How many countries will compete in 2025?

[Mainshow]

According to Dutch media, the Netherlands will take part.

That's a good sign! , and won't withdraw, will be back.

As long as we won't be getting a shock "withdrawing country" like Australia, ESC will be more than fine and alive.

‘Nederland doet gewoon mee aan songfestival': door tijdsdruk lijkt herkansing Joost Klein enige optie

Nederland doet in 2025 gewoon weer mee aan het Eurovisie Songfestival. Bronnen melden aan Het Parool dat de plooien tussen de Nederlandse delegatie en organisator EBU op enkele details na zijn gladgestreken. Joost Klein lijkt favoriet voor een tweede kans.

www.ad.nl

 

[MojVoda]

No official confirmation of how many participants taking part yet?

 

[Mainshow]

No official confirmation of how many participants taking part yet?

The EBU hasn't announced the official list of participating countries yet.

Last time, they presented the official list on 5th December, 2023

Here are the dates of the last "official participating" lists:

22nd December --> 2008
12th January --> 2009
31st December --> 2010
31st December --> 2011
17th January --> 2012 [Armenia withdrew on 7th March]
21st December --> 2013
9th January --> 2014 [Slovenia announced their participation on 17th January]
23rd December --> 2015
26th November --> 2016
31st October --> 2017
7th November --> 2018
7th November --> 2019
13th November --> 2020
26th October --> 2021
20th October --> 2022
22nd October --> 2023
5th December --> 2024

Personally, I think that December is quite late, especially when they announced it back in 2014 for Vienna.
Let's hope we will be getting the list shortly after 8th November when the Netherlands's deadline passed (even though they already basically confirmed their participation).

 

[rasmuslights]

Yeah we'll probably get it in November.

 

[GRE]

We have 35 countries at the moment.
Still waiting for Poland, Armenia and Moldova.
I think they will be all in.
So, 38 countries for 2025 ?
I am not sure, because I don't exclude a suprise by North Macedonia or Romania or Bulgaria or Monaco.

 

[goncalovieira]

39 probably. Romania is returning...

 

[rasmuslights]

39 probably. Romania is returning...

are they?

Hopefully, Monaco is returning as well! i'm so interested in what they'd do.

 

[Looren]

So with Poland we now have 36 confirmed countries

Moldova and Armenia will probably confirm soon, that'll give us 38, I'm confident about Romania returning, I hope North Macedonia will but I don't think so, I don't believe in a Bulgaria or Hungary comeback

So we'll probably be at 39

 

[Mainshow]

So with Poland we now have 36 confirmed countries

Moldova and Armenia will probably confirm soon, that'll give us 38, I'm confident about Romania returning, I hope North Macedonia will but I don't think so, I don't believe in a Bulgaria or Hungary comeback

So we'll probably be at 39

I don't think North Macedonia will come back.

Even Eurovoix published an article stating that "it's probably too late for them to enter ESC 2025" today:

🇲🇰 North Macedonia: Likely Too Late For MRT to Compete in Eurovision 2025 - Eurovoix

North Macedonian media reports that MRT is likely out of Eurovision 2025, but could return in 2026.

eurovoix.com

 

[GRE]

These are the chances for the remaining countries=>
92%
86%
54%
41%
33%
25%

 

[rasmuslights]

These are the chances for the remaining countries=>
92%
86%
54%
41%
33%
25%

I actually think it's more likely Armenia will participate than Moldova.

But otherwise, I agree.

 

[ESC94]

I think and will confirm as well, bringing us to a total of 38 and at least a slight improvement in participating countries.

 

[Mainshow]

^^ just confirmed their participation - I just hope that will do the same soon as well.
38 is a great number since it's an improvement, for sure (like @ESC94 already said).

A huge amount of fans were crying about how ESC "is dead" because of Israel's participation, pity votes and how the EBU behaved (even though the police were investigating Joost's case and no delegation officially complained about the Israeli delegation)... and here we are.. a new ESC season is around the corner and so far, no country withdrew and the EBU was able to get another country back.

I would love the participants to hit 40 again but we're still facing wars on our continent/around us -As an avid fan, I'm glad Eurovision is still thriving.

 

[rasmuslights]

^^ just confirmed their participation - I just hope that will do the same soon as well.
38 is a great number since it's an improvement, for sure (like @ESC94 already said).

A huge amount of fans were crying about how ESC "is dead" because of Israel's participation, pity votes and how the EBU behaved (even though the police were investigating Joost's case and no delegation officially complained about the Israeli delegation)... and here we are.. a new ESC season is around the corner and so far, no country withdrew and the EBU was able to get another country back.

I would love the participants to hit 40 again but we're still facing wars on our continent/around us -As an avid fan, I'm glad Eurovision is still thriving.

It hurt the image of esc a bit but it was not a big deal for most people.

 

[ESC94]

It hurt the image of esc a bit but it was not a big deal for most people.

To be honest people who were put off by that weren´t really fans of the ESC anyway.

 

[GRE]

These are the chances for the remaining countries=>
86%
54%
41%
33%
25%

I still hope for some of these countries.
I have a feeling that the final number will be 39. So, Armenia + one surprise.

 

[Mainshow]

The CD-loving geek in me keeps his fingers crossed for 40 participants, though - an even number of tracks on each CD would be the best case scenario - especially if they hit 20 entries per disk

 

[Mainshow]

I needed a break from correcting class tests and therefore, I looked up all dates when the EBU officially announced the lists of participants for Eurovision since the introduction of the two semi finals.
I think that's the most crucial factor here since the EBU basically doubled the amount of delegations and the host cities need time to adjust, prepare and organise everything.

Although the latest editions have been announced in October/November, I think it's interesting to point out that the month of December appears the most. As a fan, I'm impatient too but I guess that waiting for "so long" for the final list isn't "unusual".

October	November	December	January
2017 2021 2022 2023	2016 2018 2019 2020	2008 2010 2011 2013 2015 2024	2009 2012 2014

 

[rasmuslights]

I needed a break from correcting class tests and therefore, I looked up all dates when the EBU officially announced the lists of participants for Eurovision since the introduction of the two semi finals.
I think that's the most crucial factor here since the EBU basically doubled the amount of delegations and the host cities need time to adjust, prepare and organise everything.

Although the latest editions have been announced in October/November, I think it's interesting to point out that the month of December appears the most. As a fan, I'm impatient too but I guess that waiting for "so long" for the final list isn't "unusual".

October	November	December	January
2017 2021 2022 2023	2016 2018 2019 2020	2008 2010 2011 2013 2015 2024	2009 2012 2014

I think it's interesting that in 2024 we were waiting till December because of Romania...

Why have we been waiting for so long this year? The Netherlands confirmed in October already so it's not because of them.

Moldova and Armenia applied before 15th September but just didn't announce it.

So I suspect it must be another country...

Probably Romania again or maybe Monaco.

 

[Mainshow]

I think it's interesting that in 2024 we were waiting till December because of Romania...

Why have we been waiting for so long this year? The Netherlands confirmed in October already so it's not because of them.

Moldova and Armenia applied before 15th September but just didn't announce it.

So I suspect it must be another country...

Probably Romania again or maybe Monaco.

I think you're on to something.

It doesn't make sense to wait for so long to announce the participants - especially since all broadcasters already confirmed their participation in advance.
Even Moldova somehow did because they published a formular for artists to submit their entries for a potential NF.
Unless we're waiting for Armenia all of a sudden, it has to be a another country.

Let's have a look at the "later dates".. we always waited for some countries to make a decision
2009 --> Latvia and Georgia
2012 --> Armenia
2014 --> Slovenia
2024 --> Romania

When it comes to the other "late dates", we didn't get "official reasons" but major countries withdrew, e.g. Ukraine in 2015, Turkey in 2013 or we got a Big 5 country back, e.g. Italy in 2011.