After months and months of waiting, we finally know where we are going in 2023. It’s taken a while, considering the unique situation and challenge that 2022 proved to be, but the wait if finally over!
Host Selection for 2023
As a reminder, the selection for next year’s host city has been more difficult than previous years. Back in May, Kalush Orchestra were victorious and claimed the 3rd victory for Ukraine at the song contest, sadly due to the ongoing situation, it was deemed that Ukraine was in an unsuitable situation to host the show in 2023.
For the first time, in more than four decades, the winning nation could not able to host the following contest. This meant that another nation was to be picked, and many countries were willing to stand in for Ukraine, but in the end, this chance was given to the United Kingdom and the BBC.
Many cities around the United Kingdom was closely following the situation, given that the country had finished as the runner-up of the 2022 contest, and many of them were well prepared in advance. A total of 20 different cities across the kingdom, had made a bid into hosting the competition.
At this point, a lot of time had already gone wasted, so full commitment was surely a key factor when it was time to shortlist the candidate cities. On August 12th, only 7 cities were left and and on September 27th only the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool remained in this race.
Now on the 7th of October, we can finally say… welcome to Liverpool!
Liverpool 2023
The show will be hosted in M&S Bank Arena and has been set to be taking place on the 9th and 11th of May with the semi-finals and the grand final on the 13th of May 2023!
The city of Liverpool has a long and rich music history and is even considered the musical city of the United Kingdom. Probably most well known for being the city of The Beatles. The bid had even gained loads of support from various fields of art and entertainment, surely it is expected that the city will be ready with open arms.
The city even has a strong connection to Ukraine, which has been one of the driving spirits for most bids. The Ukranian city of Odessa is actually a twin city of Liverpool. Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of UA:PBC, had the following to say:
- ‘It is symbolic that the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Liverpool, a twin city of Odesa. The organisation of a contest of this level sets super demanding requirements. I am confident that the city recognised as the capital of pop music will meet them in the best way and will deliver the celebration of music that will amaze both delegations and fans of Eurovision.’
The executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Österdahl also had the following to say:
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‘Liverpool is the ideal place to host the 67th Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine.
The city is synonymous with music and Liverpool Arena exceeds all the requirements needed to stage a global event of this scale. We have been very impressed with the passion the city has shown in embracing the Contest and their inclusive ideas for placing last year’s winners, Ukraine, front and centre when thousands of fans visit next May.
This will be the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the UK in 25 years and, as we work with our Host Broadcaster, the BBC, to celebrate Ukraine’s victory, this unique production promises to be a very special one indeed.’
Now that we know where we’re going, the big question is now, will we see #YOU in Liverpool next year?
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Source(s): Eurovision.TV
