Rita Ora will perform during a Semi-Final of the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest.
The Hot Right Now singer will take the stage in Liverpool on May 9 to deliver a medley of her biggest hits – plus brand new single Praising You – during one of the show’s intervals.
She’s one of a number of big-name performers on the line-up: Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, who will host the Contest, will open the first Semi-Final with her band The Hardkiss, while British star Rebecca Ferguson will collaborate with Ukrainian artist Alyosha on a duet of Duran Duran’s Ordinary World.
Meanwhile, the second Semi-Final on May 11 will feature a collaborative performance between Ukrainian performers Mariya Yaremchuk, OTOY and Zlata Dziunka.
The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Liverpool with the United Kingdom hosting on behalf of last year’s winners Ukraine amid ongoing conflict in the country with Russia.
Speaking in RETROPOP’s May 2023 issue, production designer Julio Himede offered an insight into the creative process behind a show that’s “more unique than any other show that I can think of around the world”.
“We very carefully spent a lot of time looking at camera angles and floor plans to make everything feel united,” he said of this year’s Contest, which has the slogan ‘United By Music’. “The arena’s quite big, so how do we make it feel like it’s all part of this ‘hug’, this welcoming message that we want to portray. So there’s a lot of production values that we bring into it.”
Referring to the set as “an immersive environment and a landscape that includes the audience and the artists performing on stage as one,” there are more than 450 square metres of staging, bringing together another 220 square metres of independently moving and turning video screens, as well as over 700 video tiles integrated into the floor and more than 1500 metres of LED lights.
“Lighting plays a major factor in how the viewers at home experience the set design, as well as other effects like pyro, smoke,” he added, revealing there are elements of automation and lighting in this year’s show that have never been seen at Eurovision before. “There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors that we bring to make it feel immersive.”
