The announcement of the finalists for Eurovision – Songfestival.be – will not be renewed

Lots of fuss today on social media. The manner in which the Eurovision 2023 semi-finalists will be announced will change compared to previous years. Meanwhile, this decision has already been retracted in a press release, which you will also find in this article. The exact plans for the EBU are explained in the article below.

bee First dress rehearsal for the first semi-finalOn Monday afternoon, the press was present at the Liverpool Arena to watch the show live. Songfestival.be was also present and saw that the advertisement looked different than it did in other years.

We still love Reservation required; After all, there’s still a chance of changes in the lead-up to the actual live show.

Update: In the meantime, the EBU has sent the following press release to the world. As you can read, the change will not be implemented anyway. No clear reason was given, but the negative reactions on social media may have something to do with it.

broke down! Everything zurück auf Los. https://t.co/7pXVnIVMcp pic.twitter.com/55MJrKuRVf

– ESC compressed (ESC_kompakt) May 8, 2023

special ladder

Important: the rules themselves remain unchanged. Ten countries qualify for the final and will be announced in random order by the presenters at the end of the broadcast. Exact results are not given.

The way this announcement is made is completely different. All candidates stand on a special staircase on the podium, in an arrangement that does not seem to contain very clear logic. Then it’s about main performers. Well, the six Vesna singers are from the Czech Republic, because it’s a group that participates, but Käärijä is from Finland without his dancers.

Question and Answer

Presenters Hannah Waddingham and Julia Sanina announce the finalists one by one. The country artist in question appears on screen for a few seconds while he or she waves at the camera and walks off the stage from the steps. The picture alternates from the artist to the greenery, where the rest of the entourage is located. This happens five times.

After that, the announcement of the finalists will be cut. Presenter Alesha Dixon interviews the five finalists who… In a separate room backstage to stand. Each candidate was asked a question during the first round.

Increased stress

Waddingham and Sanina then repeated the previous process, then with the five finalists. Just before the final announcement, tension rose to a head. The remaining countries are called one by one and there are even that split screen Where the candidates of all remaining countries can be seen at once. This will remain the case until the last country name is spoken.

After a second round of brief behind-the-scenes talks with the last five finalists, it’s finally there Big round of applause He asked about the candidates who failed to qualify for the final.

Little positive reception

There was little support for the proposed changes on social media and in the press room. Many journalists speak of it as a “disgrace”. ‘speechless’ And he talks about the lack of respect for the candidates.

New Qualification Announcement. Completely speechless. pic.twitter.com/NLK1QFcFXL

– Shawn | ESC United (SeanESCUnited) May 8, 2023