The EBU has confirmed that Eurovision 2023 is going to be hosted by the BBC in the United Kingdom.
The next step in the process will be the process of finding a Host City, which will be a formalised bidding process that looks at the capability of hosting the Contest. This is not just about the venue, but also the infrastructure around the venue, hotel capacity, national and international connections, availability of funding, and more. The community may feel there are obvious answers, but the Contest is a huge and complicated beast and many of the more technical requirements are not visible to the public.
In terms of the Contest itself, the EBU notes that Ukraine will be an automatic qualifier through to the Grand Final alongside the “Big Five” of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Assuming the Semi Finals are organised similarly to previous years, we’ll have a 26-song show on the Saturday night.
Other elements of the show will be altered to reflect the unique nature of the Contest. The BBC will be working with UA:PBC, Ukraine’s public broadcaster, to bring Ukrainian elements into the show. Reflecting this in the logo and the staging has been mentioned by the EBU, but it is early days in the process of bringing the show together to expect an answer right now.
Just as the Eurovision brought together its audience and the wider public in a show of support to Ukraine at the 2022 Contest, that support will continue to be on show as we look towards the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, wherever in the UK it will be.
Will this site be doing a comparison/pros and cons of each city? Will all the bid manifestos be available to read?
This is one aspect of the contest that really interest’s me, and for so long I’ve dreamed of seeing what would happen if it was coming here
Are we getting any updates on trying to back-calculate the Sammarinese ‘televote’? For my money it’s the most interesting thing this site has ever done so fingers crossed!