In the first semi-final in the arena of the Swedish port city on Tuesday evening, it was primarily the countries that had been highly traded in advance that prevailed. Top favorite Croatia is further along, as are Ukraine and Lithuania.
As in the previous year, only the audience decided the winners and losers. After there were irregularities in some country expert committees in 2022, the EBU, as the organizer, decided to completely forego juries for the semi-finals. In the final, however, the vote is still divided equally between viewers and experts.
“Dim Tag Team Rim”
So Croatia’s Baby Lasagna completed the expected march towards the final with his Rammstein paraphrase “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” entirely thanks to the audience. The 28-year-old is also considered one of the top favorites for overall victory. Ukraine has traditionally been one of the extended favorites, and so the duo Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil confidently advanced to the final with their heroine anthem “Teresa & Maria”.
For Luxembourg, the return following a 31-year break also paid off, as the singer Tali was voted on with “Fighter”, as was Lithuania’s Electrobeau Silvester Belt, who impressed with his “Luktelk” in the local language and one of the coolest stage productions of the evening.
The first of this year’s three acts to be sung by non-binary people was Ireland’s Bambie Thug with her diabolically staged “Doomsday Blue” and in a costume with a trans flag, while Zaachariaha Fielding, who also defines himself as non-binary, was part of the Australian duo Electric Fields with his partner DJ Michael Ross has to travel home Down Under following a few audible discords.
Windows95man with a memorable appearance
For the faction of the fun act, which was otherwise sparsely represented in the evening, there was Windows95man from Finland, who sang “No Rules!” got his final ticket in an 80s retro look and supposedly without underpants. There has to be a little bit of shame. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, Iolanda from Portugal served the melancholic part of the audience and got a ticket to promotion with the fadotristesse “Grito”.
- Video: Windows95man mit “No Rules!”
For a conventional but also well-produced pop number in the style of Dua Lipa or Taylor Swift stands Silia Kapsis from Cyprus, who was voted up with “Liar” as was the Slovenian Raiven, who appears as an ethereal being with coloratura escapades, with “Veronika”. Teya Dora, who won her ticket with a rare ballad (“Ramonda”), completed the final ten for Serbia.
Björk is outside
Björk, however, is out – although not the cult singer, but her Icelandic compatriot Hera Björk, who was just as unconvincing with “Scared Of Heights” as the Moldovan billionaire’s wife Natalia Barbu with “In The Middle”, which was anything but midfield.
For Luna from Poland, who appears in hydrogen blonde, it was over in round 1, as was the Azerbaijani lawyer Fahree, who, together with his colleague Ilkin Dovlatov, fulfilled the – ultimately short – lifelong dream of being on the ESC stage.
Will Conchita compete for Austria once more?
The first semi-final was also the successful test run for the presenter duo consisting of the actress Malin Åkerman and the comedian Petra Mede. Mede in particular showed herself to be a confident and charming boss in the music ring, as she did during her ESC moderation in 2013.
Another veteran of the competition made people sit up and take notice on Tuesday in the pre-show “Mr Song Contest proudly presents”. When asked whether she might imagine competing for Austria at Eurovision once more ten years following her ESC victory in Copenhagen, ESC Queen Conchita was open: “With the right song… Maybe I’ll decide once more anyway – But I would have a blast.”
This year, Kaleen is definitely Austria’s hope. It will be exciting for them on Thursday when the starting signal for the second semi-final is given. Then the 29-year-old Upper Austrian enters the competition with her dance number “We Will Rave”, which is currently seen by the betting offices as a runner up to the final. Afterwards it will finally be decided who the 26 participants will be in the final. Finally, in addition to the ten semi-finalists, there are the five big payers Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France and Spain as well as last year’s winner Sweden.
