With The Grand Final Complete, The 2023 ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ Has A Winner

The over four hour grand final Eurovision Song Contest has come to a close.

­­The final featured performances by 26 acts, chosen from the original 37 entries via two semi-final rounds, and the broadcast did not disappoint.

True to the legacy of Eurovision, the performances were full of spectacular stage moments that featured plenty of heavily choreographed dancing, moody lighting, soaring sparklers, and even a vintage car that featured into a guitar solo.

The evening also included a surprise appearance by Kate, the Princess of Wales, who played piano in the opening segment.

After the conclusion of the performances, to fill the time open for voting, several former winners of Eurovision performed a ‘tribute to Liverpool songs,’ which began with John Lennon’s “Imagine” and concluded with artists, hosts, and the audience participating in a rousing rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Next, the winner from 30 years ago, Sona performed, followed by one of the members of ABBA talking about how winning Eurovision changed the band’s lives forever, pointing out that ABBA now has a Avatar stage show.

After the official voting period closed, first came the results of jury vote from each of the participating countries, in which many of the votes when to odds-on favorite Sweden, who’s entry was the song “Tattoo” by Loreen, who took the title in 2012. Israel garnered many of the jury votes as well.

When the jury vote was complete, Sweden had 340 points, in second place Israel had 177 points, and Italy rounded out the top three, just one point behind Israel, with 176 votes.

During the jury vote, the theme of this year’s Eurovision, United by Song, was clear as many countries prior to delivering their results, sent positive messages to the Ukraine, encouraging them to stay strong in light of their current situation.

After the jury vote was complete, the audience votes were added to each countries score. The votes are revealed in reverse order, starting with the country that is currently lowest on the scoreboard. During these reveals, there is a lot of movement among up and down the scoreboard. For example, Germany with 15 points moved to the bottom of the rankings, while Norway, with their 216 points, jumped from near last to second place — for a time. Ukraine made a similar move, into third place. Spain with five votes only crept up one spot.

In a shocking twist, Finland, with over 300 points from the audience vote, leapt over Sweden to top the leaderboard. Then Italy moved into second place

This left it down to Finland, Sweden, and Israel as the top three.

Israel then moved to second place but when Sweden’s numbers were read, the winner was announced as…

Sweden!

It’s worth noting that in that moment, Loreen became the second person to win Eurovision twice.

After Sweden was announced as this year’s winner, last year’s winner, the Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine, handed the coveted trophy to Loreen.

The show closed out with Loreen singing her winning song once more, during which she belted out ‘thank you’ to the crowd.

The 2024 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will undoubtedly celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the year ABBA took home the top prize, and it’s worth noting that during the broadcast it was announced that Luxembourg, who last participated in 1993 and 40 years after the country’s last win, will finally be making its return to the competition.

Given that Sweden won the contest this year, the 2024 version of the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in that country.

After all of the excitement of this year’s competition, if viewers can’t wait until next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, never fear, Junior Eurovision, featuring artists aged nine to 14, kicks off in November.

2023 Eurovision Song Contest runner up Finland performs in the semi-final round.

Taking third place, Israel, seen here performing in the Eurovision Song Contest.