Your daily Eurovision news bulletin is here. Every weekday in the build up to this year’s song contest kicking off in Liverpool, the team here at wiwibloggs is bringing you all the latest news from the world of Eurovision. We scroll through social media to find all the gossip — big or small — so y’all don’t have to.
In today’s daily digest, Merseyrail unveils their Eurovision train and Loreen looses poll position in the OGAE poll. But first…
Eurovision 2023 news round-up: Monday 24 April
Eurovision tickets sell out
The second wave of Eurovision tickets went on sale today at 12:00 BST. And as expected, they got snatched up quickly. Grand final tickets sold out within 40 minutes.
The majority of Eurovision 2023 tickets that went on sale today have now been sold. A small number of tickets are still available to purchase for some shows.
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) April 24, 2023
For those of you with tickets, we’ll see you in Liverpool. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on BBC One!
Belgium, Georgia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and San Marino join the LUSH Liverpool Lounge
LUSH Liverpool’s third floor will be wiwibloggs headquarters for Eurovision season. A selection of artists will join us in the lounge to perform their songs, answer questions from fans, and take selfies and write autographs. Georgia’s IRU, Ukraine’s TVORCHI, Lithuania’s Monika Linkyte, Poland’s Blanka, Belgium’s Gustaph and San Marino’s Piqued Jacks will all appear at the LUSH Liverpool Lounge this May.
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Käärijä takes the lead in the 2023 OGAE poll
After receiving most of the early 12 points, many thought Loreen would be the clear winner of this year’s OGAE poll. But the Swedish star has some competition. After a surge of top points recently, Finland’s Käärijä has now surpassed the 2012 winner to take the lead. The “Cha Cha Cha” singer has a three-point lead after 29 clubs have voted. There’s still a lot to play for, but by the end of the week we’ll have the final results. (Jonathan)
Lord Of The Lost shoot their postcard at Hamburg harbour
Next up to preview their postcards for Eurovision 2023 is Germany’s Lord of the Lost, who headed to Hamburg’s harbour for a nautical clip. We saw them pulling power poses, before hopping onto a boat down the River Elbe. We can expect rambunctious behaviour on the water, and plenty of exquisite eyeliner.
The rock band also shared a cover of the United Kingdom’s entry this year, Mae Muller’s “I Wrote A Song”. The piano-led tribute provided a genre binding version of the track, especially when paired with lead singer Chris Harms’ gravelly vocal. (Lucy)
Lord Of The Lost are living it up on a boat for their #Eurovision2023 postcard! See you in Liverpool ? pic.twitter.com/BnxfMnpvsk
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) April 24, 2023
LOTL covering „I Wrote A Song“ by MAE MULLER
— Lord Of The Lost (@LordOfTheLost) April 24, 2023
In the spirit of „United By Music“, we’ve done a couple of short acoustic cover versions of a selection of the other ESC artists.
Today: @maemuller_ – „I Wrote A Song“#maemuller #lordofthelost #eurovision #eurovision2023 @Eurovision pic.twitter.com/EWCwASszpk
Marco Mengoni performs on German TV
Marco Mengoni appeared on German TV programme Die Giovanni Zarrella Show over the weekend. Whilst there, he gave the first live performance of the three-minute “Due Vite” revamp. Marco sang under a spotlight whilst six backing dancers stood on boxes to either side of him. (Jonathan)
Käärijä wins Germany’s Songcheck
Germany’s preview show Songcheck came to a culmination on Saturday evening. The results of the jury and voting public were revealed for the last batch of this year’s competing songs. In the end, it was Finland’s Käärijä who emerged as the winner. The rest of the top five was made up of Austria, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden.
Meanwhile, Danny Estrin from Voyager stopped by the Songcheck studio. He was born in Germany but has now been living in Australia for 30 years. (Jonathan)
Vielen Dank an Danny von @Voyagerau für den Besuch in unserem Songcheck-Studio! ?? Den vierten #Songcheck mit Australien ?? – und alle anderen Shows findet ihr unter https://t.co/5GGlQMrdit. pic.twitter.com/07radQkb9T
— ESC Deutschland (@eurovisionde) April 23, 2023
Merseyrail unveils Liverpool Eurovision trains
Merseyrail just got a makeover. The Liverpool City Region rail operator has traded out its signature yellow and grey for a United By Music themed train, carrying passengers on style throughout the Eurovision season.
It's a wrap! Our @Eurovision themed 777 train is ready for the party! @bbceurovision #Eurovision2023 pic.twitter.com/mRF8ywllvY
— Merseyrail (@merseyrail) April 24, 2023
Additional reporting by Jonathan Vautrey and Lucy Surtee.
OGAE, it’s like only a dozen of songs exists. I suggest that ESC drop to only 12 countries participating starting in 2024. Less costs and useless endlessly 4 hours final when the winner is only known 2 months before.
RIP Cat ?
I bet Chris did his best to revive it. He’s a cat lover & has 2 tabbies, 1 of which makes him look like a pirate because it loves sitting on his shoulder like a parrot. He’s done interviews like that.
Anyone who loves cats is fine by me. They’re tricky animals & very discerning, only accepting people who treat them well. I see them as a living, furry barometer for human decency.?
Marco performed beautifully, and the song works well in the new format. I didn’t pay any attention to the dancers to be honest as I was looking at his lovely face. I’d change that long jacket, otherwise all good. And happy to see Finland take poll position too
I’m very surprised! Expected to Loreen win this by a landslide?
As an update to the Ireland situation that was also brought up by Jonas in the Wiwi Jury for Irelands song.
Ian Banham has since been fire and removed from all association with the delegation due to his bigotry and views.
The juries will screw him on the night and vote for the whining playing and the painful crying instead. Jury bias
He’s 8/15 to win the semi final.
Loreen 15/8
Says it all. Kaarija doesn’t have the best vocal but for sure in the jury categories he has a more creative and original song.
Bias indeed
In my opinion, it’s different and original. But I don’t personally Cha Cha Cha is creative. In fact I think it’s a bit messy.
Different and original. That’s basically the definition of ‘creative’.
Those OGAE people dont seem to like rock too much.
Ogae normally go for radio friendly songs or catchy ones, not a surprise. I honestly get the hype on cha cha cha
Though it’s not my cup of tea.
The OGAE-poll isn’t over yet but I think ut’s quite remarkable that Sweden isn’t leading at this point! With Loreens status and fandom within the ESC-bubble I had expected her winningscore to be 2x that of nr 2. The OGAE-poll isn’t reliable in terms of who is winning ESC but still the reaults of «Tattoo» are surprising amonst Loreens maybe biggest fanbase. Maybe another indicator that «Tattoo» isn’t winning ESC after all?
Loreen winning ESC was never set in stone to begin with!
OGAE don¨t mean nothing, it shows you which songs are big in the ESC bubble. But tells you nothing about outside the bubble. That Cha Cha Cha is frst is not surprising. It is a song made for the fans after all. But how well does it fair for the non-fans?
We know Tattoo already has charted in some countries so that is outside the bubble. But has Cha Cha Cha reached people outside the fandom?
I don’t think Finland is winning it either. I think Austria will be the suprise winner of this decade.
I saw that cha cha only have chartered in Iceland outside Finland and quite low. It do not think is neither a good song nor interesting. It is kind of similar to that other electric callboy song. So is it a joke song? No. Is it serous – no. It is about drinking I have heard. But why is he singing cha cha cha? It is a kind of childish. I also think Kärilää uses a lot of backing vocals. So I really hope it won’t win. But we have seen have the popular vote can go in any direction.… Read more »
Loreen winning was never set in stone to begin with!
But OGAE means nothing for the overall ESC. It shows which songs are popular in the ESC bubble but do not tell you how it looks outside it. Cha Cha being first is no surprise, it is a song made for the fans after all. But does it mean that it will be popular for mainstream audience?
We know Tatto has already charted in some countries so it has leverage outside the bubble. How much is yet to be seen. But has Cha Cha?
Tbh it should be mandated that all OGAE clubs vote at once. Because here there are some strange voting patterns that occur here, like the fact that Slovenia pretty much stopped getting points after a couple of (non-block) juries…
I quite like the sadboy LOTL cover or “I Wrote A Song”! It fits very well, and still a bit funny and camp at the same time.
Firstly was Italy performing on a mini~me stage version of Liverpool design. Second the quality of this song still shines but i wish it didn’t end so abruptly. This i think is bad editing. Thirdly when are wiwi going to review semi final 2? two bloggs of 1. I know wiwi don’t rate semi 2 but really don’t insult the competitors in this semi by ignoring them.
Hm, not sure the dancers add much to Due Vite. They just distract from the power of Marco. I’d like better if he was just on his own, like he was ten years ago. Don’t feel pressure to give us “staging”, please.
I think the dancers actively take away from Marco’s performance. It’s the same issue that Mahmood had in 2019 with those backing dancers that were at best pointless and at worst a silly distraction. For Marco’s sake, I hope those box-top dancers aren’t travelling with him to Liverpool.