Matt Friedrichs is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ESC United. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
As you might be aware, ESC United is a community for the fans of the Eurovision Song Contest. We have readers from all over the world and we appreciate every single visitor coming to our side.
I have lived in the United States of America for a very long time and being a fan of the contest isn’t the most convenient hobby when you’re so far away from Europe. Fortunately, the Internet era made it a lot easier and when the EBU introduced the Online Live Broadcast in the early 00’s, I was over the moon.
Over the last few years, I made it my mission to introduce the contest I cherish more than Peanut Butter, to the folks here on home soil. That has been a slow and draining process but we have made a lot of progress. As we previously reported, the American channel LOGO is going to broadcast the contest for the very first time. Needless to say that this is exciting news. In addition, Justin Timberlake is going to perform during Saturday’s Grand Final show. Hopefully this will be a great incentive for viewers to tune in and fall in love with the contest, just like I did 18 years ago.
I was recently interviewed by the Guardian, a British Daily Newspaper. I spoke with Bella Qvist and she put together this amazing article: “How Eurovision finally cracked America”. You get to read my perspective as well as Jon Ola Sand’s, the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest. Here are a some excerpts of my statements made on behalf of ESC United:
“I could not be more thrilled. Although technically everyone has access to the internet, only a tiny, tiny percentage of people in America would bother going online to watch the live stream.”
“Hopefully with all the changes coming up – us broadcasting it, Justin Timberlake performing – those are important first steps that we can build on … and it’s the right channel to do so,”
You can read the full article HERE.
Thank you to Bella Qvist and Guardian, giving us this platform to share our thoughts and spread the Eurovision love around the globe. It is still a pipe dream of mine to start an “American Song Contest” but I am going to finish this article by saying “Never Say Never”!
