Good evening Europe, Good morning Australia, Reykjavik calling ! Tonight, Iceland will decide who will be flying their flag at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, to be held in Liverpool,UK . Five songs will tonight compete in the Songvakeppnin Grand Final for that golden ticket to Liverpool. The acts tonight in running order are :

• Sigga Ózk – Dancing lonely
• BRAGI – Sometimes the world’s against you
• Celebs – Doomsday dancing
• Diljá – Power
• Langi Seli og Skuggarnir – OK

The hosts tonight , as in the semi finals of the last two weeks will be Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir, Siggi Gunnars and Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson. Tonight’s result will be decided 50% jury and 50% public vote with the jury being made up of Icelandic and international members.

You can watch the Show HERE

Join me, Sarah, on our live blog where I will bring you my thoughts and reports of the show as it happens . Please feel free to leave comments as we go along, it’s always interesting to see what other people are thinking 🙂 . You all know the drill by now, Just REFRESH THE PAGE to see the thoughts and opinions of Eurovision Ireland .

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE !

I’m sorry but you’re a bit too early. Please come back at 20.45 CET ,19.45 GMT to follow the fun and action from Iceland .

Welcome back folks! We’ll shortly be going over to the live link to RUV , Iceland’s broadcaster, so that we can watch tonight’s show . Listening to the weather report at the moment. I am actually glad you won’t have to hear me speak tonight and try to speak Icelandic….it really is a difficult language to get your head around, even when you do have knowledge of other Nordic languages!

Here we go folks, the show is about to begin !Looks like a good crowd there !

And opening the show, we see tonight’s contestants singing past Eurovision songs .

Just to remind you that tonight’s result is decided by 50/50 Jury and public vote . They really know how to talk in Iceland, so far a lot of talking and not actually getting on with the show ! Another point to mention while we’re waiting , the acts tonight will perform their songs in the language they would sing in Liverpool .Only one act has opted for Icelandic , the rest will perform in English !So it will be interesting to see the difference it makes to each song as so far we have only heard them in Icelandic

So far all we have had is pre show banter and we’re onto an advert break already !Not even heard the first song yet , this could be a long night folks !

And we’re onto the show and a look around Liverpool, the ESC host city , to start with !

And here come the hosts . I won;t even attempt to pronounce their names ! Just introducing tonight’s contestants . Flanked by two people dressed as British Police who have “travelled ” from Liverpool 🙂 . Bit of a long way for the Brit Police to travel !

Our hosts explain the procedure for tonight

We’re getting the explanation of how to vote and the numbers to call for each act…please don’t try this at home, unless you’re in Iceland of course . 🙂

I think we’re about to see the first act …..soon .

Sigga Ózk – Dancing lonely

Sigga has chosen to perform in English tonight . Before each act, we get to see a little postcard of the acts talking about their participation at Songvakeppnin ( I think !) .She’s in her red dress from last week and joined by her four casually dressed backing dancers dancing around her .It’s choreographed to within an inch of its life, but I feel the song itself is a bit repetitive and isn’t anything we haven’t heard before. A good opener nevertheless .

BRAGI – Sometimes the world’s against you

Bragi qualified from the first semi final . He has also opted for English tonight .He starts off alone on a very dark stage, the backdrop then bursts into a greeny blue wave effect and the song starts to get going more. BRAGI himself dressed in all black . He puts emotion into his song and his vocals aren’t bad at all . But……I am not sure this has enough power to get the public votes, it will do well with the juries I am sure

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We’re in the Green room now and they are singing something about Liverpool !

Interview with BRAGI now, he seems happy

It’s times like this where I wish we had English subtitles, would love to know what they are talking about !

Back to the stage, where see the hosts having another chat , I think we might be going back to Eurovision memory lane juke box again .

Oh…we’re back to another advert beak again !

Back to the show and onto the next act . Celebs, who qualified as a wild card from the first semi final .

Celebs – Doomsday dancing

This is the first time I have actually seen Celebs perform as I missed the first semi final. They are kind of a bit of a goth tribute act ,very bright colours in both dress and staging, if not a bit bizarre at times with some of the backing dancers dressed in a shredded red costume and you can’t see their faces It’s lively and quite fun to watch ! They are clearly enjoying being on the stage, I could see the crowd in Liverpool engaging with them .

Diljá – Power

Dilja is the fan favourite to win tonight . Let’s see if English makes or breaks the song .She starts sat down on the stage , smoke effects on stage . Casually dressed in a trouser suit, she then stands up with a very impressive backdrop of sunflowers and other nature and cavorts around the smoke effects on stage. It’s a good old bit of electro pop and Dilja gives a very lively powerful performance. She’s alone on stage , I do wonder if a couple of backing dancers might give even more power to the performance. I can see why this is favourite to win. Easily the best of the night so far.

Langi Seli og Skuggarnir – OK

These guys qualified from the second semi final and you have to give them credit for being the only act to keep their song in Icelandic . It’s a very 60’s feel here , which given that a certain 60’s band originated from Liverpool, might go down well in the ESC host city !The guys are dressed in black leather jackets, black trousers and the audience seem to be loving it . It is very lively and should this go to Liverpool, it has the potential to really engage the audience there. I do wonder however , whether this may be one song that would have been better translated to English but the fact that OK is repeated so often does give it a bit of a memorable hook and might help the TV and arena audience see past the language . It will be interesting to see what the jury makes of it .I suspect this will do better in the public vote .

And we’re back to….you guessed it , another ad break ! I am kind of getting used to this now 🙂

We have heard all the songs now, so it will be time for the voting and I am sure we will get plenty to entertain us in the meantime .

We’re back and straightaway get a reminder of the songs performed tonight . Who is your favourite ? Quite a variety to pick from in Iceland tonight, considering we have only five songs to choose from.

Back to one of our hosts , Siggi and she’s talking with Celebs

They look to be a fun bunch of people ! 🙂

Just to go through how the winner will be decided . The first round of voting , the jury and public will choose two acts to move into a Superfinal .Those acts will then compete in a Public only vote to decide which of them goes to Liverpool .

Who do you think the two acts will be to go through? I am going to stick my neck out and say Dilja and BRAGI .

OMG ! The Langi Seli guys are singing the Icelandic version of the Paw Patrol theme tune ! Very brave of them and weird to hear a children’s programme theme tune at Eurovision .

We’re back to another recap now , with shots of the acts in the green room in between as their performances are shown .

Whoops , we lost the live link for a minute then ,but managed to retrieve it quickly…..phew !!

We now have last year’s winners Systur performing .Dressed somewhat differently to how they were last year .They are singing a song in different languages tonight to start with .Now they are singing their Eurovision song from last year a slightly more uptempo version

Hopefully we’re going to find out which acts have gone through to the Superfinal soon .First the hosts are going to give us a bit of a song…the Icelandic version of Abba’s “Money, money money “. Oh well, makes a change from Waterloo I suppose !

And we get yet another recap ……Come on Iceland, let’s see who is going to the Superfinal !

The Icelandic and international Jury tonight

Another recap…………if we don’t remember the acts now, we never will !

Awww they are showing Sam Ryder’s performance in Turin last year and now we see Sam on a video link closing the public voting !

Back to another advert break !

And we’re back…..hopefully some results now

Dilja is through …no shock there !

Who will join her in the Superfinal ?Oh the suspense ……

Langi Seli og Skkugarnir are through !!! Wow! I wasn’t expecting that ! They did have a lively act though and I am wondering if more of the senior generations of the public will have voted for them

We’re now seeing some of the other already chosen acts for Liverpool. Finland and Denmark. Plus Norway .

Why are they showing Loreen? Sweden haven’t chosen their act yet !

Onto the Superfinal and first up is Dilja with Power .

Dilja -Power

Another very confident performance from Dilja, I think she will take some beating to be honest .

She seems delighted with everything so far and seems to have a big fan base in the audience.

Langi Seli og Skuggarnir – OK

The guys are back on stage and look as if they are really enjoying being up there . I never thought this would be in the SuperFinal but it is a lively performance. I guess that they probably got quite a lot of public votes to get through . It ‘s a good song to tap your foot to and a very feel good song , could stand out in the same way that Zdob si Zdub did for Moldova last year by being something different to the usual pop/rock and ballads stuff that we see in Eurovision .

A recap and then an interview with last year’s winners, Systur

Remember the winner is being decided by a public vote only now . They are just telling the story of Systur’s win and their journey to Turin , where they reached the Grand Final .Good job done ladies !

Ooh , Subwoolfer are the interval act ! Performing Give that wolf a banana. Wonder if they will remove the masks tonight as they did in their NMGP final appearance ?They are performing the now familiar routine .Don’t let your granny watch this !!

Audience being encouraged to join in singing “yum,yum,yum,yum” and clapping .These guys know how to engage an audience !

They kept the masks on . 🙂

Another recap ……

Countdown to voting closing now .

Another ad break .

we are getting the result now ………

IT’S DILJA AND HER SONG “POWER” GOING TO LIVERPOOL !

Not a great shock but well done to her . She has been the fans favourite all week. Systur have presented her with the trophy

She’s delighted of course ! 🙂 .

So that’s it! Dilja will perform in semi final 2 on the 11th May in Liverpool . What do you think? Do you think she will get Iceland to the final again this year ? Please do let us know your thoughts in our comments box.

Thanks for following our blog tonight, it’s been enjoyable and fun .Keep following Eurovision Ireland as we bring you more news of the build up to Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool .

Good night Europe, Good morning Australia

Author:Sarah Rudman

Source : RUV