By Neil Durham
WHEN?: Saturday 13 May 2023 8pm (GMT)
WHERE?: Liverpool Arena
HOW DO I WATCH?: BBC1
We’ve now heard all the songs by the 6 countries pre-qualified for May’s Eurovision Song Contest final and below we predict where we think they will finish there.
- Read on for reasons including how we think the entries from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ukraine would fare at Eurovision this year
We’ll update our predictions as the Eurovision party season progresses, live performances are given and the semi finals take place.
First Half: FRANCE: La Zarra Évidemment (Evidently) (Fatima Zahra Hafdi, Ahmed Saghir Yannick Rastogi, Zacharie Raymond) PREDICTION: 1st to 5th
France won Junior Eurovision in December but haven’t triumphed at the main event since 1977 when Marie Myriam sang L’Oiseau et l’Enfant. It has been making progress however and we loved last year’s Eurovision France c’est vous qui décidez although it produced a disappointing result. La Zarra is an internal selection and is clearly a star, her song is very French and we can’t wait for the live performance as we think it’s a potential winning entry. Very impressive staging and performance.
WATCH: 30-second rehearsal clips of all the pre-qualified finalists apart from the UK
Second Half: GERMANY: Lord Of The Lost Blood And Glitter PREDICTION: 21st to 26th
Unlike France, Germany has rather lost its way and we can find little to redeem this. Masquerading as heavy rock, this has a whiff of the 70s about the keyboards and is essentially Lordi without both the masks – and tunes.
First Half: ITALY: Marco Mengoni Due Vite (Two Lives) (Marco Mengoni Davide Petrella Davide Simonetta) PREDICTION: 11th to 15th
Mengoni finished 7th for Italy in Malmo in 2013, our last live Eurovision final, and this has the feel of an album track rather than a hit single. Well sung which juries will like, melodic and he’s easy on the eye but struggling to repeat his previous success we think.
First Half: SPAIN: Blanca Paloma Eaea (Blanca Paloma Ramos, José Pablo Polo, Álvaro Tato) PREDICTION: 6th to 10th
Blanca’s song didn’t feature in our preview of Benidorm Festival because we didn’t think it strong enough. It’s traditional fare with an uncompromising vocal that is staged memorably. We love flamenco and it’s job done if Spain wanted to bring something authentic to the Contest however we thought runner-up Agoney was so good they might have had a shot at winning for the 1st time for a country we love since 1969.
26. UK: Mae Muller I Wrote A Song (Karen Poole, Lewis Thompson, Mae Muller) PREDICTION: 2nd to 5th
The last time a woman represented the UK at Eurovision was Surie in 2018. I Wrote A Song is a female empowerment anthem which is upbeat, sounds contemporary and is extremely catchy. Sample lyric: ‘Wanted to trash your Benz, tell all your friends how cruel you were to me. Instead I Wrote A Song ’bout how you did me wrong. I could’ve cried at home and spent the night alone.’ We really wanted it to be Rina Sawayama but we think Mae will do the UK proud. Little Mix with extra sass. Even a touch of Spanish guitar. Best UK Eurovision entry since Gina G. The lack of a rehearsal clip, the only song currently without 1, is a worry.
19. UKRAINE: Tvorchi Heart Of Steel (Jimoh Augustus Kehinde, Andrii Hutsuliak) PREDICTION: 6th to 10th
We saw 2022 victors Kalush Orchestra at Glastonbury Festival last year and still think they triumphed at Eurovision thanks to a sympathy vote. Tvorchi’s song has a title that will play well given the ongoing war with Russia but we think the song and performance is less voter friendly. Important for the Contest we think that this year a song deserving of winning does so.
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