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.
After the wooden shoe country managed to win in 2019, things have basically not gone their way, well 11th place last year is reasonably good, but this year they were nowhere near a final place.
The song “Burning Daylights” was thus the first song that did not qualify for the final since 2015, and things like this are perhaps not the kind of things you prefer to write on your CV.
Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper were the two who performed the song which only got 7 points made up of points from as many as 5 countries, including Norway, so as you can see only low points.
This is probably partly due to the fact that this was a song that probably feels like jury food and without those to vote you usually end up with just stray points.
For those who watched, I feel that what we got to see was a bit too depressive and a bit too toned down for it to really catch on in a semi-final that had many songs with a much better atmosphere in them.
When there are also a bit rusty and flimsy vocals and that they choose to have a black stage all the time, what we got to see was very forgettable, I’m afraid.
Personally, I like the song, but I feel that the chemistry between the two singers could have been a bit better, the intensity of the song seems more contrived than real and those watching notice that.
Otherwise, these two probably didn’t exactly have the best warm-up for ESC with a lot of noise due to bad vocals at the pre-parties, which the fans probably put a lot of effort into from time to time.
This song had, among other things, Duncan Lawrence as composer, so it shows that it is not enough to just use a composer who has done it before, you have to be at the top in all categories in the package that an ESC song actually is.
Featured image by Corinne Cummings – EBU