Douze Points

As huge Eurovision fans, we could have easily written an entire website of reviews covering all the different Eurovision events we have been to over the previous week (turquoise carpet, two semi final rehearsals, two live shows including the final, copious amounts of concerts within the Eurovision village and around the city). Eurovision has undoubtedly been one of the best weeks of our lives, but rather than review every single thing we have done, we’ve decided to focus on the one that best fits in with this website’s content; Douze Points at the Liverpool Philharmonic.

Featuring a selection of Eurovision classics both old and new, the Royal Philhamonic orchestra conducted by Richard Balcombe, delivered orchestral versions of big power ballads such as ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’, through to the Heavy Metal ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’.

The orchestra were joined by vocalists from Capital Voices; Annie Skates, Kate Graham, Steve Trowell and Andrew Playfoot. Each of the vocalists was spectacular and seemed to be enjoying the show as much as the audience. A particular highlight was the performance os ‘Stefania’. We’re not sure if the vocalists were word perfect, but they gave a rousing performance that also served as a poignant reminder of where the contest should have been held.

The evening was presided over by Owain Wyn Evans. He’s probably best known to most people as the host of the Early Breakfast Show on Radio 2, but to anyone from the local area he’s the drumming weatherman from BBC North West. Owain was the perfect host for this, as he clearly loves Eurovision and introduced the songs with heartfelt messages rather than just reading from a script. He also didn’t try to make the evening about himself, which is something we have seen previously as similar themed performance nights. Even when joining in with the drumming, which he is extremely talented at, there wasn’t an attempt to make it all about him.

This was a truly magical night in amongst a jam packed Eurovision calendar. The audience were on their feet the entire time, singing and dancing in the aisles. Every single person seemed to love the party atmosphere, and this felt like the perfect warm up to the following night’s Eurovision Finale.

We would love for this to become a regular fixture at the Philharmonic in the run up to Eurovision, and not just a special for 2023 whilst Liverpool was the host city on behalf of Ukraine.

Originally posted: May 15, 2023