Last week the floor plan of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö (Sweden) was published, and on the accompanied picture can be seen that this year’s green room is behind the stage, which is a first, the last time this happened was back in 2012, with the exception of the editions of 2013 and 2019.
Eurovision 2024
The Eurovision Song Contest of 2024 will have a Eurovision-first, which is that the stage will be in the middle of the arena, rather than against one part of the arena the contest is hosted in. The stage is shaped like a cross, which means that a semi-360 degree viewing-experience is created for the contest’s audience. Next to this, this year’s stage will have moveable LED cubes, LED floors, exquisite light effects, and both stage and video technology to ensure that each act will have its own unique style
A history of the Eurovision green room
Eurovision 2011
Before 2011 the Eurovision green room was never in the arena where the actual contest was being held, but always in a nearby room. In 2011 in Düsseldorf (Germany) the green room was right behind the LED screen of the stage, and was opened by the two hosts of the contest, Anke Engelke and Stefan Raab, by screaming “Open this gate!” and “Tear down this wall!”, which were both slogans used by former President of the USA, Ronald Reagan, when the Berlin Wall was broken down.
Eurovision 2013 and 2019
The contests of 2013 in Malmö (Sweden) and 2019 in Tel Aviv (Israel) had extra seating in the green room for fans, which was unique, and did not happen in other years. In 2019 the desk where the Executive Supervisor and Voting Supervisors sat were in the back of the green room, so not in the arena where the audience was.
Eurovision 2015
During the Eurovision Song Contest of 2015 in Vienna (Austria) the audience was placed between the Eurovision green room and the stage. That year’s slogan was “Building Bridges”, which also meant that the stage and the green room could be connected with a bridge and the audience could be separated; the same principle was used in the contests of 2016 in Stockholm (Sweden) and 2018 in Lissabon (Portugal).
Eurovision 2021 and 2022
During the contest of 2021 and 2022, in which the global pandemic was still very present, the audience standing part of the arena was used to place the green room of these Eurovision years.