It’s that time of year again. The disappointment of the most recent Eurovision has finally faded. Ireland faces into the 67th song contest hoping to escape the semi-final curse and reach the Saturday-night decider for the first time since 2018, when Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s Together finished 16th. That’s a lot of pressure on Wild Youth and their song We Are One.
When and where does it take place?
The year’s Eurovision takes place at the 10,000-capacity Liverpool Arena, in the centre of the city, overlooking the River Mersey – the UK is hosting the event on behalf of Ukraine, who won last year with Stefania, by Kalush Orchestra. There will be two semi-finals, at 8pm on Tuesday and Thursday. The grand final is at 8pm on Saturday. The three live shows will be hosted by the singer Alesha Dixon, the actor Hannah Waddingham (who plays Rebecca in Ted Lasso) and the Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, who fronts the rock band The Hardkiss. Graham Norton, the voice of Eurovision in the UK, joins the live broadcast for the final. The first semi-final and the final will be broadcast on RTÉ One, starting at 8pm; the second semi, which lacks Irish involvement, is on RTÉ2 at 8pm on Thursday. All three nights will also be shown on BBC One.
The draw for Tuesday’s first semi-final sees Wild Youth on stage in sixth position out of 15 acts, with the 10 countries receiving the most votes going through to Sunday’s final. Several of the favourites for Eurovision 2023 are in Ireland’s semi-final, including Sweden, Finland, Norway and Israel.
Who represents Ireland?
Wild Youth, who won Eurosong 2023 with their tune We Are One, will represent Ireland in Tuesday’s first semi-final, when they will perform sixth, between Portugal and Croatia. Conor O’Donohoe, the band’s singer, says We Are One’s lyrics were inspired by Eurovision’s mission to bring Europe together. But the song has not been universally praised: in his overview of this year’s entrants, the BBC’s music correspondent, the appropriately named Mark Savage, describes it as “the sort of music they put in banking commercials: a grasping, aspirational hymn to togetherness, with lyrics Coldplay would have rejected for being too twee”.
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Who are Wild Youth?
Musicians often use Eurovision as a platform to win new fans. But Wild Youth are well established, having released their debut single, All or Nothing, in 2017. They’ve toured with Lewis Capaldi and Westlife and are close both to Niall Horan and to The Script. Musically, they’re a mishmash, with elements of Coldplay and Snow Patrol but with a pop bounce that brings to mind One Republic and The 1975.
“We’ve always been big dreamers,” O’Donohoe said in 2019. “We’d play local bars, parties, even have gigs in my back shed. We always believed we could make something of it – even though everyone else probably thought we were a bit mad.”
They’ve had a challenging Eurovision, however. They were caught in a Twitter storm when JK Rowling, of all people, criticised them for cutting ties with their creative director because of alleged social-media comments relating to transgender people that “went against what we believe in as a band”. “It’s very stressful,” O’Donohoe told Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show. Rowling “kind of hyperfocused on one thing and really highlighted one thing that we have never referenced or spoke about, and focused on that being the main reason as to why we parted company, which isn’t necessarily the truth. It’s not the truth at all.”
Eurovision: Where did it all go wrong for Ireland?
How will the finalists be chosen?
Eurovision’s organiser, the European Broadcasting Union, has changed the voting format. It has scrapped national juries for the semi-finals and, for the first time, is allowing viewers from outside participating countries to vote – a move to capitalise on Eurovision’s widening global appeal. (These will count as votes from a single category: Rest of the World.)
“Throughout its 67-year history the Eurovision Song Contest has constantly evolved to remain relevant and exciting,” Martin Österdahl, the contest’s executive supervisor, says. “These changes acknowledge the immense popularity of the show by giving more power to the audience of the world’s largest live music event.”
But the changes are also in response to “irregular patterns” that were reportedly detected at Eurovision 2022 in voting from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino.
Who are the favourites?
Sweden are just one win away from equalling Ireland’s record seven Eurovision victories – and, annoyingly, are favourites once again in 2023. Loreen, who won in 2012, with Euphoria, is hoping to emulate Johnny Logan by winning a second time, with her Lady Gaga-style Eurobopper Tattoo.
It’s a bit of a northern European power trio this year. Finland are second favourites with Cha Cha Cha, a quirky rap number by Käärijä (who has been performing atop a pile of boxes in a neon jacket cut off at the midriff), followed by France, with La Zarra and the classy power ballad Évidemment. Don’t get your hopes up about Wild Youth: despite We Are One’s shameless U2 vibes, bookies are giving odds of anywhere from 33/1 to 66/1. The BBC reckons they’ll be out at Tuesday’s semi-final.
Anything else to watch for?
As the UK is only standing in for Ukraine, the “postcard” sections that introduce each performer won’t be the normal glorified tourism ads for the host country. Instead they have been filmed on home turf: Wild Youth’s intro was shot in the village of Glencullen, in south Co Dublin.
The Liverpool Eurovision aims to celebrate music as a unifying force. The main interval performance during Saturday’s final will feature the “Liverpool Songbook – a celebration of the city’s contribution to global pop”. It will be sung by six well-known Eurovision acts: Italy’s Mahmood, Israel’s Netta, Iceland’s Daði Freyr, Sweden’s Cornelia Jakobs, the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence, and Liverpool’s Sonia, who came second at Eurovision 1993.
