Home Composed Song Contest 2023

Contest overview

The 2023 edition was organised by Eoin Jackson from Ireland with the participation of the previous year's winner, Gunnar B. Ingebrigtsen from Norway, and technical support from Martin Faulkner of the HCSC Organising Committee. Appropriately, the logo for the competition incorporated the blue and white colours of the flags of Waterford and Lillehammer, the home cities of Eoin and Gunnar.

27 participating entries represented a total of 13 countries, including a debut entry from Ukraine - the 36th nation to have its flag represented on a Home Composed scoreboard.

It was another bumper year for guest juries. In addition to the traditional internet-based public vote (shown as in the scoresheet below) and a jury representing HCSC's loyal supporters at Radio International (), co-host Gunnar declined to defend his title but instead cast a set of guest votes (). Even more excitingly, the voting had a contribution from two people with genuine Eurovision pedigree: Elin Kåven () of two-time Norwegian national finalists Elin & The Woods, and two-time Irish ESC representative and 1993 winner Niamh Kavanagh ()!

In the spirit of goodwill and as an attempt to eliminate the likelihood of any entries ending up without points, it was agreed that something new would be tried with the scoring system this year. Using the possibilities afforded by the scoreboard tool Scorewiz, each jury awarded points to a total of 19 songs - two times 1 to 10 points, and then (of course) just one set of "douze points". As it turns out, no one would have received zero even under the "usual" system, but inclusivity is at the heart of HCSC and further tweaks to the voting system in future years are something that will doubtlessly be taken into account as the competition continues to evolve.

The preparation and presentation of the results video were not without their hiccups, but a recent innovation in HCSC terms - a "green room" on the Zoom video chat service for those participants who wanted it - helped to bridge the gap while the issues were being fixed behind the scenes, as well as being a nice way to put names to faces. Once the voting reveal was safely underway in the company of presenters Eoin and Clodagh, there was a lot of chopping and changing at the top end of the scoreboard, but two entries ultimately rose to the very top of the pile. Andy Brook and his londonvision project made a strong challenge for the title, not for the first time - but in the end, the debut country took a narrow victory with the song "Replaying" by singer-songwriter Iana Kovalova.

If you want to relive the voting in full, you can still do so here!

Entries and results

Draw	Country	Song Title	Performer	Composer	Lyricist	Position	Points
01	United Kingdom I	Static On The Radio	Vulnerable	Ray Holt, Martin Faulkner, Andrew Donaldson	Ray Holt, Martin Faulkner, Andrew Donaldson	10	129
02	France	Screed Of 'kin Chestnuts	Serge Fourcade	Serge Fourcade	Serge Fourcade	26	21
03	Spain	En evidencia	Lobo	Lobo	Lobo	12	120
04	Germany I	Malen'kiy drug	Jan Wehner	Jan Wehner	Jan Wehner	26	21
05	Sweden I	Själens vingar	Eva-Karin Håkansson	Eva-Karin Håkansson	Eva-Karin Håkansson	22	79
06	Germany II	Bis ans Ende der Zeit	Jason	Jason Scerri	Stefan Engel	11	125
07	Ireland	Never Again	Lamph	Eoin Jackson, Clodagh Jackson	Eoin Jackson, Clodagh Jackson	14	119
08	Lithuania	Kai tave pamatau	Ignas Valiulis	Ignas Valiulis	Ignas Valiulis	9	147
09	Sweden II	Välkommen, du vår	Martin Kahnberg	Martin Kahnberg	Martin Kahnberg	16	109
10	United Kingdom II	Body Rocks	ConstantX	Constantinos Karaiskos, Chris Hall	Constantinos Karaiskos	5	193
11	Sweden III	Master Of The Universe	Majo	Majo	Majo	20	95
12	Australia	Betting On It	Rainbow Orbit	Phil McNulty	Phil McNulty	24	57
13	Germany III	High	Kristina Pedersen	Miles Young, Monica Krogstad	Miles Young, Monica Krogstad	6	175
14	United Kingdom III	Happy Ever After	The Quirks	Andrew Mendelson	Andrew Mendelson	19	96
15	United Kingdom IV	Why Do We Have To Pretend?	londonvision	Andy Brook	Andy Brook	2	225
16	Norway I	Grow Old	Strings Live Band	Ole Morten Bowitz	Ole Morten Bowitz	4	196
17	United Kingdom V	Watch Out For The Butterflies	Cellphone	Jim Brook	Jim Brook	21	94
18	Sweden IV	Happy Ending	Ben Robertson	Ben Robertson	Ben Robertson	23	78
19	Norway II	The Angels Sing	Roy Vorland	Roy Vorland	Roy Vorland	7	166
20	United Kingdom VI	Storm	Andrew Boyes	Andrew Boyes	Andrew Boyes	25	50
21	Finland	Fall From A Height	Snowclone	Tero Aalto	Tero Aalto	12	120
22	Ukraine	Replaying	Iana Kovalova	Iana Kovalova	Iana Kovalova	1	227
23	Norway III	Broken Heart	Mo Kowkabi	Mo Kowkabi	Mo Kowkabi	15	110
24	Norway IV	Sparkling Eyes	Billy Fraser	K W Fraser	K W Fraser	17	108
25	Germany IV	Fly	Janneck Schmacke	Janneck Schmacke	Janneck Schmacke	8	162
26	Greece	San finikas	Maria Charalampidou	Konstantinos Papoutsis	Konstantinos Papoutsis	18	106
27	Romania	Love Is What We Do	Floriana	Sergey Vasenkin	Floriana Pachia	3	200

Scoreboard

	Juries
																																	Total
Static On The Radio	4	6	3	8			8	2	1		6	8	8	2	6	6	2	2	3	5	6	1	5	3	2	4	5	5	7		6	5	129
Screed Of 'kin Chestnuts	5	1		3	5																	5					2						21
En evidencia		2	4	7	5	8	7	3		4			5		10	4	5		10	2	5	2	6	1	2	8		7	5	2	2	4	120
Malen'kiy drug		6			2															1	5	6					1						21
Själens vingar	4	7		5	3	1							12		4				4			12	1	8		6	12						79
Bis ans Ende der Zeit			5	4	3	6	8	1		6		4	4	8	3	8	12	3			2	2	7	10	12			2		6	3	6	125
Never Again	2	10	12	10	8	4	5			5	2			4	3	3	1	3		6		6	3	1	1	10	6	5			6	3	119
Kai tave pamatau	3	5		3	4	12		6	6	5	10	3	3	4	4	2	8	4	3	6			5	8	3	1		10	6	1	12	10	147
Välkommen, du vår	5		1		4	2	12	6	2		10		8		5				5		7		3	3	6	6	10	1		1	5	7	109
Body Rocks	10		6	7		10	2	8	7	8	8	12	10	12	8		6	7	4	2	3		6	5	7	7	7	8	6	8	4	5	193
Master Of The Universe	3	4	1					5	2	3	12	3		2	5	5		5	7		8		1	7	1		10		8	3			95
Betting On It		8	2	8	2	1			1		7	1				2	6	1	1	1		3				5	2	3	2			1	57
High	6	4	5	6		10	10	10	8	8	6	6	7	6	1	5	4	6	6	4	4				5	8	7	6	5	2	10	10	175
Happy Ever After	1				1		10		6	4			1	3	8	4			5	10		10	8	7	3					5	8	2	96
Why Do We Have To Pretend?	8		8	10	1	7	5	7	7	7	5	10	6	10	7	10	10	10		7	12		8	6	10	5	8	12	10	10	5	4	225
Grow Old	10		7	4	10	2	3	4	8		2	7	5	10		8	5	12	6	5	6	3	12	10	8	3	6	7	12	10	4	7	196
Watch Out For The Butterflies	2	3		12	7			7		3	8	4	3	6	2		1	2	8			8	4			2		8	1	3			94
Happy Ending		7	3		6	5	1		3	1		2		8	1	3		8		4	7						5	10		4			78
The Angels Sing	12	2	10		12		1	4	12	10		5	7	7		7	10	7	2		4	7	10	6			3	4	10	5	3	6	166
Storm	1	12	2			3		2			3	2			7		3	1				1					8	1	2			2	50
Fall From A Height		5	6			6	2	5	4	1	7	6	4	1	2	1	3	8	7	3	2	10	2	4	4	10		3	4		7	3	120
Replaying			10	1	6	5	3	12	10	10	3	10	6	7	10	12	8		10	10	10	5	10	12	10	1	4	6	8	6	10	12	227
Broken Heart	7	3		6		4	4	8	5	2	1	5	2	3					8	8	10	4		5	8	4	1		3	7	2		110
Sparkling Eyes	6	1	7	2	10		6	10	5	6	1		1	1		1	2	5		7	3	8			5	3		4	4	8	1	1	108
Fly	8	8	4	2	7	7	6	1	3	7	4	7	2	5	6	7	4	6	2	12	8		2	2	4	12	3		3	4	8	8	162
San finikas	7	10		5		3	4		4	2	4	1		5		6	7	4	1	3	1	7	4	2	6	7	4		1	7	1		106
Love Is What We Do			8	1	8	8	7	3	10	12	5	8	10		12	10	7	10	12	8	1	4	7	4	7	2		2	7	12	7	8	200

Media

HCSC 2023 winner: Iana Kovalova - Replaying

Recap of all HCSC 2023 songs in draw order
The hosts

The logo