Vienna has previously hosted the Contest in 1967 at the Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg. It also hosted in 2015, following Conchita Wurst’s victory with ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’. Just as the 2026 event, it was hosted in the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna,
Why Vienna?
Not long after JJ’s victory with ‘Wasted Love’, we looked at our expectations for the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest to discuss the choice of venue:
We’ve been to Vienna before, most recently in 2015 for the sixtieth anniversary. There’s likely going to be a political push to go elsewhere; Saltzburg and Innsbruck are likely to join in the bidding.
Yet given the demands of a modern contest (high load-bearing roofs, load-bearing floors, extensive hotel network and local facilities, international transport close by, and more), it’s hard to look beyond Vienna. Ten years between hosting is undoubtedly enough to calm down the ‘oh no, not again’ crowd and for ORF to have a fresh batch of ideas.
Many in the community wondered if hosting for the third time would be seen as too much by ORF, and Innsbruck would have an edge as it was a first-time host. While that may have been one factor, the distance of Innsbruck from primary travel links and limited international airline destinations would have been a bigger concern.
In any case, hosting three times is not unknown; Stockholm, Malmö, and Copenhagen have done so. London and Luxembourg City have hosted four times, and Dublin has hosted six times.
Some Familiar Names
Expectations will be running high that Conchita will be part of The Big Show when we get to May, and that would not surprise us. But if you asked me who should come back from the competitive side of the Song Contest to be part of the production, it’s Kaleen:
She also worked on the stagings for acts in Eurovision in 2022, 2023 and 2025, often in collaboration with her husband, Marvin Dietmann.
While some might say Dietmann’s got the edge on her with a longer resume as creative director, we’d note that Kaleen has actually appeared as a contestant on the Eurovision stage, and thus has a unique perspective on what all the artists might be going through. ORF would miss a trick by not bringing Kaleen on board as part of its creative team …or at least having her lead a rave.
What else are we expecting from Vienna 2026? Read all nine of our expectations here.