Eurovision Eurovision 2022

EXCLUSIVE: Download the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 ESCplus Handbook!

Next may, the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Rotterdam. ESCplus is ready to keep all our readers informed, both on the website and social networks. In the meantime, you can download our exclusive handbook for this year’s edition to find out everything you need to know about all 40 competing entries.

This year’s CONTEST

Having tested the possibility of holding contests and events of this kind with the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, and the Junior Eurovision 2020 and 2021 in Warsaw and Paris respectively, the contest arrives in Italy in the midst of a rather complicated European geopolitical situation and a health situation that has not yet stabilised.

Nevertheless, music and European twinning will once again make its way to the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy. As last year, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is considering several venues for the event, which is expected to be held in the traditional pre-pandemic way but with heightened security measures. It will be the second festival to be held during a global pandemic. The EBU has promised that the event will be held in any health situation that may occur over the next few months during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, the organisation will follow the plan set out in 2021 with three containment plans ready to be used in case the health situation changes.

The Italian government will contribute to the event with an envelope of 1.5 million euros to cover the costs of promotion and all related events. The organisation of the Eurofestival will require an investment of between 25 and 20 million euros, approximately one fifth of which will be covered by the EBU, with the remainder to be shared between the Rai, municipal contributions and private sponsors. The participation of the local authorities is around EUR 7 million.

RAI, the Italian public broadcaster officially founded on 10 April 1954 and founder of the EBU, will be the broadcaster of the event. RAI was considering several options to host the festival among the seventeen cities that initially applied to host the event, including the favourites Rome, Milan and Turin. San Remo, which has been hosting the legendary Italian festival for 71 years, was also in the running. Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Trieste, Alessandria, Matera, Pesaro, Rimini, Viterbo, Acireale, Bertinoro, Jesolo and Palazzolo Acreide were the other cities that applied last summer.

Finally, on 8 October, the host broadcaster and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the European music competition will be held in the city of Turin on 10, 12 and 14 May 2022. The venue chosen is the Pala Alpitour, a multi-sports and exhibition hall in the city of Turin, located in the Santa Rita district in the south of the city, next to the Olympic Stadium. It was inaugurated in December 2005 to host the ice hockey competition at the 2006 Olympic Games. It has a surface area of 34,000 m² and a maximum capacity of 14,000 spectators. The pavilion was built according to plans by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki and Italian architect Pier Paolo Maggiora, and is considered one of the best and largest sports venues in Italy. The welcome party on Sunday, 8 May will be held at Palazzo Venaria, an iconic Turin royal residence and official residence of the House of Savoy. The Eurovillage, a meeting area for fans of the event and a venue for live performances by the participating artists, will be set up in the “Parco de Valentino”.

With regard to the countries participating in this year’s festival, there have been two returns, those of Armenia, after the end of the conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan, and Montenegro, after securing the necessary funding to return to compete in the event. On the other hand, we have to regret the elimination of Russia, as a result of the sanctions imposed on the country on a global scale due to the invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine that began on 24 February. Due to the large scale that the conflict has acquired on a European and global level, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will have the theme of peace as its main thread.

Eurovision

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