It’s time for us to start finding the most loved – and most robbed – song of the 2023 national final season. Yes, that’s right – here comes SongHunt 2023!

The formula remains mostly the same as before. That means four semi-finals, a chat-only Last Chance round, and the grand final. The chat events for the heats will start on Sunday 12 February, and you can find a full list of dates at the bottom of this post.

As usual, our #esc chat community will be at the heart of SongHunt: the weekly viewings will take place in the chat on Sunday night, each followed by a vote that will count for 50% of the result! The other 50% of the result will, of course, come from the familiar public poll on the escgo! website.

We’ve already started compiling our “master list” of how the chat voted on each national final show so far. This serves as the basis for qualification for each heat, and you can investigate the list right here! Each heat will have 12 entries. Nine will qualify based on how they scored in the chat, while the other three will be wildcards.

In a new feature for 2023, however, only two wildcards will be picked by our team of editors – the other one will be selected via a new “public wildcard” format. This is where you get to have your say, and make sure our SongHunt includes all the most robbed songs of the season. The process is straightforward but takes a little describing, so…

That’s about all you need to know for now, so let’s end with the dates for our events in the #esc chat. Make sure to add them to your calendars, and be with us to support your national final favourites!

Chat event dates:

12 February – Semi-final 1
19 February – Semi-final 2
(26 February – No SongHunt because the Polish final is that night!)
5 March – Semi-final 3
12 March – Semi-final 4
19 March – Last Chance
2 April – Final

All events will begin at 21:00 CET.