Ellie-Mae Davies
Impact’s Ellie-Mae Davies outlines the reasons that led to the UK holding the next Eurovision despite not winning and how Liverpool was chosen as the city to host.
The UK will host in honour of Ukraine and aim to celebrate the success of the country
Last year’s Eurovision contest saw the success of the Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine with their performance of Stefania. They were majorly favoured by the European public and accumulated a staggering 468 points. The country’s success meant that Ukraine was due to host the competition this upcoming year, as by Eurovision tradition. However, due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, it was decided by Eurovision organisers that it would not be safe for the country to host the competition this year. Therefore, officially announced on 25th July 2022, the location of Eurovision 2023 had to change. In aid of Ukraine’s circumstances, they will immediately proceed to the final and the UK will host in honour of Ukraine and aim to celebrate the success of the country.
Sam Ryder achieved second place in last year’s competition with his song Space Man. This was the first time that the UK had come that close to winning the competition since 1997 when Katrina and the Waves achieved first place. As runner up, it was announced that the UK would host the competition in 2023.
There was a total of 7 cities considered to host the competition including: Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield. The EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and the BBC judged each of the cities on their hosting capabilities such as seating capacities since the competition typically would hold up to 10,000 people. Liverpool and Glasgow became the final two cities in the running until it was decided on 7th October that Liverpool will be hosting.
Being one of the most significant cities for music, Liverpool is also famous for its orchestra, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Liverpool was chosen as the host city for next Eurovision because of its incredible music background. It is home to major artists like The Beatles, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and more recent bands such as Circa Waves. It is also home to one of Eurovision’s previous runners up Sonia. Being one of the most significant cities for music, Liverpool is also famous for its orchestra, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. It is being held at the M&S Bank Arena on Liverpool’s waterfront which many famous musicians have performed at such as Lewis Capaldi, The 1975 and the legendary Whitney Houston.
The final of Eurovision 2023 will be held on 13th May. Will you be watching?
Ellie-Mae Davies
Featured image courtesy of Magnus Lunay via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In-article images 1, 2, and 3 courtesy of @eurovision via Instagram.com. No changes were made to these images.
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