gift advanced to the final, while “Ako shvatim kasno” performed by Egret, “Starac dana” performed by Eegor, “Fenomen” performed by Milan Bujaković, “Kao grom iz vedra neba” performed by Jelena Vlahović, “Zato što volim” performed by Igor Vins & Bane Lalić, “Loše procene” performed by Andjela, “U noćima” performed by Ivona and “Tišina” performed by Doris Milošević were eliminated from the contest.

Semi-final 1. In addition to the competing entries, former Eurovision contestant Konstrakta, who represented Serbia in 2022, was featured as the guest performer in the first semi-final.

**Semi-final 1 – 1 March 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury		Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Points	Votes	Points	Total	Place
1	Mattia Zanatta & Angela Kassiani	“Novi svet“	34	7	742	0	7	9
2	Adem Mehmedović	“Osmeh“	10	1	445	0	1	15
3	Nađa	“Moj prvi ožiljak na duši“	48	10	3,178	7	17	1
4	Tijana Dapčević	“Mamim“	24	6	471	0	6	10
5	Princ	“Cvet sa Istoka“	7	0	5,911	12	12	3
6	Filip Baloš	“Novi plan drugi san“	21	5	2,712	6	11	4
7	Filip Žmaher	“Čujemo se sutra“	4	0	830	0	0	16
8	Luke Black	“Samo mi se spava“	11	2	4,388	8	10	6
9	Angellina	“Lanac“	11	3	1,004	0	3	12
10	Empathy Soul Project	“Indigo“	38	8	794	0	8	7
11	Stefan Shy	“Od jastuka do jastuka“	58	12	1,893	4	16	2
12	Hercenšlus	“Vremenska zona“	0	0	1,402	2	2	13
13	Savo Perović	“Presidente”	0	0	1,145	1	1	14
14	Igor Stanojević	“Iza duge“	8	0	2,598	5	5	11
15	Boris Subotić	“Nedostupan“	16	4	1,527	3	7	8
16	Chegi & Braća Bluz Band	“Svadba ili kavga“	0	0	4,389	10	10	5

**Detailed jury votes**
Draw	Song	M. Cvetković	A. Stanić	V. Aralica	F. Bulatović	Z. Lesendrić	Total
1	“Novi svet“	7	8	7	6	6	34
2	“Osmeh“	2		2	4	2	10
3	“Moj prvi ožiljak na duši“	8	10	10	10	10	48
4	“Mamim“	3	4	6	7	4	24
5	“Cvet sa Istoka“	1		1	5		7
6	“Novi plan drugi san“	5	5	4		7	21
7	“Čujemo se sutra“		1		2	1	4
8	“Samo mi se spava“	6	2	3			11
9	“Lanac“		3		8		11
10	“Indigo“	12	7	8	3	8	38
11	“Od jastuka do jastuka“	10	12	12	12	12	58
12	“Vremenska zona“						0
13	“Presidente”						0
14	“Iza duge“	4			1	3	8
15	“Nedostupan“		6	5		5	16
16	“Svadba ili kavga“						0

Semi-final 2. In addition to the competing entries, former Eurovision contestant Sanja Vučić, who represented Serbia in 2016 and as part of Hurricane in 2020 and 2021, singers Alen Ademović, Ivana Peters, Stevan Anđelković and Zorja, the bands Zbogom Brus Li and Biber, as well as the assemble Iskaz and the vocal chorus Luča were featured as guest performers in the second semi-final.

**Semi-final 2 – 2 March 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury		Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Points	Votes	Points	Total	Place
1	Hurricane	“Zumi zimi zami“	27	6	1,607	3	9	6
2^[a]	Nadia	“Devojka tvog dečka“	26	5	3,020	12	17	2
3	Filarri	“Posle mene“	28	7	1,779	5	12	4
4	Zejna	“Rumba”	43	10	1,754	4	14	3
5	Frajle	“Neka, neka“	22	3	2,125	7	10	5
6	Igor Vins & Bane Lalić	“Zato što volim“	6	1	504	0	1	13
7	Egret	“Ako shvatim kasno“	37	8	1,011	0	8	9
8	Dzipsii	“Greh“	58	12	2,887	10	22	1
9	Eegor	“Starac dana“	23	4	1,091	0	4	10
10	Jelena Vlahović	“Kao grom iz vedra neba“	0	0	1,138	1	1	12
11	Ivona	“U noćima“	2	0	781	0	0	14
12	Gift	“Liberta“	18	2	1,849	6	8	8
13	Milan Bujaković	“Fenomen“	0	0	1,600	2	2	11
14	Duo Grand	“Viva la Vida”	0	0	2,164	8	8	7
15	Andjela	“Loše procene“	0	0	956	0	0	14
16	Doris Milošević	“Tišina“	0	0	703	0	0	14

**Detailed jury votes**
Draw	Song	M. Cvetković	A. Stanić	V. Aralica	F. Bulatović	Z. Lesendrić	Total
1	“Zumi zimi zami“	2	4	6	7	8	27
2	“Devojka tvog dečka“	5	5	8	4	4	26
3	“Posle mene“	8	2	3	8	7	28
4	“Rumba”	6	10	5	12	10	43
5	“Neka, neka“	4	3	7	3	5	22
6	“Zato što volim“	1		1	2	2	6
7	“Ako shvatim kasno“	7	8	10	6	6	37
8	“Greh“	12	12	12	10	12	58
9	“Starac dana“	10	6	2	5		23
10	“Kao grom iz vedra neba“						0
11	“U noćima“		1			1	2
12	“Liberta“	3	7	4	1	3	18
13	“Fenomen“						0
14	“Viva la Vida”						0
15	“Loše procene“						0
16	“Tišina“						0

2.1.3.Final. The final took place on 4 March 2023. The winner was selected based on the 50/50 combination of votes from five jurors and from a public televote.

The final took place at the Studios 8 and 9 of RTS in Košutnjak, Belgrade on 4 March 2023 and featured the 16 qualifiers from the preceding two semi-finals. The winner, “Samo mi se spava” performed by Luke Black, was decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel consisting of Lena Kovačević (singer-songwriter), Dragan Đorđević (cellist), Nevena Božović (represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 as part of Moje 3 and in 2019), Slobodan “Coby” Veljković (rapper, songwriter and producer) and Aleksandar Lokner (pianist), and the Serbian public via SMS voting. All funds collected from the viewer votes were donated to charity for the purchase of equipment for the Health Center in the municipality of Bojnik. The show was opened by a rendition of the British Eurovision Song Contest 1981 winning entry “Making Your Mind Up” by the four hosts, while the interval act featured a medley of songs by the Beatles to honour the hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, performed by singers Dejan Cukić, Gordan Kičić, Iva Lorens, Naiva, Oliver Nektarijević and Srđan Gojković as well as the tribute band The Bestbeat

**Final – 4 March 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury		Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Points	Votes	Points	Total	Place
1	Stefan Shy	“Od jastuka do jastuka“	32	7	6,131	4	11	6
2	Boris Subotić	“Nedostupan“	7	0	2,204	0	0	13
3	Nadia	“Devojka tvog dečka“	8	2	4,424	2	4	8
4	Duo Grand	“Viva la Vida”	4	0	3,005	0	0	13
5	Nađa	“Moj prvi ožiljak na duši“	52	12	8,111	6	18	3
6	Frajle	“Neka, neka“	3	0	3,715	0	0	13
7	Hurricane	“Zumi zimi zami“	0	0	3,874	1	1	12
8	Chegi & Braća Bluz Band	“Svadba ili kavga“	2	0	5,144	3	3	10
9	Dzipsii	“Greh“	25	5	11,582	8	13	5
10	Luke Black	“Samo mi se spava“	49	10	20,070	10	20	1
11	Filip Baloš	“Novi plan drugi san“	41	8	8,529	7	15	4
12	Princ	“Cvet sa Istoka“	31	6	20,398	12	18	2
13	Filarri	“Posle mene“	0	0	2,414	0	0	13
14	Gift	“Liberta“	17	4	3,155	0	4	9
15	Empathy Soul Project	“Indigo“	12	3	2,170	0	3	11
16	Zejna	“Rumba”	7	1	7,195	5	6	7

**Detailed jury votes**
Draw	Song	L. Kovačević	D. Đorđević	N. Božović	S. Veljković	A. Lokner	Total
1	“Od jastuka do jastuka“	7	8	10		7	32
2	“Nedostupan“	1		3	3		7
3	“Devojka tvog dečka“		1	2	4	1	8
4	“Viva la Vida”			4			4
5	“Moj prvi ožiljak na duši“	10	10	8	12	12	52
6	“Neka, neka“			1		2	3
7	“Zumi zimi zami“						0
8	“Svadba ili kavga“		2				2
9	“Greh“	5	3	5	6	6	25
10	“Samo mi se spava“	12	12	7	8	10	49
11	“Novi plan drugi san“	8	6	12	7	8	41
12	“Cvet sa Istoka“	4	7	6	10	4	31
13	“Posle mene“						0
14	“Liberta“	6	5		1	5	17
15	“Indigo“	3	4		2	3	12
16	“Rumba”	2			5		7

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Serbia was placed into the first semi-final, held on 9 May 2023, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows’ producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Serbia was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Malta and before the entry from Latvia. Immediately after the close of the second semi-final, a press conference was held in which each of the artists drew the half of the final of which they would perform in. Serbia was drawn into the first half of the final and was later selected by the EBU to perform in position number 5, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from France.

In Serbia, the two semi-finals were broadcast on RTS 3 and RTS Svet, with commentary by Duška Vučinić. Due to technical issues, Tijana Lukić commentated from Belgrade during the first 15 minutes of the first semi-final. The semi-finals were initially due to be broadcast on RTS 1, however, due to the Belgrade school shooting, broadcast of the semi-finals was deferred to RTS 3 to allow for news coverage on RTS 1. The final was broadcast on RTS 1, with further commentary by Duška Vučinić. The Serbian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Serbian jury during the final, was Dragana Kosjerina.

Other awards.

OGAE Serbia Award. OGAE Serbia Award for the best song on Pesma za Evroviziju ’23 is voted on by the association members. The award was won by the winning song “Samo mi se spava” with 275 points. In second place, with 262 points, was “Novi plan drugi san” by Filip Baloš, while the third place went to Zejna and her song “Rumba” with 174 points.

Baloš was also the designated as the Serbian entrant to the OGAE Second Chance Contest.

Artist	Song	Points	Place
Luke Black	“Samo mi se spava“	275	1
Filip Baloš	“Novi plan drugi san”	262	2
Zejna	“Rumba”	174	3
Nađa	“Moj prvi ožiljak na duši”	148	4
Princ	“Cvet sa Istoka”	144	5
Dzipsii	“Greh”	144	5

Broadcasts. The three shows were broadcast on RTS1, RTS Svet and RTS Planeta as well as streamed online via the broadcaster’s website rts.rs, and the broadcaster’s Eurovision dedicated Youtube channel.

**Viewership (in millions, on TV broadcasts)**
Show	Viewership	-.
Semi-final 1	1.2	–
Semi-final 2	1.1	–
Final	1.5	^–

Notes.

[a] ^ Due to technical difficulties during her first performance, Nadia performed again after the last song.

Semi-final. Luke Black took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 2 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional back-up juries of each country watched and voted in a result used if any issues with public televoting occurred.

At the end of the show, Serbia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Serbia placed tenth out of the fifteen participating countries in the second semi-final with 37 points, qualifying by just 3 points over Latvia.

Final. Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners’ press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Serbia was drawn to compete in the first half. Following this draw, the shows’ producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Serbia was subsequently placed to perform in position number 5, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from France.

Luke Black once again took part in dress rehearsals on 12 and 13 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show on 12 May. He performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 13 May. Serbia placed 24th in the final, scoring 30 points; 16 points from the public televoting and 14 points from the juries. This marked Serbia’s worst ever result in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

3.1.Voting. Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Serbia in the first semi-final and in the final. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country’s jury and televoting were released after the final. The Serbian jury consisted of Dragan Đorđević, Zoran Živanović, Konstrakta, who represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, Sandra Perović and Sara Jo. In the first semi-final, Slovenia placed 10th with 37 points. This marked Serbia’s fifth consecutive qualification to the grand final. In the final, Serbia placed 24th with 30 points. Over the course of the contest, Serbia awarded its 12 points to Croatia in the second semi-final, and to Slovenia (jury) and Finland (televote) in the final.

3.1.1.Points awarded to Serbia.

**Points awarded to Serbia (Semi-final 1)**
SCOre	Televote
12 points
10 points	Croatia
8 points
7 points
6 points	Switzerland
5 points	Malta
4 points	Finland
3 points	Azerbaijan Czech Republic
2 points	France Rest of the World
1 point	Italy Sweden

**Points awarded to Serbia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points	Croatia
6 points	Slovenia
5 points
4 points		Croatia Portugal
3 points		Germany
2 points	Malta
1 point	Switzerland	Greece Iceland Italy

3.1.2.Points awarded by Serbia.

**Points awarded by Serbia (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Croatia
10 points	Finland
8 points	Czech Republic
7 points	Israel
6 points	Sweden
5 points	Norway
4 points	Moldova
3 points	Portugal
2 points	Latvia
1 point	Switzerland

**Points awarded by Serbia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Slovenia
10 points	Croatia	Israel
8 points	Slovenia	Croatia
7 points	Israel	Finland
6 points	Sweden	Austria
5 points	Norway	Sweden
4 points	Czech Republic	France
3 points	Austria	Spain
2 points	Italy	Italy
1 point	France	Czech Republic

3.1.3.Detailed voting results. Each nation’s jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song’s composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation’s televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

The following members comprised the Serbian jury:

Dragan Đorđević (Драган Ђорђевић) – music expert
Zoran Živanović (Žika Zana) (Зоран Живановић (Жика Зана)) – keyboardist, producer
Ana Đurić (Konstrakta) (Ана Ђурић (Констракта)) – singer-songwriter
Sandra Perović (Сандра Перовић) – film critic, journalist
Sara Jo (Сара Јо) – singer, model, actress

**Detailed voting results from Serbia (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	3	7	6	2	19	5	6	8	3
02	Portugal	22	19	20	24	15	20		19
03	Switzerland	12	18	17	15	13	15		18
04	Poland	23	15	19	22	21	21		13
05	Serbia
06	France	7	5	7	10	5	7	4	10	1
07	Cyprus	16	17	16	7	8	12		15
08	Spain	6	12	11	6	6	8	3	14
09	Sweden	15	4	5	5	7	6	5	5	6
10	Albania	25	25	25	25	25	25		12
11	Italy	11	9	10	8	9	9	2	9	2
12	Estonia	19	22	18	19	23	22		20
13	Finland	2	3	3	20	4	4	7	1	12
14	Czech Republic	8	14	8	9	11	10	1	7	4
15	Australia	18	21	23	23	24	23		22
16	Belgium	10	10	15	13	14	13		21
17	Armenia	9	11	9	12	10	11		16
18	Moldova	21	24	12	14	17	18		11
19	Ukraine	14	13	13	18	18	17		24
20	Norway	17	20	14	17	16	19		6	5
21	Germany	24	23	24	21	22	24		17
22	Lithuania	20	16	22	11	12	16		25
23	Israel	4	1	2	3	3	2	10	4	7
24	Slovenia	1	2	1	1	1	1	12	3	8
25	Croatia	5	6	4	4	2	3	8	2	10
26	United Kingdom	13	8	21	16	20	14		23

• Country: 🇱🇻 Latvia

• National selection:

Selection process: Supernova 2023
Selection date(s): Semi-final: 04 February 2023 Ι Final: 11 February 2023
Host venue: LTV studios (Latvijas Televīzijas augstceltne), Rīga
Presenter(s): Ketija Šēnberga, Lauris Reiniks
Host broadcaster: Latvijas Televīzija (LTV)
Participants – Number of entries: 14 15 (121)
Voting system: 50% jury, 50% televoting
Selection entrant: Sudden Lights (Kārlis Vārtiņš, Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis, Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis un Kārlis Matīss Zitmanis)
Selection song: “Aijā“
Selected songwriter(s): Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis, Kārlis Matīss Zitmanis, Kārlis Vārtiņš, Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 4º SF 1:Failed to qualify (11th, 34 points)
Final result: —

Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Aijā” performed by Sudden Lights. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) organised the national selection Supernova 2023 in order to select their entry for the contest.

Latvia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 4, “Aijā” was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed 11th out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 34 points.

1.Background. Prior to 2023, Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since its first entry in 2000. Latvia won the contest once in 2002 with the song “I Wanna” performed by Marie N. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Latvia was able to qualify for the final between 2005 and 2008. Between 2009 and 2014, the nation had failed to qualify to the final for six consecutive years before managing to qualify to the final in 2015 and 2016. Latvia had failed to qualify to the final for five consecutive contests since 2017, including with their 2022 entry “Eat Your Salad” performed by Citi Zēni.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Supernova 2023. On 3 August 2022, LTV confirmed its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. On 21 September 2022, it was announced by LTV that Supernova had been confirmed as the national final format to select Latvia’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, and opened submissions for the selection.

2.1.1.Format. The format of the competition consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. The semi-final, which was held on 4 February 2023, featured 15 competing entries from which the top ten entries advanced to the final. The final, held on 12 February 2023, selected the Latvian entry for Liverpool from the remaining entries. Results during the semi-final and final shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote, with both the jury and public vote assigning points from 1–8, 10, and 12 based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. Viewers were able to vote via telephone or via SMS.

2.1.2.Competing entries. On 21 September 2022, the broadcaster opened the song submission for artists to apply, with the deadline set for 1 December 2022. It was later announced that 121 songs were submitted at the conclusion of the submission period. The submitted songs were evaluated by a jury panel appointed by LTV and selected 15 performers and songs, which were announced on 5 January 2023. Among the competing artists is Justs, who represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. On 6 January 2023, Saule was disqualified from the competition due to the song being previously performed in 2021.

Artist	song	language	translate	Composer(s)
24. Avēnija (Kārlis Grīnbergs, Ernests Vīgners)	“You said”	Angļu	“Tu teici”	Kārlis Grīnbergs, Ernests Vīgners
Adriana Miglāne	“Ļike I Wanna”‘	Angļu	“Kā es vēlos”	Adriana Miglāne, Darens Maikls, Martins Ēlenmarks
Alise Haijima	“Tricky”	Angļu	“Viltīgs”	Alise Haijima
Artūrs Hatti (Artūrs Dominiks Hatuļevs)	“Love Vibes”	“Mīlestības noskaņas”	Agnese Rozniece, Matīss Repsis, Karlīne Anna Ērgle, Toms Kalderauskis, Baiba Ozoliņa
Avéi	“Let Me Go”	Angļu	“Laid mani vaļā”	Raitis Aukšmuksts, Ieva Kudlāne, Daniela Brilovska
Inspo (Aivars Lietaunieks, Nadīna Stirniniece)	“Sway”	Angļu	“Šūpoties”	Aivars Lietaunieks, Nadīna Stirniece
Justs (Justs Sirmais)	“Stranger”	Angļu	“Svešinieks”	Justs Sirmais, Veronika Marija Gabrielčika, Uku Moldau
Katrine Miller (Katrīne Millere)	“Beaten Down”	Angļu	“Piekaut”	Katrīne Millere, Andris Lūkins
Luīze ( Luīze Vītola)	“You To Hold Me”	Angļu	“Tu turi mani”	Luīze Vītola
Markus Riva (Miķelis Ļaksa)	“Forever”	Angļu	“Mūžīģi”	Markus Riva
Patrisha (Patriša, Patrīcija Ksenija Cuprijanoviča)	“Hush”	Angļu	“Klusu!”	Patrīcija Ksenija Cuprijanoviča, Krists Indrišonoks, Nanna Pripa Pedersena, Rūdolfs Budze, Jūlijs Melngailis
RAUM (Reinis Straume)	“Fake Love”	Angļu	“Viltus mīlestība”	Reinis Straume, Daniels Levijs Viinalass, Jānis Jačmenkins
~~Saule (Krišjānis Suntažs / Krišjānis Krišjānis)~~	~~“Finally Happy”~~	~~Angļu~~	~~“Beidzot laimīgs”~~	~~Krišjānis Suntažs, Rolands Priverts~~
Sudden Lights (Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis, Kārlis Matīss Zitmanis, Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis, Kārlis Vārtiņš)	“Aijā”	Angļu, latviešu	—	Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis, Kārlis Vārtiņš, Kārlis Matīss Zitmanis, Mārtiņš Matīss Zemītis
Toms Kalderauskis	“When It All Falls”	Angļu	“Kad tas viss krīt”	Toms Kalderauskis, Julianna Tīruma

2.1.3.Shows.

2.1.4.Semi-finals. The semi-final took place on 4 February 2023. In the semi-final, 14 acts competed and the top ten entries qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public.

**Semi-final – 4 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Result
1	Artūrs Hatti	“Love Vibes”	Advanced
2	Alise Haijima	“Tricky”	Advanced
3	Inspo	“Sway”	Eliminated
4	Toms Kalderauskis	“When It All Falls”	Advanced
5	Katrine Miller	“Beaten Down”	Eliminated
6	Justs	“Stranger”	Eliminated
7	Adriana Miglāne	“Like I Wanna”	Eliminated
8	24. Avēnija	“You Said”	Advanced
9	Markus Riva	“Forever”	Advanced
10	Avéi	“Let Me Go”	Advanced
11	Patrisha	“Hush”	Advanced
12	Raum	“Fake Love”	Advanced
13	Luīze	“You to Hold Me”	Advanced
14	Sudden Lights	“Aijā“	Advanced

2.1.5.Final. The final took place on 11 February 2023. The ten entries that advanced from the semi-final will compete. The song with the highest number of votes based on the combination of votes from a jury panel and the Latvian public, “Aijā” by Sudden Lights, was declared the winner. In addition to the competing entries, the show featured guest performances from Eurovision Song Contest 2019 winner Duncan Laurence, and Elīza Legzdiņa and Beanie from Rudimental.

**Final – 11 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Votes	Points	Total	Place
1	Alise Haijima	“Tricky”	3	5,607	3	6	8
2	Luīze	“You to Hold Me”	2	2,384	1	3	10
3	Raum	“Fake Love”	4	6,986	5	9	6
4	Toms Kalderauskis	“When It All Falls”	7	2,608	2	9	7
5	Artūrs Hatti	“Love Vibes”	1	6,251	4	5	9
6	Patrisha	“Hush”	10	50,958	10	20	2
7	Sudden Lights	“Aijā“	12	66,307	12	24	1
8	24. Avēnija	“You Said”	8	8,735	7	15	3
9	Avéi	“Let Me Go”	5	8,294	6	11	5
10	Markus Riva	“Forever”	6	27,302	8	14	4

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Latvia has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

At the end of the show, Latvia was not among the ten countries announced as qualifiers for the final, and therefore failed to qualify to the final. It was later revealed that Latvia placed 11th with 34 points.

3.2.Voting.

3.2.1.Points awarded to Latvia.

**Points awarded to Latvia (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points
10 points
8 points	Rest of the World
7 points
6 points	Azerbaijan
5 points
4 points	Ireland Portugal
3 points	Finland France
2 points	Serbia
1 point	Czech Republic Germany Moldova Netherlands

3.2.2.Points awarded by Latvia.

**Points awarded by Latvia (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Sweden
8 points	Israel
7 points	Croatia
6 points	Moldova
5 points	Czech Republic
4 points	Norway
3 points	Switzerland
2 points	Azerbaijan
1 point	Ireland

**Points awarded by Latvia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Estonia
10 points	Lithuania	Sweden
8 points	Sweden	Spain
7 points	Ukraine	Lithuania
6 points	Estonia	Cyprus
5 points	Israel	Israel
4 points	Croatia	Ukraine
3 points	Norway	Italy
2 points	Slovenia	Belgium
1 point	Czech Republic	Armenia

3.2.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Latvian jury:

Jānis Stībelis
Kristaps Vanadziņš
Aminata Savadogo
Asnate Rancāne

**Detailed voting results from Latvia (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury						Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	12	13	7	18	13		21
02	Portugal	13	10	9	26	15		23
03	Switzerland	14	8	15	14	16		20
04	Poland	16	20	25	19	24		16
05	Serbia	25	25	12	20	21		18
06	France	23	9	11	9	12		14
07	Cyprus	4	7	16	6	5	6	22
08	Spain	10	2	1	5	3	8	24
09	Sweden	3	3	3	1	2	10	3	8
10	Albania	22	17	23	17	23		26
11	Italy	5	6	24	10	8	3	15
12	Estonia	1	1	4	2	1	12	5	6
13	Finland	24	11	21	21	19		1	12
14	Czech Republic	15	16	8	12	14		10	1
15	Australia	7	18	14	23	17		13
16	Belgium	8	15	5	13	9	2	19
17	Armenia	6	14	13	7	10	1	17
18	Moldova	11	24	26	24	20		11
19	Ukraine	17	23	6	3	7	4	4	7
20	Norway	18	19	17	25	22		8	3
21	Germany	21	21	19	22	26		12
22	Lithuania	2	12	2	8	4	7	2	10
23	Israel	9	5	18	4	6	5	6	5
24	Slovenia	20	22	22	16	25		9	2
25	Croatia	26	4	20	15	11		7	4
26	United Kingdom	19	26	10	11	18		25

• Country: 🇵🇹 Portogallo

• National selection:

Selection process: Festival da Cançao (57ª Festival RTP da Canção) 2023
Selection date(s): Semi-finals: Semi-final 1 – 25 February 2023, Semi-final 2 – 4 March 2023 Ι Final: 11 March 2023
Host venue: Studio 1 RTP, Lisbon
Presenter(s): SF 1 (José Carlos Malato e Tânia Ribas de Oliveira), SF 2 (Jorge Gabriel e Sónia Araújo), FI (Filomena Cautela e Vasco Palmeirim), GreenRoom (Inês Lopes Gonçalves)
Host broadcaster: Rádio e Televisão de Portugal – RTP (Antena 1, RTP1, RTP Internacional, RTP África, RTP Play)
Participants – Number of entries: 20 (10 songs will compete in Semi-final 1. 6 songs will qualify for the Final; 10 songs will compete in Semi-final 2. 6 songs will qualify for the Final; 12 songs will compete in the Final)
Voting system: Semi-finals: First round: 5 songs selected by 50% jury, 50% televoting. Second round: 1 song selected by 100% televoting; Final: 50% jury, 50% televoting
Selection entrant: Mimicat
Selection song: “Ai coração”
Selected songwriter(s): Marisa Mena, Luís Pereira

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 5º SF 1: Qualified (9th, 74 points)
Final result: 23rd, 59 points

Portugal participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Ai coração” performed by Mimicat. The Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) organised the national final Festival da Canção 2023 in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 2023 contest. After two semi-finals and a final which took place in February–March 2023, “Ai coração” emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from seven regional juries and a public televote.

Portugal was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 5, “Ai coração” was announced as one of the top 10 entries and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May. In the final, Portugal performed in position 2 and placed 23rd out of the 26 countries with 59 points (43 from the jury vote and 16 from the public vote).

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Portugal has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 53 times since its first entry in 1964. Portugal had won the contest on one occasion: in 2017 with the song “Amar pelos dois” performed by Salvador Sobral. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Portugal had featured in only seven finals. Portugal’s least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on four occasions, most recently in 2018 with the song “O jardim” performed by Cláudia Pascoal. Portugal has also received nul points on two occasions; in 1964 and 1997. In 2022, Portugal placed ninth with the song “Saudade, saudade” performed by Maro.

The Portuguese national broadcaster, Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP), broadcasts the event within Portugal and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. RTP confirmed Portugal’s participation in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 2 September 2022.^[2] The broadcaster has traditionally selected the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest via the music competition Festival da Canção, with exceptions in 1988 and 2005 when the Portuguese entries were internally selected. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced the organization of Festival da Canção 2023 in order to select the 2023 Portuguese entry.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Festival da Canção 2023. The 2023 edition of Festival da Canção featured two semi-finals and a final, and saw 20 acts compete. All three shows took place at RTP’s Studio 1 in Lisbon.

Festival da Canção 2023 was the 57th edition of Festival da Canção, a television song contest organised and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) to determine Portugal’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of two semi-finals on 25 February and 4 March 2023 and a final on 11 March 2023, with twenty entries competing in total. The winner was “Ai coração” by Mimicat, who represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

2.1.1.Format. The format of the competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. Each semi-final featured 10 competing entries from which six advanced from each show to complete the 12-song lineup in the final. Results during the semi-finals were determined by the votes from a jury panel appointed by RTP and public televoting; the first five qualifiers were based on the 50/50 combination of jury and public voting where both streams of voting assign points from 1–8, 10 and 12 based on ranking, while the sixth qualifier was determined by a second round of public televoting from the remaining entries. Results during the final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from seven regional juries and public televoting, which was opened following the second semi-final and closed during the final show. Both the public televote and the juries assign points from 1–8, 10 and 12 based on the ranking developed by both streams of voting.

All three shows of the competition took place at RTP’s Studio 1 in Lisbon and were broadcast on RTP1 and RTP Internacional as well as on radio via Antena 1 and online via RTP Play. The shows were also broadcast on RTP Acessibilidades with presentation in Portuguese Sign Language and in Spain online via RTVE Play.

2.1.2.Competing entries. Twenty composers were selected by RTP through two methods: 15 invited by RTP for the competition and five selected from 667 submissions received through an open call for songs. The composers, which both create the songs and select its performers, were required to submit the demo and final versions of their entries by 31 October and 30 November 2022, respectively. Songs could be submitted in any language. The selected composers were revealed on 9 November 2022, while the competing artists and songs were revealed on 19 January 2023. Among the competing artists was Cláudia Pascoal, who represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.

**Competing entries**
Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Selection
April Ivy (Mariana Barreiros Dos Santos Gonçalves)	“Modo voo“	Mariana Gonçalves, João Maia Ferreira, Francisco Santos, Manuel Morgado, Ricardo Moreira, Matheus Paraízo, Francisco Andrade	Invited by RTP
Bandua	“Bandeiras“	Bernardo Adário, Edgar Valente
Bárbara Tinoco	“Goodnight”	Bárbara Tinoco, Mateus Seabra
BOLHA	“Sonhos de liberdade“	Jacinta, Joana Gil
Churky	“Encruzilhada“	Churky
Cláudia Pascoal (Cláudia Rafaela Teixeira Pascoal)	“Nasci Maria“	Cláudia Pascoal
DAPUNKSPORTIF	“World Needs Therapy”	João Guincho, Paulo Franco
Edmundo Inácio	“A festa“	Edmundo Inácio	Open call winner
Esse Povo	“Sapatos de cimento“	Quim Albergaria	Invited by RTP
INÊS APENAS	“Fim do mundo“	Inês Apenas	Open call winner
Ivandro	“Povo“	Ivandro	Invited by RTP
Lara Li (Lara Pires Amendoeira)	“Funâmbula“	André Henriques	Invited by RTP
Mimicat (Marisa Isabel Lopes Mena)	“Ai coração“	Marisa Mena, Luís Pereira	Open call winner
Moyah	“Too Much Sauce”	Moyah, Kensaye, Miguel Gutierrez	Open call winner
Neon Soho	“Endless World”	Neon Soho	Invited by RTP
SAL	“Viver“	Sérgio Pires, SAL
Teresinha Landeiro (Teresa Landeiro)	“Enquanto é tempo“	Pedro de Castro, Teresinha Landeiro
The Happy Mess (Miguel Ribeiro, Joana Duarte, Zé Vieira, João Pascoal, Alfonso Carvalho, Hugo Azevedo)	“O impossível“	João Pascoal, Afonso Carvalho, Miguel Ribeiro, Paulo Mouta Pereira, Bruno Vieira Amaral
Voodoo Marmalade	“Tormento“	Voodoo Marmalade	Open call winner
You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown (Afonso Cabral, David Santos, Pedro Branco, Salvador Menezes, João Gil, Tomás Sousa)	“Contraste mudo“	Afonso Cabral, David Santos, João Gil, Pedro Branco, Salvador Menezes, Tomás Sousa	Invited by RTP

Semi-finals. The two semi-finals took place on 25 February and 4 March 2023. In each semi-final, 10 entries competed and six advanced to the final: five based on the 50/50 combination of votes from the televote and a jury panel consisting of Alex D’Alva, Carlos Mendes, Márcia, Maro, Neev [pt], Pedro Ribeiro and Sara Correia. One additional entry was then selected by televoting exclusively. The first semi-final was hosted by Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and José Carlos Malato. Throughout all shows, Inês Lopes Gonçalves was in charge of the green room alongside Wandson Lisboa, the social media correspondent. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, HMB together with Nena, Ana Bacalhau and Wander Isaac, Fernando Tordo and Spanish Eurovision 2023 entrant Blanca Paloma performed as guests in the first semi-final. The second semi-final was hosted by Jorge Gabriel and Sónia Araújo, while Filipe Sambado together with Surma and Primeira Dama, juror Carlos Mendes, and Portuguese representative in Junior Eurovision 2022, Nicolas Alves, performed as guests.

Esse Povo, who took part in the first semi-final with their song “Sapatos de cimento“, automatically qualified from the jury and televote round due to a technical issue related to their televoting line discovered during the first semi-final, resulting in the final featuring 13 artists instead of the planned 12

The first semi-final took place on 25 February 2023. “Encruzilhada” performed by Churky, “Nasci Maria” performed by Cláudia Pascoal, “Viver” performed by SAL, “Ai coração” performed by Mimicat, and “Contraste mudo” performed by You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown qualified directly to the final. “Sapatos de cimento” performed by Esse Povo also qualified directly to the final due to a technical issue affecting their televoting line. “Endless World” performed by Neon Soho also qualified for the final through the second round of voting. “Too Much Sauce” performed by Moyah, “Sonhos de liberdade” performed by Bolha and “Modo voo” performed by April Ivy were eliminated from the contest.

The second semi-final took place on 4 March 2023. “A festa” performed by Edmundo Inácio, “Goodnight” performed by Bárbara Tinoco, “Fim do mundo” performed by Inês Apenas, “Povo” performed by Ivandro, and “Tormento” performed by Voodoo Marmalade qualified directly to the final. “World Needs Therapy” performed by Dapunksportif also qualified for the final through the second round of voting. “O impossível” performed by the Happy Mess, “Enquanto é tempo” performed by Teresinha Landeiro, “Bandeiras” performed by Bandua, and “Funâmbula” performed by Lara Li were eliminated from the contest.

Key: * Jury and televote round qualifier ** Televote-only round qualifier

**Semi-final 1 – 25 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Percentage	Points	Total	Place
1	Moyah	“Too Much Sauce”	3	1.73%	2	5	8
2	Bolha	“Sonhos de liberdade“	2	6.17%	4	6	7
3	April Ivy	“Modo voo“	1	3.61%	3	4	9
4	Churky [1]	“Encruzilhada“	5	19.11%	10	15	5
5	Cláudia Pascoal [1]	“Nasci Maria“	12	14.29%	8	20	1
6	SAL [1]	“Viver“	8	10.21%	7	15	4
7	Mimicat [1]	“Ai coração“	7	19.37%	12	19	2
8	You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown [1]	“Contraste mudo“	10	8.45%	5	15	3
9	Neon Soho	“Endless World”	6	9.57%	6	12	6
10	Esse Povo [1]	“Sapatos de cimento“	4	7.49%	—	—	—

[1] Jury and televote round qualifier
[2] Televote-only round qualifier

**Semi-final 1 – Second Round**
Artist	Song	Televote	Place
April Ivy	“Modo voo“	16.80%	3
Bolha	“Sonhos de liberdade“	17.30%	2
Moyah	“Too Much Sauce”	10.32%	4
Neon Soho [2]	“Endless World”	55.58%	1

**Semi-final 2 – 4 March 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Percentage	Points	Total	Place
1	Edmundo Inácio [1]	“A festa“	10	10.18%	7	17	1
2	The Happy Mess	“O impossível“	3	8.81%	6	9	8
3	Teresinha Landeiro	“Enquanto é tempo“	7	8.25%	5	12	6
4	Bandua	“Bandeiras“	4	6.44%	3	7	9
5	Bárbara Tinoco [1]	“Goodnight”	12	5.91%	1	13	4
6	Inês Apenas [1]	“Fim do mundo“	6	11.71%	8	14	3
7	Ivandro [1]	“Povo“	8	7.32%	4	12	5
8	Dapunksportif	“World Needs Therapy”	2	15.38%	10	12	7
9	Lara Li	“Funâmbula“	1	6.26%	2	3	10
10	Voodoo Marmalade [1]	“Tormento“	5	19.74%	12	17	2

**Semi-final 2 – Second Round**
Artist	Song	Televote	Place
Bandua	“Bandeiras“	19.10%	3
Dapunksportif [2]	“World Needs Therapy”	26.83%	1
Lara Li	“Funâmbula“	19.81%	2
Teresinha Landeiro	“Enquanto é tempo“	18.70%	4
The Happy Mess	“O impossível“	15.56%	5

2.1.4.Final. The final took place on 11 March 2023 and was hosted by Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim, who were joined by green room host Inês Lopes Gonçalves and digital content and social media host Wandson Lisboa. Interval acts included a The Beatles medley by Eurovision Song Contest 2017 winner Salvador Sobral, a reprise of “Saudade, saudade” by Maro featuring several finalists of Festival da Canção 2022, and a medley of songs from Liverpudlian artists by David Fonseca. The winner was selected based on the 50/50 combination of votes from seven regional juries and from a public televote.

The final took place on 11 March 2023. The winner was selected based on the 50/50 combination of votes from seven regional juries and from a public televote.

**Final – 11 March 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury		Televote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Points	Percentage	Points	Total	Place
1	Cláudia Pascoal	“Nasci Maria“	48	8	8.21%	4	12	3
2	Churky	“Encruzilhada“	5	0	8.26%	5	5	9
3	Esse Povo	“Sapatos de cimento“	30	4	2.82%	0	4	11
4	Bárbara Tinoco	“Goodnight“	27	3	8.58%	6	9	4
5	You Can’t Win, Charlie Brown	“Contraste mudo“	45	7	3.74%	0	7	8
6	Voodoo Marmalade	“Tormento“	5	0	9.02%	7	7	7
7	Inês Apenas	“Fim do mundo“	26	2	4.55%	1	3	13
8	Mimicat	“Ai coração“	66	12	19.33%	12	24	1
9	Dapunksportif	“World Needs Therapy”	2	0	9.17%	8	8	6
10	Neon Soho	“Endless World”	33	5	3.96%	0	5	10
11	Ivandro	“Povo“	43	6	5.42%	3	9	5
12	Edmundo Inácio	“A festa“	66	12	12.24%	10	22	2
13	SAL	“Viver“	10	1	4.70%	2	3	12

**Detailed regional jury votes**
Draw	Song	North	Central	Lisbon Area	Alentejo	Algarve	Madeira	Azores	Total
1	“Nasci Maria“	3	7	10	8	8	6	6	48
2	“Encruzilhada“				2	2	1		5
3	“Sapatos de cimento“	4	2	2	5	5	5	7	30
4	“Goodnight”	2	5	5	7	6	2		27
5	“Contraste mudo“	7	4	7	4	12	10	1	45
6	“Tormento“		1			1		3	5
7	“Fim do mundo“	6	3	6	1	7	3		26
8	“Ai coração“	5	12	12	10	3	12	12	66
9	“World Needs Therapy”							2	2
10	“Endless World”	10	8	3	3	4		5	33
11	“Povo“	12	6	4	6	4	7	4	43
12	“A festa“	8	10	8	12	10	8	10	66
13	“Viver“	1		1				8	10
Members of the jury
North: Ana Aroso, João Pedro Coimbra, Graciela Central: Isilda Sanches, Tiago Nogueira, Susie Filipe Lisbon Area: Elisa Rodrigues, Bruno Vasconcelos, Gabriela Barros Alentejo: Cristina Branco, Pedro Madeira, Buba Espinho Algarve: Júlio Resende, Gil Silva, Sara Afonso Madeira: Guilherme Gomes, Diana Duarte, Mara Azores: Maria Bettencourt, Maria do Rosário Pereira, Miguel Damião

Ratings.

**Viewing figures by show**
Show	Air date	Viewers	Share (%)	–
Semi-final 1	25 February 2023	477,000	11.4%	–
Semi-final 2	4 March 2023	505,000	12.9%	–
Final	11 March 2023	560,000	15.4%	–

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Portugal has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

At the end of the show, Portugal was announced as a qualifier for the final.

3.3.Voting.

3.3.1.Points awarded to Portugal.

**Points awarded to Portugal (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	France Switzerland
10 points
8 points
7 points	Netherlands
6 points	Rest of the World
5 points	Croatia Germany
4 points	Malta Moldova Sweden
3 points	Israel Serbia
2 points	Czech Republic Finland Italy Norway
1 point	Ireland

**Points awarded to Portugal (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points		Greece
8 points		Moldova
7 points	Switzerland
6 points		Spain
5 points	France	France Netherlands
4 points	Spain
3 points		Finland Malta
2 points		Australia
1 point		Croatia

3.3.2.Points awarded by Portugal.

**Points awarded by Portugal (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Moldova
10 points	Finland
8 points	Sweden
7 points	Israel
6 points	Czech Republic
5 points	Switzerland
4 points	Latvia
3 points	Norway
2 points	Ireland
1 point	Netherlands

**Points awarded by Portugal (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Ukraine	Australia
10 points	Finland	Spain
8 points	Moldova	Estonia
7 points	Sweden	Czech Republic
6 points	Italy	Belgium
5 points	Israel	Sweden
4 points	Norway	Serbia
3 points	Spain	Croatia
2 points	France	Switzerland
1 point	Belgium	Norway

3.3.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Portuguese jury:

Gustavo Almeida
Nuno Mota
Ana Carina Almeida
Milhanas
Patrícia Antunes

**Detailed voting results from Portugal (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	16	12	14	16	8	14		20
02	Portugal
03	Switzerland	6	9	9	12	11	9	2	11
04	Poland	25	25	25	25	25	25		17
05	Serbia	4	5	6	14	7	7	4	23
06	France	13	18	8	13	21	15		9	2
07	Cyprus	11	13	11	17	24	17		12
08	Spain	3	1	1	11	9	2	10	8	3
09	Sweden	8	3	5	1	17	6	5	4	7
10	Albania	18	24	24	15	5	12		25
11	Italy	15	14	10	9	18	13		5	6
12	Estonia	5	7	2	5	3	3	8	21
13	Finland	24	22	20	4	12	11		2	10
14	Czech Republic	2	4	3	8	6	4	7	14
15	Australia	1	2	7	3	1	1	12	18
16	Belgium	7	10	4	2	2	5	6	10	1
17	Armenia	17	15	13	23	10	18		24
18	Moldova	23	19	22	6	15	16		3	8
19	Ukraine	21	11	17	21	14	20		1	12
20	Norway	14	8	12	7	19	10	1	7	4
21	Germany	19	16	23	20	23	24		13
22	Lithuania	12	20	19	18	22	21		19
23	Israel	20	23	18	24	16	23		6	5
24	Slovenia	10	17	16	19	20	19		16
25	Croatia	9	6	15	10	4	8	3	15
26	United Kingdom	22	21	21	22	13	22		22

• Country: 🇮🇪 Ireland

• National selection:

Selection process: Eurosong 2023: The Late Late show Special
Selection date(s): 3 February 2023
Host venue: Studio 4, RTÉ Television Centre, Dublin
Presenter(s): Ryan Tubridy
Host broadcaster: RTÉ
Participants – Number of entries: 6
Voting system: 33% International jury, 33% National jury, 33% Televoting
Selection entrant: Wild Youth (David Whelan, Conor O’Donohoe, Ed Porter and Callum McAdam)
Selection song: “We Are One“
Selected songwriter(s): Ed Porter, Conor O’Donohoe, Jörgen Elofsson

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 6º SF 1: Failed to qualify (12th, 10 points)
Final result:—

Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “We Are One” performed by Wild Youth. The Irish broadcaster, RTÉ, organised the national final Eurosong 2023 in order to select the Irish entry for the 2023 contest. Six songs faced the votes of a studio jury, an international jury and a public televote which determined the final selection.

Ireland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 6, “We Are One” was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Ireland placed 12th out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 10 points.

1.Background. Prior tto the 2023 contest, Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-four times since its first entry in 1965. Ireland has won the contest a record seven times in total. The country’s first win came in 1970, with then-18-year-old Dana winning with “All Kinds of Everything”. Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter). In 2011 and 2012, Jedward represented the nation for two consecutive years, managing to qualify to the final both times and achieve Ireland’s highest position in the contest since 1997 Marc Roberts, placing eighth in 2011 with the song “Lipstick”. Since 2013, only two Irish entries managed to qualify for the final: Ryan Dolan’s “Only Love Survives” which placed 26th (last) in the final in 2013, and Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s “Together” which placed 16th in the final in 2018. The Irish entry in 2022, “That’s Rich” performed by Brooke, once again failed to qualify to the final.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Eurosong 2023. Eurosong 2023 was the national final format developed by RTÉ in order to select Ireland’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The competition was broadcast on RTÉ One as well as online via RTÉ Player during a special edition of The Late Late Show held on 3 February 2023 at the Studio 4 of RTÉ in Dublin. The show was hosted by Ryan Tubridy with Marty Whelan reporting from the green room.

2.1.1.Competing entries. On 30 September 2022, RTÉ opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their entries for the competition until 28 October 2022. At the closing of the deadline, 330 entries were received. The competing entries were selected through three phases involving a jury panel with members appointed by RTÉ; the first phase involved 60 entries being longlisted after all of the submissions were reviewed, while the second phase involved 10 entries being shortlisted and the third phase involved the six finalists being selected. The finalists were presented on 9 January 2023 on The Ryan Tubridy Show broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1.

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
ADGY	“Too Good for Your Love”	Andrew Carr, Peter Solymosi
Connolly	“Midnight Summer Night”	Jennifer Connolly
K Muni and ND	“Down in the Rain”	Kofi Appiah, Nevlonne Dampare
Leila Jane	“Wild”	Leila Jane Keeney, Liis Hainla, Arto Ruotsala, Aaron Sibley
Public Image Ltd (PiL: John Lydon, Bruce Smith, Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth)	“Hawaii”	John Lydon, Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth, Bruce Smith
Wild Youth (David Whelan, Conor O’Donohoe, Ed Porter, Callum McAdam)	“We Are One”	David Whelan, Ed Porter, Conor O’Donohoe, Callum McAdam, Jörgen Elofsson

2.1.2.Final. The national final took place on 3 February 2023 and featured commentary from a panel that consisted of former Irish contestant Jedward, singer-songwriter Ruth-Anne Cunningham, radio presenter and singer-songwriter Gemma Bradley and opera singer Celine Byrne. Guest performers included upcoming Irish artists performing former contest hits and former contest winner Niamh Kavanagh performing “In Your Eyes”. Following the combination of votes from an international jury (1/3), a national jury (1/3) and public televoting (1/3), “We Are One” performed by Wild Youth was selected as the winner. The international jury panel consisted of former Eurovision winner for Denmark Emmelie de Forest, Slovenian composer and producer Žiga Pirnat, Ukrainian Head of Delegation Oksana Skybinska and British contest expert Paul Jordan, while the national jury panel consisted of musician Paul McLoone, radio presenter Brendan O’Loughlin and presenter Louise Cantillon.

**Final – 3 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Intl. jury	National jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Leila Jane	“Wild”	2	2	2	6	6
2	Adgy	“Too Good for Your Love”	8	4	4	16	5
3	Public Image Ltd	“Hawaii”	6	6	6	18	4
4	Connolly	“Midnight Summer Night”	12	10	10	32	2
5	Wild Youth	“We Are One“	10	12	12	34	1
6	K Muni and ND	“Down in the Rain”	4	8	8	20	3

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Ireland was placed into the first semi-final, held on 9 May 2023, and was performed in the first half of the show.

At the end of the show, Ireland was not among the ten countries announced as qualifiers for the final.

Marty Whelan provided commentary for Irish television viewers on all three shows, with live broadcasts of the first semi-final and the final on RTÉ One and of the second semi-final on RTÉ2. Live broadcast of semi-final 1 and the final was also provided on RTÉ 2fm, with commentary by Zbyszek Zalinski and Neil Doherty. Over 371,000 viewers watched the live broadcast of the final on RTÉ One and its timeshift channel RTÉ One +1, which represented a 38% market share and marked it as RTÉ’s most watched programme for that weekend.

3.1.Voting.

3.1.1.Points awarded to Ireland.

**Points awarded to Ireland (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points	Malta Norway
2 points	Portugal
1 point	Latvia Switzerland

3.1.2.Points awarded by Ireland.

**Points awarded by Ireland (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Moldova
8 points	Sweden
7 points	Switzerland
6 points	Israel
5 points	Croatia
4 points	Latvia
3 points	Czech Republic
2 points	Norway
1 point	Portugal

**Points awarded by Ireland (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Sweden
10 points	Lithuania	Belgium
8 points	Poland	Finland
7 points	Ukraine	Israel
6 points	Sweden	Armenia
5 points	Norway	France
4 points	Moldova	Australia
3 points	Belgium	Czech Republic
2 points	Croatia	United Kingdom
1 point	Israel	Lithuania

3.1.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Irish jury:

Paul McLoone
Brooke Scullion
Erica-Cody Kennedy-Smith
Kellie Lewis

**Detailed voting results from Ireland (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury						Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	23	13	12	20	21		15
02	Portugal	11	14	21	26	22		22
03	Switzerland	24	12	16	18	23		13
04	Poland	22	15	17	23	24		3	8
05	Serbia	25	25	14	6	15		24
06	France	3	7	11	15	6	5	14
07	Cyprus	20	23	13	11	19		17
08	Spain	17	20	25	4	13		23
09	Sweden	2	2	4	3	1	12	5	6
10	Albania	18	19	24	17	25		25
11	Italy	8	18	15	12	14		12
12	Estonia	13	16	3	14	11		20
13	Finland	5	8	6	1	3	8	1	12
14	Czech Republic	7	9	10	5	8	3	18
15	Australia	21	24	1	10	7	4	16
16	Belgium	1	1	2	19	2	10	8	3
17	Armenia	12	11	7	2	5	6	26
18	Moldova	14	10	18	13	17		7	4
19	Ukraine	9	22	19	22	20		4	7
20	Norway	10	17	9	25	16		6	5
21	Germany	19	6	22	7	12		19
22	Lithuania	16	3	8	16	10	1	2	10
23	Israel	6	5	5	8	4	7	10	1
24	Slovenia	15	21	23	9	18		21
25	Croatia	26	26	26	24	26		9	2
26	United Kingdom	4	4	20	21	9	2	11

• Country: 🇭🇷 Croatia

• National selection:

Selection process: DORA 2023. (Hrvatski izbor za pjesmu Eurovizije)
Selection date(s): 11 February 2023
Host venue: Marino Cvetković Sports Hall (Sportska dvorana Marino Cvetković), Opatija, Croatia
Presenter(s): Mirko Fodor, Mario Lipovšek Battifiaca and Marko Tolja
Host broadcaster: HRT
Participants: 18 (+ 4 reserve)
Participants – Number of entries: 18
Voting system: 10 Regional Juries (Rijeka, Pula, Osijek, Čakovec i Varaždin, Split, Vukovar, Knin i Šibenik, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Zagreb): 50% jury, 50% televoting
Selection entrant: Let 3 (Damir Martinović Mrle, Zoran Prodanović Prlja, Ivan Bojčić, Dražen Baljak, Matej Zec)
Selection song: “Mama ŠČ!”
Selected songwriter(s): Damir Martinović Mrle, Zoran Prodanović

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 7º SF 1: Qualified (8th, 76 points)
Final result: 13th, 123 points

Croatia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Mama ŠČ!” performed by Let 3. The Croatian broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) organised the national final Dora 2023 to select the Croatian entry for the 2023 contest.

In the first semi-final, Croatia qualified for the final on 13 May.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Croatia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-eight times since its first entry in 1993. The nation’s best result in the contest was fourth, which it achieved on two occasions: in 1996 with the song “Sveta ljubav” performed by Maja Blagdan and in 1999 with the song “Marija Magdalena” performed by Doris Dragović. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Croatia had thus far featured in seven finals. Since 2018, the Croatian entries failed to qualify from the semi-finals; the last time Croatia competed in the final was in 2017 with the song “My Friend” performed by Jacques Houdek. In 2022, Croatia failed to qualify to the final with Mia Dimšić and the song “Guilty Pleasure”.

The Croatian national broadcaster, Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT), broadcasts the event within Croatia and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. HRT confirmed Croatia’s participation in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 20 September 2022. Between 1993 and 2011, HRT organised the national final Dora in order to select the Croatian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2012 and 2013, the broadcaster opted to internally select the entry. After missing the contest in 2014 and 2015, the Croatian broadcaster continued the internal selection procedure between 2016 and 2018. Since 2019, HRT has used Dora to select Croatia’s entry, a method that was continued for their 2023 participation.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Dora 2023. Dora 2023 was the twenty-fourth edition of the Croatian national selection Dora which selects Croatia’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The competition consisted of eighteen entries competing in one final on 11 February 2023 at the Marino Cvetković Sports Hall in Opatija, hosted by Mirko Fodor, Mario Lipovšek Battifiaca and Marko Tolja. The show was broadcast on HRT 1 as well as online via the streaming service HRTi. The national final was watched by over 900,000 viewers in Croatia with a market share of 42%.

2.1.1.Voting.

2.1.2.Competing entries. On 20 September 2022, HRT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster with the deadline on 20 November 2022. 196 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. A nine-member expert committee consisting of Željko Mesar, Zlatko Turkalj, Robert Urlić, Ema Gross, Igor Geržina, Željen Klašterka, Ivan Horvat, Tomislav Krizmanić and Dražen Miočić reviewed the received submissions and selected eighteen artists and songs for the competition.^[10] HRT announced the competing entries on 9 December 2022 and among the competing artists was Damir Kedžo, who was set to represent Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 before its cancellation.

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
Barbara Munjas	“Putem snova“	Barbara Munjas, Alen Bernobić
Boris Štok	“Grijeh“	Boris Štok, Darko Terlević
Damir Kedžo	“Angels and Demons”	Jamie Duffin, Stefan Celar, Kyler Niko, Victoria Jane Horn
Đana	“Free Falin'”	Đana Smajo
Detour (Nenad Borgudan, Laura John, Ivana Radan, Alen Križaj, Edi Grubišić, Vibor Čerič)	“Master Blaster”	Nenad Borgudan
Eni Jurišić (ENI)	“Kreni dalje“	Matija Cvek, Vlaho Arbulić, Eni Jurišić
Hana Mašić	“Nesreća“	Boris Subotić
Harmonija Disonance (Mira Crnčić, Magdalena Cvitan, Marta Cvitan, Katarina Mandić, Francesca Paleka, Jana Radić, Hana Zdunić)	“Nevera (Lei, lei)“	Bartol Stopić, Sanja Daić, Bojan Petrović
Krešo and Kisele Kiše	“Kme kme”	Krešimir Burić
Let 3 (Damir Martinović Mrle, Zoran Prodanović Prlja, Ivan Bojčić (Bean), Dražen Baljak (Baljak), Matej Zec (Knki))	“Mama šč!“	Damir Martinović Mrle, Zoran Prodanović
Maja Grgić	“I Still Live”	Mateo Martinović Teo, Maja Grgić
Martha May	“Distance”	Marta Ivić
Meri Andraković	“Bye Bye Blonde”	Boris Đurđević, Valerija Đurđević
Patricia Gasparini	“I Will Wait”	Siniša Reljić, Lisa Desmond, Aidan Winkels
Tajana Belina	“Dom”	Tajana Belina, Marcel Sprunkel
The Splitters (Josip Senta, Marko Komić, Petar Senta i Antonio Komić)	“Lost and Found”	Neven Kolarić, Branimir Mihaljević
Top of the Pops ft. Mario 5reković (Top of the Pops ft. Mario Petreković)	“Putovanje“	Bruno Krajcar, Danijel Načinović
Yogi	“Love at First Sight”	Yugomir Lonich

Reserve:

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
LANA MANDARIĆ LANCHI	“Sama“	Zorana Mandarić – Domagoj Perišić
MIRNA ŠKRGATIĆ	“Odlazi“	Mirna Škrgatić – ARR Tomislav Franjo Šušak
VOICE FOR YOU	“On the same train”	Adi Karas – Adi Karas – Elvis Sršen, Adi Karas,Tvrtko Hrelec
ROSANNA KUMERLE	“Talking to me”	Rosanna Kumerle, William Naesh Hendriksen

2.1.3.Final. The final took place on 11 February 2023. The winner, “Mama ŠČ!” performed by Let 3, was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from ten regional juries and a public televote. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 580 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1-8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through telephone and SMS voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 580 points rounded to the nearest integer: 58 points. Ties were decided in favour of the entry ranked higher by the public televote. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by 2022 Croatian Eurovision entrant Mia Dimšić, while 1994 Croatian Eurovision entrant Tony Cetinski performed as the interval act.

Rijeka (Robert Ferlin); Čakovec–Varaždin (Bojan Jambrošić); Split (Mirta Šurjak); Osijek (Sanja Azenić); Šibenik–Knin (Đani Stipaničev); Vukovar (Ines Milanković); Pula (Marko Percan); Zadar (Natali Dizdar); Zagreb (Maja Ciglenečki); Dubrovnik (Vicko Dragojević).

**Final – 11 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote				Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Phone	SMS	Total	Points	Total	Place
1	Top of the Pops ft. Mario 5reković	“Putovanje“	13	TBA			20	33	10
2	Yogi	“Love at First Sight”	10				3	13	16
3	Boris Štok	“Grijeh“	7				10	17	14
4	Tajana Belina	“Dom”	2				8	10	17
5	Krešo and Kisele Kiše	“Kme kme”	34				19	53	7
6	Maja Grgić	“I Still Live”	8				5	13	15
7	Barbara Munjas	“Putem snova“	37				15	52	8
8	Đana	“Free Fallin'”	7				14	21	13
9	Patricia Gasparini	“I Will Wait”	5				3	8	18
10	The Splitters	“Lost and Found”	50				60	110	4
11	Hana Mašić	“Nesreća“	21				12	33	11
12	Damir Kedžo	“Angels and Demons”	44				59	103	5
13	Martha May	“Distance”	23				8	31	12
14	Detour	“Master Blaster”	73				41	114	3
15	Meri Andraković	“Bye Bye Blonde”	22				22	44	9
16	Let 3	“Mama ŠČ!“	105				174	279	1
17	Eni Jurišić	“Kreni dalje“	52				19	71	6
18	Harmonija Disonance	“Nevera (Lei, lei)“	67				88	155	2

**Detailed Regional Jury Votes**
Draw	Song	Rijeka	Čakovec- Varaždin	Split	Osijek	Šibenik- Knin	Vukovar	Pula	Zadar	Zagreb	Dubrovnik	Total
1	“Putovanje“			1			2				10	13
2	“Love at First Sight”	2					3			5		10
3	“Grijeh“		1	3				3				7
4	“Dom”					1					1	2
5	“Kme kme”	1	6	4		4	5		5	3	4	34
6	“I Still Live”										8	8
7	“Putem snova“	7	4		1	7		8		8	2	37
8	“Free Fallin'”		7									7
9	“I Will Wait”		3		2							5
10	“Lost and Found”	12		12			1	12	7		6	50
11	“Nesreća“			7	4			6	2	2		21
12	“Angels and Demons”	3	10	6	7	3	4		4	7		44
13	“Distance”	4			3	6		7	3			23
14	“Master Blaster”	6	2	8	8	10	6	5	10	6	12	73
15	“Bye Bye Blonde”				6	2	12		1	1		22
16	“Mama ŠČ!“	10	12	10	12	12	10	10	12	12	5	105
17	“Kreni dalje“	5	5	2	5	5	7	4	6	10	3	52
18	“Nevera (Lei, lei)“	8	8	5	10	8	8	1	8	4	7	67

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Croatia has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

At the end of the show, Croatia was announced as a qualifier for the final.

All three shows were broadcast live in Croatia on television and radio, with commentary provided by Duško Ćurlić for the broadcasts on HRT 1 and HR 2. The first semi-final broadcast on 9 May, which saw the participation of Croatia and the country’s first qualification for the final since 2017, received an overnight market share of 38.4% of Croatian television viewers, representing approximately 720,000 households.

3.2.Voting.

3.2.1.Points awarded to Croatia.

Points awarded to Croatia (Semi-final 1)

Score	Televote
12 points	Serbia
10 points	Germany
8 points
7 points	Latvia
6 points	Finland
5 points	Ireland Israel Italy Sweden Switzerland
4 points	Czech Republic Norway
3 points	Moldova Rest of the World
2 points	Netherlands
1 point

**Points awarded to Croatia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Slovenia
10 points	Austria Serbia
8 points	Albania Ukraine	Serbia
7 points
6 points	Germany Israel Poland Switzerland
5 points	Iceland Sweden
4 points	Australia Czech Republic Finland Italy Latvia Lithuania
3 points	Rest of the World	Portugal
2 points	Ireland
1 point	Georgia

3.2.2.Points awarded by Croatia.

**Points awarded by Croatia (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Serbia
8 points	Czech Republic
7 points	Israel
6 points	Norway
5 points	Portugal
4 points	Sweden
3 points	Moldova
2 points	Switzerland
1 point	Azerbaijan

**Points awarded by Croatia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Slovenia	Italy
10 points	Finland	Sweden
8 points	Italy	Israel
7 points	Serbia	Finland
6 points	Albania	Spain
5 points	Norway	Slovenia
4 points	Israel	Serbia
3 points	Czech Republic	Estonia
2 points	Sweden	Moldova
1 point	Moldova	Portugal

3.2.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Croatian jury:

Branimir Mihaljević
Damir Kedžo
Nikša Bratoš
Albina Grčić
Jelena Balent

**Detailed voting results from Croatia (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	14	13	10	10	14	16		15
02	Portugal	3	14	19	18	11	10	1	11
03	Switzerland	21	12	18	8	20	20		16
04	Poland	23	23	24	24	25	25		14
05	Serbia	8	4	6	17	5	7	4	4	7
06	France	17	7	8	14	16	12		12
07	Cyprus	15	22	20	3	13	11		20
08	Spain	2	15	3	13	8	5	6	19
09	Sweden	7	3	1	2	3	2	10	9	2
10	Albania	18	10	15	22	7	17		5	6
11	Italy	1	2	2	7	4	1	12	3	8
12	Estonia	9	18	13	1	19	8	3	25
13	Finland	16	6	4	12	1	4	7	2	10
14	Czech Republic	24	9	9	11	12	14		8	3
15	Australia	20	24	23	5	24	18		18
16	Belgium	10	20	17	25	22	22		23
17	Armenia	25	21	12	15	15	21		22
18	Moldova	4	16	14	6	9	9	2	10	1
19	Ukraine	22	19	22	4	21	15		13
20	Norway	19	11	7	16	10	13		6	5
21	Germany	11	25	25	23	23	24		17
22	Lithuania	12	17	21	21	18	23		24
23	Israel	5	1	5	9	6	3	8	7	4
24	Slovenia	6	5	11	20	2	6	5	1	12
25	Croatia
26	United Kingdom	13	8	16	19	17	19		21

• Country:🇨🇭Svizzera

• National selection:

Selection process: Internal selection 2023
Selection date(s): Artist: 20 February 2023 Ι Song: 7 March 2023
Host venue: –
Presenter(s): –
Host broadcaster: Swiss Broadcasting Corporation – SRG SSR (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), Radio télévision suisse (RTS), Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI), Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha (RTR))
Participants – Number of entries: –
Voting system: –
Selection entrant: Remo Forrer
Selection song: “Watergun”
Selected songwriter(s): Argyle Singh, Ashley Hicklin, Mikolaj Trybulec

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 8º SF 1: Qualified (7th, 97 points)
Final result: 20th, 92 points

Switzerland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, having internally selected Remo Forrer to represent the country with the song “Watergun”.

Switzerland were drawn to compete in the first semi-final on 9 May and successfully qualified to the grand final, ultimately placing 20th with 92 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-two times since its first entry in 1956. Switzerland is noted for having won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Refrain” performed by Lys Assia. Their second and, to this point, most recent victory was achieved in 1988 when Canadian singer Céline Dion won the contest with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi“. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Switzerland had managed to participate in the final four times up to this point. In 2005, the internal selection of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja, performing the song “Cool Vibes”, qualified Switzerland to the final where they placed 8th. Due to their successful result in 2005, Switzerland was pre-qualified to compete directly in the final in 2006. Between 2007 and 2010, the nation failed to qualify to the final after a string of internal selections. Opting to organize a national final between 2011 and 2018, Switzerland has managed to qualify to the final twice out of the last eight years. After returning to an internal selection in 2019, Switzerland has managed to qualify to the final in all contests they participated in and yielded two top five results. In 2022, “Boys Do Cry” performed by Marius Bear qualified for the final and finished 17th.

The Swiss national broadcaster, Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), broadcasts the event within Switzerland and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. SRG SSR confirmed their intentions to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 on 12 July 2022. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced that the Swiss entry for the 2023 contest would be selected internally. Switzerland has selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections in the past. Between 2011 and 2018, the broadcaster has opted to organize a national final in order to select their entry. Since 2019, the Swiss entry was internally selected for the competition.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Internal selection. SRG SSR opened a submission period between 25 August 2022 and 8 September 2022 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries. Artists and songwriters of any nationality were able to submit songs; however those with a Swiss passport or residency were given priority. Songs shortlisted from the received submissions were then tested by their music producers with various artists and the combination of a 100-member public panel (50%) and the votes of a 23-member international expert jury (50%) selected the Swiss entry. The members of the public panel were Swiss residents put together according to selected criteria in cooperation with Digame, while the international jury consisted of members who had been national juries for their respective countries at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Remo Forrer was announced as the Swiss entrant for the contest on 20 February 2023. Forrer had previously participated in and won both the third season of the Swiss reality singing competition The Voice of Switzerland and one episode of German music game I Can See Your Voice. Forrer’s song for the contest, “Watergun”, was revealed on 7 March 2023.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Switzerland was placed into the first semi-final, which will be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

At the end of the show, Switzerland was announced as a qualifier for the final.

3.3.Voting.

3.3.1.Points awarded to Switzerland.

**Points awarded to Switzerland (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points
10 points
8 points	Finland Germany Netherlands Norway Sweden
7 points	Azerbaijan Ireland Moldova
6 points	France Malta
5 points	Czech Republic Portugal
4 points	Israel Italy
3 points	Latvia
2 points	Croatia
1 point	Serbia

**Points awarded to Switzerland (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points		Finland
8 points	Sweden
7 points		Albania
6 points		Malta Netherlands Sweden
5 points	Norway
4 points	Denmark Estonia	Austria Azerbaijan Italy
3 points	Germany	France
2 points	Armenia Austria	Cyprus Greece Norway Poland Portugal
1 point	Azerbaijan Finland Italy	Slovenia

3.3.2.Points awarded by Switzerland.

**Points awarded by Switzerland (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Portugal
10 points	Finland
8 points	Sweden
7 points	Israel
6 points	Serbia
5 points	Croatia
4 points	Czech Republic
3 points	Norway
2 points	Moldova
1 point	Ireland

**Points awarded by Switzerland (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Albania	Czech Republic
10 points	Italy	Estonia
8 points	Finland	Italy
7 points	Portugal	Austria
6 points	Croatia	Sweden
5 points	Sweden	Armenia
4 points	Germany	Norway
3 points	Israel	Spain
2 points	Norway	Australia
1 point	Serbia	Israel

3.3.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Swiss jury:

Benjamin Jon Alasu
Mauro Rossi
Thierry Epiney
Roxane Lara Debora Ischi
Zoë Kressler

**Detailed voting results from Switzerland (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	1	8	7	3	5	4	7	11
02	Portugal	11	12	21	11	7	14		4	7
03	Switzerland
04	Poland	15	18	18	14	23	21		19
05	Serbia	23	16	16	6	17	17		10	1
06	France	8	23	15	13	11	16		14
07	Cyprus	5	14	17	16	12	13		15
08	Spain	19	3	4	25	8	8	3	20
09	Sweden	2	5	13	12	4	5	6	6	5
10	Albania	22	11	12	21	15	20		1	12
11	Italy	21	1	2	2	13	3	8	2	10
12	Estonia	7	6	14	1	1	2	10	22
13	Finland	25	9	19	23	6	15		3	8
14	Czech Republic	12	7	1	4	2	1	12	17
15	Australia	3	17	8	7	20	9	2	21
16	Belgium	18	21	6	8	14	12		13
17	Armenia	13	2	3	22	10	6	5	24
18	Moldova	9	20	10	15	16	18		16
19	Ukraine	4	15	11	5	22	11		12
20	Norway	20	4	9	9	3	7	4	9	2
21	Germany	17	24	25	24	21	24		7	4
22	Lithuania	10	13	22	10	18	19		18
23	Israel	6	10	5	17	9	10	1	8	3
24	Slovenia	14	19	24	18	19	22		23
25	Croatia	24	25	23	20	25	25		5	6
26	United Kingdom	16	22	20	19	24	23		25

Referenc

• Country: 🇮🇱 Israel

• National selection:

Selection process: Internal selection 2023
Selection date(s): Artist: 10 August 2022 Ι Song: 8 March 2023
Host venue: –
Presenter(s): –
Host broadcaster: KAN/IPBC (Reshet 13, רשת 13)
Judges: –
Participants – Number of entries: –
Voting system: –
Selection entrant: Noa Kirel (נועה קירל)
Selection song: “Unicorn” (חד-קרן)
Selected songwriter(s): Doron Medalie, May Sfadia, Yinon Yahel, Noa Kirel (דורון מדלי, מאי ספדיה, ינון יהל, נועה קירל)

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 9º SF 1: Qualified (3rd, 127 points)
Final result: 3rd, 362 points

Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The Israeli broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan) internally selected Noa Kirel to represent the country with the song “Unicorn”, which was written by Kirel along with Doron Medalie, May Sfadia, and Yinon Yahel. Kirel was announced as the Israeli representative on 10 August 2022, while the song, “Unicorn”, was presented to the public on 8 March 2023.

Israel was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 9, “Unicorn” was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Israel placed third out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 127 points. In the final, Israel performed in position 23 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 362 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-four times since its first entry in 1973. Israel has won the contest on four occasions: in 1978 with the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, in 1979 with the song “Hallelujah” performed by Milk and Honey, in 1998 with the song “Diva” performed by Dana International and in 2018 with the song “Toy” performed by Netta Barzilai. Since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, Israel has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final eleven times, including three top ten results in 2005 with Shiri Maimon and “Hasheket Shenish’ar” placing fourth, in 2008 with Boaz and “The Fire In Your Eyes” placing ninth, and in 2015 with Nadav Guedj and “Golden Boy” placing ninth, in addition to the victory in 2018. In 2022, Michael Ben David with the song “I.M” failed to qualify for the final.

The Israeli national broadcaster, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan), has been in charge of the nation’s participation in the contest since 2018. Kan confirmed Israel’s participation in the contest on 21 February 2021. Between 2015 and 2020, the Israeli entry was selected through the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (“The Next Star for Eurovision”) in collaboration with Keshet and Tedy Productions, while in 2022, Kan cooperated with Reshet to select the Israeli entry through the reality singing competition The X Factor Israel. On 13 June 2022, Kan announced that they would not continue their cooperation with Reshet and would independently conduct an internal selection to select the artist that would represent Israel instead. This marked the first time since 2014 that Israel had used an internal selection, and the first time that Kan selected the Israeli entry without collaborating with other broadcasters.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Internal selection. The Israeli representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was internally selected by Kan. A special committee consisting of members from Kan, music editors and external representatives each suggested two artists from 78 initially considered based on airplay on Gimel and Galgalatz, and nominees for Singer of the Year and Group of the Year awards in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Among artists that were considered included Mergui, Ella-Lee Lahav, Noa Kirel, Static & Ben-El Tavori and Ran Danker. The members of the committee were Ofri Gopher (Director of Kan Music Stations), Yuval Cohen (Creative Director and Deputy Executive Producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019), Kobi Nussbaum (Head of Production at Kan), Sharon Drix (culture and entertainment director of Kan), Tali Katz (Head of Delegation for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest), Tal Argaman (DJ and music editor at Kan 88), Yossi Gispan (lyricist), Eden Darso (singer-songwriter), Avia Farchi (MTV Israel presenter) and Leon Feldman (music editor and presenter). On 11 July 2022, Kan announced that Noa Kirel had topped the list with Mergui placing second. Despite Kirel stating the following day that she and her team had yet to make a decision, Israeli television channel HaHadashot 12 reported in early August 2022 that the invitation had been accepted by the singer, which was later confirmed during a press conference held at the Hotel Carlton in Tel Aviv on 10 August 2022.

Kirel was given artistic freedom from the Israeli broadcaster. The singer was offered songwriters from other countries, but decided to stick with a local Israeli team for Eurovision, adding that her song will contain “all kinds of ethnic, Mediterranean and even Israeli directions”. In early September 2022, it was reported that the Israeli song would be created in a songwriting camp that would allow songwriters to work with each other to create their entry, with composers such as Doron Medalie, Ron Beaton, Jordi, Nitzan Kaykov, Itay Shimoni, and Eitan Peled all being rumoured to take part. In late September 2022, the Israeli budget for the contest was revealed to be around US$900,000, with a majority being covered by Kirel’s team, and the rest by Kan.

From an initial pool of four songs, the chosen song was revealed to be titled “Unicorn” on 17 January 2023, written by Medalie, May Sfadia, Yinon Yahel and Kirel herself. The song was revealed on 8 March during a special televised broadcast titled HaShir Shelanu L’Eurovizion (“Our Song for Eurovision”) on Kan 11, as well as online via kan.org.il.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Israel has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

At the end of the show, Israel was announced as a qualifier for the final.

3.1.Voting.

3.1.1.Points awarded to Israel.

**Points awarded to Israel (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Azerbaijan Czech Republic Moldova Rest of the World
10 points
8 points	France Latvia Malta
7 points	Croatia Portugal Serbia Switzerland
6 points	Ireland Italy
5 points	Norway
4 points	Netherlands
3 points	Sweden
2 points	Germany
1 point	Finland

**Points awarded to Israel (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Armenia Azerbaijan Cyprus Rest of the World	Armenia Azerbaijan France Italy Poland
10 points	France Moldova San Marino	Belgium Lithuania Serbia
8 points	Czech Republic	Croatia Greece Spain
7 points	Greece Serbia Spain	Cyprus Ireland Georgia Malta
6 points	Georgia Malta Netherlands Romania	Albania
5 points	Albania Australia Belgium Italy Latvia Poland Portugal	Latvia Sweden
4 points	Croatia	Estonia Romania United Kingdom
3 points	Lithuania Norway Switzerland United Kingdom	Norway
2 points		Netherlands
1 point	Austria Ireland Ukraine	Switzerland Ukraine

3.1.2.Points awarded by Israel.

**Points awarded by Israel (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Norway
8 points	Czech Republic
7 points	Sweden
6 points	Moldova
5 points	Croatia
4 points	Switzerland
3 points	Portugal
2 points	Malta
1 point	Azerbaijan

**Points awarded by Israel (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Sweden
10 points	Norway	Norway
8 points	Ukraine	Finland
7 points	Italy	Ukraine
6 points	Croatia	Austria
5 points	Moldova	Estonia
4 points	Sweden	Czech Republic
3 points	Armenia	Belgium
2 points	Czech Republic	Poland
1 point	France	Cyprus

3.1.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Israeli jury:

Amir Ben-David
Ron Biton
Adi “Perry” Cohen
Tal Argaman Peleg
Yasmin Ishbi

**Detailed voting results from Israel (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	1	5	20	6	16	5	6	13
02	Portugal	23	20	24	21	21	25		18
03	Switzerland	10	6	5	19	10	12		15
04	Poland	2	16	10	7	22	9	2	14
05	Serbia	22	21	9	14	17	16		23
06	France	21	22	23	15	18	21		10	1
07	Cyprus	11	7	21	5	7	10	1	12
08	Spain	9	12	8	11	14	14		19
09	Sweden	3	1	1	3	1	1	12	7	4
10	Albania	24	17	22	16	13	20		24
11	Italy	12	11	11	13	9	15		4	7
12	Estonia	13	10	13	4	3	6	5	20
13	Finland	18	2	2	22	4	3	8	1	12
14	Czech Republic	4	9	12	10	5	7	4	9	2
15	Australia	17	14	18	17	20	19		11
16	Belgium	5	13	7	8	6	8	3	21
17	Armenia	8	24	6	12	15	13		8	3
18	Moldova	16	8	4	9	11	11		6	5
19	Ukraine	6	4	16	2	8	4	7	3	8
20	Norway	7	3	3	1	2	2	10	2	10
21	Germany	20	18	19	24	25	22		17
22	Lithuania	15	19	15	20	12	17		25
23	Israel
24	Slovenia	14	23	14	18	19	18		16
25	Croatia	25	15	25	25	24	24		5	6
26	United Kingdom	19	25	17	23	23	23		22

• Country: 🇲🇩 Moldova

• National selection:

Selection process: Etapa națională 2023
Selection date(s): 4 March 2023
Host venue: TRM Studio 2, Chișinău
Presenter(s): Doina Stimpovschi, Ion Jalbă, Daniela Crudu
Host broadcaster: TRM
Participants – Number of entries: –
Voting system: 50% jury, 50% public voting
Selection entrant: Pasha Parfeni
Selection song: “Soarele și luna“
Selected songwriter(s): Pavel Parfeni, Andrei Vulpe, Iuliana Parfeni

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 10º SF 1: Qualified (5th, 109 points)
Final result: 18th, 96 points

Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Soarele și luna” written by Pavel Parfeni, Andrei Vulpe and Iuliana Parfeni. The song was performed by Pasha Parfeni, who previously represented Moldova in 2012. The Moldovan broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), organised the national final Etapa Națională 2023 in order to select the Moldovan entry for the 2023 contest, with a combination of jury votes and public voting determining the winning entry.

In the first semi-final, Moldova qualified for the final on 13 May.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since its first entry in 2005. The nation’s best placing in the contest was third, which it achieved in 2017 with the song “Hey, Mamma!” performed by SunStroke Project. To this point, Moldova has achieved another four top 10 placings at the contest: in 2005 when “Boonika bate toba” performed by Zdob și Zdub placed sixth, in 2007 when “Fight” performed by Natalia Barbu placed tenth, in 2018 when “My Lucky Day” performed by DoReDoS also placed tenth, and in 2022, when Zdob și Zdub returned to compete for a third time with the song “Trenulețul“, performed with the Advahov Brothers, which finished in seventh place.

The Moldovan national broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), broadcasts the event within Moldova and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. TRM confirmed its intention to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 20 October 2022. Moldova has selected their entry via a national selection show between 2008 and 2020, while their entry in 2021 was selected via an internal selection. A selection show was to be held on 5 March 2022 to select Moldova’s entry for the 2022 contest, but on 28 January 2022 it was revealed the entry would be selected during the auditions following the cancellation of the final due to COVID-19 restrictions. On 23 December 2022, TRM announced that it would hold a national final to select its entry for the 2023 contest.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Etapa națională 2023. Etapa națională 2023 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The event took place at the TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Doina Stimpovschi, Ion Jalbă and Daniela Crudu, and included a final held on 4 March 2023. The show was broadcast on Moldova 1 and OUTtv as well as online via TRM’s official website trm.md and Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.md as well as the broadcaster’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

2.2.Competing entries. Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 23 December 2022 and 16 January 2023. Artists could submit more than one song, and an international act was able to compete only if they are part of a duo or group where 50% of the lead vocalists are of Moldovan nationality. At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 33 valid entries were received by the broadcaster. Among the artists that submitted a song were 2010 and 2017 Moldovan Eurovision entrants SunStroke Project, 2012 Moldovan Eurovision entrant Pasha Parfeni, and 2013 Moldovan Eurovision entrant Aliona Moon. The live audition round took place on 28 January 2023 at TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău where 10 finalists were selected to advance. The auditions were broadcast on Moldova 2 as well as online via trm.md, eurovision.md and via TRM’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The jury panel that evaluated the songs during the live auditions and selected the 10 finalists consisted of Violeta Julea (performer), Ion Chiorpec (head of Radio Moldova Muzical), Vasile Advahov (musician, 2022 Moldovan Eurovision entrant), Liviu Știrbu (composer) and Daniela Crudu (journalist at Moldova 1). Entries were assessed on criteria such as the melodic line, originality and interpretation of the composition.

Prior to the auditions, TRM announced that two songs were disqualified from the competition: “Squeeze Paradise” by Nördika due to it having been published before 1 September 2022, and “In questo domani” by Massimo Sinceri feat. Da-Muse due to it violating the 50% foreign nationality rule. Dianna Rotaru, who entered under the stage name Lola, was due to compete with the song “Temperatura“, but was disqualified after she was unable to attend the live audition round.

**Results of the Live Audition Round – 28 January 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Points	Place
1	Formaţia Vele	“Jocul neamului moldovenesc“	Ivan Sparivac, Sergiu Carai	22	27
2	Corina Ivanov [1]	“When Love’s Real”	Mike Connaris, Mia Nicolai	44	10
3	Nördika [1]	“Damn and Down”	Ruslan Țăranu	45	7
4	Nihilist & Lisa Nicky	“Final Destination”	Elizaveta Pînzari, Vladimir Bejenari	27	25
5	Victor Gulick [1]	“Let’s Dance”	Victor Gulick, Serghei Lututovici	45	8
6	Surorile[1] Osoianu	“Bade, bădişor, bădiţă“	Elena Ioniță, Jonathan Alexandru	47	6
7	OL [1]	“Why You Play It Cool”	Olga Lisicova	48	5
8	Adelina Iordachi	“Deja Vu”	Doina Sclifos	43	11
9	Nikko T.	“Destiny”	Gloria Gorceag, Vitalie Cătană	28	22
10	Crista	“Pădure verde pădure“	Cristina Baban	43	13
11	SunStroke Project (Sergei Yalovitsky, Sergey Stepanov) [1]	“Yummy Mommy”	Mihai Teodor, Sergei Ialovițski	55	1
12	Nr 11	“Adio“	Nadejda “Stetiuc” Rotaru	21	29
13	Vera	“Vremea ta“	Vera Țurcanu, Nikos Sofis	35	17
14	Sasha Bognibov	“My Favourite Schoolgirl”	Sasha Bognibov	19	30
15	Rise	“Don’t Tremble”	Lidia Scarlat, Ivan Aculov	41	14
16	Ada Deea	“Mystic Rose”	Rafael Artesero, Jose Juan Santana	40	15
17	Cosmina [1]	“Indestructible”	Cosmina Cotoros, Shawn Myers, Jonas Gladnikoff	45	9
18	Lisa Volk	“Scrisoare către ţară“	Elisaveta Smirnova, Marian Stîrcea	28	23
19	Angel Kiss	“Now I Know”	Samuel Bugia Garrido, Roxana Emilia Elekes	30	21
20	Gesica Sîrbu	“I’m in Love”	Eugen Doibani	22	28
21	Aliona Moon (Aliona Munteanu) [1]	“Du-mă“	Ștefan Burlacu, Vlad Subujac, Aliona Munteanu	49	4
22	Tania Pituşcan	“Mioriţa“	Elad Lahmany, Tatiana Pitușcan	32	20
23	Pasha Parfeny (Pavel Parfeni) [1]	“Soarele şi luna“	Pavel Parfeni, Andrei Vulpe, Iuliana Perfeni	53	2
24	Ricky Ardezianu	“Una rosa rossa“	Ricky Ardezianu, Ianoș Țurcanu, Ion Istrati	23	26
25	Harmony Scuffle	“Favourite One”	Lev Logvinenco, Vadim Psariov	33	19
26	Valeria Condrea	“We’re Now Different”	Valeria Condrea	40	16
27	Diana Elmas	“Miracle”	Mats Larsson, Åsa Karlström, Ulf Georgsson, Martin Klaman, Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Rickard Bonde Truumeel	34	18
28	Nino	“It Would Be Nice”	Sergiu Cristian Baba	28	24
29	Y-Limit	“Live in Harmony”	Roman Lupu, Pavel Malisev	43	12
30	Donia [1]	“Red Zone”	Donia Ianculescu, Robert Andrei Niculae	52	3
—	~~Lola~~ ~~[2]~~	~~“Temperatura“~~	~~Eugen Doibani~~	—	—

[1] Selected for final
[2] Disqualified

2.3.Final. The final took place on 4 March 2023. 10 songs competed and the winner was selected based on the combination of a public online vote and the votes of an expert jury. The jury that voted in the final included Gabriela Tocari (General Director of Capela Corală Moldova), Vlad Constandoi (founder of Senz Music), Leonid Melnic (Chief Deputy of Telefirm Chișinău), Viorica Atanasov (vocal coach, songwriter) and Gheorghe Mustea (professor at the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2022 Moldovan Eurovision entrants Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers, 2023 Latvian Eurovision entrants Sudden Lights, 2023 Romanian Eurovision entrant Theodor Andrei and the Moldovan National Symphony Orchestra performed as guests. 2023 Polish Eurovision entrant Blanka was also set to perform during the show as a guest, however, her flight to the event was cancelled.

**Final – 4 March 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury		Public vote		Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Points	Votes	Points	Total	Place
1	Donia	“Red Zone”	24	5	196	6	11	5
2	OL	“Why You Play It Cool”	29	6	56	1	7	6
3	Victor Gulick	“Let’s Dance”	17	3	72	2	5	9
4	Surorile Osoianu	“Bade, bădișor, bădiță“	35	7	1,524	8	15	4
5	Cosmina	“Indestructible”^[a]	10	2	113	5	7	8
6	Nördika	“Damn and Down”	10	1	100	4	5	10
7	Aliona Moon	“Du-mă“	52	10	1,133	7	17	3
8	SunStroke Project	“Yummy Mommy”	36	8	2,276	10	18	2
9	Pasha Parfeny	“Soarele și luna“	53	12	5,428	12	24	1
10	Corina Ivanov	“When Love’s Real”	24	4	81	3	7	7

**Detailed Jury Votes**
Draw	Song	V. Constandoi	G. Tocari	V. Atanasov	L. Melnic	G. Mustea	Total
1	“Red Zone”	2	2	6	8	6	24
2	“Why You Play It Cool”	5	8	8	6	2	29
3	“Let’s Dance”	3	4	3	4	3	17
4	“Bade, bădișor, bădiță“	8	5	7	7	8	35
5	“Indestructible”	4	3	1	1	1	10
6	“Damn and Down”	1	1	2	2	4	10
7	“Du-mă“	10	10	12	10	10	52
8	“Yummy Mommy”	12	7	5	5	7	36
9	“Soarele și luna“	7	12	10	12	12	53
10	“When Love’s Real”	6	6	4	3	5	24

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Moldova has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

At the end of the show, Moldova was announced as a qualifier for the final

Notes:

[a] ^ Cosmina was unable to perform due to health issues and her live audition performance was shown instead.

3.3.Voting.

3.3.1.Points awarded to Moldova.

**Points awarded to Moldova (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Italy Portugal
10 points	France Ireland
8 points
7 points	Czech Republic Finland
6 points	Germany Israel Latvia Norway Sweden
5 points
4 points	Azerbaijan Rest of the World Serbia
3 points	Croatia Netherlands
2 points	Switzerland
1 point	Malta

Points awarded to Moldova (Final)

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Italy Romania
10 points
8 points	France Portugal	Norway
7 points		Romania
6 points	Ukraine
5 points	Czech Republic Israel
4 points	Ireland
3 points	Finland Georgia San Marino	San Marino
2 points	Lithuania	Croatia
1 point	Croatia Cyprus Denmark Spain United Kingdom

3.3.2.Points awarded by Moldova.

**Points awarded by Moldova (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Israel
10 points	Sweden
8 points	Norway
7 points	Switzerland
6 points	Finland
5 points	Czech Republic
4 points	Portugal
3 points	Croatia
2 points	Netherlands
1 point	Latvia

**Points awarded by Moldova (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Ukraine	Sweden
10 points	Israel	Italy
8 points	Sweden	Portugal
7 points	Finland	Estonia
6 points	Norway	Ukraine
5 points	Italy	Australia
4 points	Poland	Cyprus
3 points	Cyprus	Spain
2 points	Armenia	Armenia
1 point	Czech Republic	Albania

3.3.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Moldovan jury:

Leonid Melnic
Liviu Știrbu
Aliona Munteanu
Aliona Triboi
Viorica Atanasov – Tabarta

**Detailed voting results from Moldova (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	21	13	17	16	7	13		15
02	Portugal	3	9	1	9	11	3	8	17
03	Switzerland	7	8	9	7	25	11		13
04	Poland	13	24	20	15	8	15		7	4
05	Serbia	24	23	21	23	24	25		23
06	France	25	22	22	18	10	19		12
07	Cyprus	11	15	6	2	6	7	4	8	3
08	Spain	17	7	4	6	9	8	3	21
09	Sweden	2	1	3	1	1	1	12	3	8
10	Albania	12	16	8	4	12	10	1	22
11	Italy	4	3	2	3	3	2	10	6	5
12	Estonia	6	4	5	8	4	4	7	19
13	Finland	20	21	25	25	17	24		4	7
14	Czech Republic	18	12	16	10	16	16		10	1
15	Australia	5	6	11	5	5	6	5	16
16	Belgium	19	17	12	12	15	17		24
17	Armenia	10	2	7	13	14	9	2	9	2
18	Moldova
19	Ukraine	1	10	15	11	2	5	6	1	12
20	Norway	8	11	18	20	18	14		5	6
21	Germany	14	18	14	22	23	20		20
22	Lithuania	22	14	19	24	22	23		18
23	Israel	9	5	13	14	21	12		2	10
24	Slovenia	15	19	10	21	20	18		14
25	Croatia	23	25	24	19	13	22		11
26	United Kingdom	16	20	23	17	19	21		25

• Country: 🇸🇪 Svezia

• National selection:

Selection process: Melodifestivalen 2023
Selection date(s): Heat 1 (Scandinavium, Göteborg, 4 February 2023), Heat 2 (Saab Arena, Linköping, 11 February 2023), Heat 3 (Sparbanken Arena, Lidköping,18 February 2023), Heat 4 (Malmö Arena, Malmö, 25 February 2023), Semi-final (Hägglunds Arena, Örnsköldsvik, 4 March 2023), Final (Friends Arena, Solna, 11 March 2023)
Host venue: Farah Abadi, Jesper Rönndahl
Presenter(s): Jesper Rönndahl and Farah Abadi
Host broadcaster: SVT
Participants – Number of entries: 28
Voting system: Heats and Semi-final: 100% televoting (Age groups: 3-9, 10-15, 16-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60-74, 75+, Telephone), Semi-final: 100% televoting, Final: 50% televoting, 50% international jury
Selection entrant:Loreen
Selection song: “Tattoo”
Selected songwriter(s): Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson,
Lorine Talhaoui, Moa Carlebecker, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 11º SF 1: Qualified (2nd, 135 points)
Final result: 1st, 583 points

Sweden participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Tattoo” performed by Loreen. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised Melodifestivalen 2023 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 11, “Tattoo” was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Sweden placed second out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 135 points. In the final, Sweden performed in position 9 and placed first out of the 26 participating countries, winning the contest with 583 points.

This was Sweden’s seventh win in the Eurovision Song Contest, having last won in 2015, therefore tying Ireland’s record for the most victories in the contest. Loreen also became the second performer, after Ireland’s Johnny Logan, and the first female artist to win the contest on more than one occasion.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-one times since its first entry in 1958. Sweden had won the contest on six occasions: in 1974 with the song “Waterloo” performed by ABBA, in 1984 with the song “Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley” performed by Herreys, in 1991 with the song “Fångad av en stormvind” performed by Carola, in 1999 with the song “Take Me to Your Heaven” performed by Charlotte Nilsson, in 2012 with the song “Euphoria” performed by Loreen, and in 2015 with the song “Heroes” performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Sweden’s entries, to this point, have featured in every final, except for 2010. This includes its 2022 entry, “Hold Me Closer” performed by Cornelia Jakobs, which finished in fourth place with 438 points.

The Swedish national broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), broadcasts the event within Sweden and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. Since 1959, SVT has organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Melodifestivalen 2023. The 2023 edition of Melodifestivalen featured four heats, a semi-final (replacing the previously held Second Chance round) and a final, and saw 28 acts compete. It was held between 4 February and 11 March 2023, concluding with a final held at the Friends Arena in Stockholm. After the cancellation of the traditional tour around six cities of the country (namely Malmö, Gothenburg, Linköping, Lidköping, Örnsköldsvik and Stockholm) for the previous edition due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant, SVT subsequently announced that the six cities would host the tour in 2023 instead, with new dates.

Melodifestivalen 2023 was the 63rd edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 4 February and 11 March 2023. The winner of the competition was Loreen with the song “Tattoo”, who went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 for Sweden. All shows were hosted by Farah Abadi and Jesper Rönndahl.

2.1.0. Format: After the cancellation of the traditional tour around six cities of the country (namely Malmö, Gothenburg, Linköping, Lidköping, Örnsköldsvik and Stockholm) for the previous edition due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant, SVT subsequently announced that the six cities would host the tour in 2023 instead, with new dates. As usual, a total of 28 entries took part in the competition, 12 of which progressed to the final. Farah Abadi and Jesper Rönndahl were revealed as the presenters of Melodifestivalen 2023 on 24 September 2022.

Proceeds from the voting were, like in the last three shows of the previous edition, donated to aid relief efforts during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[6] Starting from the second heat, proceeds were also donated to aid relief efforts in the aftermath of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.

**Competition schedule**
Show	Date	City	Venue
Heat 1	4 February 2023	Gothenburg	Scandinavium
Heat 2	11 February 2023	Linköping	Saab Arena
Heat 3	18 February 2023	Lidköping	Sparbanken Lidköping Arena
Heat 4	25 February 2023	Malmö	Malmö Arena
Semi-final	4 March 2023	Örnsköldsvik	Hägglunds Arena
Final	11 March 2023	Stockholm	Friends Arena

Heats and semi-final:

The first heat took place on 4 February 2023 at Scandinavium in Gothenburg. “Where You Are (Sávežan)” performed by Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods and “Rhythm of My Show” performed by Tone Sekelius qualified directly to the final, while “Diamonds” performed by Victor Crone and “Raggen går” performed by Elov & Beny advanced to the semi-final. “Haunted” performed by Rejhan, “Inga sorger” performed by Loulou Lamotte and “Länge leve livet” performed by Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos were eliminated from the contest.
The second heat took place on 11 February 2023 at the Saab Arena in Linköping. “Never Give Up” performed by Maria Sur and “On My Way” performed by Panetoz qualified directly to the final, while “Mer av dig” performed by Theoz and “Now I Know” performed by Tennessee Tears advanced to the semi-final. “All My Life (Where Have You Been)” performed by Wiktoria, “Grytan” performed by Uje Brandelius and “Comfortable” performed by Eden were eliminated from the contest.
The third heat took place on 18 February 2023 at the Sparbanken Lidköping Arena in Lidköping. “Air” performed by Marcus & Martinus and “Royals” performed by Paul Rey qualified directly to the final, while “Släpp alla sorger” performed by Nordman and “For the Show” performed by Melanie Wehbe advanced to the semi-final. “Låt hela stan se på” performed by Ida-Lova, “Sober” performed by Laurell and “Så kommer känslorna tillbaka” performed by Casanovas were eliminated from the contest.
The fourth heat took place on 25 February 2023 at the Malmö Arena in Malmö. “Tattoo” performed by Loreen and “Six Feet Under” performed by Smash Into Pieces qualified directly to the final, while “Where Did You Go” performed by Kiana and “One Day” performed by Mariette advanced to the semi-final. “Gorgeous” performed by Axel Schylström, “Edelweiss” performed by Signe & Hjördis and “Mera mera mera” performed by Emil Henrohn were eliminated from the contest.
The semi-final took place on 4 March 2023 at the Hägglunds Arena in Örnsköldsvik. All of the songs competed against each other in a single semi-final, with the top four songs advancing to the final, similar to the preceding heats. “Släpp alla sorger” performed by Nordman, “Mer av dig” performed by Theoz, “Where Did You Go” performed by Kiana and “One Day” performed by Mariette qualified to the final, while “Now I Know” performed by Tennessee Tears, “Diamonds” performed by Victor Crone, “For the Show” performed by Melanie Wehbe and “Raggen går” performed by Elov & Beny were eliminated from the contest.

2.1.0.1.Semi-final format changes. Changes to the format of the semi-final show were announced on 23 November 2022. As opposed to the third- and fourth-placed songs from each of the previous four heats (eight songs in total) being allotted into two separate semi-finals in the previous edition, all of those songs now compete against each other in a single semi-final, with the top four songs advancing to the final, similar to the preceding heats. Viewers are presented with the preliminary top four songs (in a random order) midway through the voting window, and are then provided with new votes in order to continue influencing the result. After the window is closed, the full breakdown of the results, including points given out by each age group, is shown on screen.

2.Competing entries. On 26 August 2022, SVT opened a public submission window (with the deadline on 16 September 2022) to select one half of the contestants, the other half being made up of artists specially invited by the broadcaster. Upon closing the submission period, SVT announced that over 2,800 applications had been received, to be reviewed by a professional jury chaired by producer Karin Gunnarsson.

The first half of contestants were officially announced by SVT on 29 November 2022, while the second half was revealed on the following 30 November. Several participants had previously competed at Melodifestivalen: Axel Schylström (2017), Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos (2021), Jon Henrik Fjällgren (2015, 2017, and 2019), Loreen (2011, 2017, and winner in 2012), Loulou Lamotte (2021, and winner in 2020, both as part of The Mamas), Mariette (2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020), duo Nordman (2005 and 2008), band Panetoz (2014 and 2016), Paul Rey (2020 and 2021), Theoz (2022), Tone Sekelius (2022), Victor Crone (2015 and 2020) and Wiktoria (2016, 2017, and 2019).

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
Axel Schylström (Bengt Axel Schylström)	“Gorgeous”	Axel Schylström, Herman Gardarfve [sv], Jonas Thander, Malin Halvardsson
Casanovas (Jimmy Lindberg, Henrik Sethsson, Stefan Ryding, Victor “Harry” Lindberg, Simon Bondesson)	“Så kommer känslorna tillbaka“	Henrik Sethsson, Mikael Karlsson
Eden (Eden Alm)	“Comfortable”	Benjamin Rosenbohm, Eden Alm, Emil Adler Lei, Julie Aagaard
Elov & Beny (Mattias Elovsson, Oscar Kilenius)	“Raggen går“	Johan Werner, Kristian Wejshag, Mattias Elovsson, Oscar Kilenius, Tim Larsson
Emil Henrohn (Emil Staffan Lillebror Henrohn)	“Mera mera mera“	Emil Henrohn, Jakob Redtzer, Ji Nilsson, Marlene Strand
Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos (Eva Gunilla Johansson Rydberg / Brunkert & Ewa Maria Roos Sevenheim)	“Läng leve livet“	Emil Vaker, Henric Pierroff, Kalle Rydberg
Ida-Lova (Ida-Lova Lind)	“Låt hela stan se på“	Andreas “Giri” Lindbergh, Ida-Lova Lind, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb
Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods (Jon Henrik Mario Fjällgren / Montoya, Oscar Christiansson feat. Adam Woods)	“Where You Are (Sávečan)”	Calle Hellberg, Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Joy Deb, Oliver Belvelin, Oscar Christiansson, Richard Lästh, Tobias Lundgren, William Segerdahl
Kiana (Kiana Blanckert)	“Where Did You Go”	Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb
Laurell (Laurell Barker)	“Sober”	Anderz Wrethov, Andreas Johansson, Laurell Barker, Thomas Stengaard
Loreen (Lorine Zineb Nora “Loreen” Talhaoui)	“Tattoo”	Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson, Lorine Talhaoui, Moa Carlebecker, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son
Loulou LaMotte (Stephanie Louise Caroline Lamotte / Nodin)	“Inga sorger“	Jonas Thander, Loulou LaMotte
Marcus & Martinus (Marcus Gunnarsen och Martinus Gunnarsen)	“Air”	Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Marcus Gunnarsen, Martinus Gunnarsen
Maria Sur	“Never Give Up”	Anderz Wrethov, Laurell Barker
Mariette (Mariette Petra Carola Hansson, MaryJet)	“One Day”	Jimmy Jansson, Thomas G:son, Mariette Hansson
Melanie Wehbe (Melanie Gabriella Hayrapetian)	“For the Show”	David Lindgren Zacharias, Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe
Nordman (Håkan Hemlin och Mats Wester)	“Släpp alla sorger“	Jimmy Jansson, Thomas G:son
Panetoz (Pa Modou Badjie, Nebeyu Baheru, Johan Hirvi, Njol Ismail Badjie, Daniel Nzinga)	“On My Way”	Anders Wigelius, Daniel Nzinga, Jimmy Jansson, Nebeyu Baheru, Njol Badjie, Pa Modou Badjie, Robert Norberg
Paul Rey (Pauli Sebastian Jokela)	“Royals”	Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Liam Cacatian Thomassen, Paul Rey
Rejhan (Rejhan Bellani)	“Haunted”	Albin Johnsén, Mattias Andréasson, Pontus Söderman, Tilde “Ronia”Wrigsell
Signe & Hjördis (Hjördis Bornemark, Signe Bornemark)	“Edelweiss“	Anderz Wrethov, Jimmy Jansson, Myra Granberg
Smash Into Pieces (Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye, Benjamin Jennebo, The Apocalypse DJ, Per Bergquist)	“Six Feet Under”	Andreas “Giri” Lindbergh, Benjamin Jennebo, Chris Adam, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Per Bergquist
Tennessee Tears (Tilda Feuk, Jonas Hermansson)	“Now I Know”	Anderz Wrethov, Jonas Hermansson, Thomas Stengaard, Tilda Feuk
Theoz (Theodor “Theoz” Haraldsson)	“Mer av dig“	Axel Schylström, Jakob Redtzer, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son
Tone Sekelius (Thomas Peter Sekelius)	“Rhythm of My Show”	Anderz Wrethov, Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Tone Sekelius
Uje Brandelius	“Grytan“	Uje Brandelius
Victor Crone (Victor Fritz-Crone)	“Diamonds”	David Lindgren Zacharias, Peter Kvint [sv], Victor Crone
Wiktoria (Wiktoria Vendela Johansson)	“All My Life (Where Have You Been)“	Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe, Patrik Jean, Wiktoria Johansson

3.1.1.Heats (Deltävlingarna).

3.1.1.1.Heat 1 (Deltävling 1). The first heat took place on 4 February 2023 in Scandinavium, Gothenburg. 2,912,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 9,852,321 votes were cast, using 525,532 devices.

R/O	Artist	Song	Round 1		Round 2			Result
R/O	Artist	Song	Votes	Place	Votes	Points	Place	Result
1	Tone Sekelius	“Rhythm of My Show”	1,087,127	2	803,948	94	1	Final
2	Loulou Lamotte	“Inga sorger“	754,498	7	363,254	32	5	Out
3	Rejhan	“Haunted”	884,660	4	460,003	32	4^[a]	Out
4	Elov & Beny	“Raggen går“	821,418	5	467,605	43	3	Semi‑final
5	Victor Crone	“Diamonds”	1,012,655	3	625,862	80	2	Semi‑final
6	Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos	“Länge leve livet“	788,433	6	430,366	31	6	Out
7	Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods	“Where You Are (Sávežan)”	1,352,492	1	—			Final

Round 2 detailed televoting results
R/O	Song	Age groups							Telephone
R/O	Song	3-9	10-15	16-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75+	Telephone
1	“Rhythm of My Show”	12	12	12	12	12	12	10	12
2	“Inga sorger“	1	1	1	5	8	8	5	3
3	“Haunted”	5	8	10	3	3	1	1	1
4	“Raggen går“	8	3	3	8	5	5	3	8
5	“Diamonds”	10	10	8	10	10	10	12	10
6	“Länge leve livet“	3	5	5	1	1	3	8	5

3.1.1.2.Heat 2 (Deltävling 2). The second heat took place on 11 February 2023 in Saab Arena, Linköping. 2,830,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 10,108,443 votes were cast, using 527,368 devices.

R/O	Artist	Song	Round 1		Round 2			Result
R/O	Artist	Song	Votes	Place	Votes	Points	Place	Result
1	Wiktoria	“All My Life (Where Have You Been)”	1,057,852	4	520,646	47	4	Out
2	Eden	“Comfortable”	608,948	6	218,298	12	6	Out
3	Uje Brandelius	“Grytan“	585,684	7	277,599	22	5	Out
4	Panetoz	“On My Way”	1,333,786	2	784,687	84	1	Final
5	Tennessee Tears	“Now I Know”	1,001,348	5	500,652	69	3	Semi-final
6	Maria Sur	“Never Give Up”	1,346,229	1	—			Final
7	Theoz	“Mer av dig“	1,106,875	3	765,979	78	2	Semi-final

Round 2 detailed televoting results
R/O	Song	Age groups							Telephone
R/O	Song	3-9	10-15	16-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75+	Telephone
1	“All My Life (Where Have You Been)”	8	8	8	5	5	5	5	3
2	“Comfortable”	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	1
3	“Grytan“	1	1	3	3	3	3	3	5
4	“On My Way”	10	12	12	10	12	10	10	8
5	“Now I Know”	5	5	5	8	10	12	12	12
7	“Mer av dig“	12	10	10	12	8	8	8	10

3.1.1.3.Heat 3 (Deltävling 3). The third heat took place on 18 February 2023 in Sparbanken Lidköping Arena, Lidköping. 2,598,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 9,522,729 votes were cast, using 512,158 devices.

R/O	Artist	Song	Round 1		Round 2			Result
R/O	Artist	Song	Votes	Place	Votes	Points	Place	Result
1	Paul Rey	“Royals”	1,151,609	2	693,857	85	1	Final
2	Casanovas	“Så kommer känslorna tillbaka“	647,419	7	290,521	29	6	Out
3	Melanie Wehbe	“For the Show”	903,976	4	477,315	57	3	Semi-final
4	Nordman	“Släpp alla sorger“	975,890	3	589,916	75	2	Semi-final
5	Laurell	“Sober”	750,918	6	391,744	30	5	Out
6	Ida-Lova	“Låt hela stan se på“	792,432	5	450,391	36	4	Out
7	Marcus & Martinus	“Air”	1,406,471	1	—			Final

Round 2 detailed televoting results
R/O	Song	Age groups							Telephone
R/O	Song	3-9	10-15	16-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75+	Telephone
1	“Royals”	12	12	12	12	12	10	12	3
2	“Så kommer känslorna tillbaka“	1	1	3	1	3	5	5	10
3	“For the Show”	5	10	5	8	8	8	8	5
4	“Släpp alla sorger“	8	3	10	10	10	12	10	12
5	“Sober”	10	8	1	5	1	3	1	1
6	“Låt hela stan se på“	3	5	8	3	5	1	3	8

3.1.1.4.Heat 4 (Deltävling 4). The fourth heat took place on 25 February 2023 in Malmö Arena, Malmö. 2,814,000 viewers watched the heat live. A total of 9,932,645 votes were cast, using 542,205 devices. During Loreen’s performance, an environmental activist invaded the stage.

R/O	Artist	Song	Round 1		Round 2			Result
R/O	Artist	Song	Votes	Place	Votes	Points	Place	Result
1	Kiana	“Where Did You Go”	1,105,369	3	610,462	69	2	Semi-final
2	Signe & Hjördis	“Edelweiss“	744,902	7	328,700	27	5	Out
3	Smash Into Pieces	“Six Feet Under”	1,120,307	2	701,606	79	1	Final
4	Mariette	“One Day”	835,533	5	482,713	56	3	Semi-final
5	Emil Henrohn	“Mera mera mera“	760,793	6	382,224	26	6	Out
6	Axel Schylström	“Gorgeous”	861,688	4	483,061	55	4	Out
7	Loreen	“Tattoo”	1,515,287	1	—			Final

Round 2 detailed televoting results
R/O	Song	Age groups							Telephone
R/O	Song	3-9	10-15	16-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75+	Telephone
1	“Where Did You Go”	12	12	10	10	5	5	10	5
2	“Edelweiss“	5	1	1	3	3	3	8	3
3	“Six Feet Under”	10	8	12	12	12	10	3	12
4	“One Day”	1	3	5	5	10	12	12	8
5	“Mera mera mera“	8	10	3	1	1	1	1	1
6	“Gorgeous”	3	5	8	8	8	8	5	10

3.1.1.5.Semi-final. The semi-final took place on 4 March 2023 in Hägglunds Arena, Örnsköldsvik. 2,315,000 viewers watched the semi-final live. A total of 12,078,625 votes were cast (which is a record for a Second Chance round), using 541,460 devices.

R/O	Artist	Song	Votes	Points	Place	Result
1	Theoz	“Mer av dig“	2,104,689	70	2	Final
2	Mariette	“One Day”	1,459,012	63	4	Final
3	Victor Crone	“Diamonds”	1,225,614	28	6	Out
4	Tennessee Tears	“Now I Know”	1,393,108	55	5	Out
5	Elov & Beny	“Raggen går“	1,083,924	18	8	Out
6	Melanie Wehbe	“For the Show”	1,106,724	22	7	Out
7	Nordman	“Släpp alla sorger“	1,798,314	75	1	Final
8	Kiana	“Where Did You Go”	1,907,240	69	3	Final

Detailed televoting results
R/O	Song	Age groups							Telephone
R/O	Song	3-9	10-15	16-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75+	Telephone
1	“Mer av dig“	12	10	12	12	6	6	6	6
2	“One Day”	2	6	7	6	10	12	12	8
3	“Diamonds”	6	7	2	2	2	4	4	1
4	“Now I Know”	4	2	6	7	8	10	8	10
5	“Raggen går“	7	1	1	4	1	1	1	2
6	“For the Show”	1	4	4	1	4	2	2	4
7	“Släpp alla sorger“	8	8	10	10	12	8	7	12
8	“Where Did You Go”	10	12	8	8	7	7	10	7

3.1.1.6.Final. The final took place on 11 March 2023 in Friends Arena, Stockholm, where Loreen won with her song “Tattoo”. 3,419,000 viewers watched the final live. A record-breaking total of 23,521,188 votes were cast, using 936,964 devices.

Detailed televoting results
Draw	Song	Age groups							Telephone	Total
Draw	Song	3-9	10-15	16-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75+	Telephone	Total
1	“Where You Are (Sávežan)”	6	5	5	7	7	10	10	8	58
2	“Rhythm of My Show”	3	1	1						5
3	“One Day”				1	3	6	4	2	16
4	“Air”	10	10	10	8	8	7	7	7	67
5	“On My Way”	5	7	6	3	1		2	1	25
6	“Never Give Up”	4	6	2	2	4	5	8	6	37
7	“Six Feet Under”	8	4	8	10	10	8	1	10	59
8	“Where Did You Go”	7	8	3	4	5	3	6	3	39
9	“Släpp alla sorger“	2	2	7	5	6	4	5	5	36
10	“Tattoo”	1	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	85
11	“Mer av dig“	12	3	4	6	2	2	3	4	36
12	“Royals”						1			1

R/O	Artist	Song	Juries	Televote / App		Total	Place
R/O	Artist	Song	Juries	Votes	Points	Total	Place
1	Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods	“Where You Are (Sávežan)”	23	2,017,718	58	81	4
2	Tone Sekelius	“Rhythm of My Show”	15	1,241,991	5	20	12
3	Mariette	“One Day”	35	1,184,378	16	51	8
4	Marcus & Martinus	“Air”	71	2,565,958	67	138	2
5	Panetoz	“On My Way”	22	1,837,663	25	47	10
6	Maria Sur	“Never Give Up”	10	1,786,719	37	47	9
7	Smash Into Pieces	“Six Feet Under”	53	2,431,405	59	112	3
8	Kiana	“Where Did You Go”	37	1,841,580	39	76	6
9	Nordman	“Släpp alla sorger“	8	1,854,602	36	44	11
10	Loreen	“Tattoo”	92	3,783,148	85	177	1
11	Theoz	“Mer av dig“	42	1,915,643	36	78	5
12	Paul Rey	“Royals”	56	1,060,383	1	57	7

Detailed international jury votes
R/O	Song									Total
1	“Where You Are (Sávežan)”	1	3	1	5	6	4		3	23
2	“Rhythm of My Show”	6	1	3					5	15
3	“One Day”	2	7	7	3	5	2	3	6	35
4	“Air”	7	8	8	10	10	10	10	8	71
5	“On My Way”	5	2	2	4	4	1	4		22
6	“Never Give Up”				2		6	1	1	10
7	“Six Feet Under”	3	6	6	6	7	8	7	10	53
8	“Where Did You Go”		4	10		3	5	8	7	37
9	“Släpp alla sorger“	4			1	1		2		8
10	“Tattoo”	8	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	92
11	“Mer av dig“	12	5	5	7	2	3	6	2	42
12	“Royals”	10	10	4	8	8	7	5	4	56
International jury spokespersons
– Zlata Mück – Marvin Dietmann – Jānis Pētersons – Birgit Simal – Gordon Bonello – Dale Roberts – Alexandra Wolfslast – Eva Mora

Ratings.

**Viewing figures by show**
Show	Air date	Viewers (millions)	Share (%)
Heat 1	4 February 2023	2.912	78.1%
Heat 2	11 February 2023	2.830	74.6%
Heat 3	18 February 2023	2.598	72%
Heat 4	25 February 2023	2.814	73.9%
Semi-final	4 March 2023	2.315	72.4%
Final	11 March 2023	3.419	83%

Notes.

a ^ Rejhan received more votes overall compared to Loulou Lamotte, thus ending up in fourth place.

4.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Sweden has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

At the end of the show, Sweden was announced as a qualifier for the final.

4.1.Voting.

4.1.1.Points awarded to Sweden.

Points awarded to Sweden (Semi-final)

Score	Televote
12 points	Malta Netherlands
10 points	Azerbaijan Latvia Norway Moldova
8 points	Ireland Portugal Switzerland
7 points	Israel Rest of the World
6 points	Czech Republic Serbia
5 points	Finland France
4 points	Croatia Germany
3 points	Italy
2 points
1 point

Points awarded to Sweden (Final)

4.1.2.Points awarded by Sweden.

**Points awarded by Sweden (Semi-final)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Norway
8 points	Switzerland
7 points	Czech Republic
6 points	Moldova
5 points	Croatia
4 points	Portugal
3 points	Israel
2 points	Netherlands
1 point	Serbia

**Points awarded by Sweden (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Finland
10 points	Norway	France
8 points	Switzerland	Norway
7 points	Belgium	Italy
6 points	Italy	Switzerland
5 points	Croatia	Israel
4 points	Ukraine	United Kingdom
3 points	Czech Republic	Czech Republic
2 points	France	Estonia
1 point	Australia	Cyprus

4.1.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Swedish jury:

Fredrik Kempe
Robert Sehlberg
Arantxa Alvarez
Clara Klingenström
Isa Molin

**Detailed voting results from Sweden (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	9	23	21	19	14	20		21
02	Portugal	13	20	18	21	16	22		23
03	Switzerland	5	8	2	8	9	5	6	3	8
04	Poland	21	25	9	22	12	19		11
05	Serbia	23	9	22	24	23	21		14
06	France	1	13	10	1	2	2	10	9	2
07	Cyprus	15	10	4	9	11	10	1	12
08	Spain	14	17	17	11	10	16		25
09	Sweden
10	Albania	25	14	24	23	25	25		16
11	Italy	3	16	1	6	4	4	7	5	6
12	Estonia	16	12	5	4	24	9	2	15
13	Finland	2	1	3	3	1	1	12	1	12
14	Czech Republic	10	11	12	2	21	8	3	8	3
15	Australia	11	15	8	14	17	14		10	1
16	Belgium	18	2	23	13	13	12		4	7
17	Armenia	12	24	7	7	19	13		22
18	Moldova	6	5	14	10	22	11		13
19	Ukraine	17	19	13	18	7	15		7	4
20	Norway	4	3	6	5	3	3	8	2	10
21	Germany	20	22	20	17	15	23		20
22	Lithuania	22	21	19	15	18	24		18
23	Israel	7	4	11	20	8	6	5	17
24	Slovenia	19	7	16	16	20	17		19
25	Croatia	24	18	25	25	6	18		6	5
26	United Kingdom	8	6	15	12	5	7	4	24

• Country: 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan

• National selection:

Selection process: Internal selection 2023
Selection date(s): Artist: 9 March 2023 Ι Song: 13 March 2023
Host venue: –
Presenter(s): –
Host broadcaster: İTV
Participants – Number of entries: –
Voting system: –
Selection entrant: TuralTuranX
Selection song: “Tell Me More”
Selected songwriter(s): Nihad Aliyev, Tunar Taghiyev, Tural Bağmanov, Turan Bağmanov

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 12º SF 1: Failed to qualify (14th, 4 points)
Final result: –

Azerbaijan participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with the song “Tell Me More” performed by the duo TuralTuranX which was internally selected by the Azerbaijani broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV) to represent the nation at the 2023 contest. TuralTuranX’s selection as the Azerbaijani Eurovision entrant was announced on 9 March 2023, while the song “Tell Me More” was presented to the public on 13 March 2023.

Azerbaijan was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 12, “Tell Me More” was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed fourteenth out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 4 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Azerbaijan had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fourteen times since its first entry in 2008. Azerbaijan had won the contest on one occasion in 2011 with the song “Running Scared” performed by Ell and Nikki. Since their debut in 2008, Azerbaijan has had a string of successful results, qualifying to the final in every contest until in 2018 when they failed to qualify with the song “X My Heart” performed by Aisel. Azerbaijan has placed in the top ten seven times, including a third-place result in 2009 with the song “Always” performed by AySel and Arash and a second-place result in 2013 with the song “Hold Me” performed by Farid Mammadov. In 2022, Azerbaijan placed sixteenth with the song “Fade to Black” performed by Nadir Rustamli.

The Azerbaijani national broadcaster, İctimai Television (İTV), broadcasts the event within Azerbaijan and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. İTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 11 October 2022. Azerbaijan had used various methods to select the Azerbaijani entry in the past, including internal selections of both the artist and song, as well as national finals to select their artist followed by an internal selection to determine the song. Between 2011 and 2013, Azerbaijan organized a national final titled Milli Seçim Turu to select the performer, song or both for Eurovision. In 2014, the broadcaster utilised an existing talent show format titled Böyük Səhnə where the winning performer would subsequently be given an internally selected song. Since 2015, the broadcaster internally selected both the artist and song that represented Azerbaijan, a procedure which continued for the selection of their 2023 entry.

2.Before Eurovision.

Internal selection. Both the artist and song that represented Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was selected internally by İTV. On 8 December 2022, interested artists and songwriters were called upon to submit their applications and entries by 15 January 2023. Songwriters could be of any nationality, but submissions from Azerbaijani songwriters were preferred. Head of Delegation Vasif Mammadov stated: “Our goal and desire with this is to have local composer’s music featured in the competition. Based on the selection process, if local and foreign songs meet the same criteria, we will prefer the local song. That is, we really want the music of Azerbaijani composers to be played in the competition. Let’s demonstrate that we also have talented composers. I hope this can serve as a stimulus for years to come.” Following accusations from singer Rauf Kingsley who claimed that İTV had already selected the band Mamagama to represent Azerbaijan due to links with music producer for the Azerbaijani delegation Eldar Gasimov, the broadcaster revealed on 1 February 2023 that five potential performers had been shortlisted with their names being announced on 2 February 2023: Azer Nasibov, Humay Aslanova with Amrah Musayev, Leyla Izzatova, Mamagama and Tural Bağmanov with Turan Bağmanov.

On 9 March 2023, İTV announced that Tural and Turan Bağmanov under the stage name TuralTuranX would represent Azerbaijan, performing the song “Tell Me More”.^[9] The selection of TuralTuranX as the Azerbaijani Eurovision contestant was based on the decision of İTV and a focus group, while “Tell Me More” was selected from over 200 submissions from local and international songwriters in a similar method. “Tell Me More” was written by TuralTuranX themselves together with Nihad Aliyev and Tunar Taghiyev, and was the first locally produced Azerbaijani entry since their debut in 2008. The song was presented on 13 March 2023 via the release of the official music video.

**Shortlisted artists**
Azer Nasibov / Azər Nəsibov Humay Aslanova and Amrah Musayev / Humay Aslanova and Əmrah Musayev Leyla Izzatova / Leyla İzzətova Mamagama / Mamagama Turan and Tural Baghmanov / TuralTuranX

Pomotion. TuralTuranX made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote “Tell Me More” as the Azerbaijani Eurovision entry. Between 2 and 4 April, TuralTuranX took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel and performed during the Israel Calling event held at Hangar 11 of the Tel Aviv Port. On 15 April, TuralTuranX performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hila Noorzai. On 16 April, TuralTuranX performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Here at Outernet venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O’Connell.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the reigning champion nation (Ukraine) and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Azerbaijan has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

The two semi-finals and final were broadcast in Azerbaijan on İTV with commentary by Azer Suleymanli. The Azerbaijani spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Azerbaijani jury during the final, was Narmin Salmanova.

Semi-final. TuralTuranX took part in technical rehearsals on 1 and 3 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional back-up juries of each country watched and voted in a result used if any issues with public televoting occurred.

The Azerbaijani performance featured the members of TuralTuranX dressed in matching designed shirts with contrasting jackets and trousers performing on a raised heart-shaped podium at the centre stage. The LED screens displayed 60s styling and the performance also incorporated multi-hued spotlights as well as a black and white camera effect at the beginning. The performance was directed by Mads Enggaard who worked as the stage director for Azerbaijan since 2019.

At the end of the show, Azerbaijan was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed fourteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 4 points.

3.1.Voting. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. Each nation’s jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song’s composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, each member of a national jury may only take part in the panel once every three years, and no jury was permitted to discuss of their vote with other members or be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation’s televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Azerbaijan and awarded by Azerbaijan in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

3.1.1.Points awarded to Azerbaijan.

**Points awarded to Azerbaijan (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points	Latvia
1 point	Croatia Israel

3.1.2.Points awarded by Azerbaijan.

**Points awarded by Azerbaijan (Semi-final)**
Score	Country
12 points	Israel
10 points	Sweden
8 points	Finland
7 points	Switzerland
6 points	Latvia
5 points	Czech Republic
4 points	Moldova
3 points	Serbia
2 points	Norway
1 point	Netherlands

**Points awarded by Azerbaijan (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Israel	Israel
10 points	Sweden	Sweden
8 points	Finland	Albania
7 points	Ukraine	Spain
6 points	Cyprus	Italy
5 points	Slovenia	Australia
4 points	Italy	Switzerland
3 points	Czech Republic	Finland
2 points	Norway	Ukraine
1 point	Switzerland	Estonia

3.1.4.Detailed final results.

The following members comprised the Azerbaijani jury:

Anar Yusufov
Emin Useynov
Gulyaz Mammadova
Tarana Muradova
Zumrud Dadashzadeh

**Detailed voting results from Azerbaijan (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	12	23	15	10	16	18		19
02	Portugal	13	10	10	11	26	17		26
03	Switzerland	14	9	3	14	13	7	4	10	1
04	Poland	16	25	26	17	25	23		11
05	Serbia	7	19	9	15	8	15		17
06	France	18	22	24	25	23	26		14
07	Cyprus	6	8	18	7	21	13		5	6
08	Spain	5	6	1	5	10	4	7	13
09	Sweden	2	13	6	2	2	2	10	2	10
10	Albania	3	15	2	1	11	3	8	20
11	Italy	4	16	5	3	6	5	6	7	4
12	Estonia	11	3	11	13	19	10	1	12
13	Finland	9	11	14	26	3	8	3	3	8
14	Czech Republic	21	21	17	20	9	20		8	3
15	Australia	23	1	8	22	7	6	5	23
16	Belgium	20	5	13	23	5	11		24
17	Armenia	22	18	21	24	20	24		25
18	Moldova	19	12	16	16	12	19		16
19	Ukraine	8	14	7	6	15	9	2	4	7
20	Norway	10	24	19	9	4	14		9	2
21	Germany	25	2	12	21	14	12		18
22	Lithuania	17	20	23	18	22	22		22
23	Israel	1	4	4	4	1	1	12	1	12
24	Slovenia	24	17	20	12	17	21		6	5
25	Croatia	26	26	25	19	18	25		15
26	United Kingdom	15	7	22	8	24	16		21

References

• Country: 🇨🇿 Czechia / ~~Cezch Republic~~

• National selection:

Selection process: Eurovision Song CZ 2023 (ESCZ 2023)
Selection date(s): 7 February 2023
Host venue: ČT Studios in Praga
Presenter(s): Adam Mišík, Rob Lilley & James Rowe (Greenroom)
Host broadcaster: ČT
Participants – Number of entries: 5
Voting system: 70% International votes, 30% Czech votes
Selection entrant: VESNA (Patricie Fuxová, Bára Šůstková, Olesya Ochepovská, Markéta Vedralová, Tereza Čepková, Tanita Yankovová)
Selection song: “My Sister’s Crown” (Koruna mé sestry)
Selected songwriter(s): Patricie Kaňok Fuxová, Tanita Yankova, Kateryna Vatchenko (Kateryna Vatčenková)

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 13º SF 1: Qualified (4th, 110 points)
Final result: 10th, 129 points

The Czech Republic, presented for the first time as Czechia, participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with the song “My Sister’s Crown” performed by the band Vesna. The Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) organised the national final ESCZ 2023 in order to select the Czech entry for the 2023 contest. Five entries competed in the national final and “My Sister’s Crown” performed by Vesna was announced as the winner on 7 February 2023 following the combination of an international public vote and a Czech public vote.

Czechia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 13, “My Sister’s Crown” was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May. It was later revealed that Czechia placed fourth out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 110 points. In the final, Czechia performed in position 14 and placed tenth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 129 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Czechia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in 2007. The nation competed in the contest on three consecutive occasions between 2007 and 2009 without qualifying to the final. After Gipsy.cz performing the song “Aven Romale” placed 18th (last) in their semi-final in 2009, failing to score any points, the Czech broadcaster withdrew from the contest between 2010 and 2014, citing low viewing figures and poor results as reasons for their absence. Since returning to the contest in 2015 and qualifying to the final for the first time in 2016, Czechia has featured in four finals. In 2022, the country qualified for the final with the song “Lights Off” performed by We Are Domi, placing 22nd with 38 points.

The Czech national broadcaster, Česká televize (ČT) broadcasts the event within Czechia and organizes the selection process for the nation’s entry. The broadcaster has used both national finals and internal selections to select the Czech Eurovision entries in the past. ČT confirmed their intention to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in October 2022. The broadcaster later confirmed that the Czech entry for the 2023 contest would be selected through a national final that would be broadcast live. This marked the first time in 15 years that ČT organised a live show in order to determine their participant.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Eurovision Song CZ 2023: ESCZ 2023 was the national final organised by ČT in order to select the Czech entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Five entries participated in the competition which took place between 30 January 2023 and 6 February 2023, with the winner being selected entirely via a public vote and announced on 7 February 2023.

2.1.1.Competing entries. Artists and composers were able to submit their proposals to the broadcaster between 2 November 2022 and 8 December 2022. Artists were required to have Czech citizenship and for groups of a maximum of six members, at least one of the lead vocalists were required to have Czech citizenship. Songwriters of any nationality were able to submit songs. The broadcaster received over 170 submissions at the closing of the deadline, most of them which were written by Czech songwriters. ČT selected five entries for the national final from the submissions received, which were announced on 16 January 2023.

Artist	song	language	songwriter(s)
Maella	Flood	English	Michaela Charvátová
Markéta Irglová	Happy	English	Markéta Irglová
Pam Rabbit	Ghosting	English	Filip Vlček, Pamela Narimanian
Rodan	Introvert Party Club	English	Rodan Tuka, Jan Vávra, Joe Dolman, Jeppe Engelbrecht Appel
Vesna	My Sister’s Crown	Czech, English, Bulgarian, Ukranian	Patricie Kaňok Fuxová, Tanita Jankova, Kateryna Vatčenko

2.1.2.Final. The five competing entries were performed live during a special programme which took place on 30 January 2023 at the Kavčí Hory television centre in Prague, hosted by Adam Mišík and broadcast online via ČT’s streaming platform iVysílání as well as the official Eurovision Song Contest’s YouTube channel. The winner was determined by the combination of votes from an international public vote (70%) and a Czech public vote (30%), and both international and Czech users were able to vote via the official Eurovision Song Contest application until 6 February 2023. The winner, “My Sister’s Crown” performed by Vesna, was announced during a press conference that took place on 7 February 2023 at the Meeting Hub Opero in Prague.

Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Points			Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Czech	Intl.	Total	Place
1	Maella	“Flood”	Michaela Charvátová	95	504	599	5
2	Pam Rabbit	“Ghosting”	Filip Vlček, Pamela Narimanian	1,417	2,799	4,216	2
3	Markéta Irglová	“Happy”	Markéta Irglová	184	825	1,009	4
4	Vesna	“My Sister’s Crown“	Patricie Kaňok Fuxová, Tanita Yankova, Kateryna Vatchenko	3,501	7,083	10,584	1
5	Rodan	“Introvert Party Club”	Rodan Tuka, Jan Vávra, Joe Dolman, Jeppe Engelbrecht Appel	501	1,494	1,995	3

Promotion. Vesna made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote “My Sister’s Crown” as the Czech Eurovision entry. On 1 April, Vesna performed during the Polish Eurovision Party, which was held at the Praga Centrum in Warsaw, Poland and hosted by Poli Genova and Konrad Zemlik. Between 2 and 4 April, the band took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel and performed during the Israel Calling event held at Hangar 11 of the Tel Aviv Port. On 8 April, the band performed during the PrePartyES event, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Victor Escudero, SuRie and Ruslana.^[15] On 15 April, Vesna performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hila Noorzai. On 16 April, the band performed the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Here at Outernet venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O’Connell.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the reigning champion nation (Ukraine) and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Czechia has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

All shows were broadcast in Czechia on ČT2 and featured commentary by Jan Maxián. The Czech spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Czech jury during the final, was Radka Rosická.

3.1.Semi-final. Vesna took part in technical rehearsals on 1 and 3 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional back-up juries of each country watched and voted in a result used if any issues with public televoting occurred.

The Czech performance featured the members of Vesna appearing on stage in long braided hair and wearing matching pale pink jumpsuits with a grey tassle. The stage colours transitioned between pale pink, white and black and the LED screens displayed the lyrics of the song, clips of the band members and hands reaching and banging. During the second chorus, the band members marched in a line to the satellite stage before forming a circle for the bridge with a light swirling around them. The art director for the performance was Matyáš Vorda and the stage director was Vítek Bělohradský.

At the end of the show, Czechia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that the Czechia placed fourth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 110 points.

3.2.Final. Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners’ press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Czechia was drawn to compete in the second half. Following this draw, the shows’ producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Czechia was subsequently placed to perform in position 14, before the entry from Finland and before the entry from Australia.

Vesna once again took part in dress rehearsals on 12 and 13 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. The band performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. Czechia placed tenth in the final, scoring 129 points: 35 points from the televoting and 94 points from the juries.

3.3.Voting. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. Each nation’s jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song’s composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, each member of a national jury may only take part in the panel once every three years, and no jury was permitted to discuss of their vote with other members or be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation’s televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Czechia and awarded by Czechia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

3.3.1.Points awarded to the Czech Republic.

Points awarded to Czechia (Semi-final 1)

Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points
8 points	Croatia Israel Italy Serbia
7 points	Germany Norway Sweden
6 points	Netherlands Portugal
5 points	Azerbaijan Latvia Moldova Rest of the World
4 points	France Switzerland
3 points	Ireland
2 points	Malta
1 point

**Points awarded to Czechia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points		Switzerland
10 points	Finland
8 points		Finland Netherlands
7 points		Italy Portugal Ukraine
6 points		Iceland Slovenia
5 points		Austria Germany
4 points	Serbia	France Israel Norway
3 points	Azerbaijan Croatia Poland Sweden	Belgium Ireland Sweden
2 points	Israel Italy Ukraine
1 point	Greece Latvia Moldova	Cyprus Serbia

3.3.2.Points awarded by the Czech Republic.

**Points awarded by Czechia (Semi-final)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Israel
10 points	Norway
8 points	Finland
7 points	Moldova
6 points	Sweden
5 points	Switzerland
4 points	Croatia
3 points	Serbia
2 points	Portugal
1 point	Latvia

**Points awarded by Czechia (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Ukraine	Ukraine
10 points	Finland	Sweden
8 points	Israel	Armenia
7 points	Norway	Australia
6 points	Sweden	Slovenia
5 points	Moldova	Finland
4 points	Croatia	Italy
3 points	Slovenia	Spain
2 points	Armenia	Estonia
1 point	Italy	Germany

3.3.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Czech jury:

Lukáš Chromek
Miloš Dvořáček
Ana Maria de Almeida
Elizabeth Kopecká
Kateřina Králová

**Detailed voting results from Czechia (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	14	15	24	12	4	12		13
02	Portugal	16	12	14	17	16	20		24
03	Switzerland	18	9	10	16	14	16		14
04	Poland	25	21	8	10	20	19		11
05	Serbia	17	20	19	22	23	22		16
06	France	20	16	25	23	22	23		15
07	Cyprus	10	11	6	13	25	14		18
08	Spain	5	8	22	6	10	8	3	23
09	Sweden	1	2	2	11	5	2	10	5	6
10	Albania	4	19	21	14	11	13		21
11	Italy	22	4	4	7	21	7	4	10	1
12	Estonia	7	13	16	5	12	9	2	17
13	Finland	24	25	3	3	6	6	5	2	10
14	Czech Republic	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
15	Australia	2	5	5	21	3	4	7	22
16	Belgium	12	14	9	19	15	18		20
17	Armenia	3	3	11	4	1	3	8	9	2
18	Moldova	19	18	20	24	24	25		6	5
19	Ukraine	8	1	1	1	7	1	12	1	12
20	Norway	21	17	13	20	17	21		4	7
21	Germany	15	24	12	25	2	10	1	12
22	Lithuania	6	10	15	15	13	15		19
23	Israel	11	6	17	9	9	11		3	8
24	Slovenia	13	7	7	2	8	5	6	8	3
25	Croatia	9	23	18	8	19	17		7	4
26	United Kingdom	23	22	23	18	18	24		25

• Country: 🇳🇱 The Netherlands

• National selection:

Selection process: Selecione Interna 2023
Selection date(s): Artist: 1 November 2022 Ι Song: –
Host venue: –
Presenter(s): –
Host broadcaster: AVROTROS
Participants – Number of entries: –
Voting system: –
Selection entrant: Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper (Michaja Nicolaï en Dion Cuiper)
Selection song: “Burning Daylight”
Selected songwriter(s): Michaja Nicolaï, Dion Cuiper, Duncan de Moor, Jordan Garfield, Loek van der Grinten

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 14º SF 1: Failed to qualify (13th, 13 points)
Final result: –

The Netherlands participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with “Burning Daylight” performed by Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper. The Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS internally selected the Dutch entry for the 2023 contest. Nicolai and Cooper’s appointment as the Dutch representatives was announced on 1 November 2022, while the song, “Burning Daylight”, was presented to the public on 1 March 2023.

The Netherlands was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 14, “Burning Daylight” was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that the Netherlands placed 13th out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 7 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, the Netherlands had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-two times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in the inaugural contest in 1956. Since then, the country has won the event five times: in 1957 with the song “Net als toen” by Corry Brokken, in 1959 with the song “‘n Beetje” by Teddy Scholten, in 1969 as one of the four countries to tie for first place with “De troubadour” by Lenny Kuhr, in 1975 with “Ding-a-dong” by Teach-In, and in 2019 with “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, the Netherlands has featured in nine finals. The country ended last on five occasions, most recently in the second semi-final of the 2011 contest. In 2022, the nation qualified for the final and finished 11th with “De diepte” by S10.

The Dutch national broadcaster, AVROTROS, broadcasts the event within the Netherlands and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. The Netherlands has used various methods to select the Dutch entry in the past, such as the Nationaal Songfestival, a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However, internal selections have also been held on numerous occasions. Since 2013, the broadcaster has internally selected the Dutch entry for the contest. In 2013, the internal selection of Anouk performing “Birds” managed to take the country to the final for the first time in eight years and placed ninth overall. In 2014, the internal selection of the Common Linnets performing “Calm After the Storm” qualified the nation to the final once again and placed second, while the internal selection of Duncan Laurence in 2019 managed to achieve a Dutch victory for the first time since 1975. For 2023, the broadcaster opted to continue selecting the Dutch entry through an internal selection.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Internal selection. Following S10’s eleventh place in the final in 2022 with “De diepte“, AVROTROS revealed that they would continue to internally select both the artist and song for the Eurovision Song Contest. A submission period was opened by the broadcaster on 17 May 2022 where artists and composers were able to submit their entries until 31 August 2022. Each artist and songwriter was able to submit a maximum of three songs, which were judged by a selection committee consisting of AVROTROS general director Eric van Stade, television presenter and author Cornald Maas, singer and television presenter Jan Smit, radio DJs Hila Noorzai, Carolien Borgers and Sander Lantinga.

AVROTROS announced Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper as the Dutch entrants on 1 November 2022. Nicolai and Cooper’s entry were selected from four entries shortlisted among nearly 400 submissions received by the broadcaster, one of which was performed by Dani van Velthoven, winner of the eleventh season of the reality singing competition The Voice of Holland. Some controversy emerged after the selection, as it was alleged that Nicolai had already been informed she would represent the country right after the opening of the submission period, which AVROTROS claimed to be false.

Nicolai and Cooper’s song for the contest, “Burning Daylight”, was revealed on 1 March 2023, during the talk show Khalid en Sophie on NPO 1. The song was co-written by Duncan Laurence (winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019), Jordan Garfield and Loek van der Grinten.

Promotion. Nicolai and Cooper first performed “Burning Daylight” for a live audience on 8 April 2023 at the PrePartyES pre-party in Madrid, Spain. Their performance was covered by multiple Dutch media outlets, which criticised them for being “out of tune”. Nicolai and Cooper attributed their vocal issues to technical problems with their in-ear monitors. They performed the song for the second time on 15 April 2023 at the Eurovision in Concert pre-party in Amsterdam. This second performance also had a largely negative response.

AVROTROS responded to the criticism, stating that it acknowledged that the performances were “not good” and that it would be working to improve the act. Following the negative reception, Jan Smit announced that he would leave the selection committee, revealing that he had opposed the selection of Nicolai and Cooper, despite reports from AVROTROS that the selection had been a unanimous choice; Smit later clarified that his decision to leave the committee was not related to the selection. Before departing for Liverpool, Nicolai and Cooper gave a televised live performance of “Burning Daylight” on 28 April, during Khalid en Sophie. They later revealed that they would raise the song’s key by three semitones for their Eurovision performance, to better fit their vocal ranges.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. The Netherlands has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

At the end of the show, the Netherlands was not among the ten countries announced as qualifiers for the final, making it the first time since 2015 that the country failed to advance from the semi-finals.

3.3.Voting.

3.3.1.Points awarded to Netherlands.

**Points awarded to Netherlands (Semi-final 1)**
Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points	Moldova Sweden
1 point	Azerbaijan Norway Portugal

3.3.2.Points awarded by Netherlands.

**Points awarded by Netherlands (Semi-final)**
Score	Country
12 points	Sweden
10 points	Finland
8 points	Switzerland
7 points	Portugal
6 points	Czech Republic
5 points	Norway
4 points	Israel
3 points	Moldova
2 points	Croatia
1 point	Latvia

**Points awarded by Netherlands (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Sweden
10 points	Belgium	Finland
8 points	Sweden	Czech Republic
7 points	Norway	Spain
6 points	Israel	Switzerland
5 points	Estonia	Portugal
4 points	Austria	Belgium
3 points	Italy	France
2 points	Poland	Israel
1 point	Australia	Austria

3.3.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Dutch jury:

Jeroen Kijk in de Vegte
Rob DeKay
Froukje Veenstra
Samya Hafsaoui
Sjamke de Voogd

**Detailed voting results from the Netherlands (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	3	20	7	13	25	10	1	7	4
02	Portugal	9	9	6	4	7	6	5	19
03	Switzerland	12	16	2	3	4	5	6	18
04	Poland	26	25	20	14	20	22		9	2
05	Serbia	19	4	25	6	15	11		25
06	France	7	18	3	19	9	8	3	11
07	Cyprus	23	21	21	10	17	20		23
08	Spain	1	7	5	5	10	4	7	21
09	Sweden	4	1	1	7	1	1	12	3	8
10	Albania	14	13	16	15	18	19		24
11	Italy	17	8	12	23	11	15		8	3
12	Estonia	13	6	10	20	8	12		6	5
13	Finland	5	3	4	2	2	2	10	1	12
14	Czech Republic	2	2	18	1	19	3	8	16
15	Australia	20	10	9	22	16	17		10	1
16	Belgium	10	11	8	8	5	7	4	2	10
17	Armenia	6	19	14	17	12	14		14
18	Moldova	25	24	19	18	21	25		22
19	Ukraine	21	15	11	25	22	21		12
20	Norway	8	17	13	12	6	13		4	7
21	Germany	18	22	24	16	23	23		17
22	Lithuania	16	14	17	11	13	18		20
23	Israel	11	12	15	9	3	9	2	5	6
24	Slovenia	15	26	22	26	24	24		15
25	Croatia	22	5	26	24	14	16		13
26	United Kingdom	24	23	23	21	26	26		26

• Country: 🇫🇮 Finland

• National selection:

Selection process: Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu – UMK 2023 (Contest for New Music)
Selection date(s): 25 February 2023
Host venue: Logomo, Turku
Presenter(s): Samu Haber
Host broadcaster: Yleisradio – Yle (Yle TV1, Yle Areena, YleX, Yle Radio Suomi, Yle X3M)
Participants – Number of entries: 7
Voting system: 25% international juries, 75% televoting
Selection entrant:Käärijä
Selection song: “Cha Cha Cha”
Selected songwriter(s): Jere Pöyhönen, Johannes Naukkarinen, Aleksi Nurmi, Jukka Sorsa

• Final performance:

Semi-final result: 16º SF 1: Qualified (1st, 177 points)
Final result: 2nd, 526 points

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with the song “Cha Cha Cha” performed by Käärijä. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023 in order to select the Finnish entry for the contest. Seven entries were selected to compete in the national final on 25 February 2023, where the combination of votes from seven international jury groups and votes from the public selected the winner.

Finland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 15, “Cha Cha Cha” was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Finland placed first out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 177 points. In the final, Finland performed in position 13 and placed second out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 526 points.

1.Background. Prior to the 2023 contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-five times since its first entry in 1961. Finland has won the contest once in 2006 with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” performed by Lordi. In the 2022 contest, “Jezebel” performed by The Rasmus managed to qualify Finland to the final and placed twenty-first.

The Finnish national broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle), broadcasts the event within Finland and organises the selection process for the nation’s entry. Yle confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest on 23 May 2022. Finland’s entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have been selected through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Between 1961 and 2011, a selection show that was often titled Suomen euroviisukarsinta highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. However, since 2012, the broadcaster has organised the selection show Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), which focuses on showcasing new music with the winning song being selected as the Finnish Contest entry for that year. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Finnish entry for the 2023 contest would be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023.

2.Before Eurovision.

2.1.Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023. Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023 was the twelfth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition that selects Finland’s entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of a final on 25 February 2023, held at Logomo in Turku and hosted by Samu Haber. The show was broadcast on Yle TV1 with a second audio program providing commentary in Finnish by Mikko Silvennoinen, in Swedish by Eva Frantz and Johan Lindroos, in English by Jani Kareinen, in Russian by Levan Tvaltvadze, in Ukrainian by Galyna Sergeyeva, in Finnish Sign Language by Miguel Peltomaa, in Northern Sami by Linda Tammela and in Inari Sami by Heli Huovinen. The competition was also broadcast online at Yle Areena and via radio on YleX, Yle Radio Suomi and with commentary in Swedish on Yle X3M. The competition was watched by 2.1 million viewers in Finland, making it the most watched edition of UMK since its establishment in 2012

2.1.1.Competing entries. A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 1 September 2022 and 5 September 2022. At least one of the writers and the lead singer(s) had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete. A panel of nine experts appointed by Yle selected seven entries for the competition from the 363 received submissions. The experts were Tapio Hakanen (Head of Music at YleX), Aija Puurtinen (vocal coach), Amie Borgar (Head of Music at Yle X3M), Anssi Autio (UMK producer), Johan Lindroos (Head of Music at Yle Radio Suomi), Jussi Mäntysaari (Head of Music at Nelonen Media), Juha-Matti Valtonen (television director), Katri Norrlin (music journalist at YleX) and Samuli Väänänen (Senior Editor at Spotify Finland). The competing entries were presented on 11 January 2023, while their lyric videos were released between 12 and 20 January 2023.

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
Benjamin (Niclas Benjamin Peltonen)	“Hoida mut“	Atso Soivio, Benjamin Peltonen, Iivari Suosalo
Käärijä (Jere Pöyhönen)	“Cha cha cha”	Aleksi Nurmi, Johannes Naukkarinen, Jere Pöyhönen
Keira (Keira Lundström)	“No Business on the Dancefloor”	Axel Ehnström, Jason OK, Teemu Brunila
Kuumaa (Johannes Brotherus, Jonttu Luhtavaara, Aarni Soivio, Okko Saastamoinen)	“Ylivoimainen“	Aarni Soivio, Johannes Brotherus, Jonas Olsson, Jonttu Luhtavaara
Lxandra (Alexandra Lehti)	“Something to Lose”	Alexandra Lehti, Amy Kuney, Belinda Huang, Minna Koivisto
Portion Boys (El Meissel (Mikael Forsby), Kenraali Vahva, JaloTiina, Taiteilija Nieminen, A.P. Vuori)	“Samaa taivasta katsotaan“	Mikael Forsby, Mikko Tamminen, Raimo Paavola
Robin Packalen (Robin)	“Girls Like You”	Joonas Parkkonen, Robin Packalen, Zoë Moss

2.1.2.Final. The final took place on 25 February 2023 where seven entries competed. “Cha Cha Cha” performed by Käärijä was selected as the winner by a combination of public votes (75%) and seven international jury groups from Australia, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom (25%).The viewers had a total of 882 points to award, while the juries had a total of 294 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone, SMS and app voting. For example, if a song gains 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 882 points rounded to the nearest integer: 88 points. A total of 231,968 votes were cast during the show: 93,324 votes through telephone and SMS and 138,644 votes through the Yle app.

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by Bess performing “Lähtee käsistä” and “Ram pam pam”, while the interval acts featured 2022 Finnish Eurovision entrants The Rasmus performing their song “Live and Never Die” and Samu Haber performing his song “Syödään sieniä“.

**Final – 25 February 2023**
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote			Total	Place
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Votes	Percentage	Points	Total	Place
1	Robin Packalen	“Girls Like You”	28	21,303	9.2%	81	109	4
2	Kuumaa	“Ylivoimainen“	44	16,569	7.1%	63	107	5
3	Käärijä	“Cha Cha Cha”	72	122,822	52.9%	467	539	1
4	Keira	“No Business on the Dancefloor”	42	23,933	10.3%	91	133	3
5	Benjamin	“Hoida mut“	34	8,416	3.6%	32	66	7
6	Lxandra	“Something to Lose”	46	6,312	2.7%	24	70	6
7	Portion Boys	“Samaa taivasta katsotaan“	28	32,613	14.1%	124	152	2

**Detailed international jury vote**s
Draw	Song								Total
1	“Girls Like You”	2		2	8	2	2	12	28
2	“Ylivoimainen“	10	6	6	4	4	6	8	44
3	“Cha Cha Cha”	6	12	12	10	10	12	10	72
4	“No Business on the Dancefloor”	12	4	4	6	6	4	6	42
5	“Hoida mut“		2		12	12	8		34
6	“Something to Lose”	4	10	10		8	10	4	46
7	“Samaa taivasta katsotaan“	8	8	8	2			2	28
International jury spokespersons
– William Lee Adams – Mark Forster – Angy Fernández – Cornelia Jakobs – Kamil Staszczyszyn – Jude York – Timur Miroshnychenko

Promotion. Käärijä made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote “Cha Cha Cha” as the Finnish Eurovision entry. On 8 April, Käärijä performed during the PrePartyES event, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Victor Escudero, SuRie and Ruslana. On 15 April, Käärijä performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hila Noorzai. On 16 April, Käärijä performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Here at Outernet venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O’Connell.

3.At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Finland was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

The two semi-finals and the final were televised in Finland on Yle TV1 with commentary in Finnish by Mikko Silvennoinen. The three shows were also broadcast via radio with Finnish commentary by Sanna Pirkkalainen and Jorma Hietamäki on Yle Radio Suomi, with Swedish commentary by Eva Frantz and Johan Lindroos on Yle X3M, and with Finnish commentary by Sini Laitinen on YleX in the first semi-final and the final. The three shows were also available online via the Yle Areena platform with additional commentary options; alongside the Finnish commentary by Silvennoinen and the Swedish commentary by Frantz and Lindroos, commentary was also available in Inari Sámi by Heli Huovinen and Northern Sámi by Aslak Paltto for all three shows, and in Russian by Levan Tvaltvadze and Ukrainian by Galyna Sergeyeva for the first semi-final and the final. The Finnish spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Finnish jury during the final, was Bess.

The broadcast of the first semi-final on Yle TV1, which included the participation of Finland, reached an average of 1.337 million people over the age of 3, which represents a 78% market share. The broadcast of the final reached a peak of 2.8 million viewers, with an average of 1.7 million viewers watching the entire show on Yle TV1 and an additional 800,000 viewers through Yle Areena and the Yle website.^[20]^[22]^[23] Representing a 85.6% market share of all TV viewers in Finland, this marked Finland’s highest audience figures for a contest final since 2007, when the event was held in Helsinki.

Semi-final. Käärijä took part in technical rehearsals on 1 and 3 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional back-up juries of each country watched and voted in a result used if any issues with public televoting occurred. On the day of the first semi-final, Finland was considered by bookmakers to be the most likely country to advance into the final together with Sweden.

The Finnish performance featured Käärijä performing a choreographed routine in a green bolero jacket. The stage featured a stack of pallets and a huge wooden box prop which Käärijä began his performance from before returning to the floor, with one side of the box later opening up and revealing four dancers wearing pink outfits. The performers formed a human centipede on the satellite stage in the middle part of the song and the performance was concluded with fireworks bursting from each side of the box. The LED screens transitioned from a giant shadow mimicking Käärijä’s movements with a snake tongue to rainbow colours at the end of the song. The four dancers that joined Käärijä on stage were Etel Röhr, Jesse Wijnans, Katri Mäkinen and Matti Maxim, while an off-stage backing vocalist was also featured: Aija Puurtinen.

At the end of the show, Finland was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that the Finland placed first in the semi-final, receiving a total of 177 points.

Final. Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners’ press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Finland was drawn to compete in the first half. Following this draw, the shows’ producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Finland was subsequently placed to perform in position 13, after the entry from Estonia and before the entry from Czechia. On the day of the grand final, bookmakers considered Finland the second most likely country to win the competition.

Käärijä once again took part in dress rehearsals on 12 and 13 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Käärijä performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 13 May. Finland placed second in the final, scoring 526 points: 376 points from the televoting and 150 points from the juries.

3.1.Voting. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public.^[36] Each nation’s jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song’s composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, each member of a national jury may only take part in the panel once every three years, and no jury was permitted to discuss of their vote with other members or be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation’s televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Finland and awarded by Finland in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

3.1.1.Points awarded to Finland.

Points awarded to Finland (Semi-final)

Score	Televote
12 points	Croatia Germany Ireland Israel Latvia Norway Sweden
10 points	Netherlands Portugal Rest of the World Serbia Switzerland
8 points	Azerbaijan Czech Republic
7 points	France Italy Malta
6 points	Moldova
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

**Points awarded to Finland (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Australia Austria Belgium Denmark Estonia Germany Iceland Ireland Israel Latvia Lithuania Netherlands Norway San Marino Serbia Spain Sweden United Kingdom	Norway Sweden
10 points	Croatia Czech Republic Greece Poland Portugal Rest of the World Romania Slovenia Ukraine	Estonia Iceland Netherlands
8 points	Azerbaijan Georgia Malta Switzerland	Armenia Austria Denmark France Ireland Israel Malta
7 points	Cyprus Moldova	Croatia Serbia
6 points	Albania Armenia France Italy
5 points		Australia Belgium Czech Republic
4 points
3 points		Azerbaijan Cyprus Lithuania
2 points
1 point		Georgia Spain

3.1.2.Points awarded by Finland.

**Points awarded by Finland (Semi-final)**
Score	Televote
12 points	Czech Republic
10 points	Norway
8 points	Switzerland
7 points	Moldova
6 points	Croatia
5 points	Sweden
4 points	Serbia
3 points	Latvia
2 points	Portugal
1 point	Israel

**Points awarded by Finland (Final)**
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Norway	Sweden
10 points	Czech Republic	Switzerland
8 points	Australia	Czech Republic
7 points	Slovenia	France
6 points	Estonia	Italy
5 points	Germany	Belgium
4 points	Croatia	United Kingdom
3 points	Moldova	Portugal
2 points	Austria	Austria
1 point	Switzerland	Cyprus

3.1.3.Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Finnish jury:

Jonas Olsson (jury chairperson) – music producer
Kaisa Korhonen – songwriter
Ilkka Mattila – journalist
Saara Everi – Head of marketing and PR, PME Records
Niina Jokiaho – Head of Radio Nova

**Detailed voting results from Finland (Final)**
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	9	4	10	23	10	9	2	9	2
02	Portugal	11	10	9	4	12	8	3	23
03	Switzerland	4	16	2	2	1	2	10	10	1
04	Poland	8	23	18	17	16	20		19
05	Serbia	25	24	25	14	13	24		12
06	France	14	9	5	7	4	4	7	11
07	Cyprus	3	22	11	15	14	10	1	18
08	Spain	19	8	8	19	19	17		20
09	Sweden	1	2	1	1	2	1	12	13
10	Albania	23	15	21	8	23	21		21
11	Italy	13	14	6	12	3	5	6	17
12	Estonia	12	11	4	13	21	12		5	6
13	Finland
14	Czech Republic	5	1	3	6	11	3	8	2	10
15	Australia	7	5	12	20	25	13		3	8
16	Belgium	18	12	19	3	5	6	5	14
17	Armenia	16	21	20	22	6	18		24
18	Moldova	15	25	24	11	22	23		8	3
19	Ukraine	21	13	13	24	8	19		16
20	Norway	10	17	7	10	9	14		1	12
21	Germany	17	20	15	9	24	22		6	5
22	Lithuania	6	18	17	5	17	11		22
23	Israel	20	6	14	18	7	15		15
24	Slovenia	22	19	23	16	18	25		4	7
25	Croatia	24	3	22	21	15	16		7	4
26	United Kingdom	2	7	16	25	20	7	4	25

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ESC 2023 – Selezioni Nazionali – 1ª Semi-Finale

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