We have reached the point when we passed 50% of hell, and have 50% hell left to suffer through… The Hump day. And we start with the sad news, Toto Cutugno passed away yesterday. He participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 (Not my favorite then, but far from bad), and won the contest with an today iconic ESC winner, “Insieme: 1992”. RIP Toto.
And talking Eurovision, this chart show how many 12 points each country got this year, 2023, from jury and televotes. Note that the winner, Sweden, did not any 12s from the public vote. This was a jury win.
Other strange things, Austria did not get any 12s from the Public. A typical “Televote” song. Poland received only obe 12 from the public. It was a strange vote year.
So, now we know the 26 songs in tomorrows Eurovision Final. Yesterdays semi turned out to be OK, even if the songs not going to leave a mark in the music history.
I managed to have 7 out of 10 from my own list, and 8 out of 10 from my predictions. OK, not as good as Semi 1, but not far from it. Even if I thought semi 2 might have been easier to guess.
Happy for Poland, Belgium and Austria, we will see them all in finals. A few songs turned out to be better live than as mp3, so my final list might be a bit changed. No huge changes though.
My yearly final PDF will be uploaded on this site tomorrow for you to be able to download it. I won’t send it out this year, if you don’t ask for it and send me your email.
Not much more to add today to be honest, full day at work and then heading home for the second semi final in the Eurovision 2023. And this is the weak semi. More or less all songs from the first semi would have gone through to the final if they took part in semi 2. Apart from Poland and Austria none of this evenings songs is competitors to a top 10 result on Saturday.
From my personal list of qualifiers 7 out of 10 passed to Saturdays final. And 9 out of 10 on my prediction list. So I still have some kind of sense in all this madness.
So, first full day today… Wish I felt as good as yesterday, but actually it’s a bit colder and my mood almost turned into winter mood.
In any case, finally made the Eurovision Files, so now you can download the Semi final files (incl the big 5 in the finals). The final will be TBA for now.
Ended up, yesterday, biking down to Marais. It is the best rides you can do here in Paris. So nice to go back home feeling how you tiered yourself out before going to bed after a night out.
Last week I also, finally, started to mark up this years ESC songs. And here you find a first draft. Changes will come of course before the final “manual”.
“It’s unacceptable!” – So whats the question you might ask? Todays degrees with a question mark is enough. -1?
So lets jump on to something else. My current standing among the ESC songs released so far:
My current standing among the ESC songs. So many more songs to come, and changes will happen until May, so it’s not really saying that much.
More close in time is the Semifinal at Melodifestivalen, now on Saturday. I don’t think much will change there… What can someone do to change their act that much?
Melodifestivalen 2023, Björns current votes
Enjoy your day, and remember that tomorrow we enter March, so it’s time to make your budget for the upcoming month.
Yesterday, the EBU, it was announced that the vote system at the Eurovision will change in 2023, and I am sorry EBU… What are you doing? Did the directors and the reference group decide to not have a normal meeting, but make decisions after a few hours at a bar or something?
No juries in the semifinals, online votes from “The rest of the world”, seriously? My guess is that the viewing went down 2022 and EBU in panic noted they lost money… So how to engage new voters? Of course by invite the rest of the world to vote, using credit card numbers to void countries to buy votes.
Invite the world is also a marketing tool to export the concept, even if both Asiavision and the American Song Contest never turned out to be popular. This way, EBU (who sold the rights) might boost the interest for local competitions and earn some more money.
The scrap the jury in the semi finals will give us final with catchy up-tempo songs and songs in style with Verka. And I loved that entry, but maybe 10 – 15 of the same kind?
I have loved the Eurovision since I was a child, the first one in 1971, and up until the early 2000 still in it 100%, loving it and followed every little selection going on. Then the changes really started to get through, and the interest declined since then, even if I of course watch it. But now more of tradition then anything else. The “chutzpah” is gone. And with this rules, I don’t know what to say? or watch? or engage.
Martin österdahl have made be very very disappointed.
New day, new morning and in office. Means I survived another winter day on my bike. Today is also vaccine day, both flue and covid in one shot. Most likely I will be sick as hell tomorrow after a night with high fever. It’s the normal first reaction when I get a flue vaccine, as well as the first covid shot. The two after rendered no reaction at all. So we will see.
Yesterday they premiered the Christmas lights at Champs Elysèes, turned out to be some blinking lights in the trees, but thousands stood there in the shill waiting for something amazing I guess… People are idiots. It’s like the mania around fireworks… I mean, you seen one so you have seen them all. The same goes for magicians and circuses.
Champs Elysèes yesterday 2022 11 21, premier Christmas lights
At the same time I must shout out a huge Congratulations to my buddy Fabrizio Faniello, once again a contender in the MESC (Maltese Selection to represent Malta in Eurovision 2023).
