By Neil Durham
WHEN?: 8pm Thursday 11 May 2023
WHERE?: Liverpool Arena
HOW DO I WATCH?: BBC
The big favourites are in Semi 1 which makes Semi 2 far tougher to call with many live performances of these songs still to be seen.
Siobhan McSweeney (The Alchemist, Barbican Theatre) and Louisa Harland (Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, Royal Court) may be best known as Sister Michael and Orla McCool from Channel 4’s Derry Girls but here they reunite onstage with fellow cast member Ardal O’Hanlon in Brian Friel’s (Translations, National Theatre) 1936-set County Donegal tale of the Mundy sisters battling poverty to raise seven-year-old Michael and care for their uncle Jack. Runs 6 April through 27 May 2023. Tickets Review
By Neil Durham
WHEN?: 8pm 9 May 2023
WHERE?: Liverpool Arena
HOW DO I WATCH?: BBC
‘Irregular voting paterns’ in 6 jury votes last year means this year’s semi finals will be televote only with this being the toughest semi and tasked with finding 10 finalists from a field of 15.
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.
By Aline Mahrud
WHEN? 7pm UK time Saturday 11 March 2023
WHERE? Avicii Arena, Stockholm
WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play
2024 will be the 50th anniversary of ABBA‘s Eurovision win and we would imagine Sweden would be quite keen to host – and therefore win in 2023.
By Aline Mahrud
WHEN? 7pm UK time Saturday 25 February 2023
WHERE? Malmö, Malmö Arena
WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play
Each act performing last in this season of Melodifestivalen has won their heat or progressed to Andra Chansen and we think 2012 Eurovision Song Contest winner Loreen is likely to be in the euphoric former camp.
By Aline Mahrud
WHEN?: 7pm UK time Saturday 18 February 2023
WHERE?: Sparbanken Lidköping Arena, Lidköping
WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play
Last week’s Heat 2 saw a ratcheting up of quality, a surprise non-qualifier and a Heat 3 performer co-writing the winning song.
By Aline Mahrud
WHEN? 7pm UK time Saturday 11 February 2023
WHERE? Saab Arena, Linköping
WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play
We were surprised by the 1st qualifier in last week’s opening heat and think the quality, and therefore the competition, is much tougher here.
By Neil Durham
WHEN?: Saturday 25 February 2023
HOW DO I WATCH?: YLE
Finland’s Eurovision selection show UMK continues to be 1 of the season’s highlights and there’s a lot of quality here in the race to succeed internationally-renowned rock band The Rasmus who represented the country last year, finishing 21st.
By Aline Mahrud
WHEN? 7pm UK time Saturday 4 February 2023
WHERE? Scandinavium, Gothenburg
WHERE DO I WATCH? SVT Play
We suspect that the winner of this year’s Melodifestivalen isn’t within the 7 acts featured here not least because there are so many familiar faces here it feels more of a warm hug of a return than anything especially challenging – but there’s 3 more weeks to come for that.
