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.

Before the year’s best music circus, all the artists were visited, it was our Ukrainian friends Andrii and Jeffery in the group TVORCI who were believed to be the biggest competitors against the song that was tipped to win and also won.

Much of this positive belief in the song “Heart Of Steel” is probably due to the fact that the bookmakers simply did not dare to trust that the public would again this year vote with their sympathetic heart and not with their musical heart.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you see it, TVORCI was “only” in 15th place after the juries had had their say and with the fourth place from the audience they crawled up to an honorable 6th place and even though I like the song, my musical heart says that enough was a little better paid than what they would have received in a “normal” year if you understand what I mean and the gods should know that we want it back the sooner the better.

Not unexpectedly, the ongoing war was an important factor in the message of the song, which was about bravery and the desire to be free in one’s actions, expressions and thoughts and the will to continue no matter how exhausted and wounded one may be.

I think they wrap the message in a great way that oozes respect for the situation the Ukrainians are in, but at the same time the song manages to stand on its own in a great way if you manage to forget the war for a little while.

I like the drama in the song and if I have to think of something to draw on, it’s probably that the vocalist could have been a few notches better, it gets a bit messy at times.

For the ordinary audience, the song was probably a little too un-Ukrainian and thus they were possibly not able to generate as much sympathy for that reason, although they still need tons of it.

Fortunately, the war has not taken away from the Ukrainians the desire to make music and give us other great musical experiences, so I expect another great contribution next year from this country.

Featured imagine – Corrine Cumming – E B U