Next may, the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Liverpool. 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 37 competing entries.
This year’s contest
Now that the pandemic situation has begun to normalize and with the positive experiences of Rotterdam and Turin, the competition arrives in Liverpool without any health restrictions to face, but in the midst of a very complicated European geopolitical scenario that faces the economic and political consequences of the brutal war that has been ravaging Ukraine for over a year, and which, as could not be otherwise, has been felt, and will be felt, during the celebration of the contest this year.
Despite everything, music and European brotherhood make their way once again with the celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The choice of venue has not been easy at all. With the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the possibility of Ukraine hosting the next festival as stated in the festival’s rules for having won the previous edition in Turin is complicated. The festival organization released a statement the same night as the Ukrainian victory affirming that they would remain in contact with the Ukrainian public broadcaster (UA: PBC) to see how the preparations were progressing. Once the situation was correctly analyzed, the organization was certain of the total impossibility of holding the competition on Ukrainian soil. Under these circumstances, the responsibility fell on the second-placed contestant in Turin 2022, in this case, the United Kingdom.
After a difficult selection process in which more than twenty cities from all over the country participated, with applications such as Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, or Birmingham, the BBC announced on September 27, 2022, the two possible cities that had passed all the filters of the process, these being specifically Glasgow and Liverpool. Finally, on Friday, October 7, 2022, Liverpool and the M&S Bank Arena were announced as the venue for the contest. The proposal highlighted the city’s rich musical culture and its ability to organize large-scale events. Liverpool has become an important cultural and tourist center in the UK, thanks to its rich musical history and tourist attractions such as the Cavern Club, where the Beatles began their career. The city also has a wide variety of restaurants, bars, and hotels to welcome visitors.
It is expected that the choice of Liverpool as the venue for Eurovision 2023 will have a positive impact on the local economy, as the organization predicts that thousands of people will travel to the city to attend the event and enjoy everything Liverpool has to offer. The choice of the city has also been well received by the UK music industry, as the festival is expected to help promote British music worldwide.
In addition to the obvious candidates of Ukraine and the UK, many countries throughout Europe offered to host, including Sweden, which offered the venue for Eurovision 2000 and 2016, the Globen Arena, Italy again, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, or Iceland.
Despite having five victories in the festival, the UK is the country that has hosted Eurovision the most times. London in 1960, 1963, 1968, and 1977, Edinburgh 1972, Brighton 1974, Harrogate 1982, and Birmingham in 1998 are the eight occasions and five cities that have welcomed the most important music festival internationally. Usually, the criteria for choosing the host city by the EBU is based on providing a place with a capacity for at least 10,000 spectators (as well as a press center), which should be close to an international airport and with ample hotel accommodation to host the thousands of visitors who attend the event.