Eurovision 2023 – Sweden wins the contest for the 7th time!
Dear community members,
Hope you are doing great!
In today’s blogpost, I am inviting you to have a read about this year’s Eurovision song contest, which was taking place last week and finished with the fascinating final show on Saturday.
Last year, Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra has won the contest with the song "Stefania", but due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it was decided that Eurovision 2023 would be hosted in United Kingdom.
Liverpool was selected as the host city, with event taking place at M&S Bank Arena.
Photo by Neil Martin on Unsplash
This year, event was hosted by the Alesha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham, Julia Sanina and Graham Norton, who has joined the crew for the final show, which took place on Saturday.
As usual, two semifinals were organized as well. During both shows, performers from 20 countries have qualified to the final, where they joined singers from Italy, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Ukraine.
Therefore, during the final show, 26 countries were competing for the victory and chance to host next year’s competition.
You can see the running order for the final below:
Grand Final Running Order:
1. Austria | Teya & Salena - Who The Hell Is Edgar?
2. Portugal | Mimicat - Ai Coração
3. Switzerland | Remo Forrer - Watergun
4. Poland | Blanka - Solo
5. Serbia | Luke Black - Samo Mi Se Spava
6. France: La Zarra - Évidemment
7. Cyprus | Andrew Lambrou - Break A Broken Heart
8. Spain: Blanca Paloma - Eaea
9. Sweden | Loreen - Tattoo
10. Albania | Albina & Familja Kelmendi - Duje
11. Italy: Marco Mengoni - Due Vite
12. Estonia | Alika - Bridges
13. Finland | Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha
14. Czechia | Vesna - My Sister's Crown
15. Australia | Voyager - Promise
16. Belgium | Gustaph - Because Of You
17. Armenia | Brunette - Future Lover
18. Moldova | Pasha Parfeni - Soarele şi Luna
19. Ukraine: TVORCHI - Heart of Steel
20. Norway | Alessandra - Queen of Kings
21. Germany: Lord of the Lost - Blood & Glitter
22. Lithuania | Monika Linkytė - Stay
23. Israel | Noa Kirel - Unicorn
24. Slovenia | Joker Out - Carpe Diem
25. Croatia | Let 3 - Mama ŠČ
26. United Kingdom: Mae Muller - I Wrote A Song
After all the performers sang their songs, jury and televotes were announced, with it resulting in a triumph of Loreen from Sweden and her song "Tattoo”! You can check the winning song below:
Lithuania has managed to qualify for the final as well, and Monika Linkyte (Linkytė) has finished 11th after all the votes were counted. Check her final performance below:
This year, while winning the jury voting, Sweden did not win the televoting, which was instead won by the Finnish musician Käärijä and his song "Cha Cha Cha". He finished second in the competition with 526 total points (150 jury vote points + 376 televoting points), while Sweden has received 583 total points (340 jury vote points + 240 televoting points). You can check the Käärijä’s performance below:
In the finals, performers sang in 13 languages, so this was a great opportunity to learn more about linguistics, cultures and diversity of European countries (of course, not forgetting about Australia!).
If you are interested to discuss the Eurovision Song Contest, would like to share your favorite songs or just talk about music in general, let’s have a chat at Living Abroad forum!
Yours,
Gytis
OLS Lithuanian language community manager