On Tuesdya, artists from 11 countries competing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 took to the Liverpool Arena stage for their first rehearsals.
Estonia’s Alika built bridges, Georgia’s Iru brought out the wind machine, and Australia’s Voyager channelled the energy of the rock gods. But who was the best?
Watch all of the Day 3 rehearsal clips on the official Eurovision TikTok account. Then vote in our poll. You can vote for as many countries as you’d like, but you can only vote ONE time. Be sure to click the box next to each country you want to support before pressing submit.
You can watch all of our YouTube reaction videos in the playlist below if you want to hear what we thought.
Poll: Who had the best first rehearsal at Eurovision 2023 on Tuesday 2 May?
Also Austria & Albania will be in the top 10 in the final night with Finland, Sweden, France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Norway, Czech Republic.
Qualifiers :
1. Albania
2. Austria
3. Armenia
4. Cyprus
5. Georgia
Possible qualifiers :
6. Australia
7. Belgium
8. Slovenia
9. Lithuenia
10. Estonia
12. Greece
12. Poland
13. Denmark
14. Iceland
Non Qualifiers :
15. Romania
16. San Marino
Georgia !
I still think Israel will be in the top 5
How is Poland above Slovenia? What’s wrong with people…
About Greece, the outfit points out the exploring of emotions (of a 16 year old boy) going from anxiety to empowerment. That is what they want to show with the LED screen, by watching him moving throughout the song and focusing on his blue eyes. Moreover, the letters have to do with the fact that he is student. In general, the staging has to do with him, cause the song itself has to do with his emotions when he was 14. Also, the song comes from his music tatse and references (Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran) and their kinda teenage, simple… Read more »
Who I think is gonna qualify
1.Armenia
2.Belgium
3.Albania
4.Cyprus
5.Australia
6.Slovenia
7.Georgia
8.Estonia
9.Lithuania
10.Poland/Denmark(but I think Poland)
HELP I FORGOT AUSTRIA ESTONIA NQ AUSTRIA Q
Georgia
Georgia??
For anyone interested, Monika said that the dress she was wearing is not final 🙂 Also changes will be intriduced regarding lighting and LED visusls but overall Lithuanian delegation seemed pretty happy about everything.
Estonia- I like the vibe and Alika’s costume is pretty. Iceland- She seems to have a great energy, which it might help her. Greece- I kinda like the less, but not that he looks like an Irwin (No shade to them, tho. I just don’t think it fits the song and staging) Poland- The Skating qualifiers are next door. Man, least favourite costumes after Ireland’s ballsy Oscar. That was a choice. Slovenia- Pretty much their usual performance aesthetic. I’ve been binge watching her videos. Georgia- I like the costume, it makes her look ethereal. San Marino- Also it seems to… Read more »
After first rehearsals, I feel like these are the chances to qualify: Almost certain Q: Austria (likely winner of the semi), Slovenia, Georgia, Cyprus, Australia Probable Q: Armenia (fingers crossed, even if the dark staging and early draw make me wary) Belgium (I don’t like the song at all, but Gustaph is great, and all the middle-aged audiences are floored, it seems) Lithuania (I find the song just okay, but the general reception is really good, and she’s late in the draw) A toss for: Poland (with this staging I’m inclined to say they’re in) Estonia (great song and vocals,… Read more »
I don’t know how but they literally killed the charm of the rehearsal week after got social media app involved. I don’t even want to check rehearsals out.
the best thing they ever did
Albania, what a pleasant surprise?! Well done!
Weird that people from those Caucasus countries aren’t ruining this poll too, huh.
My (a bit late cause yesterday I was really tired) thoughts about yesterday’s rehearsals: Estonia: Estonia goes with the Eesti Laul performance aesthetic and it works for the song. They also take advantage of the LEDS and Alika’s dress is really nice. The blue colors used for the staging are even better than the Eesti Laul color palette. A really solid rehearsal. Iceland: Dilja seems to be too alone on stage. She still has that tremendous energy of hers but I am not sure it’s enough. The LED projections also didn’t blow me away. Iceland will struggle to qualify. Greece:… Read more »
From a Lithuanian – gosh it feels like so many contries’ teams were working their asses off to improve the performances and add something new. And then ours were just like ok, let’s cut the dress
Poland is Amazing
I’m so pleasantly surprised! They all performed really well and I definitely underestimated this semi. Good luck to all performers!! And well done to Liverpool, the stage is AMAZING!
I would say Austria, but Poland surprised me the best.
Today is all the semi 1 acts rehearsing for the second time, tomorrow it will be 5 semi 2 acts more the big 5 and Ukraine rehearsing for the first time.
Friday it will be the 11 remaining semi 2 acts.
Saturday is the coronation day so the arena will be closed I guess.
But when we will be the 2nd rehearsals of the big 5 +Ukraine?
Sunday is the turquoise carpet and Monday dress rehearsals and jury show….so when then?
We have not an official schedule this year and it’s a bit annoying.
The 2nd rehearsals for the Big 5 + Ukraine are on Saturday.
The Coronation Day!? Are u sure? I think it’s a day off in The United Kingdom no?
I’m sure. I wouldn’t say it otherwise. The Big 5 + Ukraine have their 2nd Rehearsal on Saturday 6 May. The Saturday is a normal working day in the UK. Monday 8 May has been made a bank holiday, but rehearsals will continue for ESC.
Here’s the link to the Media Handbook, so you can see, hope this helps 🙂
https://eurovision.tv/sites/default/files/uploads/2023-05/EUROVISION%202023%20MEDIA%20HANDBOOK%20%281%29.pdf
Ok thank you very much for this document, it will help me a lot. 😉
You’re welcome 🙂
what do we care about that dumb coronation day, it is irrelevant for us
My current top 16 of the second semi-final, based on the first rehearsal: Q: 1. Armenia 2. Austria 3. Georgia 4. Australia 5 Estonia 6. Lithuania 7. Albania 8. Slovenia 9. Belgium 10. Iceland – – – – – – – – NQ: 11. Greece 12. Cyprus 13. Denmark 14. Poland (ffs, how has that happened, lmao). 15. Romania 16. San Marino Later on, after the 2nd rehearsals are over, I will also include a personal, HUGE SCORING METRIC from 1 to 10 about 3 DIFFERENT CATEGORIES, as I’ve been doing for the past 3 years: 1. SONG 2. STAGING/VISUAL… Read more »
Poland winning this poll is killing me ha ha ha… But my faves were Australia, Estonia, Austria, Slovenia, Lithuania 🙂
Bejba it’s kinda krejsa xxxx
She’s certainly won meme of the year!
I know right!
Albina dhe Familja Kelmendi, amazing!
Albina dhe Familja Kelmendi ?????????????????????????
Poland unironically
It says wecan vite for as many countries as wewant, but it only gives me one choice…
Something wrong with poll won’t let me vote for more than one?
Go, Blanka! Make Poland and Bulgaria proud. ?
Poland for me
blanka slaaaayyyyy bejba
The only thing she slays is eardrums.
The best thing about it is that it ends.
I still think Austria will easily win this semi and Australia & Slovenia should be 2nd and 3rd. I think San Marino will be last, Romania 15th & Albania 14th. As far as the others are cornered; IDK guess.
Albania will mainly get votes from a specific audience which there isn’t many of. Maybe they won’t end that low but I feel they will and I don’t think there is much hope for qualification.
I’m not saying that because of the country…I’m saying it because of the type of music it is. I don’t think many people would vote for an old school Albanian family song…
Such a conservative one too.
It sorta reminds me of music I heard in Russian restaurants I went to as a kid when my parents dragged me to a birthday of some old random relative I didn’t know.
Nostalgia!
Yeah if you count the depressed repressed and scared child I was nostalgic then sure 😀
I didn’t say only people who have Albanian roots or tires to music similar to it would vote for it… I said mainly.
Zero connection to oldness and you talk in other threads about having been to ESC in the 80s and 90s? Are you Peter Pan?
I-
Just trying to get a reaction from you which you are giving him…
Just ignore. Simple. After the BS The Voice Of Reason spewed at me I almost never reply to their comments to my comments cus it’s pointless.
The power of ignore is strong, use it.
I was joking with you. Your ability to consider yourself a victim is quite astonishing, considering you attack everyone else freely and gleefully, from Jonas, Tibor, Joe and countless other fans to the Eurovision acts, participants and contributors themselves, calling them all sorts of vile insults, including this blog itself.
I can’t really see Albania qualifying either at this point, where are the votes gonna come from aside from the known voting allies?
I just don’t think it will gather enough votes to get through.
I agree with this but I do think Slovenia can challenger Austria for the win. I had Albanian 14th but after seeing the TikTok, it could very well sneak into the final
You think Albania might Q? OK then name the 6 acts you think are getting eliminated then.
I’m genuinely curious.
SF2:
1. Austria
2. Slovenia
3. Australia
4. Armenia
5. Denmark
6. Cyprus
7. Georgia
8. Iceland
9. Lithuania
10. Estonia
11. Poland
12. Belgium
13. Greece
14. Albania
15. Romania
16. San Marino
This is my current prediction, it will completely change in the next few days I’m sure as literally everyone I placed from 4th to 13th are wild guesses mixed with statistical probabilities.
I think Belgium has a chance but it being 5th certainly doesn’t help. My only doubt with Armenia is that it got death slotted in a semi that’s so boring many people might zone out, get drunk and vote for Poland for the lols or something.
P.S I think ms pa pa pa pawa is too good of a performer that it doesn’t matter how basic the song is, she’ll get enough votes to get through.
I think for the last couple of years the EBU have tried to de-death the death slot but to their dismay Israel & Latvia both got eliminated last year.
I’d say at this point my preliminary script would go like this:
Q – Austria, Slovenia, Australia, Georgia, Armenia, Lithuania, Denmark and Cyprus (no particular order)
NQ – San Marino, Greece, Romania, Albania and Iceland (no particular order)
That would mean 2 spots left for Estonia, Belgium and Poland.
Statistically speaking since 2016 at least 2 countries from slots 1 to 5 get eliminated so if these are your predictions put Poland through and decided between Belgium and Estonia. They both got bad slots so just think who do you think will get more public attention. ATM IDK I bet on Estonia cus it’s more popular in the fandom, I have nothing else to go off of.
We’ll just have to see once there’s more material released soon enough, I mean, we’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel if it has actually come down to choosing between Gustaph and Blanka, but it is what it is I guess.
I honestly grew to kinda like Because Of You.
But yeah this semi sucks.
I’ve really grown to like it too. It’s fun, upbeat, positive, has a strong 80s vibe, and Gustaph and his crew are super stylish and sassy. His energy is just super positive too. He seems like a real gentleman.
Did you see the footage of his students all surprising at the airport before he left for Liverpool? Really sweet.
Poland has 12 points from both the UK and Ukraine in the bag, plus considering Blanka’s staging she’s probably gonna get at least a few points from every country (typical viewer/voter has no prior knowledge of contraversy from the national final, nor would they care. Dramma exist only in Poland who also can’t vote or not vote for themselves, and in esc fandom who is minority within the voting body). So it’s perfectly safe to say Poland will be 4th/5th/6th in the semi after all.
Austria was never going to be an easy one to pull off, I’d say they’ve managed it well enough at least, from what we can gather so far. As for Greece, let’s just say Theodor Andrei has finally got a serious competitor, those LED graphics are pure meme fuel, please forgive me but there’s no way this should be qualifying now, ERT are just mad…
Both are wearing cargo shorts…
The Steve Irwin tribute.
There’s always 1 song I like and then they go and screw up the staging, looking like it’s Greece this year for me
Poland staged their act well and are probably going to qualify. Which sucks cus the song is dog$h1t and ms Bejba cannot sing.
You are kindda stupid.
queeeeeeeeeen blanka
Albania just served and I‘am so so shocked how good they were, wow. Georgia was good but expected more. Poland was a total disaster and childish performance. Austria a flop and a sure nq. Greece was cute but I dont know. Again, Albania wasn’t even in my top 15 but damn this was so promising!
Georgia a big standout today, Iru is just gonna shove it in the faces of everyone who’s still complaining about her lyrics and it will be glorious.
She is amazing!! I hope for a good result for her, Georgia deserves back in the final
Bejba
Kinda kreizja
How else to freeze it
Bejba delivered, she eat and left no crumbs. Even though the controversy on this one she easily will quality and show her haters what it is they’re missing out.
Austria – almost flawless.
Greece unfortunately was a top flop today or even this year, the outfit was just uhhm…
Georgia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Iceland should also go through. I’m worried about the odds on Iceland tho, they should be higher
Australia is not my cul of tea and the performance was dull
There is no place in the finale for Estonia, San Marino and Albania sadge
Australia had a winning performance, from what I saw. They’re coming for top 5, and I think they will win semi.
Australia delivered, as expected
Poland though.. from zero to (almost) hero haha. Blanka looked stunning and sounded decent, visuals were great; honestly, I’m surprised
After all the issues and drama, I’m sure this very positive response will make her very very happy. She said she’ll be getting another rescue dog if she qualifies for the grand final, very cute!
Cute, I suppose, but also a good way to get votes… can’t she just rescue the poor dog either way?
I’d like to think it’s not contrived for votes but I see what you’re getting at. Maybe she’ll get the rescue either way. I hope it’s one of those missing Dalmatians.
That’s the opposite of fair. Judging on everything but the song.
This is a flaw when it comes to my overall top when scoring every entry while the show is on, since I rate the song from the performances and the staging separateky from the entry, lol. Poland has just managed to escape my last place for this year, hahaha.
Considering staging is not a flaw, I suppose, as long as you don’t completely disregard the quality of the actual song when voting! For your own personal scorecard, it’s fine to use whatever metric you like.
Okay, Ari. I guess your use of the word “winner” was just too much for me to handle in relation to this song. I know we’re judging rehearsals here, but I always thought the performance and staging is meant to serve as a way to sell the song. As pretty as her clothes are, how summery it feels… it’s still nowhere near close enough to convincing me to vote for this song. Still a fail for me.
Do you know Vanilla Bean outside of Wiwibloggs?
Not to my knowledge.
Oh ok.
It’s always so heated between you two and personal, I thought perhaps you did. Maybe in another life!
You make it so easy.
Replying to you? Bejba, look above. You messaged me 😉
I know we joke about you being a Disney villain, but you were quite cruel to Jonas above. It was heartless and mean. Any decent would apologise.
*Any decent person would apologise.
It’s okay. I have a thick skin.
Purple Mask, if you’re reading this, don’t fret. All is well!
I hope PM is doing better
Good to hear. Hope PM is doing well too.
Thank you for the concern. May the next ten days be a joy for us all!
And yet you keep messaging me. Kinda kreizja.
Just stop interacting with Ari, IDK what your guys’ “feud” is about and I really don’t care. Just ignore each other’s existence.
Hey, thanks Sol. I certainly have no sense of feud with Ari. And you can see clearly, he commented first to me, Asia’s, which is why I thought it was all a bit of fun. He’s literally joked in previous years about being Cruella De Vil, so I’m surprised he’s being so sensitive, if that’s the case. I hope he’s ok and feels better tomorrow.
Poland winning this fan poll, after everything the fan base has said about Bejba since the Polish NF. It’s like reality TV.
pls could you explain this Bejba meme? I know all the story about the NF but miss this one
It’s from the way Blanka says “baby” and “crazy” in quite a distinct way. Bejba is used in Polish for baby, so Bejba has become synonymous with Blanka and the song. If you Google for “Bejba”, there are YouTube videos and it’s now even in the Urban Dictionary.
We could yeah, but it’s kinda kreizja.
😛
I think I’m missing something with Poland. This staging seems cheap to me. And gosh, that dress is terrible. But I think I know why people like it. Honestly, I know it’s not nice but I hope she sings as bad as usually and that Europe won’t fall in this trap. For the others I’m not surprised except for Georgia and Albania. I’m excited to see the full performance of Iru. For Albania, I really don’t like the song. It’s like 32th in my top. But this staging seems nice even though pyrotechnics doesn’t really fit the song itself. So… Read more »
What trap? Eurovision itself is a trap, making talented artists believe that they will be judged by their music quality, only to throw them behind cheap catchy trash, served with sexualised staging and propped up by politically biased juries and neighbour voting. Don’t take things too seriously, just enjoy the parts you can enjoy, and don’t get too upset about the rest.
Poland and Australia!
The average Eurovision viewer doesn’t know anything about the controversy of Poland’s entry so she will definitely be getting votes and qualifying.
Bejba and Greece
Slovenia and Iceland delivered.
Poland’s song is still not great but the staging did improve it. Still shouldn’t qualify…
As they say..”you can’t polish a turd “
You can’t polish a polish turd
Based off the comments here it sounds like you can.
Best ones: Australia, Georgia and unfortunately, Poland, lmao.
Worst ones: San Marino and Greece (likely, BY FAR).
Expected something more: Austria and Lithuania.
Pleasant surprise: Albania
Good: Estonia and Slovenia
Ok: Iceland
You consider Albania’s Konitopoulos clan dancing with handkerchiefs a “pleasant surprise” but Greece is the “worst by far”. You people are obsessed.
I AM GREEK, Vangelis.
Prove it, Efthymios! Alcohol…is it free or not free?!
OF COURSE IT FREAKING IS! 😀
Yamas! This man is Greek!!
😀
Plus, Efthymios is a firstname of a saint of Greek Orthodox decent so, yeah, it is also my actual name. 😛
Oh I know it’s a Greek name. The irony of two guys called Efthymios and Vangelis arguing about being Greek was not lost on me 😉
I had Ritoli in their alt account accuse me of not being Israeli cus I don’t think Noa will win ESC.
That’s peak stupidity on this site and that says a lot.
Nah that’s actually so disrespectful. Imagine calling traditional dancing ‘clan dancing with handkerchiefs’ get a grip bro
Bejba itz kinda kejza