Good evening Europe, Godaften Europa , God Morgen Australien!

Tonight Denmark will choose which act it will send to represent them in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 , in Liverpool, UK . Eight acts will battle it out for the coveted golden ticket in the Næstved Arena , Næstved, Denmark. The eight acts will go through Public vote to decide which three go on to the Superfinal and a combined Jury/public Vote will decide which act will go to Liverpool .

Battling it out tonight are :

• Søren Torpegaard Lund – Lige her
• Nicklas Sonne – Freedom
• Eyjaa – I Was Gonna Marry Him
• Frederik Leopold – Stuck On You
• Maia Maia – Beautiful Bullshit
• Mariyah Leberg – Human
• Micky Skeel – Glansbillede
• Reiley – Breaking My Heart

Last year , REDDI won the 2022 edition of DMGP with their song “The Show”. Sadly they didn’t make it to the Grand Final in Turin .

Join me, Sarah ,in our live blog from 20.00 CET , 19.00 GMT , where I will be bringing you comments, my thoughts and opinions of the fun and action live from Denmark . You know the drill , REFRESH THIS PAGE , to follow the action from Næstved.Please feel free to leave any comments , it’s always good to see how musical tastes and opinions differ ! 🙂 .

You can watch the show live HERE

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE

You’re far too early !! Come back and #joinus at 20.00 CET to follow all the action

And welcome back everyone ! In just a few minutes, we hope to be able to get the live link via DR to watch tonight’s show. Let’s hope we don’t have a repeat of last year when we lost the live stream just as they were announcing the winner ! Just to recap , the show tonight falls into two parts. Firstly , all 8 acts perform , then we have a public vote and three lucky acts will go on to compete in the Gold final , the winner will be selected via 50/50 Jury and public vote .We are also expecting a very familiar interval act tonight, so keep a look out !

And . we’re off ! Straight into some pre contest dancing and singing !There’s a good crowd there tonight !

Here come our hosts , Tina Muller and Heino Hansen, joining in the song and dance !You’ll remember Tina from the last two years. Heino is new to DMGP

They are just welcoming everyone and telling us how things will proceed tonight .Luckily, being of Danish roots, I understand the language !Here we go….first act already !They don’t waste any time !

Frederik Leopold-Stuck on You

Frederik starts off sat down on the stage floor , joined by four backing dancers, he looks like he’s dressed for a day at the office rather than a live TV show ! He has the looks ,he moves around the stage but the vocals seem a little weak. We have some pyros at the end and he does make some attempt to connect with the camera. The song to me feels a bit repetitive and it doesn’t really get going. This needs a bit of work if he goes to Liverpool .

Eyjaa- I was gonna to marry him

Eyjaa have been a pre contest favourite and widely tipped to do well tonight. Eyjaa start off facing each other on stage , they are dressed ,not surprisingly , in white wedding frocks, in accordance with the title of the song , both with hair down . They sing in harmony . There’s wind machines a forest backdrop and then fire . A nice performance but for me, needs some thing to give it a bit more power, can’t pinpoint what at the moment .Could do ok in Liverpool , with some more work to it.

Micky Skeel -Glansbillede

Micky may appeal more to the younger viewer, he has the looks , he moves about the stage , he’s wearing white . Staging is red/yellow strobe effects with the word “hey” int he backdrop . Again, it’s a song that is pleasant enough and Micky is easy on the eye. He certainly does his best to sell what is more a radio song . Not bad .

We’re having a bit of a break now , with an encouragement to vote for your fave song !

By the way, before each act performs, they have a little postcard where they are being casually interviewed , mainly about why they entered DMGP and all that .

Maia Maia-Beautiful Bullshit

Maia Maia starts off behind a screen , where we just see her shadow, she then emerges from the screen in a very short red dress and purple knee length boots, not exactly a great colour coordination ! She looks like she’s ready to do the washing up looking at those gloves !She struts around with her backing singers , then goes into the audience . There’s smoke on stage . A confident performance

Some interviews now with what looks like supporters of Micky Skeel !

Nicklas Sonne -Freedom

Denmark’s answer to Sam Ryder , with the hairstyle . along with guitar too !A bit of rock here , the staging has strobe effects . He’s a confident performer , a bit like Måneskin meets Sam Ryder .He is engaging with the audience , there’s fire and and lots of shouting. The word Freedom in the backdrop , joined by equally long haired backing vocals . It’s not bad .Unfortunately , I missed getting a picture of this !It’s like watching a weaker performance of Spaceman .

Mariyah Leberg – Human

Mariyah starts off on what looks like a giant expandable coffee table ,which then collapses and she is them on the stage. Her outfit certainly stands out , bright yelliw ruffle skirt , with black top . She strips off the skirt , revealing a very short top, lucky she’s got her underwear on !! Well, I guess she is only trying to show that we are all only human ! 🙂 Backdrop on stage quite impressive .

Søren Torpegaard Lund – Lige her

Another song in Danish, I will always support songs where the native language is sung , especially if they are good . Søren’s voice isn’t bad, does put some emotion into the singing , alone on stage with just a solo guitarist ,very simple staging but a song like this doesn’t need complex staging with gimmicks .It’s been received well by audience . If this goes to Liverpool, needs to be put between two up-tempo songs in the running order to stand out .

Reiley-Breaking my Heart

We are at the last song already! That was quick ! Reiley is a fresh faced young man , Could easily pass for the son of Gjon’s Tears! ( Switzerland 2021 ) .He starts off looking like he’s inside a heart backdrop on stage , joined by four backing dancers. There’s a bit of the old electro synth in the music and it sounds as if there’s some auto tuning going on in the vocals . Reiley is dressed casually in pink jacket with broken heart motifs and white/grey trousers . The younger viewers may vote for this . He is a favourite to win.

So that’s it! You have seen them all! Who do you think will make the GOLD Final? I think ….Reiley, Eyjaa and Niklas Sonne , though in the words of the late, great, Terry Wogan , what do I know ?

We are just getting a reprise of the songs .And a look back at past Danish winners ! Dansevise is still my favourite and that won before I was born !

Now we have an interval act SVEAS singing their version of Dansevise

Heino’s back on stage, hopefully we’ll get to know soon who is going through to the final 3 ! He talks very quickly !Think he’s just filling in time 🙂

Still urging people to vote !

Now Tina joins him back on stage. Hopefully we are going to find out the FINAL 3 shortly . Here goes ………..

All the acts come onto the stage and await their fate ! The nerves must be kicking in now !Voting is now closed . They seem to be announcing public votes by regions

There are some differing opinions in the Danish regions as to who should go through tonight Eyjaa not getting as many votes as I thought they might

Nice firemen in South Denmark giving the votes

Niklas Sonne , Reiley and Mickey Skeel the front runners so far . We are onto the last region now .

Three songs going through

Freedom -Niklas Sonne

Breaking my Heart-Reiley

Glansbillede -Mickey Skeel

So there you have the three Gold Finalists. A shock that Eyjaa didn’t get through but the performance wasn’t the best . Not surprising to see Niklas and Reiley there . I said it was like seeing Sam Ryder and Gjon’s Tears again ! Are we going back in Eurovision time ??????

So the three finalists will perform again. First up Micky Skeel

Mickey Skeel-Glansbillede.

He seems a bit more confident on the second run and he is making the most of the staging .I would like to see him engage more with the camera though, after all Eurovision is going to be seen world wide on TV ! With a bit of polishing up, this could do ok .

Voting has re-opened for another public vote . Just to refresh our memories, the voting in the Superfinal also has a jury vote .

Niklas Sonne -Freedom

Not surprised to see this through , it’s one of the more stand out performances tonight and we all like a good rock song at Eurovision. Lyrics of the song are in the stage LED backdrops. The thing I like about Niklas is that he engages with the audience and that helps to win votes at Eurovision. I suppose Demark are looking at Finland ,who have done well with rock songs at Eurovision and think , ” if they can do it, so can we ” !

Emmelie de Forrest is back ! Blimey, it’s 10 years ago that she won DMGP with “Only Teardrops” and as we all know , went on to win Eurovision in Malmø 2013! Time does fly !!

Wonder who she is voting for tonight ?

Reiley -Breaking my heart

Gjon’s Tears on stage…..oops , I mean Riley !!He’s certainly a confident performer, with very pink staging along with pyros . It’s a nice boppy little song and probably the one that stands the most chance of getting Denmark out of the semi final in Liverpool

That’s all three songs performed . Now we get the recap. I reckon it will be between Niklas and Reiley , going on the second performances .

The moment we have been waiting for …the interval act .Last year’s winner Kalush Orchestra singing their winning song “Stefania “.

The now famous pink hat is still there ! 🙂

REDDI , last year’s winners are back , being interviewed by Tina and Heino .

And the winner is Reiley, who has won the Jury Vote too . I have to say it is a weird way they have given out the votes this evening Kind of took away the tense atmosphere like they had in Norway last week !

So Reiley will go through to represent Denmark, with “Breaking my Heart !He will compete in Semi Final 2 on 11th May in Liverpool .

Well, what do you think ? Not a shock winner as Reiley was a pre contest favourite. Will he get Denmark back to the final in May ?

Thank you for following our blog tonight , it’s been fun . Congratulations Reiley and see you in Liverpool in May ! Good night Europe , Good morning Australia

Author : Sarah Rudman

Source: DR