With the second semi-final of Eurovision looming, three Eurovision winners, a Eurovision runners-up and current Eurovision host Petra Mede have been announced as interval acts for the Thursday night show. Another winning Eurovision group will close out the second semi final.
Interval Act 1: Former Eurovision winners sing-along
The first interval act consists of three former Eurovision title-holders. They are Helena Paparizou of Greece, Sertab Erener of Turkey and Charlotte Perrelli of Sweden, who won for their countries in 2005, 2004 and 1999 respectively. The "three iconic Eurovision queens", as they were described as in a statement by Eurovision.tv, will perform their winning Eurovision entries as part of a sing-along.
Eurovision.tv states that anyone can "be part of the Semi-Final interval performance remotely, via an interactive TV wall." You can register your interest to take part in the sing-along at this link. There is the option of participating in one of the two sing-alongs on Wednesday May 10: either the family show which starts at 15:45 CEST or live show which starts at 21:00 CEST.
Let's take a quick recap of Helena's, Sertab's and Charlotte's winning experiences at Eurovision.
Helena Paparizou - 'My Number One' (Greece 2005)
Born in Borås, Sweden to Greek parents', Helena sought to make a musical career in her ancestral homeland by representing Greece at Eurovision.
Her first Eurovision attempt was in 2001 where she competed as part of the duo Antique along with Nikos Panagiotidis with the rather grimly titled song 'Die For You'. The band were the bookies' favourite in the lead up to the final, and finished in third place. At the time this was Greece's best performance at Eurovision.
In 2005 Helena represented Greece again as a soloist with the song 'My Number One', and again was the hotly tipped by the bookmakers. The song title proved fortuitous, as Helena scored Greece's first ever Eurovision victory. She received ten sets of douze puan, which at the time was a record.
Although she has never represented her birth country Sweden at Eurovision, in 2014 she participated in Melodifestivalen with 'Survivor' and finished in fourth place in the national final.
Sertab Erener - 'Everyway that I Can' (Turkey 2003)
Turkey entered Eurovision 2003 with the unenviable record of only having placed in the top eight once in their entire Eurovision participation, having debuted in 1975. Enter Sertab Erener with the song 'Everyway that I Can', which was the first Turkish entry entirely in English.
On the night of the final Sertab was viewed as an outsider with the bookmakers, with well-established act t.A.T.u representing Russia expected to win. Performing early at fourth in the running order was also considered not ideal for her chances.
However Sertab managed to eek out a win, in what was one of the most exciting voting sequences in Eurovision history. Turkey scored 167 points, two ahead of runners-up Belgium on 165 points, and three ahead of third-placed Russia on 164 points.
Sertab's win ushered in a golden era for Turkey at Eurovision who between 2003 and their withdrawal in 2013 scored seven top ten places in ten years.
Charlotte Perrelli - 'Take Me To Your Heaven' (Sweden 1999)
Known by her maiden name Nilsson in 1999, Charlotte won Melodifestivalen that year with 'Tusen och en natt'. Portions of the Swedish press ridiculed the song for being too outdated and sounding too much like ABBA.
Charlotte and Sweden then took advantage of Eurovision's new language rule that year by performing her song in English. Up until 1999, countries had to perform their Eurovision song in their national language.
On the night of the contest, Sweden scored a victory over runners-up Iceland. It was the Scandinavian country's fourth win at Eurovision.
Charlotte has since represented Sweden once again at Eurovision in 2008 with 'Hero' and finished in 18th place. She has also made multiple returns to Melodifestivalen since then.
Interval Act 2: Musical number by Petra Mede, Lynda Woodruff and Käärijä
The second interval act will consist of host Petra Mede performing the number 'We Just Love Eurovision Too Much' which satirises Sweden's love and winning record at the contest. It features Sarah Dawn Finer performing as her comedic character Lynda Woodruff, a supposed spokesperson for the European Broadcasting Union who is infamous for mispronouncing the names of countries and Eurovision acts. This writer was in hysterics watching the dress rehearsal of this act.
Notably Finland's Käärijä will also appear in this act. The 2023 contest's televote winner is back on the Eurovision stage the following year and will perform part of his iconic track 'Cha Cha Cha'.
Show Closer: The Herreys - 'Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley' (Sweden 1984)
Interestingly there will be a closing act for this semi final consisting of group The Herreys performing their Eurovision winning number 'Diggi-Loo Diggi Ley'.
Brothers Per, Louis and Richard Herrey represented Sweden at Eurovision 1984. The title of their song is nonsensical, with the main motif in their song about their golden boots.
They opened the show in Luxembourg City. Despite some tuning issues by the orchestra and the unlucky running order, The Herreys managed to eek out a victory over Ireland's Linda Martin with 'Terminal 3'. This was Sweden's second victory and broke the supposed 'curse' Swedish acts had in the wake of ABBA's 1974 win.
You can catch Helena, Sertab, Charlotte, The Herreys and Käärijä, as well as the second semi final of this year's Eurovision on Thursday 9 May at 21:00 CEST, which is Friday 10 May at 5:00am AEST in Australia.
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