21:50 – Another Big Five: Spain
Spanish contestant Blanca Paloma, second Big Five in the competition, draws on flamenco: her piece is titled ‘Eaea’ (the scream of the refrain) and mixes tradition with more contemporary sounds and experimentation
21:45 – The wounded heart of Cyprus
You can’t hurt a heart that’s already broken: that’s the meaning of the song by Andrew Lambrou, which competes for Cyprus with “Break a Broken Heart”. According to social reactions, Andrew is valued more for his looks than the song
9.40pm – France, first Big Five
It’s time for the first Big Five: France lines up La Zarra (pronounced with an accent on the last a…) with «Évidemment». Very long dress and charm by Edit Piaf, brings a large portion of glamor to the stage
9.36pm – Luke Black’s Serbia
It’s Mara Maionchi’s favorite competitor Luke Black, a Serbian singer, who proposes “Samo Mi Se Spava”, an electronic techno song that has contributed to his nickname “Serbian alchemist of pop”.
21:32 – Seductive Poland
Polish Blanca competes with “Solo,” a pop song in which she “gets rid” of her ex, telling him she can have great fun alone. A nod to autoeroticism, fun and lively
21:28 – Switzerland against the war
Remo Forrer, a 21-year-old with a deep voice, who is representing Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest, takes sides against the war: in his “Watergun” he repeats that he doesn’t want to be a soldier and doesn’t want to deal with blood
21:24 – The Portuguese Amy Winehouse
The Portuguese mimicat (nickname of Marisa Mena) has been singing since she was a child, heating up the Eurovision stage with the liveliness of her “Ai Coração”. She is nicknamed “Amy Winehouse of the Tagus”.
21:20 – The Austrians are first in the race
The competition begins with the Austrian duo Teya & Salena and their critique of the music industry contained in Who The Hell is Edgar?: In the lyrics they imagine they have the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe in their body, but in reality they aim They aim for it. The scant recognition given to women in discography is still too masculine
21:09 – Marco Mengoni waves the LGTBIQA+ flag
During the parade, in which participants from all countries presented themselves on the stage, Marco Mengoni not only waved the Italian flag, but also the Progress Pride flag, which represents LGTBIQA+ rights: the flag contains the colors of the rainbow and then also brown and black which symbolize different ethnicities as well as pink, white and blue which represent transgender people
21:00 – Off to the finale with the Kalush Orchestra
The Eurovision final begins with a performance by the Kalush Orchestra, last year’s Ukrainian winners, on the sheet music of their ‘Stefania’ and then the new single ‘Changes’, alternating with other artists (including an unreleased Kate Middleton on piano). This is followed by the flag parade of this year’s countries
8:31 p.m. – Mengoni is awarded for the best composition
For Italy there is already recognition: Marco Mengoni was awarded “Due vite” for best composition and won the Marcel Bezençon Composer Award, an award given by the composers of the songs competing in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. This is Italy’s second award after Mahmood’s for Soldi in 2019
20:02 – One hour left
Countdown to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023: Tonight the anticipation for Italy is great when Marco Mengoni takes the stage to benefit from the victory. Our country is also represented by Mahmood, who is a special guest and plays «Imagine». The competition will feature 26 singers who can be voted on by televoting (Italy cannot vote for the Italian entrant as a matter of habit).