Rylan and AJ Odudu will host the Eurovision 2023 semi-final allocation draw on January 31.
It will take place at 20:00 CET (19:00 local time) from St George’s Hall in Liverpool. It will be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and on the European Broadcasting Union’s Eurovision YouTube channel.
In a statement released by the BBC, AJ said: “It’s so exciting to have the Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom in 2023. New and existing fans are in for an event like no other come May with spectacular live shows on the BBC and a city take over in Liverpool, all with British creativity and Ukrainian culture at its core. I can’t wait to kick things off with the draw later this month.”
Rylan is as chirpy.
“From being part of the UK delegation since 2018, Eurovision has become such a big part of my life. I’m so excited to be presenting the handover and allocation draw which symbolises the start of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023; the year in which the United Kingdom hosts Ukraine’s party. It’s going to be an amazing year for Eurovision. I genuinely can’t wait.”
According to the European Broadcasting Union, “young people from a local Liverpool school and members of the Ukrainian community who have settled in Liverpool since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine” will assist with the draw.
Get ready for #Eurovision 2023!
— BBC Eurovision?? (@bbceurovision) January 10, 2023
Join @Rylan and @AJOdudu for the Handover and Allocation Draw, where we'll find out which countries are competing in which Semi-Final ?
Live from Liverpool, Tuesday 31st January at 7pm on @BBCTwo and @BBCiPlayer ? https://t.co/eN76FXEYFa pic.twitter.com/kougp61wZt
Eurovision 2023 Allocation Draw: What is it?
The semi-final allocation draw determines which semi-final countries will compete in. It also decides which semi-finals the automatic qualifiers will vote in.
The big five — that’s Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom — don’t compete in the semi-finals, so won’t be part of the main draw. Ukraine also gets a direct pass to the grand final, since it won the most recent edition of Eurovision.
There will be a preliminary draw to determine which semi-final each of the automatic qualifiers will get to vote in.
The main draw will decide which semi each of the 31 remaining countries will take part in. They will be randomly picked from six different “pots.” It will also determine whether they sing in the first or second half of each semi-final.
These pots are created based on past historical voting patterns, calculated by Digame — the EBU’s televoting partner.
So for instance, last year Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova and Poland were in one pot, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Russia and Ukraine were in another.
Stefano Lo Russo, the mayor of last year’s host city Turin, will hand over the official keys of the Eurovision Song Contest, known as the “Insignia”, to the Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson. The contest’s “unique look” — aka, its logo and graphic design theme — will be revealed along with the slogan.
I like AJ Aduda and it’s cute that they included her in the draw event as a host and maybe she will do smaller gigs in the ESC week (parties, BBC shows for ESC) but she won’t be one of the hosts. I hope they won;’t include Rylan in the live shows for god’s sake. He comes across as very annoying and it would dreadful for the international viewers. Just let him do the ESC parties.
AJ Aduda is annoying AF… Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard for me. I hope she isn’t a part of the main event. Her presenting style is always cliche ‘ditzy-tipsy’ Northern bird – and it gets tiresome. Just my opinion on her presenting, of course… I’m sure she’s a nice person.
Why do we have to have Rylan on Eurovision if you remember this is a guy who choose the United Kingdom entry Bigger Than Us that terrible singer
sick bucket
There has been a lot to criticise about the BBC’s commitment to Eurovision in recent years, but credit where it’s due. They are really stepping up to the mark as host broadcaster – the New Years Eve stuff, showing the allocation draw on BBC2, both semi-finals being shown on BBC1 – it’s great to see.
Hopefully there will be another strong UK entry on home soil.
icl i really want to see FLO represent the UK, ik they aren’t TaP Music but maybe negotiations can be made bc they would be so good
Its sad that Ukraine and Finland never been in One Semi + Austria and Australia 🙁
You never know, maybe it will happen.
I will acknowledge all the criticism for this, but Rylan looks…plastic. Did he did botox or whatever they insert in their chins nowadays? He looks as a certain gay demographic. LOL
No offense. I’ll take every dislike.
As per AJ, she is stunning.
Wow your judgmental, vapid and RUDE!
It’s an opinion and they are entitled to it. Sit down and calm youself, gatekeeper.
So apparently Belgium are currently picking their 7 songs for their show and the songs are being released.
From Monday 9 to 13 January at 19:45 CET there will be daily introduction shows culminating on Saturday 14 January when the final of Eurosong 2023 is held.
There is the accurate info
So far, Loredana and Chérine have chosen “You Lift Me Up” and “Ca m’ennuie pas” respectively to sing on Saturday.
Yup. I wanna see Ameerah’s but I guess she’ll go on tomorrow night.
She’s later in the week. Next up will actually be Hunter Falls tomorrow.
Will Ukraine only draw their place in the final, or will it be both the UK and Ukraine?
That’s a good question. I hope they both get drawn as a way to be fair.
It’s only Ukraine
I think only Ukraine 🙂
Guys go listen to Petunija – Love Of My Life
It’s such a lovely ballad
I did and it’s actually really good. I feel like Out of the five songs that are currently released for Lithuania so far, Love of my life sounds the best out of all of them relatively speaking, with agne’s new start coming up second. And we had 25 songs left to go.
Was wondering when this will happen.
As there is no jury vote in the semis this year, I do not think they will divide the countries based on the blocvote from last year.
I think that if a country has a problem with televote, there is a jury back up. This existed even during the hundred percent televote era of the 2000s.
As long as it’s not fake computer points.
fair enough.
I think they would double the jury votes to compensate for a failed televote.
We haven’t seen the pot distributions yet and they usually go by geography grouping or voting patterns. Let’s Wait and see.
No reason it should, as the fraud was done by the juries – the public votes were legit, and this year only the public votes in the semi finals
not Rylan…Jeeez!
That’s really uncalled for. Anyhow, it could be worse, the BBC could have asked me to do it. 😀
Rylan and Mel Giedroyc would be excellent hosts of Eurovision 2023!
Agreed. However, Ukrainian presenters should have the right to present this year, since it was Ukraine’s victory last year. It’s not a written rule, just one of those principles.
Why not have both? It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I like to see two or four hosts with an equal number of Ukrainian and British.
Or one Ukrainian and one British!
I would prefer BOTH Mel and Sue!
Mel would be great but for god’s sake, keep Rylan as far from live shows as possible. It’s hard to find a more annoying person, even in the showbusiness.
What’s trashy about Rylan? He seems to have at least some skill as a presenter. I try not to judge people on appearance. It’s dangerous. Man in suit and tie to be taken seriously. Man with fake tan and very white teeth not. That’s how moron politicians are elected.
Nothing stopping you from taking Rylan seriously, then.
Are host broadcasters obliged to show this, or are BBC doing it by choice?
No idea, but it’d be odd not to. They pay for and produce a programme, but don’t air it.
This has happened every year in the host country. Normally this has taken place in the afternoon of the host nation. The BBC have never shown the draw or handover but it has always been shown live on EBU you tube across globe.
Yeah, I’m wondering if it’s part of the host contract. They show it one year, and never again. It should be an EBU production, totally separate.
It didn’t happen in Italy. The allocation draw was live only via online streaming with Rai Play (and YouTube)
Eurovision 2023 is shaping up to be the “Eurovision of the Ballads”, even Cyprus will send a ballad this year! I’m quite afraid of a boring Eurovision.. I hope that at least Noa Kirel will bring a proper uptempo song!
Ukraine’s song is not a ballad, and we don’t know what will be selected from the national finals scheduled in the future, the internal acts as well. Having a few ballads is a thing that happens every year, so this one’s not any different yet
What are you talking about? Only two songs are selected so far, Ukraine’s is definitely not a ballad. Theres still several selections happening and internal selections too. It’s far too premature to say this year is full of ballads.
It could be the year of the bops, but we all know what happens when we have too many songs of a particular genre competing. They all eat each other up in the points.
It’s still far to early to consider this edition to be a ballad filled year given that we have 2 songs and additionally,as wefe seen in many occasions in the past, favourites in selections (some of which are ballads) dont necessarily always win. Some of the songs people have been supporting in the selections includes rock entries (Megara,Venom,Monsters), Uptempo/Bop entries (Ardoner, Tuki, Mi familia, Freya) and Ballads (Bridges, Alice Wonder’s song, Honestly)*Apologies if I spelt them wrong. It could very well be a bop year but at this moment in time we dont know what genre or genres will define… Read more »
Yeah, it’s way too early to tell what kind of music genre will dominate Eurovision 2023. In fact, I don’t want that to happen. I want to see a variety of music genres and not have an over dominance of a particular genre (whether it’s ballad or bop) because that will lead to a lot of vote splitting. I still remember how so many of the Bops in 2021 flopped all over the place in the grand final because they were just too many of them and they just split the votes, similar to the ballad overload of last year.
Cherine from Belgium: ALLEZ!
Great, two people who do not annunciate clearly!
I actually agree. I love Rylan for a domestic audience and I would much sooner hear a regional accent than not. But I’m not sure how well those listening to English as a second language understand “Frooo” instead of Through or “Aaaiini instead of isn’t it.
What annoys me with the BBC is that it is all about the hosts. Graham Norton’s picture on the Eurovision Twitter. AJ and Rylan dominate the publicity of the event. It should be about the contest, Liverpool, and Ukraine, not a vehicle for BBC talent.
Wicked! Double masterstroke by the BBC choosing AJ and Rylan – I wonder if they’re our hosts in May too. Slightly surprised there’s no Ukrainian host, but as this is more of a ‘housekeeping event’, rather than cultural, it doesn’t matter so much. Really nice touch to have the Ukrainian community and school kids involved, as some years there’s really nothing ‘extra’ like this – just speeches and the draw. The timing is very unusual. It’s usually late morning in the UK, rather than early evening, but hey, hopefully it will mean that more can watch.
I am now sure they won’t be on the stage in Liverpool. Which I’m fine with. The UK (and Ukraine) has so many great options, it’s better to spread the love around and get as many hosts involved.
I’d agree. The UK has such a large pool of talent and experience. A bit like with host cities, we’re spoilt for choice. I’m glad they didn’t just roll out Graham Norton.
WHAT?! So rude! Hope they choose Rylan to host the actual show now!
A certain artist’s tour schedule seems to be cleared down for the month of May; and they are from that “stable”
She actually participated in the same National selection for the UK as Jevine!
Wow 7pm GMT, thats a lot later in the day than it usually is isn’t it? I remember last year I was watching the draw in a class.
Also, looking forward to the logo and slogan announcement. I’d imagine blue will be back for this years theme given that both nations have blue in their flags.
Exciting! I hope we’ll get another year where Greece and Cyprus are split apart though. Wouldn’t want a situation like Greece 2017 happening again
That reminds me to update my Eurovision semifinal split statistics when the draw will happen at the end of the month. I wonder how many countries are gonna switch off from one semi final to the other from last year and how many are going to stay put.
I predict Serbia is staying in the first half of the second Semi Final. hahhahaah
Theme and slogan will be announced on the same day too, exciting!
The slogan will be “together at last” or “celebrate unity” or “voices for peace” or “united for one”
For a native English speaking country, those would be wack