Eurovision 2023 semi-final as it happened: Ireland’s Wild Youth knocked out

The qualifiers’ press conference is still ongoing, but we’ve all got work in the morning, so let’s wrap up this live blog from the Eurovision Semi-Final of Death, a name that proved accurate as far as Ireland’s prospects were concerned.

Please congratulate me for making it through so many hours of madness without once using the Eurovision trigger word “staging” – well, apart from just right there, obviously.

I’m off to buy a cape – and possibly a tiara?

Thank you and goodnight.

Moldova’s Pasha Parfeni says 2023 is pretty similar to his experience of competing at Eurovision in 2012. “Even Loreen is back,” he observes.

The lone person from Moldova present at the press conference has no questions for Moldova.

Sweden’s Loreen says the happiness of the people around her persuaded her to return for another contest. “This is nice energy, I go this way,” is how she describes her thought process. “And so I went.”

Then a journalist who isn’t messing around queries an occasion – not tonight – when her vocals weren’t “pitch perfect, for once”, to which she laughs heartily but is clearly unimpressed. “Pitch perfect... what the f***.”

Is Sweden ready to equal Ireland’s record? “For me, those thoughts, like, winning, losing, back and forth, they disturb creativity,” says Loreen, in something of a politician’s answer.

Ed Power has reviewed the show here: Eurovision knows how to throw a party without us, he says. Insert your own weeping face emoji.

Meanwhile, the qualifiers’ press conference has finally begun in a haze of whooping.

Norway’s Alessandra is asked about what it felt like to be left last to be announced as a qualifier. “Me, my dancers and my team wanted to faint,” she says, not holding back.

Croatia’s nominated Let 3 spokesman tackles a heavier topic. “There is no winner in the wars, everybody is a victim, so please stop f***ing wars,” he pleads. By contrast, there are no losers in Eurovision, he adds – a more contentious statement, perhaps.

Serbia’s Luke Black, whose song title translates as “I just want to sleep”, still hasn’t got any sleep. He says he was inspired to write his Eurovision entry by his inner anxiety.

Photographers in the Liverpool Arena have captured the moments – deflating, I’m sure – after Ireland fell at the semi-final stage once more.

Some numerical facts about this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, courtesy of the BBC. Including the rehearsals, there are nine live shows at Liverpool Arena in total, and they involve 600 rigging points, 140 tons of steel ground support structure and 1km of “additional steel truss work” being added to the arena.

Now I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds impressive.

The event features eight miles of cabling for lighting, sound, video and special effects, with more than 2,000 specialist lighting fixtures, 2,000 metres of secure fencing, 165,000 channels of lighting control across three operators, 23,700 individual light sources, 2,500 automated colour-changing robotic lights, 150 microphones and 1,200 audio streams.

There’s also 100 wigs and hairpieces, 1,000 litres of hairspray, more than 3,000 make-up brushes, 5,000 hairpins and 150 metres of costume rails involved in this extravaganza.

So, a little grander in scale than Millstreet is I think what the BBC is saying here.

The Eurovision-covering media has now gathered for the qualifiers’ press conference... but there’s no sign of the qualifiers arriving for it just yet.

While I wait to see if the stream of this event yields any nuggets, other than journalists shuffling about in the dark, here’s a picture of Marty Whelan in happier times meeting fellow moustache wearers Let 3, who were qualifiers tonight for Croatia.

Commiserations to Wild Youth.

They genuinely seemed to embrace the spirit of Eurovision and their performance was solid, but the song just didn’t connect enough with voters – there’s bound to be more of a post-mortem later, though they were surely unlucky to be drawn in what is undoubtedly the tougher of the two semi-finals.

Here is Mark Paul’s report from Liverpool.

Good luck to whoever is selected to represent Ireland in 2024, by which stage it will be six years since Ireland made it through the semi-final phase of the contest to the flag-waving, weekend glory of the Grand Final.

Hard luck also to Malta, Latvia, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands. Eurovision has no mercy on those with niche appeal.

And the qualifiers, in no particular order, are...

• Croatia!
• Moldova!
• Switzerland!
• Finland!
• Czechia!
• Israel!
• Portugal!
• Sweden!
• Serbia!
• Norway!

That means, sadly, that Ireland is out. “Foiled,” says an emotional Marty Whelan, who was holding out hope to the end against his own better judgment.

In the first dress rehearsal for this semi-final all the entrants were assembled on stage, huddled in groups like X Factor contestants, as they waited to hear their fate.

But after trying out this new system, the production team decided to revert back to the reveal sequence used in recent years, with artists learning whether they will progress to the Grand Final from the comfort of the green room’s semi-circular sofas, surrounded by their delegations – the correct decision, I think, as it’s more atmospheric.

The moment of truth is now nigh. Who has survived to sing another day and who will be checking out the sights of Liverpool to distract themselves until their flight home?

Alesha Dixon learns some dance moves from Israel’s Noa Kirel, Finland’s Käärijä and Malta’s The Busker, then Sanina shows Waddingham how to be a “rock goddess” – it would be no bother to her, in fairness.

Dixon then chats with three of the “Big Five”. France’s La Zarra likes “British icon” Mr Bean, while Germany’s Lord of the Lost aka Chris Harms is a fan of – shock horror – Disney mugs. So, so, so scandalous, as Mis-Teeq used to say.

Italy’s Marco Mengoni, who was the Italian entry in 2013 and is a former Italian winner of The X Factor, is invited to touch on the subject of being a Eurovision returnee. He notes that he was 10 years younger then. Weren’t we all, Marco?

The good news is we are very nearly at the point of all the votes being counted and verified. And not in the Elon Musk meaning of the word “verified”.

The vote has now... closed!

Alesha Dixon chats to Ukrainian commentator Timur Miroshnychenko and there’s a clip of him commentating from a bunker last May as Kalush Orchestra sealed victory.

Dustin the Turkey, of Irelande Douze Pointe (sic) notoriety, makes his long-awaited Eurovision return, engaging in some Dustin-esque banter with Hannah Waddingham.

“I just want to wish everyone good luck tonight,” says Dustin. “Just have fun, and be yourself, even if it means ruffling a few feathers!”

Wise and generous words from a turkey.

Irish Times London Correspondent Mark Paul, a huge fan of Liverpool FC*, is watching from the media centre close to Liverpool Arena (which is also known as M&S Bank Arena for people who like their naming rights to be respected).

He writes: “A bout of nationalistic fervour broke out in the media centre attached to the venue during Portugal’s performance, with journalists on their feet and cheering throughout. The media centre has, as Eamon Dunphy might say, no shortage of ‘fans with typewriters’. The atmosphere is fun, however, with the assembled hacks from all over Europe clearly enjoying the event as much as the crowd in the arena.”

Mark met Marty Whelan for, I believe, the first time this morning. What could possibly top that? Nothing.

*Not true.

On a lighter note, here comes the skilfully strutting Rita Ora with a medley of her songs. I’d like to put it on record that I’m against medleys both in principle and in practice. But I am partial to the wistfulness of Ora’s hit Anywhere, which briefly surfaces, and she eventually makes it to her big finish: a taster of Praising You, her new “reworking” of the Fatboy Slim hit Praise You.

Praise be.

It’s time for the first interval act, with Liverpool’s Rebecca Ferguson and Ukraine’s Alyosha here to perform a slowed down arrangement of Ordinary World by Duran Duran.

The song – a beautiful latter-day hit for the band, released in the UK in early 1993 – was originally written by lead singer Simon Le Bon about his grief for his childhood friend David Miles.

After the chilling addition of war siren sound effects, Alyosha takes over from Rebecca Ferguson, singing a second verse in Ukrainian, while heartbreaking text messages evoking the invasion and bombing of Ukraine float up the screen backdrop.

The BBC has done a stunning job with the lighting and visual effects tonight, and this work – which I couldn’t see properly while watching the rehearsal stream on a tiny screen last night – is a poignant highlight, with the Eurovision heart symbol thumping away in blue and yellow.

And that’s it, all 15 countries have performed. Only 10 can survive... Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina and Hannah Waddingham give it the big “3, 2, 1″ countdown to the voting of opening. Sorry, no, that should be the opening of voting.

As Marty Whelan says on the RTÉ commentary, it’s “the people’s vote” tonight. Use yours wisely.

And finally, it’s Finland, represented by the much-umlauted rapper Käärijä and his song Cha Cha Cha.

Well, I say song, it’s more of a medley of genres – rap, metal, dance – that somehow all hangs together just enough to make it the bookies’ second favourite for the contest.

Sample lyric: “Cha cha cha, ch-cha cha chaaa”

Käärijä, performing atop a wooden crate, is wearing a luminous green puffy bolero with a studded collar, while his dancers are all clad in the hottest of hot pink, but appear to be tied to the crate in a weird and wonderful Eurovision maypole. He does some Pac-Man manoeuvres, then he and his dancers temporarily form a human caterpillar.

Cha Cha Cha is about shrugging off the drudgery of work. Some day, I guess.

The recently late Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman once told viewers that what he wanted to see from a cha cha cha was “rhythm, rhythm, rhythm”, to which Bruce Forsyth replied “why, why, why”.

It’s a thought I’ve had more than once this evening.

It’s the penultimate song tonight, but alas it’s Netherlands, here to depress us with Burning Daylight by Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper.

Sample lyric: “I don’t find any joy anymore / From the same old cycle”

With a song co-written by former Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence, the Dutch have shown up with some of the most downbeat lyrics possible here.

Dion is making more eye contact with the camera than I can theoretically handle. Mia only has eyes for Dion. They’ve got the dry ice out, and possibly some kind of pact going on. This is the only duet in this year’s contest.

“Goodbye old life,” they sing at each other in the outro. This bit is apparently meant to be uplifting.

Next!

Czechia’s entry is Vesna with My Sister’s Crown.

Sample lyric: “We are not your dolls, we are not your dolls”

Well, if you have to say it...

Vesna are six ladies – the maximum number of performers allowed under Eurovision rules – dressed in soft pink jumpsuits and sporting extremely long plaits to facilitate some mildly freaky “hairography”.

They’re dancing like puppets on a string to a soundtrack of squiggly noises and beats that are hard to get a handle on, but in a good way.

Some viewers may have had enough of crowns for one week, and it’s a little too limited melodically to be a frontrunner, but on balance I like this one.

Azerbaijan has made its way to Liverpool with TuralTuranX and their song Tell Me More.

Sample lyric: “Ah, I don’t know where you are / Or what you’re up to / I kinda miss you girl right now / You know, the old days and stuff?”

TuralTuranX are two guitar-toting, curly-haired lads who have opted for a late 1960s look, with lime green and purple trouser suits accentuated by patterned shirts.

Tell Me More opens with a voicemail, a popular mode of communication in ye olden times.

Respect to TuralTuranX for squeezing a proper middle eight into this song, but overall it is one of the gentler, more sluggish numbers in this year’s Eurovision and, as such, likely to be overlooked.

Time for the bookmakers’ favourite for the whole contest as 2012 winner – and therefore Eurovision royalty – Loreen returns to the arena for Sweden with the song Tattoo.

Sample lyric: “No, I don’t care about the pain / I’ll walk through fire and through rain / Just to get closer to you / You’re stuck on me like a tattoo”

Sounds painful. Tattoo is a slighter effort than Euphoria, Loreen’s winning track in 2012, but it comes from the same essential family of song.

Loreen starts her performance writhing about in a light box. Although it has a nice fluttery hook in the chorus, I am slightly underwhelmed by this, which I don’t admit lightly given Loreen has the longest nails in Europe and looks like she isn’t afraid to use them.

Moldova’s entry is Pasha Parfeni and the song Soarele si Luna (The Sun and the Moon).

Sample lyric (translated): “I promised my bride / A wedding under a starry sky”

Parfeni, who romped home in Moldova’s national contest, also represented his country in the 2012 contest held in Azerbaijan (he came 11th), so he knows what Eurovision is about: weird robes and even weirder, antler-style headgear.

The call-and-response section near the end is nice and chanty, but I’m not entirely convinced by this one, and the dry ice isn’t going to change my mind.

Next up is Israeli star Noa Kirel singing Unicorn. One of her signature dance moves is also called “the unicorn”.

Sample lyric: “Hey, do you want to check my DNA?”

Unicorns, of course, famously don’t exist, so possessing the power of a unicorn seems a dubious thing to brag about – unless, this is an ode to the Israeli tech industry through the medium of pop.

Either way, it’s a safe bet to qualify tonight.

Eurovision cliché alert: a snippet of mad laughter in the middle of the song for no reason.

We have now mercifully crossed the halfway point courtesy of Switzerland, represented tonight by Remo Forrer and the song Watergun.

Sample lyric: “I don’t wanna be a soldier, soldier / I don’t wanna have to play with real blood / ‘Cos we ain’t playin’ now / Can’t turn and run / No waterguns / Just body bags that we’ve become”

I originally misread the title as Waterfun, which would have been a whole other song.

Forrer has one of the strongest voices tonight and is executing his anti-war power ballad about powerless in the face of geopolitical conflict with real emotion – and some interpretative dance, obviously.

Still, it’s Switzerland. I’m neutral on this one.

Time for Croatia to play the Eurovision eccentricity card with Mama SC! by Let 3, a band with an, ahem, colourful past.

Sample lyric (translated): “Mama, I’m going to war / That little psychopath / War, war / Evil little psychopath”

This is about war, Armageddon and tractors, not necessarily in that order, and is apparently an anti-Putin song. For what it’s worth, I do think that if Putin was locked in a bunker and forced to listen to Mama SC! on a loop, he wouldn’t enjoy the experience, so on that basis, all power to Let 3.

The video backdrop makes it look like there’s a hundred people in Let 3, though only the band members are stripping down to their Y-fronts. It will shock you to learn they have a history of taking their clothes off. Be grateful they’ve kept their undies on is what I’m saying.

Good night, Croatia, and good luck.

Time for Ireland to shine – literally, at least, courtesy of the spangly gold theme of the production design – with Wild Youth’s We Are One.

Sample lyric: “We might be different / we might be unique / You might be a leader / I might be a freak”

This has grown on me a little – I like the shouty lead-in to the chorus – and yet it does have the unmistakable hint of a mobile telephone advertisement soundtrack from 2007. The “we are one” sentiment is a touch hackneyed for Eurovision now.

Conor O’Donohoe descends the stairs and bounces about between his bandmates as the song builds to a climax that makes good use of the spark fountains lining the stage runway.

So is it going to be the final? Or is it going to go down in flames?

After an outbreak of MC-ing from Dixon – “still got it,” is Rylan’s verdict on the BBC’s commentary – and a brief exchange between Waddingham and Bucks Fizz, we’re on to the fifth song tonight. It’s Portugal with Ai Coração (Oh Heart) by Mimicat.

Sample lyric (translated): “The doctor says there’s nothing to be done / ‘Lost cause’, I saw him writing”

It’s red feathers a go-go here with Mimicat and her four backing dancers dressed in pillar-box red. The clue’s in her name: there’s a feline quality to this performance of a song about the unpleasant physical symptoms of heartache (can confirm).

Mimicat, aka Marisa Mena, co-wrote this song and she’s pouring her heart into telling us how her chest is burning, her mouth is dry and she’s dizzy. There’s a toe-tapping traditional bit that soon builds into full-speed Portuguese cabaret.

This is one of my favourites tonight, which sadly does not bode well for its chances.

Latvia is represented by the indie rock band Sudden Lights and their song Ajia.

Sample lyric: “Used to think we live in a world so beautiful / You see, I think I don’t believe in this stuff anymore”

Sudden Lights know their way around a song, judging from this one, which is apparently meant to be a lullaby – seems more like a dark night of the soul.

They’re the Latvian Death Cab for Cutie, which is fine by me, but the Eurovision televoting public might demand a little more dynamism.

Serbia’s entry is Luke Black with Samo Mi Se Spava, a title that translates as “I just want to sleep”.

Ah, but the night is young, Luke, the night is young.

Sample lyric: “Baby, watch the world on fire / It is all a game to me / I don’t wanna choose my fighter / Who’s taking control of me?”

This has married 1980s arcade video game vibes to a quasi-gothic Hollywood dystopia aesthetic – his backing dancers are shuffling about like android dogs.

So, will it be game over for Serbia or will it be progressing to the next level? And will Luke finally get some kip?

Answers on a Eurovision postcard.

Malta is next with Dance (Our Own Party) by The Busker.

Sample lyric: “I feel better / In my sweater”

Fair play to three-piece The Busker, who have remembered how intrinsic clothing is to the history of Eurovision, from Bucks Fizz’s removable skirts in 1981 to the pink bucket hat worn last year by Oleh Psyuk, lead singer of Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra.

The good news for The Busker’s frontman Dav Jr and his two bandmates is that they each have not one, but two sweaters to model for us tonight.

Malta often shows up with a decent bop, and The Busker do indeed want us to dance. This jaunty, saxophone-assisted effort is a little naff for me, though I find it mildly endearing too, if only because I also feel better in my sweater.

First up tonight is Norway’s Alessandra and her song Queen of Kings.

Sample lyric: “She, queen of the kings / Broken her cage, threw out the keys / She will be the warrior of North and Southern seas”

The Norwegian-Italian Alessandra – wearing warrior-style green velvet with gold piping – is singing a belter of an ode to female empowerment, which she co-wrote. It’s fiery, poppy and highly catchy in familiar yet effective Eurovision style. Hey!

Queen of Kings has a tinge of Florence and the Machine, if that machine was transported from a Viking encampment to Eurovision via the Italian club scene.

People of a certain age will remember that Norway used to be the “nul points” country – it achieved this Eurovision fate on four occasions – but it has shaken off that reputation in recent decades and claimed the Grand Prix as recently as 2009, courtesy of one of my all-time favourite Eurovision winners: Alexander Rybak’s Fairytale.

Last year’s Norwegian entry was titled Give That Wolf a Banana, which qualified and came tenth. This one is better. A lot better.

The EBU’s glorious theme signals the start of proceedings, with the show itself opening, as these shows tend to do, with a spot of interpretative dance.

Two young children unite to express themselves to Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 hit Together in Electric Dreams, then walk through dry ice to where Julia Sanina awaits with a full troupe of backing dancers. Sanina’s outfit – a zippy, shiny black dress with arm-length sleeves – has a flame motif on its skirt hem to match the stage’s flame machine, which goes wild. She owns the stage with the assurance of someone who needs no votes tonight.

Alesha Dixon enters wearing a red one-shouldered top in the shape of a massive bow and a full taffeta-esque pink skirt, while Hannah Waddingham is dressed in a purple, pink, orange and yellow-hued number with a cape. She calls the trio “your honorary Liver birds”, Dixon thanks last year’s hosts Turin and Sanina, after a blunt mention of the war, says “beautiful Liverpool” has welcomed Ukrainians with open arms.

Waddingham does a little French, then jokes that “some of us Brits do bother to learn another language”. Yes, well done, Hannah.

Note: If you only want to watch Ireland, they’re up sixth.

As the show is about to begin, here’s a quick note on our trio of hosts for tonight and Thursday’s semi-final.

They are former Mis-Teeq and solo pop star Alesha Dixon, who you may also know as a Strictly Come Dancing champion and a Strictly/Britain’s Got Talent judge; the supremely tall Emmy-winning actor, Ted Lasso star and musical theatre performer Hannah Waddingham; and aforementioned Ukrainian singer-songwriter Julia Sanina, frontwoman of rock band The Hardkiss.

All three ladies have big voices – huge – while the MC-ing Dixon also possesses one of the largest laughs in Britain.

For the Grand Final, Graham Norton, who will also do the BBC’s television commentary on Saturday night, will join Dixon, Waddingham and Sanina on stage. He’ll be handling the scoring alongside Waddingham, with Mel Giedroyc picking up the TV commentary in his absence.

Viewers love to slag off the hosts of Eurovision every year, but watching an online stream of the rehearsals on Monday has reiterated for me that it’s hard work being a television presenter. There’s lots of hanging about while producers get the technical side of things right.

These three have good chemistry and Dixon, in particular, appears to be fazed by nothing.

Eurovision songs are not permitted to exceed three minutes in duration, a rule that was introduced in 1958, the third year of the contest, because Italy had warbled on for five minutes and nine seconds in 1957.

Sub-three minutes used to a pretty standard length for pop songs due to first the technical restrictions of early record formats and later radio station conventions. But average lengths steadily increased, rising above the four-minute mark by the 1990s. “Radio edits” became a thing.

More recently, thanks to the perma-temptation of the skip button, the trend has reversed and songs are becoming shorter on average again. Still, an actual three-minute rule means songwriters have to crack on with it – no dallying about for ages on the verse.

Excellent songs that won’t detain listeners for more than three minutes: Wannabe by Spice Girls, Dancing in the Street by Martha & the Vandellas, As It Was by Harry Styles, Will You Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles, Song 2 by Blur, Fell In Love With a Girl by The White Stripes, For No One by The Beatles…

Guitars, drums, a little bit of sax... you’ll see many musical instruments on stage tonight, but they are, in effect, props. No live instrumentation is allowed.

It used be the case that the host broadcaster was obliged to provide an orchestra and every instrument on the backing track had to appear on stage. In 1996, this meant that Gina G’s Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit – the UK entry that pioneered what soon became Eurovision’s default dance pop genre – had to be performed with two Apple Macs on stage, one beside each synthesizer.

In 1997, the rules changed so that live instrumentation became optional. But in 1999, Israel chose not to provide an orchestra at all, ushering in the era of pre-recorded music at Eurovision. No, not everybody was happy about this.

Since 2021, the backing vocals can also be pre-recorded. Only the lead vocal has to be live. But, hey, this is an era in which artificial intelligence (AI) tools can and do create clones of human vocals. That makes Eurovision a bastion of raw musical integrity by comparison.

Liverpudlian pop singer Sonia will be one of said “Eurovision legends” performing at the interval on Saturday. Indeed, this is the 30th anniversary of one of the greatest moments in Eurovision history: when Niamh Kavanagh’s belter of a ballad In Your Eyes eclipsed Sonia’s Better The Devil You Know in a nail-biting scoring climax.

The Jimmy Walsh-composed In Your Eyes is, of course, the best of Ireland’s seven wins. Sorry, Johnny. Hold Me Now is a close second, to be fair.

The victory not only came down to the final jury to read out its results – Malta – but the announcement of its top marks, as Ireland was ahead of the UK by less than 12 points.

Suspense inside the Millstreet venue rose as the Maltese spokesman read out its jury scores, mentioning neither Ireland nor the UK, with the home audience’s murmurs rising to a crescendo ahead of the fate-deciding douze points. Was Ireland going to win for a second year in a row?

Happily, Malta gave its 12 points to Ireland and a delirious Kavanagh. This was 1993, right in the middle of our never-equalled three-in-a-row streak. Pat Kenny has only just recovered.

Practical considerations – a suitably sized arena, (just about) enough hotel accommodation – will have swung Eurovision for Liverpool.

But that the city has a compelling musical history also gives the UK a good story to tell when trying to drum up tourism revenue on the back of Eurovision exposure.

So after Sam Ryder’s interval performance on Saturday night, there will be an act called the Liverpool Songbook, billed as “a celebration of the host city’s incredible contribution to the world of pop music”, with various “Eurovision legends” on hand to “put their own spin on some classic hits”.

We can but hope for Yellow Submarine.

The last time Eurovision was held in a country other than the one that had won the previous year was in 1980, when the Netherlands agreed to host instead of Israel, which had won two years in a row and declined to host for a second successive year.

So it was in The Hague where Johnny Logan chalked up what was then only Ireland’s second victory with the Shay Healy-penned song What’s Another Year – a sentiment that the Israeli broadcaster evidently did not share.

A month after Ukraine’s victory, the EBU entered talks with the BBC to host this year’s competition on the basis that the UK, after years of Eurovision disaster, had come second thanks to Sam Ryder and his song Space Man.

The UK and the BBC stepping in on behalf of Ukraine was a sensitive matter, not least because both Ukrainian culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko and the Ukrainian broadcaster UA: PBC had expressed hope that they would be able to host.

That sadly wasn’t going to be feasible, so the UK was confirmed as hosts in July, with Liverpool selected from a shortlist of cities in October.

After so long in the Eurovision wilderness – the UK last hosted in 1998, following its victory at the 1997 contest in Dublin – the BBC is obviously wildly excited about showing off its live event capabilities.

But it also has to be mindful that it is hosting “in consultation with” UA: PBC and that the chance to be hosts has only fallen its way because of the terrible situation in Ukraine.

So expect a strong Ukrainian flavour throughout proceedings, from the blue-and-yellow hue of Eurovision’s heart logo to Ukrainian co-host Julia Sanina’s central role to the inclusion of Ukrainian singer Alyosha, one of tonight’s interval acts. There’ll be some chat with veteran Ukrainian commentator Timur Miroshnychenko, too.

On Saturday night, the Grand Final will open with 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra and a performance titled Voices of New Generation, while the flag parade of finalists will be soundtracked by “some iconic past Ukrainian Eurovision contestants” weaved with “British classics”.

Last year was not Ukraine’s first Eurovision triumph. It is, in fact, the only country to have won three times in the 21st century, with its other victories coming in 2004, when Ruslana won it with Wild Dances, and 2016, when Jamala won it with 1944.

So while Russia’s war on Ukraine undoubtedly led to the 2022 result, it has a strong record overall since making its debut in 2003 – the first year the UK got nul points – and is the only country to have an enviable 100 per cent qualifying rate from the semi-finals.

Russia was kicked out of Eurovision 2022 after the EBU “consulted” with its membership, including Ukraine’s UA: PBC, which had no truck with the initial EBU statement that the competition was “a non-political cultural event”. The EBU swiftly concluded that Russia’s participation would “bring the competition into disrepute” and it remains suspended this year.

Russia-Ukraine tensions had previously spilled onto the Eurovision stage back in 2016, when Jamala beat pre-contest favourites Russia with a song that documented the deportation of Crimean Tatars under Joself Stalin and was widely interpreted as criticism of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine.

Russia’s aggression in Europe continues to cast a shadow over the event – indeed, it is noticeable how many of the songs in this year’s contest are about war and conflict.

It is not inconceivable that Ukraine will win again. Their entry, Heart of Steel by pop duo Tvorchi, was chosen in December during a live broadcast from a Kyiv bomb shelter.

While Saturday’s Grand Final will combine a jury vote and a public televote as usual, the two semi-finals will be public voting only this year, in a change to proceedings.

This is because the EBU’s independent voting partner detected “irregular voting patterns” last year in the jury votes of six countries taking part in one of the semi-finals: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino.

Another change this year is that there is a “rest of world” public vote for non-participating countries watching the broadcast, with these votes collectively forming the equivalent of a single country. This is “in recognition of the global reach of the event”, according to the EBU.

Viewers from non-participating countries can only vote “via a secure online platform using a credit card from their country”, with all of this overseen by the EBU’s voting partner – a German company called Digame – and overseen by its independent voting observer, accountancy giant EY.

Reminder: you cannot vote for your own country. Well, you can if you live in another one.

Irish diaspora: we may need your help.

Tonight’s batch of 10 qualifiers from 15 countries will be joined in the final by 10 qualifiers from the 16 countries set to perform in Semi-Final 2 on Thursday night. Ukraine plus the “Big Five” Eurovision funders of Germany, the UK, France, Spain and Italy will then bring Saturday’s song tally up to 26.

Later tonight, we’ll be treated to tasters of France (La Zarra with the classy cabaret song Évidemment), Germany (Lord of the Lost with tedious shout-fest Blood and Glitter) and Italy (leather-trousered Marco Mengoni with heartfelt ballad Due Vite).

My favourites, for what it’s worth, are France, Norway, which is first up tonight, and (from the second semi-final) Poland’s summery Solo by Blanka (though the bookies suggest this breezy ditty is doomed).

I’m also partial to the Austrian song, which is about being haunted by Edgar Allen Poe, and I only want good things for Portugal’s Mimicat, who we will see tonight.

Let’s just get this one out of the way. Since the semi-finals were introduced in 2004, we have failed to qualify 10 times and got through six times – but only twice in the past decade. And on two of the occasions we did qualify, we came last in the final. Not ideal.

Our best result since the year 2000 came courtesy of Jedward, who came eighth in 2011 with Lipstick. Our last qualification for the grand final was in 2018, when Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s performance of the song Together got us through in Lisbon.

RTÉ's long-term “head of delegation” Michael Kealy is all too aware of the qualification hurdle. He’s told the Irish Independent’s reporter in Liverpool that it is “a tough semi-final”, but he is “confident we could maybe qualify for Saturday”.

So that’s a confident maybe.

Wild Youth’s Conor O’Donohoe, meanwhile, had this to say at an official Eurovision meet-and-greet: “We always want to achieve the best that we can... For us, it’s about delivering a performance that we can all look back on and be happy, make our families proud, make everyone who works for us proud and make our country proud.”

The Eurovision Song Contest is organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which these days is led from its Geneva headquarters by its Irish director general, former RTÉ boss Noel Curran.

The EBU is an alliance of public service media organisations that draws its members from what’s known as the European Broadcasting Area, which doesn’t totally align with what we think of as “Europe” – hence the participation of Israel, for example. It also has associate members around the world, including in Australia, which made its Eurovision debut eight years ago.

While the EBU was founded in 1950, Eurovision began six years later and was based on an Italian song contest held in Sanremo. Only seven countries participated in the inaugural 1956 contest and each country had two songs. The event was held in Lugano, Switzerland, and was won by the hosts and its entrant Lys Assia, who sang both Swiss songs on the night – one in German, one in French – and won with her second one (in French), Refrain.

As well as its showpiece Eurovision Song Contest event, the EBU operates programming exchanges across the arts, news and sport. But perhaps the best thing about the organisation is its theme, the prelude to Charpentier’s Te Deum. You know the one…

Speaking of Swedes with Eurovision history, the bookies’ favourite this year is Loreen, who won the contest for Sweden back in 2012 with her club banger Euphoria, and is one of several returnees this year.

Sweden’s first Eurovision triumph was in 1974, when Abba bounded onto the set to sing Waterloo, shaking things up with their energy, their harmonies and their actual tunes. Sweden has now racked up six victories, the most recent of which was in 2015 – ever since then, it has been threatening to draw level with Ireland’s record seven wins.

Clearly, they must be stopped.

But how is the question?

Ireland is represented in this year’s contest by Dublin four-piece band Wild Youth and their anthem to unity We Are One, the song that triumphed in RTÉ's The Late Late Show Eurosong special back in February.

Wild Youth – who are Conor O’Donohoe, David Whelan, Ed Porter and Callum McAdam – have been on the go for about seven years now, but luckily remain some way off having to change their name to Wild Mid-Life.

The band have been a support act for Westlife, Niall Horan, Kodaline, The Script and others, so they have a decent level of experience performing in large venues – something that has perhaps been missing from some Irish Eurovision contestants in recent decades.

Irish Times London Correspondent Mark Paul, who is our Liverpool Correspondent this week, spoke to the band plus RTÉ commentator Marty Whelan this morning, and you can read his preview piece here.

The band has fully succumbed to the Eurovision experience, with frontman Conor O’Donohoe decked out tonight in a very fetching gold jumpsuit that I can’t help coveting (with a few adjustments, obviously).

I’ll say more about We Are One later, but just to note for now that the song was composed by O’Donohoe and Porter from the band alongside Swedish songwriter Jörgen Elofsson.

Elofsson has co-writing song credits on Will Young’s Pop Idol song Evergreen, Kelly Clarkson’s Pop Idol song A Moment Like This, Britney Spears’s second single Sometimes, Fool Again by Westlife, the sublime It’s the Way You Make Me Feel by Steps and many more. He has also worked with Eurovision/Abba royalty Agnetha Fältskog.

In 2017, he co-wrote Ireland’s Eurovision entry Dying to Try, sung by Brendan Murray. It didn’t qualify. I’d say that’s an omen, but I don’t believe in omens.

You can listen to all 37 entries in this year’s contest via this official Spotify playlist. Yes, it has made Sweden the first track for a reason.

With most songs safely up-tempo and nothing dragging on longer than the maximum Eurovision duration of three minutes, this playlist is quite useful for exercise purposes – even if that exercise only extends to hurriedly pressing skip when Germany comes on.

Alternatively, you can hear me breathlessly, but accurately, clarify that I’m a Eurovision fan not a superfan on our In The News podcast here.

Intrigued by Eurovision but would prefer not to listen to any of the actual songs, thank you very much? Read Ed Power’s rundown of the “cauldron of controversy” that is the song contest, including the year that RTÉ sent neither an entrant nor a broadcasting team because its workers were on strike.

Good evening, and welcome to The Irish Times live blog for the Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 1, as it’s officially known, or the Semi-Final of Death, as Eurovision fans are fondly calling it.

This is our first taster of the kitsch, brash and effusive splendour of Eurovision 2023. A word of warning from someone (me) who has watched the dress rehearsal: by the end of the evening, you will want to buy a cape.

As the show gets underway at 8pm live from Liverpool Arena, I’ll be soberly assessing 15 of the 37 contenders for this year’s Grand Prix, as Ireland vies to be one of 10 countries to make it through tonight’s semi to Saturday’s Grand Final.

Along the way, I’ll be recapping the background to the 2023 event – hosted by the UK on behalf of last year’s winners Ukraine – and retracing the sparkly contest’s path to becoming the fabulous, absurd and eclectic pan-European theatre that audiences know and love today.

Then, after we find out who has and hasn’t progressed from tonight’s all-televote affair, I’ll bring euphoric updates from the post-event qualifiers’ press conference and mop up the sequin-strewn aftermath as best I can.

I am also hoping to include some updates from my colleague Mark Paul, who is in Liverpool for The Irish Times tonight, but I’m not 100 per cent certain he made it out of this afternoon’s rehearsal alive: his last communication to me was “here come the Moldovan horn people”.

Music makes the people come together, as Eurovision 2019′s interval act – a little-known American singer called Madonna – once claimed.

So, whether you’re readying yourself for a night of eye-rolling, an evening of painstakingly filling out homemade scoresheets or both, please hold me now, rise like a phoenix and prepare for all kinds of everything from the extraordinary world of Eurovision.