Liverpool/Eurovision 2023

2023-05-28

I went to Eurovision! After over a decade of following/blogging/podcasting about the contest, it was long overdue to get there in person. Technically this should have happened in 2020, but…uh…stuff happened.

This is mostly chronological, but I’ve grouped some larger stuff (being a tourist, meeting some of the Eurovision artists, ᵗᵃᵏᶦⁿᵍ ˢᵉˡᶠᶦᵉˢ, you know) together at the start and end of this.

Sightseeing in Liverpool

I got into town a few days before I could go to the Press Center but also a day after any of the meet & greet stuff I would have wanted to go to would have been happening. Such is scheduling sometimes. It was nice to get the lay of the land in Liverpool, and this includes multiple days worth of gallivanting around, including:

Wandering around after dropping my stuff off in Liverpool
a Beatles tour we took as part of a package deal that included the British Music Experience (below) and a ride on the :::eyes go black, gameshow voice starts::: Wheel! of! Liverpool!
a trip to the Tate Liverpool with a friend from Twitter, Dudepoints and their partner
wandering over to where the Cavern Club was Thursday of Eurovision Week
making one last run to the Really Good Bakery before All Of The Travel Home

Queen Victoria Monument	Clown Lambanana	Liverpool Mountain	Floating Earth	I am 5 years old
Liverpool Eurovision sign	Royal Albert Dock from Liverpool Wheel	Liverpool Wheel	Liverpool Wheel	Disco Cauliflower
Beatles Tour	Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral	Beatles Tour	Penny Lane	Beatles Tour
Beatles Tour	Beatles Tour	Penny Lane	Strawberry Fields	Beatles Tour
Street Art Liverpool	Coronation Sandwich	Street Art Liverpool	Street art Liverpool	Proper Swanky
Royal Albert Docks	Cumulus, Tony Cragg	Untitled, Fahrelnissa Zeid	Untitled (Ghardaïa)	Rang Baranga
Jenny Holzer Installation	Camera Recording its Own Condition	The Colour That Was There	The Great Carnivore	Untitled, David Shrigley
After Lunch	Burdened Children	dog wall at Rough bakery	Cavern Club Alley	Unique and Authentic
Cilla Black	original Cavern Club entrance	current Cavern Club entrance	Ukraine Lambanana	Beatles Statue
Liverpool City Museum	Rough Handmade Bakery	Eurovision Heart Gate

Soloveiko Songborbs

One of the most brilliant pieces of UK/raine content in the city were these inflatable birds, representing the soloveiko, one of Ukraine’s symbols. Each ~~bird~~ borb has different markings, representing a different Ukrainian handicrafts pattern. I love them and still want some sort of squishy version OR full set of Christmas ornaments of them all.

borb 01	borb 02	borb 03	borb 04	borb 05
borb 06 and 7	borb 06a and 7a	borb 08	borb 09	borb 10
borb 11	borb 12

British Music Experience

As mentioned, as part of a package deal for Eurovision tourists, we got a trip to the nearby British Music Experience. They had some choice Eurovision-related content, and a bunch of things that made me smile as a huge music nerd.

Kalush Orchestra	ABBA	skiffle	Lulu Cilla and Dusty	Yellow Submarine
New Wave	Adam Ant	Sam Ryder's Jumpsuit	Pop Music

Here’s that last panorama in its full beauty - I really loved this piece by the group Dorothy in the BME’s cafe:

Blue & Yellow Submarine Parade

Also happening in town as part of the fun: a locally organized parade turning the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” into a blue and yellow submarine to represent Ukraine. This was deeply chaotic in the way that the best local parades are.

Fish

Octopus

Jellyfish

More Fish

Submarine

The Turquoise Carpet

On Sunday of Eurovision Week, we went from watching the start of the Eurovision Red Carpet in our rented flat to realizing (after getting into the area where the National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome concert would be held) that we could watch the tail end of it in person. We posted up by the gates and I snapped a decent chunk of the artists as they got to the end of the carpet, AND we ended up in the background of what was later broadcast as a cut-down version of the contest on the BBC.

Sam Quek, Turquoise Carpet Host	Georgia	Greece	Estonia	San Marino
Albania	Belgium	Lithuania	Cyprus	Italy
Big Eurovision Welcome Insert filming	Slovenia	Germany	Big Eurovision Welcome filming	Poland
UK	Sweden	Sweden	Finland	Finland
Finland	Ukraine	Austria	Spain	Australia
Australia

National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome

This was a lot of fun. Props to Frankie Goes to Hollywood for reuniting for the first time in 36 years to ONLY play “Welcome to the Pleasuredome”. Icons.

Not pictured here: getting to see everyone’s brain IMMEDIATELY retrieve the full lyrics to “Mr. Brightside” as soon as the opening guitar line started while they were warming up the crowd.

Also in this batch: yes, that person at the concert that looks like Lizzie from Bake Off IS in fact Lizzie from Bake Off and will gladly listen to three Americans fawn over the show at them.

lotto

songbirds

St. George's Hall

Signing Choir

Sometimes the person you think might be lizzie from bake off IS lizzie from bake off

Press Center and SF1 Media Rehearsal

I should probably mention that I not only had tickets to two of the semifinal dress rehearsals, I also had (fan) media credentials to cover the contest behind the scenes. I’ve done my best to crop out any screens we were Prohibited from Filming, but getting to see these performances in full and see what each delegation was going for was really special, and I hope the podcast can do that again in the future.

Sauna Truck	Press Center	Mersey River	Arena Panorama	Intro	Intro
Norway	Malta	Serbia	Serbia	Ireland
Croatia	Croatia	Croatia	Croatia	Switzerland
Israel	Moldova	Sweden	Sweden	Azerbaijan
Czechia	Netherlands	Finland	Finland	Finland
Finland	Finland	Finland	Finland

SF1 “Jury” Show

We could only get the “VIP” tickets for the first semifinal by the time I got to the front of the ticket queue, and our group went for it, which meant that we got fed some really nice catering and had plenty of Free Wine, the best wine.

This was great because it was a chance to see how the various acts played with a crowd in place, and you could start to see who the favorites were likely to be by the end of the week.

BBC Arena	VIP Dining	Seats	Panorama	Opening
Norway	Malta	Latvia	green room	Portugal
Ireland	Croatia	Croatia	Moldova	Sweden
Azerbaijan	Netherlands	Finland	green room	Ordinary World
green room	Rita Ora	Germany	Italy	Italy

SF2 Media Rehearsal

Same stuff, different day, new crop of artists. This was Wednesday of Eurovision week - between this and the jury show, I popped over to the Eurovillage to see Käärijä play a set.

good to go	hosts	Armenia	Estonia	Cyprus	Cyprus
Iceland	Greece	Greece	Poland	Slovenia
Georgia	San Marino	Lithuania	Australia

The Eurovillage

This is two different trips to the Eurovillage on Wednesday and Thursday of Eurovision Week, both to see some of the acts play live AND to get my hands on as much food from the Discover Ukraine section of things as I could.

Eurovillage Wednesday	Käärijä	Käärijä 2	Ukranian Food	Palianytsia
Luke Black	Luke Black 2	Luke Black 3

SF2 “Jury” Show

Even though there were no jury scores for the semifinals this year, the “Evening Preview” shows will always be the jury shows in my heart and brain. Once again: the way things play to a not-that-full room full of journalists and the way things play to an arena full of locals and Eurofans is entirely different, and being on the arena floor provided an entirely different vantage point.

Preshow DJs	Arena view	Hosts	Hosts	Denmark setup	Denmark
Denmark	Denmark	Armenia setup	Armenia	Romania setup
Romania	Romania	Estonia	Estonia	Belgium setup
Belgium	Belgium	Cyprus	Iceland	Iceland
Iceland	Slovenia	Slovenia	Georgia	Georgia
San Marino	Austria	Austria	Albania	Lithuania
Australia	Australia	Ukraine interval	Ukraine interval	Ukraine interval
Ukraine interval	Drag queen setup	Drag interval	Hannah Waddingham	Spain
Spain	UK

The Grand Final

Our group struck out on getting tickets to the grand final, so these are shots from the media rehearsal of the show (which kicked off with a stage manager walking the artists through the flag parade for the first time) and from watching the final in the Press Center with the rest of media.

Flag Parade prep	Stefania opening	Stefania opening	Stefania opening	Go_A
Tina Karol	Verka and dancers	Verka and dancers	Jamala	hosts
Teya and Salena prep	Teya and Salena	Teya and Salena	UGH	Portugal
Mimicat	Switzerland	Poland	Blanka	Serbia
Luke Black	France	Cyprus	Spain	green room
Italy	Finland load in	Finland	Finland	Finland
Possujuna	Possujuna	Czechia	Vesna	Australia
Australia	Belgium	Alesha Dixon and Julia Sanina	Armenia	Moldova
Ukraine	Ukraine	Germany	Germany	Lithuania
Joker Out	Let 3	Let 3	UK	UK
hosts on satellite stage	Sam Ryder setup	Sam Ryder	Mahmood	Daði Freyr
Cornelia Jakobs	You'll Never Walk Alone	Grand Final fortifications	Press Center Grand Final

Artist Interactions

I grouped these all together even though they took place over the course of the week:

seeing KEiiNO in the Euroclub
hanging out by Käärijä’s sauna truck while he did press
Daði Freyr’s ice cream giveaway
checking out the sauna truck after the grand final and spotting his doppelganger/entourage member Häärijä

KEiiNO at Euroclub	Käärija outside his sauna truck	äärija posing for press	äärija posing for press 2	aði Freyr ice cream truck
rni handing out ice cream	Daði Freyr ice cream	Häärijä

Selfies and Photos with Friends

I took a LOT of selfies on this trip? I took a lot of selfies on this trip. There’s also photographic proof of:

meeting Käärijä after the SF1 family show (he liked my jacket)
meeting Daði Freyr at his ice cream truck
having a podcaster meet-up
spotting friends outside the shows on the way out or in the press center
celebrating part of 12 Points From America (Sam Ross’) upcoming nuptials with a hen do before SF2 media day

Pier Head	Reasonable Rates, Inquire Within	Strawberry Fields	Podcaster Meetup	Turquoise Carpet
Press Center	Aussievision!	Semifinal 1	Dudepoints	he's right behind me, isn't he
Käärijä!!!	this jacket officially approved by Käärijä	Sam's Hen Do	Semifinal 2 media rehearsal	Semifinal 2
Daði Freyr	Daði Freyr 2	Daði Freyr 3	felt a bit like milled grain	Grand Final - Press Center