Four days after the announcement of which Guest Acts would feature in the Eurovision 2023 Semi Finals, the BBC have announced the exciting line-up of the Eurovision 2023 Grand Final on 13 May.
The Grand Final will open with last year’s winners Kalush Orchestra and a powerful performance titled Voices of a New Generation. The performance will include a choir of young people and feature 2022 winning song, Stefania, amongst other Kalush Orchestra songs. This’ll mark the first time since 2012 that the previous years’ winning song has featured in the Grand Final’s opening act.
The Flag Ceremony will see a similar format to Tel Aviv 2019, with performances from past Ukrainian Eurovision contestants, Go_A, Jamala, Tina Karol and Verka Serduchka. However, unlike 2019, the sections of the performance when the 26 finalists are being presented to the viewing audience, will feature very special Ukrainian covers of popular British songs, by each of the four Ukrainian guest performances, on top of the reprisals of their original Eurovision songs.
For the first interval performance the UK’s 2022 runner-up, and the reason the contest is in Liverpool this year after it’s relocation from Ukraine, Sam Ryder will make his triumphant return to the Eurovision stage.
The final interval act The Liverpool Songbook, will be a celebration of the host city’s incredible contribution to the world of pop music. Six iconic Eurovision artists will perform some of the most famous songs that have come out of the city of Liverpool, over the years – Mahmood (Italy 2019/2022), Netta (Israel 2018), Daði Freyr (Iceland 2020/2021), Cornelia Jakobs (Italy 2022), Duncan Laurence (Netherlands 2019) – plus Liverpool’s very own Sonia, celebrating 30 years since she came second at Eurovision 1993.
The official press release, from the BBC/EBU, only details two interval acts in the 40-minute Grand Final voting window. This would be incredibly unusual, since for several years, since the voting-period was extended to 40-minutes, there have always been at least three interval performances. It is therefore expected that the BBC are holding back at least one interval act announcement, likely a Celebrity Guest, in a similar style to Justin Timberlake (2016) and Madonna (2019). More information is likely to be announced soon.
