Liverpool City Council has announced that it has submitted its bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.
Liverpool has submitted its bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 today, ahead of the reveal of the shortlisted cities this Friday. Liverpool was among the first cities to state it wished to host the competition when it was first announced that the EBU and BBC were in discussions about the contest coming to the United Kingdom.
The city is known globally as the birthplace of the Beatles, as well as music events such as Africa Oyé, Liverpool International Music Festival and Sound City. The city is home to just under 500,000 people and is known for its iconic music venues and cultural events. The city is connected to the world via Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Assistant Mayor and Cabinet Member for Culture and Visitor Economy, Councillor Harry Doyle, said:
“We are excited to have submitted a bid for Liverpool to host Eurovision 2023.
“Making a major event like this possible in such a short timeframe is complicated and is going to need some careful and creative planning, but we think Liverpool would be the perfect stage to celebrate this unique Eurovision.
“We look forward to finding out if we have been successful in getting through to the next stage of the process.”
How will the host city be chosen?
The selection process will consist of two rounds. After receiving all applications, bidding cities will be shortlisted “based on their ability to meet the requirements and their responses around capability and experience.”
The key requirement is described as follows:
“The final decision on selecting the Host City will be based on a city or region’s capacity and capability in meeting the BBC’s and the EBU’s requirements, as well as availability of resources and general experience in hosting a large and complex event such as the Eurovision Song Contest.”
The decision regarding where the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will be held is expected to be made this autumn when the bidding process is completed. According to the BBC, the UK government may be consulted beforehand, but it will be the BBC and the EBU who will determine the host city.
Who is currently in the running to host?
The following cities have confirmed that work has started on their bids:
While the following cities have already stated their intention to submit a bid or are investigating whether to bid:
The 2023 contest will be the first contest since 1979 in which the winning nation was unable to host the following contest. It is the sixth occasion overall on which the country has hosted after the original host nation was unable to, following the Netherlands in 1960, France in 1963, Monaco in 1972, Luxembourg in 1974 Israel in 1980 and Ukraine in 2023. The 2023 contest will also extend the United Kingdom’s record of hosting Eurovision to nine times.
Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song “Stefania”. It was Ukraine’s third victory in the contest’s history.
Image Source: Wikimedia / Rept0n1x | Source: Liverpool City Council
