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.

It was actually a hard fight for the last place in the first semi-final as well and to the extent that getting four points is a victory, it was the twins TuralTuranX from the country which, strictly speaking, is located in Asia.

These points for the song “Tell Me More” came from Latvia, Croatia and Israel, so the latter country was generous against both of the two countries that came last.

I myself predicted that our Azerbaijani friends would make it to the final, as there was something charming about both the song and the performance that could possibly bring the audience along.

Well, I was wrong there, not that there was anything charming about those we got to see on stage and what was actually these two guys’ first appearance on a stage, then only had experience from the streets of Baku before this.

The lack of points is probably more due to the fact that the song struggled a bit to take off and that they perhaps appeared as cold as charming on stage, they simply did not manage to convey in a sufficiently good way the charm found in the song and lack of stage- experience can probably take a good share of the blame for exactly that, I would think.

Besides, the song never really takes off and all in all, I think a lot of people felt in the end that there were probably other songs in this semi-final that deserved their points more.

It must be added that the vocals were level as I heard them, but that is probably a factor that those who vote with the people don’t necessarily care too much about.

We have to give this country some credit for finally sending a self-composed song, but with this result, one wonders whether exactly that attempt will be repeated next year.

Featured image – Corinne Cummings – EBU