Eurovision 2023: Graham Norton, Julia Sanina, Hannah Waddingham and Alesha Dixon the hosts of the 67th contest

• The hosts for the 67th edition of the Eurovision have been confirmed:  Graham Norton, Julia Sanina, Hannah Waddingham and Alesha Dixon will be the presenters of Eurovision 2023.

  Not one not two but four hosts will taken over the presentation of the 67th Eurovision in Liverpool, UK. Namely the honor to host the upcoming edition of the Eurovision are Graham Norton, Julia Sanina, Hannah Waddingham and Alesha Dixon.

  The news came out during the Zoe Ball Show on BBC Radio 2 this morning. Julia, Hannah and Alesha will be guiding the audience through all three shows while Graham will join as a co-host for the Grand final.

   

  A few words for the Eurovision 2023 Hosts

   

  Graham Norton

  Graham William Walker (born 4 April 1963), better known by his stage name Graham Norton, is an Irish actor, author, comedian, commentator, and presenter. Well known for his work in the UK, he is a five-time BAFTA TV Award winner for his comedy chat show The Graham Norton Show (2007–present) and an eight-time award-winner overall—he received the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance three times for So Graham Norton (2000 to 2002). Originally shown on BBC Two before moving to other slots on BBC One, his chat show succeeded Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in BBC One's prestigious late-Friday-evening slot in 2010.

  Since 2009, he has been the main commentator for the BBC coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest and has also hosted both editions of the Eurovision Dance Contest in 2007 and 2008.

   

  Julia Sanina

  Yuliia Oleksandrivna Bebko ,  born 11 October 1990 and  professionally known as Julia Sanina, is a Ukrainian singer and the front woman of the Ukrainian alternative rock band The Hardkiss.

  In September 2011 Sanina and music producer Valeriy Bebko created a pop duet Val & Sanina recording an experimental video clip and a few songs, one of them 'The love has come'. Shortly after they improved their stage image and changed their band's name to The Hardkiss. They also started to write songs in English all by themselves and made their sound heavier.

  Hardkiss finished second in the first edition of Vidbir, the Ukrainian national selection for Eurovision while this year's Julia was one of the national final jury members. 

   

  Hannah Waddingham

  Hannah Waddingham (born 28 July 1974) is a British actress and singer. She is best known for playing Rebecca Welton in the comedy series Ted Lasso (2020–present), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2021 and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2021 and 2022. She has also appeared in a number of West End shows, including Spamalot, the 2010 Regent's Park revival of Into the Woods, and The Wizard of Oz as the Wicked Witch of the West; and has received three Olivier Award nominations for her work.

  Her other work includes appearing as an ensemble member in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables, and joining the cast of the fifth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones as Septa Unella in 2015. She co-starred in the 2018 British psychological thriller Winter Ridge, and has had a supporting role on the series Sex Education since 2019.

   

   Alesha Dixon

  Alesha Anjanette Dixon (born 7 October 1978) is an English singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She gained recognition in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B, garage and hip hop group Mis-Teeq. The group disbanded in 2005 and Dixon then pursued a music career as a solo artist, signing a recording contract with Polydor Records. She recorded her debut solo album, Fired Up in 2006, releasing her debut single "Lipstick", followed by "Knockdown", after which her popularity as a singer had declined and was subsequently dropped from Polydor.
  

  In 2007, Dixon won the fifth series of the BBC One dancing competition show Strictly Come Dancing. In 2008, she released her second album, The Alesha Show, which received platinum certification in the UK and spawned the successful singles "The Boy Does Nothing" and "Breathe Slow", the latter of which became her highest charting single and earned her a Brit Award nomination.

  As a television presenter, Dixon has hosted Alesha's Street Dance Stars (2010), Your Face Sounds Familiar (2013), Text Santa (2014–2015), Dance Dance Dance (2017), The Greatest Dancer (2019–2020), and Comic Relief (2019–2022). 

   

  Additional commentators - Opening Ceremony hosts

  Timur Miroshnychenko will be the Eurovision correspondent in Liverpool and will be giving us feedback from the Ukrainian commentary spot. He will also host the Opening Ceremony along with Sam Quek. Sam is an English former field hockey player, and television personality. She played as a defender for both the England and Great Britain teams, wearing squad number 13, and won gold as part of the British team at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Currently she is the team captain on A Question of Sport as well as regularly hosting Morning Live on BBC One.

   

  Eurovision 2023

  The 67th edition is set to take place in Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena on May 9, 11 and 13, 2023. 

  Liverpool Arena, known for sponsorship reasons as the M&S Bank Arena, and previously Echo Arena, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the city centre of Liverpool, England. The venue hosts live music, comedy performances and sporting events, and forms part of Liverpool event campus ACC Liverpool – an interconnected arena, exhibition and convention centre.Opened in 2008 the 11,000-seat arena hosted the MTV Europe Music Awards the same year and since then has held host to world-renowned acts such as Andrea Bocelli, Beyoncé, Elton John, Kanye West, Kasabian, The Killers, Lady Gaga, Oasis, Pink, Rihanna, UB40.

  Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of 498,042 in 2019, it is the tenth largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.24 mllion.In 2019, Liverpool was the fifth most visited UK city. It is noted for its culture, architecture and transport links. The city is closely associated with the arts, especially music; the popularity of the Beatles, widely regarded as the most influential band of all time. Liverpool is internationally known for music and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the World Capital City of Pop.Musicians from the city have produced 56 No. 1 singles, more than any other city in the world.

  A total of 37 countries will be taking part in the 67th edition , with 31 countries competing in the two semifinals on May 9 and 11 while the Big 5 countries ( United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) will qualify directly to the Grand final on May 13, 2023 along with last year's winning country, Ukraine.

  The Grand final will see a total of 26 countries competing for the trophy. The outcome in both semi final rounds will be influenced only by televoting with the juries' contribution put on pause at least for the next edition of Eurovision.

  In addition the viewers from non-participating countries will have a say on the results as they will be allowed to contribute to the final verdict by casting their votes in an online voting platform. The votes from non-participating countries will be the equivalent of one country’s votes. Juries' presence is maintained in the Grand final show where along with the public verdict of televoting they will determined the final outcome of the competition.

   

  News Source:  eurovision.tv / wikipedia

   

   

   

AUTHORS

Angelos D.
Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.