Thread by @DaveKeating

In 2 days, #Eurovision2023 week begins in Liverpool with delegations arriving on the #TurquoiseCarpet

Surely the most important thing happening in🇬🇧this weekend😉

I'll be there covering. Here's the mother of all threads on the most important things to know for this year. 🧵1/23

The context: Despite what many think (Europeans' cultural cringe and all), #Eurovision is a big deal.

It's the most-watched annual live event in the world, with an average 200m viewers each year. That's more than the 🇺🇸Superbowl, Oscars & Grammys combined en.as.com/en/2022/03/14/…

Each year 40,000 visitors descend on the #Eurovision host city.

🇬🇧Liverpool is hosting this year. They've built a fan zone holding 15,000 people. There will be 9 shows over the week (televised: 2 semis & 1 final).

The 54,000 tickets sold out in an hour. citymonitor.ai/neighbourhoods…

Eurovision is hosted each year by the previous year's winner.🇬🇧was 2nd last year, so why are they hosting?

2022 was effectively a contest for 2nd place (in terms of hosting). There were 2 known knowns: #Ukraine would win, and they wouldn't be able to host theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…

But 2nd place was disputed last year. And were it not for alleged corruption, this year's contest would be in Spain.

The actual public & jury vote put🇪🇸at 2nd place. But because of suspected jury corruption (see below), a computer reallocated the points. telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/2….

You may remember during the show last year there were some weird moments where they didn't go live to some countries to announce their votes, and instead went to EBU president.

That's because a computer detected "vote swapping" - bribery between juries. inews.co.uk/news/eurovisio…

However, the EBU was never able to convincingly prove that the "irregular voting patterns" of 🇵🇱🇦🇿🇬🇪🇲🇪🇸🇲🇷🇴 were actual corruption.

So, a spur-of-the moment decision during last year's final meant a computer decided Eurovision would be in 🇬🇧not🇪🇸 this year eurovision.tv/mediacentre/re…

Last year's vote-swapping scandal didn't just change the host, it's also resulted in a dramatic change to the rules

It's been decided to scrap the juries and go only with the popular vote in future. Both b/c of the scandal and b/c they failed to prevent a political win last year

The national juries of music experts determining 50% of vote came in 2009 after concerns that public's bloc voting was making it an 'Eastern European' contest'

🇬🇧Terry Wogan famously quit in 2008 after Russia's win, saying West Europe could no longer win standard.co.uk/showbiz/exaspe…

The vote had been entirely public for the previous decade. The re-introduction of the juries did lessen bloc voting. No-friends🇩🇪 won in 2010, seeming to prove the system was working.

The one job of the juries is to prevent political voting.
eurovisionworld.com/esc/voting-sys…

But last year's win by #Ukraine was arguably the most political in Eurovision's history, driven by an overwhelming public vote which the juries were reticent to block.

So, people asked, what is the point of the juries actually?
billboard.com/music/music-ne…

So this year EBU decided to scrap juries for the 2 semi-finals, but keep them for the grand final.

I've heard this is meant as a transition year test, with the aim to scrap the juries completely next year and go only with the public vote also for final. wiwibloggs.com/2022/11/22/eur….

For years, EBU has worked tirelessly to keep politics out of #Eurovision. But the situation with #Russia has prompted something of a reevaluation

Efforts to keep the war out of last year's show didn't work. The EBU had crossed a rubicon by banning Russia ip-quarterly.com/en/struggle-ke…

In the past, EBU disqualified songs for political content, even if it was coded

In 2015 they made Armenia change their song "Don't Deny" because it referenced the 🇹🇷genocide. In 2009 after Russia's invasion of Georgia, they completely banned this 🇬🇪entry:

This year, Croatia's entry has openly admitted that their song is about Vladimir Putin and has an anti-Russian message. Yet EBU is letting it through.

Russia is still banned from the contest this year.
n1info.hr/vijesti/let-3-…

In truth, political messages have snuck in for years, but contestants could never admit it B4

Everyone knew #Ukraine's 2nd-place 2007 song "Lasha Tumbai" was meant to sound like "Russia goodbye". 2016 🇺🇦winner 1944 was obviously about 2014 Crimea invasion

Not everyone is happy about the open politicisation of Eurovision. Some fans grumble that the long-running 🇺🇦🇷🇺conflict has coloured the contest for 15 years now.

#BBC has a delicate tightrope to walk this year, partnered with a 🇺🇦broadcaster that would like to be more political

It isn't just the political messaging causing tensions between the broadcasters.

The BBC has been majorly leaning in to Eurovision's popularity with the LGBT community, and some in 🇺🇦 are a bit uncomfortable with that, I hear. bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f…

Each host country chooses to handle the LGBT aspect differently.

A large proportion of the fans who come to the host city each year are gay. Last year Italy basically ignored that. By contrast, Austria embraced it.

In Kyiv 2017, there were 🇪🇺flags everywhere but few 🏳️‍🌈flags.

Then there's which 🇺🇦artists have been invited to Liverpool.

Some major past contestant names, like Ruslana, Svetlana Loboda and Ani Lorak, are absent. Instead it's mostly younger people.

There are rumours 🇺🇦didn't want anyone who's ever sung in Russian.
wiwibloggs.com/2022/08/17/ukr…

#Eurovision is a political contest. The EBU seems to be more open to accepting that recently.

The question of who participates is also political. #Berlusconi's 13-year ban on Eurovision in Italy ended only after he was ousted. #Orban has taken 🇭🇺out.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_in_…

#Erdogan's decision to take Turkey out of #Eurovision in 2013 (to launch #Turkvision with other Turkic nations instead) was seen as symbolic of turning away from Europe.

If Erdogan loses in 14 May election, his replacement has promised to bring 🇹🇷back in.

https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1654080477555245056?s=20

So, that's the politics of #Eurovision2023

I'll have a separate thread about the music. The bookies have #Sweden's Loreen tipped to win again (she won in 2012). #Finland and #France also favoured.

Interesting BTW: 🇸🇪🇫🇷singers are both of 🇲🇦Moroccan origin 🧵23/23