It’s been a long process, but it has finally come to an end, and we can finally move on… Kyiv will host the contest in 2017!
Today marks the day, of a very difficult process, which has come to an end, which for most Eurovision fans, is a relief of joy. Since May, when Stockholm hosted the contest in the Globen Arena, and the place where Jamala from Ukraine was declared the winner of the contest, then 1 important question began to circulate among Eurovision fans, and the entire Eurovision world, which was “Who will host the contest in 2017?”. Already seconds after the contest in Stockholm had concluded, loads of speculations already stirred up in media and around the internet.
It didn’t take long either, before multiple cities in Ukraine expressed their wishes and desire of hosting the contest, which would now take place somewhere in Ukraine. However, despite previous host countries had shown this to be an more easy selection, then it wasn’t as easy for the country of Ukraine, to finally pick a host city and venue.
Originally, about 10 cities around in Ukraine expressed their bid for hosting, but only 6 of them were considered for this huge task. The cities of Lviv, Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro, Kherson and Kharkiv were considered as possible cities, that could host the contest, and after a televised debate, with important people from each of the 6 cities. Few days later, when only 2 cities would make it to the final round, then instead we were given 3 cities that could still host the contest, which were the cities of Dnipro, Kyiv and Odessa, that all made it to the final round. With this, shockingly, eliminating the favorite city, Lviv, that was the big favorite to host the contest, not only by Eurovision fans, but also by the Ukrainian public.
Multiple times, it was announced that a final announcement would soon take place, but not only once, but twice, it got delayed instead. The delays made the mayor of Dnipro furious, and eventually he expressed himself on social media, about this entire bidding phase in a furious way, which eventually had the consequences of eliminating Dnipro from hosting the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, which left only Odessa and Kyiv as possible host cities, for the 2017 contest.
This eventually led the entire thing, to become way to political than it needed to be, having resulted in speculations and news, that both Odessa and Kyiv each had won the rights to host the contest, but denied each other the chance to host it, due to multiple news about both cities not being capable of hosting the contest, due to lack of multiple things that wouldn’t be good for a host city.
Reasons to why Dnipro was eliminated or why the host city announcement was cancelled two times, has still not been fully confirmed, only speculations has surrounded the internet, and eventually the EBU did notice this problem that was going on, for selecting the host city, and time was running out, so more rumors were coming out, that if Ukraine hadn’t decided on a host city by the end of this week, the the contest would’ve eventually have been removed from Ukraine completely.
Third time was the time we finally got it confirmed, and from here, Kyiv was announced as the city that would host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017.
Kyiv is definitely not unknown to, how to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Back in 2004 when Ruslana won the contest for the first time for Ukraine, Kyiv was also the host city of the contest that took place in 2005, despite a year with a lot of political chaos, since the Orange Revolution took place right between Ruslana’s victory in 2004, and up to the contest in Kyiv in 2005. Back then, the Palace of Sports hosted the contest, and was also one of the proposed venues to host the 2017 contest. However, it was already decided, before Jamala’s victory, that the Palace of Sports would host the 2017 IIHF World Championship in Ice Hockey for Division 1 teams, which will be held between the 22nd and until the 28th of April, leaving no possible time for the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the Arena.
Kyiv also hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 & in 2013, with the 2009 edition also taking place in the Palace of Sports arena. While the 2013 contest, took place in the Palace “Ukraine” arena.
Now in 2017, the International Exhibition Centre(Top picture) in Kyiv will host the contest, despite this venue was submitted as a reserve. The venue is expected to have a capacity of 13.000 people during the contest.
