Eurovision 2023!

 

Me several months ago be like “Well I suppose Eurovision will be interesting..” Me earlier this week; “Pleeese let me win those Final tickets” (spoiler- I didn’t win them!). That’s what happens when something like Eurovision pitches up virtually on your doorstep. Yesterday afternoon I popped into the city centre for no other reason than to soak up the atmosphere and it struck me that it would be great if life was like this all the time. I don’t mean a perpetual song contest (that would be too much!), rather the bonhomie, fun and pure joy that has exuded from this whole thing. Then you wake up the next day and realise the only reason it was held here was because of something terrible going on in Ukraine who should have been staging it and of course there is no separating those things. I really hope one day soon a city in Ukraine gets to experience what Liverpool has this week and when it happens it helps heal things a bit.

 

Eurovision has been creeping up for months. It started with the city’s welcome sign being re-covered in the bright Eurovision livery. Then hoardings and flags appeared, and anyone frequenting the city centre would notice a higher police profile. I saw security men searching grids in the pavement one of the necessary if unglamorous jobs required. Certain areas of the centre were cordoned off as temporary facilities started to be built and related events advertised. In the weeks before the opening the inside of the city’s arena was transformed into the now familiar configuration anyone who watched the final or semis will recognize. At the Pier Head a stage was assembled for a week of outdoor events while St George’s Hall was preparing to host the opening. Displays began to pop up everywhere- giant birds, a floating globe, heart shaped gateways and many iterations involving the Ukraine flag and culture. Yet it wasn’t really clear just how big this was until it actually started. Once it did the city centre was packed with people every day and surely not all of them could have had tickets for the main events.  It was only then we realized that this is something very special. It’s a place where people are happy and where music is more important than anywhere else. It’s a pity its only one week per year.

 What a week it was! There was a festival taking place at the Pier Head with outdoor concerts running from the afternoon into the evening including different genres of music, local singers, Ukrainian artists and well known singers such as Sophie Ellis Bextor and Fleur East and even- yes- Jedward! A number of the contestants performed on that stage as well. On the day of the second semi final Sam Ryder, last year’s runner up, played an outdoor gig at the Albert Dock as well as appearing at the legendary Cavern.

There’s also been some impressive displays about especially the `Floating Earth` which bobbed about on the waters of the Albert Dock for three weeks. While not specifically Eurovision related Luke Jerram’s display is incredibly detailed as it uses NASA images of the planet’s surface. It provided a spectacle for visitors and locals alike especially when illuminated after dark. A lot of the displays around the centre reflected Ukraine’s culture including a number of large illuminated Soloveiko songbird sculptures. This is the national bird of the country and symbolizes song and happiness. A number of large painted eggs have also been on display in the city’s Liverpool One shopping area. The designs were by schoolchildren including some form the Ukrainian community. 

In fact there seemed to be things everywhere whether official or inspired by and if you wanted to buy something there was even a Eurovision shop which had very long queues outside plus several merch stalls nearer the arena. And then there’s the people. I’ve never seen so many glitter clad souls wandering around; there was even someone dressed completely in silver foil! It was all so good natured too, not the sort of behaviour you sometimes get with large crowds, and it reminded me of those old lyrics “Imagine all the people, living for today”. He might have been curmudgeonly and would certainly have disliked the music, but I reckon old John Lennon would have been quite pleased with all this bonhomie in his home town!

The contest itself kicked off with the Big Welcome outside St George’s Hall which many people will recognize as it seems to be in nearly every film these days! The contestants were introduced on a very long turquoise carpet and there was also a concert in the same location a few days later which featured Zara Larsson, a briefly reformed Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Eurovision legend Conchita Wurst. 

The first semi final unveiled the impressive stage inside the M&S Bank Arena, though because it’s the BBC they can’t really say that name! A large Eurovision symbol has been plastered over it for the duration! I’m not a huge Eurovision expert but if you watch enough of them you can see trends emerging and we seem to have moved on from one dance banger after another to a more calibrated selection of a bit of everything. I suppose `Euphoria` set such a high bar that people have given up trying to match it. My favourite was Finland’s industrial pop chanting of `Cha Cha Cha` which starts with Kaarija in a crate and ends with a weird crab dance. He and his bizarre lime green costume faced strong competition from the returning Loreen though her song doesn’t seem as strong to me as `Euphoria` and she sings it encased in a giant sandwich.

It was not a night for guitar-based music judging from the ones knocked out. I was sorry to see Malta’s The Busker fall at this hurdle as that was the other song that stood out for me. I’m told though that just being a good pop song is not enough and this may why our entry didn't do very well in the end. Conversely that may be why Serbia’s entry did get through even though it seems to be one long introduction to a song that never arrives. The prize for the oddest performance though must go to Croatia’s Let 3  who were dressed like a party of down at heel former South American generals after a paintball contest. This, it seems, is exactly the sort of thing that Eurovision fans like though it does have to be said the song has no tune!

In the second semi final there were more ballads and the standout songs here proved to be Australia’s `Promise`, a rock song that managed to be tuneful and very 80s in it’s aspect, Slovenia’s `Carpe Diem` which was like a rockier Phoenix and the more bonkers `Who the Hell is Edgar` which achieves the unlikely feat of ensuring Edgar Allan Poe is a part of the Eurovision final. I wonder if this will become a thing and next year we might have a chorus extolling Shelley or Tolkien?  One thing that is noticeable is how none of the so called Big Five countries entries sound as exciting as a lot of the other contestants. I wonder if there was no automatic pass to the final for them whether things might be different? The UK’s is about the best of those five but partly falls into that box mentioned earlier in that it’s a really good pop song but lacks a curveball strong enough to hook the Eurovision crowd.

Which in the Final is exactly what happened. It takes a lot to make me sit through a four and a quarter hour show even at home but this was surely one of the best finals of recent vintage? It fair sped through the twenty six songs with the support of a boisterous, up for it audience.  When you put all the songs together there seemed so much more variety than the last few I’ve seen but when they'd all perfoemed it was `Cha Cha Cha` that remained at the top of my personal list, However I have yet to correctly predict the winner of a Eurovision but came close this time with Kaarija coming second overall once the lengthy (though not as drawn out as some I’ve seen) voting process concluded. The song was the public favourite while Loreen’s `Tattoo` won it from the juries accruing enough point s for an overall victory. Israel’s Noa Korel came third with the energetic `Unicorn` which is another less competitive year could easily have won. Finally, in case you were wondering what the lyrics of `Cha Cha Cha` concern they are about getting drunk at the end of a hard week which translates in any language!