complete guide to follow the festival

The festival will be held in the Olympic Palace of Turin (Italy), a multipurpose pavilion built to host the ice hockey competition of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was designed by the Italian Pier Paolo Maggiora and the japanese arata isozaki, father of the latter, in turn, of the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. The stage has been designed by the Italian Francesca Montinaro. It is an allegory of Italy: an immense sun, water around it and, at its feet, a forest where the artists anxiously await the results of each ‘show’. It will host 12,000 spectators in each of the event’s three galas; the two semifinals, on Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12 May, and the grand final on Saturday 14.

Total, 40 countries with 15 different languages ​​participatewith the usual rout of english. Attention because this will be the first festival in which there will not be a single song in French. The neighboring country this time competes with a song performed in Breton; and Belgium and Switzerland, the other countries where French is also official, will intervene with songs in English.

All of them, the 40, with a single objective: to conquer the precious crystal microphone. Russia was expelled in February following the invasion of Ukraine. Several countries threatened to withdraw from the contest if Eurovision did not get on the bandwagon of sanctions against the regime Putin and the European Broadcasting Union was forced to act so as not to harm the ‘show’. Offended, the Russians announced that they were unsubscribing from the network, although to this day they still have not done so.

Decade semifinal 10 countries will qualify. In the final they will meet Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Germany; They are called the Big Five., that is to say, the five countries that contribute the most economically to the event and that, therefore, have a guaranteed place in the ‘show’ on Saturday. The winner will be decided with the vote of a jury of experts constituted in each participating country, and with that of the viewers of the contest, also counted country by country.

Singer Laura Pausino will be one of the conductors of the festival. Next to her will be the also singer Mike Y Alessandro Cattelan, who is one of the best-known faces on Italian radio and television; among other programs, it presented the Italian version of ‘Factor X’ between 2011 and 2020. The organizers explained months ago that their first idea was to sign Raffaela Carra as presenter of the ‘show’; but she did not give them time because the artist died in July of last year.

One more year, Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela They will be in charge of commenting on the show live from Turin for TVE. The model and presenter Nieves Alvarez will announce the votes of the Spanish jury for the fifth consecutive year, and will do so from Benidorm, the city where the channel’s current Eurovision project was forged.

chanell, the representative of TVE, is fifth in the bookmakers. Eurovision has marked the beginning of her career as a soloist: ‘SloMo’, the song with which he will try to win the Festival, is the first of his career as a singer. With it, she has surpassed nine million reproductions on Spotify and has entered the list of Los 40. Taking advantage of the Eurovision pull, this past April the artist flew to Miami to record some more pieces, with which she will begin to create her own music repertoire. There she met Willy Will Yanez and Beat Butcha, producers who regularly collaborate with Eminem and Beyoncé, among others. She accompanied by five dancers and choristers and dressed by the Cordovan couturier Alexander Gomez Palomo, their number will consist of singing and dancing for three minutes, in a show that is expected to be fast-paced and eminently visual. That was one of the keys to his victory in the benidorm festwhere he had the collaboration of the North American choreographer Kyle Hanagami. Now they are working together again to prepare the Turin number, which will be different. Hanagami is one of the most sought-after choreographers. He has worked for Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith and the south koreans btsamong others.

Winning, however, will not be easy. Chanel will have some very tough nuts to crack; especially four: the proposals of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy and Ukraine. The British arrive determined to amend a Eurovision curriculum even more disastrous than that of Spain in recent years. In the most recent editions, for example, they finished in the red lantern and in 2021, on top of that, with zero points. This time they bet very strongly on victory. His representative, Sam Ryder, was a true unknown until, bored during the confinement due to the pandemic, he began to post ‘covers’ of renowned artists on TikTok. And he asked for it. Ryder has probably the best voice we will hear in Turin; he flexes it at will and easily reaches notes not suitable for everyone. In short: Ryder is the ideal candidate for professional juries. He competes with ‘spaceman’a song he has written together with Max Wolfgang and Amy Wadge And it’s about heartbreak. His charisma completes the hook.

Swedish They are always among the favourites. This time they send Cornelia Jacobs. She took her first steps as an artist in 2008, trying to pass an audition to get into the TV show ‘Idol’. She didn’t get it. The jury rejected her with mocking comments about her abilities and the Swedish press echoed the issue because Cornelia’s father was a member of one of the most famous metal bands in the country. A monumental scandal broke out. Now, after that hell, the interpreter has the opportunity to reach heaven with ‘Hold me closer’, a part time about a sentimental breakup.

Italy She is the hostess and she has a chance to win again. They will try it with the duo Mahmood and White, two soloists who decided to punctually unite their artistic careers to go to Eurovision. Mahmood was already second in the Festival that was held in Tel Aviv three years ago. Blanco, a 19-year-old rapper, was catapulted to musical stardom in his country last year: in the summer of 2020 he had posted his first musical works on the SoundCloud platform and swept it away. Universal signed him immediately and there began his meteoric rise to the top; In 2021 alone he went 12 platinum. Together with Mahmood in Turin they will defend the ballad ‘brividi’, It is about a romantic relationship between two men. Although Blanco has declared that he is not gay, the magic between the two on stage transforms the lyrics of the piece into reality, which is about a true and intense love but that makes one suffer and from which it is impossible to get away.

Ukraine will opt for his third eurovision victory with Kalush Orchestra. In fact, they are the main favorites in the bookmakers. The invasion of the country by Russia It suggests that they will win the televote, but we have to wait to see how the expert juries will assess them. Before the war, however, they were already among the favorites with their theme ‘Stefania’, dedicated to mothers. With the invasion, the band temporarily broke up; while some organized assistance to people displaced by the conflict, others went to the front to fight. After receiving permission from the Government to leave the country to promote their candidacy, they met again to prepare their performance in Turin just one month before the Festival. His piece fuses rap with Ukrainian folk rhythm. Win or not, the most exciting moment of the Festival will be on Saturday, when Eurovision connects with the Ukrainian jury to announce their votes. A long and standing ovation is expected, as happened in 1993 when it was the turn of the jury from Bosnia Hercegovina, who had taken refuge in Sarajevo during a bombing.

They also count for victory Finland, the Netherlands and Greece. Finns send to The Rasmus, who killed him in 2003 with ‘In the shadows’. They started in 1994 and have already released nine albums. To Turin they go with ‘Jezebel’another piece like that. The Netherlands will try it with the 21-year-old S10 and ‘De diepte’, a half-time performed entirely in Dutch and that deals with what it is to suffer for a love. Greece, for its part, trusts amanda tenfjord. She is Norwegian but her father is Greek. To defend ‘die together’, a part time about a toxic and destructive relationship. Norway is not among the big favorites but it will give people something to talk about. represent her Jim and Keithalthough the stage name of the duo is subwoofer. The public ignores who the artists really are, because they act with a yellow mask that represents to be the head of a wolf. The choreography of his theme, titled ‘Give that wolf a banana’, has gone viral. no loss either the Serbian Konstrakta with ‘In corpore Sano’: she’s going to spend the entire performance sitting in front of a bucket washing and moisturizing her hands. The piece is a criticism of the health system in his country, to which artists have no right.