The Baltics Join the Party! Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Confirm Participation for ESC 2023

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

It’s currently the off-season in Eurovision Land, but it doesn’t mean that things aren’t happening behind the scenes. Per sources at ESCToday, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have confirmed their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023. Next year’s contest is confirmed to be hosted in the United Kingdom with the city selection process currently underway.

The confirmations of these three Baltic states isn’t too surprising, as they’ve all been competing regularly in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2000 (barring a few relegations of course). No further information is known at this time to whether each country will hold national finals or internal selections, but given how all three countries have held national finals in recent past, it could be safe to assume we will see the returns of Eesti Laul, Supernova, and Pabandom iš naujo! to select entries in 2023.

Estimating Estonia’s Entry

Estonia has been using their national final, Eesti Laul, since 2009. The 2022 edition actually changed format with four quarter-final rounds held in November in December 2021, narrowing the field from 40 entries to 20 entries. The competition then resumed in 2022, with two semi-final rounds held on 3 February and 5 February and the final on 12 February. This edition saw Stefan win with the song “Hope”. Stefan brought Estonia into the Grand Final, qualifying from the second Semi-Final in 5th place, before finishing 13th in the Grand Final.

It’s currently unknown at this time if the format for Eesti Laul will remain the same, if the format will return to two semi-finals and one final, or the format will become something else entirely. Our team critiqued all twenty semi-finalists from last year’s Eesti Laul in a four part series, so in the meantime as we’re waiting for further confirmation on Estonia’s plans, check them out in the hyperlinks in this sentence.

Latvia’s Astronomical Voice

Latvia’s history with the Eurovision Song Contest has been tenuous at best, with many highs (including winning the whole thing in 2002), and lows (including a continuing streak of non-qualifications). Since 2015, Latvia has hosted Supernova as their national selection, with the one exception being in 2021 with an internal selection. In January 2022, an online vote picked a wildcard entry (check out our team’s thoughts here!) among ten entries to compete against sixteen other songs in the semi-final on 5 February. On 12 February, the eleven remaining songs competed in the final, crowning Citi Zēni as the winner with the song “Eat Your Salad”. You can also read up on our thoughts of the finalists in Supernova by clicking the two hyperlinks in this sentence.

Latvia failed to qualify for the Grand Final, finishing in 14th place in the first Semi-Final, having not qualified for the Grand Final since 2016. The format for Supernova is nebulous right now, with format changes happening year to year. If Supernova remains the selection process for the 2023 entrant, check back at ESCUnited to learn more about the format.

Lithuania’s Incredible Talent

If there’s one country that’s making a comeback in Eurovision, it’s Lithuania. Since 2020, Pabandom iš naujo! has become the national final selection process, and has yielded threetwo successful qualifications with The Roop in 2021 and Monika Liu in 2022 with her song “Sentimentai”. The format for Lithuania’s national final has been changing slightly since inception, with this most recent edition having three heats of 11 or 12 songs each in January, two semi-finals with 9 songs each on 29 January and 5 February, and the final of 8 songs on 12 February. ESCUnited’s thoughts on the finalists can be found here.

Pabandom iš naujo! has been a success so far for Lithuania, with Monika Liu qualifying from the first Semi-Final in 7th place and then finishing in 14th place in the Grand Final, but it remains to be seen if LRT will continue using the current selection process or pivot to something else. It seems likely to this author that this national final will remain in place, but further tweaking the format is unknown at this time.

Check back in with ESCUnited for more news on countries confirming their participations in next year’s contest and for news regarding selection processes.

What do #YOU about these announcements? Do you think Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania could win it all next year? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!