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.

Well, the simple answer is that a total of 14 juries thought that this song did not deserve a single point, even though they must have realized the enormous reception this song received from the audience.

With such a “stumbling” start to the voting and the fact that you were a full 190 points behind your fiercest opponent, the person in question had to stumble when the audience gave their points and she did not.

It is the public’s favorite that does not win because of a slightly chilly jury, which apparently creates the most noise among those who watch and among fans of the program and that is somewhat understandable.

However, the competition is about getting the most points combined from the two different jury groups and our Finnish friend Käärijä couldn’t do that with his song “Cha Cha Cha”.

Now it must be said in the jury’s defense that young Mr. Jere Pöyhönen, as the fellow is actually called, did not have a very good day on the Friday before the final when the jury final took place.

Then his vocals were a bit unstable and to the extent that juries are supposed to cut down on something like that, they did their job in a way, it’s a shame for him that they chose exactly his song to cut down on this, but it must be said that his type of song rarely goes down well with the juries then.

In the final itself, the vocals were much better and with the evening’s most energetic show sung in Finnish of all things, he got the whole hall in Liverpool in a frenzy and many got hope that he would cheat our Swedish friends for the victory.

Now it must be said that our Finnish friend lost his breath a little towards the end, something that went beyond the vocal, but by then he had the whole hall with him and probably quite a few of those watching TV as well.

Our Finnish friends are the nation best at sending uncompromising tunes to our beloved competition and I really hope they will continue to do so.

And then the juries are told that high hit potential should be a criterion that should count in a positive direction.

Featured image – Corinne Cumming – E B U