Song Contest: Favorite wins in the 1st semi-final

In the evening, the first semi-final of the musical mega-competition took place in Liverpool – and largely ended with final tickets for the previously chosen favorites. So Sweden’s highly traded ESC returnee Loreen can be heard again on Saturday, as well as her Finnish rival Käärijä.

The 39-year-old Loreen, who won the competition in 2012 with “Euphoria”, which is still celebrated as a cult number, now also convinced the audience in 2023 with her stylistic revenant number “Tattoo”. The expert juries were canceled for the semi-finals this year after irregularities had occurred in some country expert committees in the previous year. So it was up to ESC-Europe to continue voting for Finnish Rammstein fan Käärijä in the Hulk costume with his hard number “Cha Cha Cha”, which also applied to Norway’s Alessandra, who convinced in the M&S Bank Arena with her pounding number “Queen Of Kings”.

Portugal, which this year does not rely on fado tristesse with Mimicat and the likeable cabaret number “Ai coração”, is just as far ahead as the Israeli participant Noa Kirel with “Unicorn”, who relies on somewhat more sweaty rhythms. From the ethno faction, Moldova’s Pasha Parfeni, together with the short flutist and the number “Soarele și luna”, prevailed.

Switzerland is further along

With one of the strongest voices of this year’s competition, Remo Forrer secured Switzerland’s promotion with the kitschy and sovereign anti-war number “Watergun”. Less on the voice, but also on anti-war and anti-Russia metaphors, the Croatian Drahdiwaberln the trashdrag formation Let 3 were also successful with “Mama ŠČ”. Female empowerment also triumphed in Liverpool that evening, as the Czech women’s band Vesna qualified for the finals with “My Sister’s Crown”. And Serbia’s dark boy Luke Black convinced with the gloomy electro song “Samo mi se spava” – so for the time being it won’t be anything to do with sleep, which the singer hopes for in the song.

The sympathetic retro group The Busker from Malta, on the other hand, has to start their journey home with “Dance (Our Own Party)”, as does the unenlightening Sudden Lights from Latvia with “Aijā”. Ireland are unable to add to their record seven wins as the classic pop number ‘We Are One’ was stymied by lead singer Conor O’Donohoe’s lack of voice. The same was true for the Dutch duo Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper, who didn’t have enough vocal power for their breakup ballad “Burning Daylight”. And finally, the Azerbaijani street musician twins Tural and Turan Bagmanovlar didn’t get another chance to perform in Liverpool with the minimalist “Tell me more”.

Britain takes role seriously

In terms of subject matter, the emphatically colorful show proved for the first time that Great Britain takes its role as stand-in for last year’s winner Ukraine seriously. Despite the victory of the Kalush Orchestra with “Stefanie”, the country cannot organize the competition itself due to the Russian war of aggression. With singer Julia Sanina, a Ukrainian co-moderator of the event alongside British colleague Alesha Dixon and actress Hannah Waddingham. And the cinematic postcards sent before each contribution show motifs from Ukraine, Great Britain and the respective candidate country.

This will also be the case on Thursday, when the second semi-final will start and the Austrian women’s duo Teya & Salena will perform their electronic dance number “Who the hell is Edgar?” enter the competition. After that it will be clear who the 26 participants in the final will be. Finally, the five big payers Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France and Spain as well as last year’s winner Ukraine are added to the ten semi-finalists.

THE PROMOTERS TO THE FINALS ON MAY 13
Finland Käärijä “Cha Cha Cha”
Israel Noa Kirel “Unicorn”
Croatia Let 3 “Mama ŠČ”
Moldova Pasha Parfeni “Soarele și luna”
Norway Alessandra “Queen Of Kings”
Portugal Mimicat “Ai coração”
Switzerland Remo Forrer “Watergun”
Sweden Loreen “Tattoo”
Serbia Luke Black “Samo mi se spava”
Czech Republic Vesna “My Sister’s Crown”