The Song 5

The Song 5 was the fifth edition of the The Song. The contest was hosted in Espoo, Finland, following the country's victory at the fourth edition in Florence, Italy, with the song "Ei vaihdeta numeroita", performed by Pasa. The contest was held at the Espoo Metro Areena, and consisted of two semi-finals on 21st and 28th January, and a final on N/A 2023. The three live shows were presented by Timi.

Forty-six countries participated in the fifth edition of the contest. Albania and Croatia returned to the contest. Armenia and Iceland failed to qualify from the pre-qualification round and they were forced to withdraw from this edition.

Location
Espoo is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi while surrounding the enclaved town of Kauniainen. The city covers 528.03 square kilometres (203.9 sq mi) with a population of about 300,000 residents in 2022, making it the 2nd-most populous city in Finland. Espoo forms a major part of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Helsinki, home to over 1.5 million people in 2020.

Espoo was first settled in the Prehistoric Era, with the first signs of human settlements going back as far as 8,000 years, but the population effectively disappeared in the early stages of the Iron Age. In the Early Middle Ages, the area was resettled by Tavastians and Southwestern Finns. After the Northern Crusades, Swedish settlers started migrating to the coastal areas of present-day Finland, and Espoo was established as a self-governing Catholic parish in the 15th century. In the aftermath of the Finnish War, the establishment of Helsinki as the new capital of the Russian-controlled Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812 greatly benefited the development of the municipality. However, the area remained largely agrarian, until the 20th century. Espoo experienced rapid urbanization and major demographic changes in the decades following World War II, with Finnish superseding Swedish as the language of the majority around 1950. The municipality became a market town in 1963 and gained city status in 1972.

The cityscape is dominated by detached housing and suburban environment, and the city itself is known for its large natural areas, including its long shoreline—58 kilometres in total—and archipelago, forests, lakes and a national park. Administratively, the city is divided into seven major districts, and each major district is further divided into smaller districts and neighbourhoods. Espoo has no traditional city centre; instead, it has five distinct city centres—Leppävaara, Tapiola, Matinkylä, Espoon keskusand Espoonlahti—and numerous local centres, many of which are formed around historical manors. Espoo Metro Areena (known from 1999 to January 2009 as LänsiAuto Areena, and from 2009 to October 2015 as Barona Areena) is an arena in the Tapiola District of Espoo, Finland. It is part of the Tapiolan Urheilupuisto (Tapiola Sports Park). It was inaugurated in 1999 and holds 6,982 people for ice-hockey games or 8,582 for concerts.In late October and early November 2022, it served as the leading venue for the 2022 World Ringette Championships.

Espoo Metro Areena has been primarily used for ice hockey and it was the home arena of the Espoo Blues of the Liiga from 1999 to 2016 and of Espoo United of the Mestis from 2016 until the franchise was dissolved in 2018. The arena is sponsored by Hesburger, Finland's largest fast food hamburger chain.

The multi-purpose arena was designed by Architect Matti Savolainen Oy, and Rakennuttajatoimisto CMC Oy was responsible for the construction project. The project, with a price of around 20 million euros, was mainly financed with private funds such as sponsorship agreements and the sale of seats and club seats. The first public event was organized on January 28, 1999, when the ice hockey championship league match Blues–HIFK was played in the hall, which HIFK won by 3–1. In 2001, Erja-yhtymä Oy, owned by businessman Jussi Salonoja, became the main owner of the arena. Personnel service company Barona became the name sponsor of the hall with a ten-year contract in January 2009. Before that, the building was known as LänsiAuto Areena. It was decided to change the name of Barona Areena when the city of Espoo agreed on a cooperation agreement with the company managing the hall in 2015. The name was officially changed on October 7, 2015.

Bidding phase
Between 26 and 30 December 2022, many cities across Finland expressed interest in hosting the contest. Representatives from the cities of Espoo and Oulu voiced their interest, as well as Helsinki, who hoped to host the contest in Hartwall Arena, the second largest arena in Finland with a capacity of 13,349 spectators. On 30 December, Yle announced that 7 cities had submitted their bid for hosting the contest and would be provided the following day with the bid books. They had until 2 January to draft and submit their detailed plans.

On the 5th of January the EBU announced that the host city would be Espoo.

Format
The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been in use since the first edition. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final qualified to the final where they joined the host nation Finland, the countries that placed second to sixth in the previous edition (known as the "Big Five"): Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine. Each participating country had their own national jury. The combination of the juries' full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received one point.

Pre-qualification
The European Broadcaster Union (EBU) announced that the limit of entries for each edition would be 46 participants. As the confirmation of participation from eligible countries exceeded this amount, the EBU created a pre-qualification round that would take place each edition before the actual contest. During the third edition, the EBU announced that there would be a change of formation to the Pre-Qualification Round. From this edition and onwards, eight countries shall qualify into the semi-finals from the pre-qualification round, whilst the remaining are eliminated.

Semi-final allocation draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 15 January 2023. The forty countries were divided into five pots. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final was determined.

The five pots were the following:

Participating countries
Forty-six countries participated in the fifth edition of the contest. Albania and Croatia returned to the contest. Armenia and Iceland failed to qualify from the pre-qualification round and they were forced to withdraw from this edition.

Returning artists
The contest featured one returning artist: Marissa had previously represented Poland in the fourth edition with the song "Poison", which placed 10th in the final; Andrew Rayel and Albino participated for the second time in the contest but they failed to qualify from the pre-qualification round.

Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 21 January 2023. Twenty countries participated in the first semi-final. Those countries plus Hungary, Italy and Ukraine voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 28 January 2023. Twenty countries participated in the second semi-final. Those countries plus Finland, Serbia and Türkiye voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Other countries


Countries that are active members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are also eligible to participate in The Song. As in every edition, an invitation to all the members have been sent in order to confirm whether they will participate or not. The following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below.