In recent days Eurovision fans have been up-in-arms over the news that the EBU planned to change how it announces semi-final qualifiers. Rather than simply revealing the Top 10 qualifiers and then zooming in on those who made it through, they’d planned to have all of the acts on stage while they made the announcement. Similar to shows like the X Factor, viewers would be able to see the upset reactions of the acts who did not make it through.
Understandably, a lot of fans thought that was unnecessarily cruel. And it didn’t exactly dovetail with the idea that the EBU was “protecting” artists by closing their rehearsals to the press. If they were actually concerned with the acts’ mental health and well-being, why would they subject them to the cameras in a moment of upset?
OMG they have a 6 way split screen for the last qualifier! So we get to see 5 countries disappointment all at once, that's great ???????
— ESC Tom (@EurovisionTom) May 8, 2023
The one step the BBC/EBU have put wrong but it’s an almighty clanger. Surprised the Reference Group agreed to this – and potentially shows the need for artist representation. This is just mean, not entertainment. #Eurovision https://t.co/88NUG8rzX1
— Jon Will Chambers (@jonwillchambers) May 8, 2023
Eurovision 2023: EBU cancels plans for X-Factor style
In a statement, the BBC and the EBU didn’t apologise for their proposed change. Instead, they simply said they changed their minds after this afternoon’s dress rehearsal.
“After trying a new system of presenting the qualifying countries in Dress Rehearsal 1 of the First Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 it was decided by the production team to revert back to the previous reveal sequence used in recent years with artists learning whether they will progress to the Grand Final together with their delegations in the Green Room. Whilst this change will not now be implemented this year there are other innovations in the show for viewers to look forward to.”
When acts are told they qualify, they simply smile and leave the stage. Those remaining on the stage and not qualifying are forced to leave shortly after.
— ?Christopher ? (@chrismegrath) May 8, 2023
They literally just leave. Shocking.
They are doing the X Factor style eliminations… I hate this… #Eurovision
— Maxxy Rainbow ? (@MaxxyRainbow) May 8, 2023
Only 1080p in 2023 on YT. It’s a joke.
It’s not available in every region. I saw a fake channel which had 7k waiting (quarter to the start). They understood the channel is fake and left.
Would have been ten worst change EVER. All excitement I would be gone. Will stop watching if this idea comes to life.
Oh for crying out loud. This ain’t Junior Eurovisie. It’s adults. Grown ups. A competition. A TV show. Artists know they could win as much as lose. Get over it. This pandering to the state of mental health… Too woke…
It’s 1996 all over again (Or 2004-2007)!
I’m glad this was canned, just another gimmic to appeal to the masses. There will be some acts that will rightly deserve to go through tonight but won’t, it’s not fair to go rubbing salt in the wounds. This is one of the reasons I don’t watch shows like the X Factor.
They’re really trying to turn Eurovision into a cheap reality show like the X Factor or Britains Got Talent.
I think the BBC was behind this more than the EBU. This seems like a British reality show competition thing to do. To try and make everything more ”exciting”, but in reality, it’s just harsh and will effect the contestant’s mental health.
love island is a itv tv show.
Reality tv is more a itv thing, not sure why BBC needs to pull this s__t.
Why not bringing back the Golden Ticket from ESC 2012 again?
So the Dress Rehearsal proved that Semi Finals are for qualification, not elimination.
They could have just watched the show for the past 20 years to figure that out, or asked us. Anyhow, lesson learned. Moving on. 🙂
I am glad this ridiculous idea is canned however it really made me question the EBUs decision making and will they come up with even more ludicrous idea in the future.
So far I’m seriously doubting the judgment of the current executive director . I wish he’d resign
Good! It was an absolutely atrocious idea, so I’m glad they came to their senses and bailed out. The ESC is about joy and togetherness, not humiliating people by singling them out and putting them on the spot. In a moment of a big letdown, after all their hard work for months, they deserve to sit with the support and comfort of their team. Obviously, I love the show, but I would have been seriously upset if they had gone through with this. If I wanted an Xfactor experience I would watch the Xfactor – I don’t.
I would do absolutely anything Martin Österdahl required.
Guess I shoulda included a winky emoji at the end for this not to be downvoted this much lol. Talk about thick. 😉
Nope. The dress rehearsals and jury shows aren’t interesting enough for most viewers as not every ESC viewer is a Eurofan. That’s what I assume. Also, they’re used as rehearsals, and rehearsals aren’t usually something the public see.
Thank god they changed this! It would have been worse for the competitors as it would have been more pressuring and led to more embarrassment and for the viewers as it seems more genuine to the viewer having the green room reactions instead of on the stage and the feeling of the announcement would also be less negative overall. It also makes the EBU look better as well as it would be less exploitative to the artists especially young adults and children which is a good chunk of the competitors.
Thank God they didn’t implement that dreadful idea!
Why not get them on stage with sticks and they can just beat each other with them for spots battle royale style.
This way, Croatia would solo the competition with their nukes.
And met Russia back in too
I really don’t get how Österdahl and the others can even dare to mess with something that has been loved by hundreds of millions for decades. Something that’s also so much bigger than every single of those self-complacent no-goods.
Just let that audacity sink in …
Details are changed all the time. Introduction of televoting, taking away the orchestra, semifinals introduced, separating televotes and jury votes when presenting etc etc. That’s just changes made in the last decades.
One would think that the American Song Contest fiasco has taught them a lesson. Apparently not.
They’re so full of themselves and live in their own echo chamber xd
Why would you have a contest that, year-on-year, continues to grow in popularity and reach, take on any of the processes from a bled-dry, formulaic, over-exposed show format that’s on life support?
It does beggar belief.
While we sigh a breath of relief that the format for announcing the qualifiers won’t change, I’d like to take a moment to share with you the list of 2023 artists that have attempted to represent their countries before or again if they were successful a second time: Luke Black—Serbia (2016 internal selection) Sudden Lights—Latvia (2018, 2023 Supernova) Mimicat—Portugal (2001 as Izamena) Pasha Parfeny—Moldova (2009 with Sunstroke Project; 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 (backing), 2020, 2023) Loreen—Sweden (2011, 2012, 2017, 2023) Andrew Lambrou—Cyprus (2022 for Australia) Iru—Georgia (2011 as part of Candy for Junior Eurovision Teya—Austria (2020 for Serbia) Salena—Austria (2019… Read more »
Some people booed Martin Österdahl in the arena today, in both the Dress Rehearsal and the Jury Show. It’s obviously been very clear to them that this X Factor approach has gone down very badly.
Did anybody hiss?
Some even tutted.
Hopefully not too much of a spoiler, but I think you’ll be happy to hear, you’ll get a glimpse of Sandie Shaw tomorrow.
That does make me happy, thank you.
🙂
This actually happened? Yeesh, I don’t know if that has happened before.
It wasn’t the whole audience, just a small section of people but it wasn’t unnoticeable.
Not related to these excellent news but I’d like to share my top-37 before tomorrow’s first semi-final, since there wasn’t posted another article specific to what I’ll proceed to do. Spoiler alert, you need to spend at least 15 minutes to proceed it all, lol. *My final, complete TOP 37 of the “Eurovision Song Contest 2023” (after rehearsals):* •(+1) *1. Finland – “Cha Cha Cha” (SONG: 10/10) – (STAGING/VISUAL EFFECTS, OUTFITS: 10/10) – (2ND REHEARSAL: 10/10)* *–(OVERALL: 30/30)* •(+1) 2. France – “Évidemment” (SONG: 10/10) – (STAGING/VISUAL EFFECTS, OUTFITS: 10/10) – (2ND REHEARSAL: 10/10) *–(OVERALL: 30/30)* •(+1) 3. Spain –… Read more »
EUROVISION IS NOT A REALITY SHOW
I wish TV executives would stop trying to change a format which doesn’t require it.
Viewer figures, worldwide airtime and fan engagement show that it’s only increasing where as shows that are trying to be copied such as X Factor and The Voice are going in the opposite direction and have had their day.
We’re still gradually slipping towards a reality TV format, where decisions will be made by celebrity judges and reactions of those judges, plus audience members, will be carefully edited in during the performances. I hope I’m wrong.
But I also hope we find out whose bright idea it was this time.
I hate those shows because it focuses the attention on drama instead of actual talent.
I doubt they changed their minds because of fan reactions, probably the delegations complained after realizing during the rehearsal that they have to go through this non-sense.
Yes, the artists are the face of the performance, but there are many people behind them. Their only chance to be recognized is the qualifier announcement which is ridiculous, but still better than nothing.
Thing is, when an artist finds out they’ve Q’ed, they are celebrating with people around them who have helped them greatly get to this point. If you’re on that stage waiting to be announced you won’t be surrounded by people to comfort you during and after the announcement and when you do find out you’ve went though you’d have to keep you’re celebration at a minimum especially if you’re one of the last annouced. IDK why anyone would even think to change the way the qualifiers are announced let alone do it like this. Scrap this idea and never bring… Read more »
I’m really glad they decided against it in the end.
Looking forward to the death semi tomorrow!!!
Sorry guys, it’s almost as if some of you have read this heading as xfactor style qualification WILL go ahead.
You know they decided against it right!?
They tried something out and realised really quickly that it didn’t work or fit the values of the show and changed it. I’m pretty sure that shows they are a good production team.
So much negativity on this site sometimes!!
Anyone with half a brain knew it’s a pretty bad idea without having to try it. There are some ideas that are worth trying out (and discarding if they don’t work out), and there are ideas that need to be killed at the very first brainstorming where they’re proposed.
Bad idea. Anything that resembles X-Factor or Idol is a bad idea.
A side note: I wish they invited 5 people from non-participating countries for a “Rest-of-the-World” Jury, to make the total score exactly 50-50. Right now, it is 50.7% public, 49.3% jury.
I just hope no fake computer points rear their ugly heads this year. Do we know if “San Marino”s televote is still decided this way?
San Marino will probably use 100% jury in the semi and the usual stuff in the gf (the juries still vote in the semis)
Osterdahl really makes me miss jon ola sand
At least he doesn’t ignore cheating. That’s something.
yeah, I can see how harsh the EBU was on the cheaters…like on poland that will actually benefit from the lack of juries
Ola Sand is hot but he ignored cheating.
Priorities.
Ola Sand is hot? Oh my… Hot as in sexually attractive hot? What do you mean? I’m mind-boggled right now…
He’s younger than George Clooney. At what age do people stop being hot?
Actually both of them are awful in their own way.
Nothing to do with this but do you know that Israel’s full and final dress rehearsal is doing the rounds on social media? Isn’t that against regulations?
Why the downvotes? So you’re ok with countries breaking the rules?
Is Israel sharing the rehearsal? If no then a weird fan is posting it and Israel isn’t breaking any rules.
This tells us that the BBC and EBU apparently see the semi finals as ‘elimination rounds’ of some sort of reality show.
Watch back old qualifier announcements from the 2000s and you see the hosts just casually open ten envelopes. Much more relaxed and lighthearted then the current system (with the announcement order deliberately set up to be ‘more exciting’).
They should also scrap the juries while they are at it. They have a HUGE Sweden bias and ruin the competition.
If you take the criteria to vote on then Blanca has the best vocal. Loreen isn’t note perfect.
Kaarija the most creative song. Noa and kaarija will be the best performance on the night that I have no doubt. But yet loreen will win by a landslide. Why? Oh yeah, that’s why, it’s Sweden and loreen. SCRAP JURIES FOREVER
so well said..juries are the epitome of corruption. and of course esc is all about politics with huge positive bias towards northern countries and deliberate isolation and devaluation of the south. the south should withdraw massively until esc makes it reliable again
Except Ukraine won in 2016, Portugal in 2017, Israel in 2019, Italy in 2021 and Ukraine in 2022. Seems like that Northern bias hasn’t really played out the way you suggest.
Israel in 2018 I meant
I belive juries are necessary to recognize songs with outstanding technical qualities that the general public might not be able to detect as easily (especially in the case of people who don’t listen to the songs until the actual show). That said, juries should not have as much power as the public. I for instance love the UMK voting system, with 25% jury and 75% televote.
UMK has six songs. The final on Saturday will have an extra twenty. At least juries pay close attention to every act, and running order matters less.
That’s a good point. Another reason to keep the juries, then. 🙂
Who even thought this was a good idea in the first place??
Stop calling this an “innovation”. When you’re copying a British show that was cancelled years ago after years of ratings decline—you are not innovating. You are following something on the way down. Eurovision is not some car crash reality show. It is suppose to bring people together. Why don’t you focus innovation on technology and allowing for more non-rich countries to be competitive participants in this contest instead of finding ways to humiliate people. BBC should be more worried about getting their camera angles right and eliminating all the shots of cameras that we’ve seen in the early clips and… Read more »
“…allowing for more non-rich countries to be competitive participants in this contest…”
YES! Finally, someone said it! Thank you very much for saying it. This is my number 1 concern with the contest right now!
It would be great if those with power would read this & do something about it.
Osterdahl proving once again what an absolutely clueless defeatist fool he truly is, well done to the fandom for really putting the pressure on this time.
Of Topic: Does anybody know if the official Press poll is published already?
Of Topic question: Should it be? If betting odds aren’t enough of a spoiler…
Off* topic. Why are you leaving an f out? Can’t you give two f’s? (Oh, I get it now.)
So Eurofans can pressure the EBU to cancel a minor change to the qualifiers announcement and can not make the EBU to go back to 100% live ?
You said it – A minor change. It doesn’t cost much to do it one way or the other, and the new proposal has certainly rubbed people the wrong way. Rightfully so. Going back to live orchestra would drastically change a lot of things. Starting with the stage design, as the whole orchestra would have to fit somewhere in there. I’d be open to go ”100% live” yet again, but then I’d be even less interested in dissecting every detail on stage. I don’t think it’s fair that so many people are insisting on scrapping the pre-recorded backing vocalists, and… Read more »
They could at least make live instrumentation an option, if desired. Would it be so hard to mic up Malta’s sax this year, for example?
I agree. Some instruments would be cool to see live. Especially if the artists want that to happen. I am still unhappy about their decision not to let Tinkara play her flute live back in 2014.
Imagine how good Italy 2011 would have been if those talented musicians had just been allowed to play.
Unfortunately, it apparently is. I remember reading something about it a while ago, and I think it said that this would require much more rehearsal time, technicians and equipment.
I was more saying about 100% live vocals. Live orchestra I can agree it would be now a very technical challenge but the lame excuse having used the COVID-19 pandemia to allow pre-recorded vocal is no more.
Let’s not get too hysterical, it was tried at an afternoon dress rehearsal. The BBC and EBU have reacted and no harm done.
Thank goodness- it was a cheap stunt – it’s already been cheapened by having the public only semis voting rule – when I first heard this announcement of the X factor style announcement I really was disappointed- it’s a low brow, low rent thing and also outdated. Wise decision not to do it after all. ESC is way classier than this.
It was a disgusting idea. I don’t know why they thought it was good, if they say they’re so worried about the mental health of the contestants. Idk what happened but I’m glad they stopped this before it was too late.
The fans need to stop being so overdramatic. Eurovision is a TV show and needs good ratings. Shows like these need some drama. What’s next? Not showing any reactions? Sorry but it’s a competition. Stay out of it if you can’t handle it. That being said I too think it’s not necessary for the SFs.
Uhh the old way showed plenty of emotions not only of the artists, but also the creative team who put a lot of effort into the whole process. Artists and their delegations were shown celebrating their qualification and those are the emotions the viewers want to see and are used to see.
This standing on stage thing would definitely not bring the ratings up.
Drama like announcing Conchita – the upcoming winner – last in the Semi 2014? I still remember this moment 9 years later without the need for any stupid readjusting
Eurovision has no problem at all drawing viewers. . . .
1. Actually no, Eurovision is organized by EBU which is an association of PUBLIC broadcasters and the sole reason for their existence is to provide a quality TV that doesn’t rely on ratings. Otherwise we could just let private media do the job.
2. Eurovision had pretty good ratings already.
Well, ratings are not the main issue but of course ratings matter.
Without good ratings how can you motivate broadcasters to produce this expensive show every year?
I am so happy about that. Close ups to stressed artists and their reactions after not qualifying have NOTHING to do with the eurovision values. Swedish mafia, this time WE won.
Swedish Maffia, since when did Sweden run BBC, it was them suggesting it…as always this sad hat against a country that made ESC so much better!
Maybe it was Loreen who stopped it, who knows?
People’s Sweden hate really takes all size and shapes..
What part of “BBC” sounds Swedish to you? Cause I am sure SVT really wants Loreen to get up on the stage and line up like a cow wondering if she will get slaughtered..
Eurovision is owned by EBU, not BBC. Guess where the executive supervisor comes from
And what do you think a supervisor does? He has no powers at all, all he does is to to implement what has been decided by the Reference Group who are the ones deciding on the contest. And the Refrence Group decides on whether or not suggestions from broadcasters goes through.
But blame Sweden for everything. It’s easier than actually using your brain to figure what¨s going on..
Good riddance. We are not an American “talent” show. Now it’s time to abolish the prerecorded vocals, too.
And can we also dump all vocal effects that don’t come directly from a singer’s mouth?
I don’t mind if they changed it. They film the reactions of artists who receive 0 televote points anyway. So not much of a difference..
Not that anyone want that in first place. the 2016-2018 system was just fine…
Why not??
Because it’s cruel and heartbreaking.
Because human beings.
Well, once *certain countries* understand that the Big 5 rule only hurts them, there won’t be 0 televote points…
The fact that they even thought about it is just disgusting. The contestants already have to deal with being constantly in the public eye… with the online abuse and the mean, gratuitous criticism from fans, websites, etc., so that would have just been plain cruel.
we won besties, down with the ebu
Thank god!!
This was honestly and very genuinly one of the worst ever decisions I’ve ever seen them make, I can not believe that they would stoop so low as to make us watch 11 hard-working entrants watch their dreams get cut short. Having short little interviews with the qualifiers after the announcement is actually a nice idea, but them all standing on the stage to get humiliated is such a horrible, “American reality competition no. 386” idea that I cannot fathom even crossing their minds. Glad they changed it back before the semi instead of in between the semi’s.
Great news. It was honestly depressing to watch.
How I miss you
Like Sahara misses rain 🙂
I bet BBC proposed this, cuz idea as stupid as this one can only come from stupid BBC.
Alright daily Mail
okay average telegraph reader, just because you have no happiness in your life.
you clearly have never watched melodifestivalen and it shows.
It’d also be nice to know who stopped it. It probably wasn’t the fans, maybe some delegations or acts complained.
Since when do they ever listen to us? Maybe somebody “more important” also wasn’t happy. The artists after the rehearsal today said NO.