Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Malta is next in line to reveal their cards for Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool. As usual the line up is full of familiar names from previous national finals and even two Eurovision veterans Fabrizio Faniello (2001, 2006) and Jessika (San Marino 2018), not forgetting fan favorites and runner ups  Aidan and Brooke who are yet to win the ticket to the main event. Add two Junior Eurovision participants Francesca Scibberas (2009) and Eliana Gomez Blanco (2019). There will be six shows in total; first quarter finals with ten acts each (and apparently in a very tuned down staging with no dancers, props etc it is rumored) and then a semi-final with 24 acts, while the top-16 make the grand final on February 11, 2023. The show dates are January 13, 20, 27, February 3, 9, 11) and maybe thanks to Aidan's success this year there seem to be several songs in Maltese this time! Great! Update 1/23: The selection process has been changed to three heats (January 13, 20, 27), one semi-final (February 9)...

NORWAY - ALEXANDER RYBAK - THAT'S HOW YOU WRITE A SONG Enjoy the small things with time they will get big Vocals **** Staging **** Song *** Overall **** Qualifier ROMANIA - THE HUMANS - GOODBYE Why don’t you see the beauty that surrounds you everywhere Vocals *** Staging * Song ** Overall ** Non qualifier SERBIA - SANJA ILIC & BALKANIKA - NOVA DECA Happiness is achievable, grab it. Vocals **** Staging ** Song **** Overall *** Sadly non qualifier SAN MARINO - JESSIKA feat. JENIFER BRENING - WHO WE ARE They can make us silent But in our hearts we’ll never be Vocals *** Staging *** Song ** Overall *** Non qualifier DENMARK - RASMUSSEN - HIGHER GROUND Freeze the arrow in the air Vocals **** Staging **** Song *** Overall *** Likely qualifier

  San Marino - Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening - Who we are Jessika Muscat (29) has the faith of fellow Maltese Christabelle: several national final attemps and now she gets finally to Eurovision with the worst of them. Or almost. She is joined by German Jenifer Brening (21) who took the original rapper Irol's place when he turned down the song stating it's not his cup of tea. He would have given this at least some Sammarinese touch. Anyways, the innotative Sammarinese national final selection promised a lot but in the end gave us this. I would have chosen differently but what we have is a rather anonymous and heard before anthem against bullying, well sung by Jessika with Jenifer's rap as bonus. Sadly unforgettable and the only thing that might get attention and viewers to remember this are the robots. If they travel to Lisbon, too. What's their deal anyways?! 3/10 Macedonia - Eye Cue - Lost and found Eye Cue is Bojan Trajkovski and Marija Ivanovska...

  San Marino aired tonight the second show recorded in Bratislava, where the artists sung the chosen songs. Some of them were already featured in the first show sung by another artist, and even tonight both Basti and Franklin sung the same song, and not only them btw. And Emma manages to include "rakas" in her song again .-) Now the judges have a task of picking one song for each artist for the final and make studio produced versions of the songs after these live acoustic ones. There's some good material in there and pretty talented singers.  Emma Sandström - Hold On IROL feat. Basti - Sorry Giovanni Montálbano - Immenso blu Basti - Stay Judah Gavra - Moonlight Tinashe Makura - Free Yourself Jessika - Out of the Twilight Sara de Blue - Out of the Twilight Jenifer Brening - Until the Morning Light Franklin Calleja - Stay Camilla North - Yo no soy tu chica Listen to the first show songs

  The Sammarinese affair has been rather complicated to follow, but we have reached the stage of the two pre-recorded shows where the chosen artists sing live and acoustic (the final produced versions will bee heard in the final only) the songs they have created together with other writers in songwriting camp. 1in360 writes in their FB:  "In the interest of transparency and because some of you asked, a few words on how the songs were written: We didn't give the candidtes pre-manufactured songs. Instead we conducted a songwriting camp in Vienna, for which we prepared a few chords and melodies. Our songwriters, producers and the candidates themselves then collaborated to turn them into finished songs. As a result, we've got a lot of songs with multiple songwriters (several have five songwriters). Zoe Straub, one of the judges, actively participated in the camp and has credits on all but two of the songs. The same is true of other members of the 1 in 360 creative tea...