Morten Thomassen from Norway started reported on the final positions of the 37 entries in the 2023 Eurovision song contest. ESC Covers google translated it from Norwegian to English.

This is a blog entry and represents only writer Morten Thomassen’s own views.

There is nothing like a song that just swings by and whose best feature is that it puts you in a good mood, and this year I would say Belgian Gustaph easily and effectively swings into that category.

“Because Of You” was the name of the song and as accomplices to this good placement I would like to include the three choristers he brought with him on stage and a dancer who also gave everything he had in vigorous movements on stage.

And the song obviously had something for every taste as it was actually the jury who with its 127 points had it up to 7th place and “only” 55 points from the people actually drew that the song did not fall down on the charts when all the points were tallied up and our Belgian friends scored their first top-10 finish since 2017.

I’m actually a bit surprised that this song did so badly with the people, it’s possible that they had a bit too many danceable songs to choose from and this therefore fell through a bit with some.

Some will probably categorize this as good old-fashioned gay disco, and in that category there are quite a few similar songs.

Our Belgian friend has pretty good control of the vocals and I just love that he brings his important choristers on stage and lets them shine with him, many countries hide their vocalists backstage or worse, just have them on the soundtrack with the music.

When the dancer enters the stage, it simply takes off to great joy for the audience in the hall, although not as much obviously for the people who were sitting at home in their living rooms.

Maybe something thought it was a bit too “gay” and thus went for another one of the danceable songs in which they felt at home, what do I know.

Our Belgian friends had the national final for the first time this year since 2016, so one can hope that it will repeat that feat since the winner did so well internationally.

Featured image – Corinne Cumming – E B U