Further changes could be coming to the Eurovision Song Contest, as the Lithuanian Head of Delegation discusses the introduction of an arena tour for Eurovision participants.
Speaking on Labas rytas, Lietuva, the Lithuanian Head of Delegation, Audrius Giržadas, stated that a new arena tour is being introduced for Eurovision Song Contest participants. According to Mr Giržadas, ten of the acts that will compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest will be invited to take part in a ten-date arena tour of Europe following the competition.
Should the arena tour take place, this would be the first time that the European Broadcasting Union and its member broadcasters have organised any post-contest tour of its participating artists since 2008. Between 2007 and 2008, the EBU organised the ‘Winner’s Tour’.
The tour saw the winner of that year’s contest appear on TV, hold press conferences, perform and promote their winning song across Europe. In 2007, Marija Šerifović visited Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece and Germany as part of the tour. While in 2008, Dima Bilan travelled to Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and San Marino.
In recent years, a number of post-Eurovision concerts and tours have been held; however, none have been organised fully by the European Broadcasting Union. In 2018, the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT organised the ‘Eurovision Afterparty‘ in Kaunas, inviting a number of the acts from 2018 to perform for audiences in Kaunas. While ‘Eurovision on Tour‘ was held in 2024 by a private organisation formed of past participants and winners, the event saw event cancellations due to poor ticket sales. A number of standalone concerts for past participants will take place later this year, including EuroFesta in Italy and Het Grote Songfestivalfeest in the Netherlands.
The European Broadcasting Union has not commented on the comments from the Lithuanian Head of Delegation.
Image Source: Corinne Cumming / EBU | Source: LRT (ESC Discord)
