Pop Culture Advent 2023: Door 13
Eurovision
It was a very special, and at times, poignant, Eurovision Song Contest that was held this year. Once it was evident that 2022 winners Ukraine couldn’t host due to security reasons, the United Kingdom (who had come second with Sam Ryder’s Spaceman), stepped up as hosts for the event.
The competition was on to find who would be the host city, with places such as Sunderland, Cardiff, Aberdeen, Belfast (and Darlington!), throwing their hat in the ring. It eventually came down to a shortlist of Glasgow or Liverpool, with Liverpool being announced as host city in October of last year.
I particularly appreciated that while Liverpool was the host city, that Ukraine was never far from the thoughts of the event, as demonstrated here in this BBC promo.
I’m now going to hand over to my sister and huge Eurovision fan, Lozzy_Foo_Foo, to tell us more:
So I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for Eurovision with UK hosting, especially having been disappointed when Glasgow lost out. But Liverpool did a cracking job, and the hosts (Alesha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham, Julia Sanina, and Graham Norton) were perfect. There was some great entertainment too, with former iconic acts, such as previous UK runner up, Sonia, and a stand-out performance of ‘Whole Again’ from Dadi Freyr.
In terms of the competition, special props go to fun entries from Norway and Austria, with the latter producing the most earworming of earworms with ‘Who the Hell is Edgar?’
However, for me, the whole night was about one act – Käärijä from Finland with ‘Cha Cha Cha’. A bizarre fusion of metal, rainbow pop and cabbage sleeves, it was pure eurovision at its absolute best and I loved every second of it.
Sadly Käärijä ended the night in second place despite the best efforts of phone voters (the eventual winners were Sweden with the song ‘Tattoo’, performed by singer Loreen), but he will forever be a Eurovision legend.
Thanks Loz! And for those of you who want a wee cry (and who doesn’t at this time of year??), I submit this performance of You’ll Never Walk Alone, sung as part of the ceremony’s interval entertainment (branded ‘The Liverpool Songbook’), This rendition from Duncan Laurence featured appearances from the hosts, the singers, and cut to a choir of young people in Kyiv. Not a dry eye anywhere.
To make a donation to help those in Ukraine, you can do so through UNICEF UK.
