Features
Sweden First, Germany Last At 2023 Eurovision Song Contest
The 223 Eurovision Song Contest went down at M&S Bank Arena Liverpool on Friday, May 17, with Sweden’s Loreen taking the win for a second time in eleven years.
In the end, it was a close race between Loreen, who scored a total of 583 points for Sweden with her song “Tattoo,” and Käärijä from Finland, whose song “Cha Cha Cha” earned them 526 point in the end.
Noa Kirel, who performed “Unicorn” for Israel, came in third with 362 points. The final scores are a combination of jury and public votes.
In 2012, Loreen won the contest in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the song “Euphoria.” She became the second artist in history to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice. Johnny Logan achieved a double for Ireland in the 1980s. Loreen’s victory marked Sweden’s 7th ESC win, tying Ireland for the most Eurovision Song Contest wins of all time.
Germany, represented by a Hamburg-based band with the fitting name Lord of the Lost, took the now-familiar last place, scoring a merger 18 points. Across the past eight ESC competitions, Germany came in last four times, and second-to-last three times.
This year’s host country, UK, ranks 25th with 24 points for Mae Muller’s performance of “I Wrote A Song.” After last year’s win by Kalush Orchestra (“Stefania”), it should have been Ukraine’s turn to host the ESC this year, but due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, it was decided to move the final to the UK, who came in second last year thanks to Sam Ryder’s “Space Man.”
The UK hosted an ESC final for the first time in 25 years. All performances are available to watch on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.