Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Eurovision Song Contest 2024
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is set to be the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It is scheduled to take place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Tattoo" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (SVT), the contest will be held at the Malmö Arena, and will consist of two semi-finals on 7 and 9 May, and a final on 11 May 2024. It will be the third edition of the contest to take place in Malmö, which hosted it in and , and the seventh in Sweden, which last hosted it in Stockholm in .
Location
The 2024 contest will take place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 2023 edition with the song "Tattoo", performed by Loreen. It will be the seventh time Sweden hosts the contest, having previously done so in , and . The selected venue is the 15,500-seat Malmö Arena, a multi-purpose indoor arena which serves as a venue for handball matches, floorball matches, concerts, and other events, noted for having already hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013.
Bidding phase
Immediately after Sweden's win in the 2023 contest, the first cities to voice their interest in hosting the 2024 edition were Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, the three largest cities in the country as well as the ones to have previously hosted the contest. Besides these, a number of other cities also expressed their intention to bid in the days that followed the 2023 victory, namely Eskilstuna, Jönköping, Örnsköldsvik, Partille and Sandviken.
SVT set a deadline of 12 June 2023 for interested cities to formally apply. Stockholm and Gothenburg officially announced their bids on 7 and 10 June respectively, followed by Malmö and Örnsköldsvik on 13 June. Shortly before the closing of the application period, SVT revealed that it had received several bids, later clarifying that they had come from these four cities. Prior to this announcement, Sandviken and Jönköping had already declared to have opted out. On 7 July, Gothenburg and Örnsköldsvik's bids were reported to have been eliminated. Later that day, the EBU and SVT announced Malmö as the host city.
Key:
Host city
Shortlisted
Submitted a bid
Provisional list of participating countries
Eligibility for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with an active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the Eurovision network and broadcasting it live nationwide. The EBU issues invitations to participate in the contest to all members.
For the 2024 contest, eligible countries had until 15 September 2023 to send the EBU confirmation of their participation and until 11 October 2023 to withdraw without facing financial penalties. The EBU is expected to release the official list of participating countries in November.
the following 35 countries have publicly confirmed their intention to participate in 2024. is set to return to the contest 31 years after its last participation in .
Other countries
Active EBU members
In mid-September 2023, Macedonian broadcaster MRT published its budget plan for the 2023/2024 season, which included a sum of money allocated for participation in the 2024 contest. However, in late October 2023, the programme planning chair of MRT, Smilka Janeska Sarkanjac, clarified that a decision was yet to be made and the plan was still awaiting the approval of the government. , it was expected to be finalised soon.
On 12 September 2023, it was reported that Romanian broadcaster TVR had submitted a new budget plan to the Ministry of Finance and that the country's participation in 2024 would depend on its approval. In late October 2023, it was reported that the plan had been approved and that a law was soon to be modified in order to secure the government's direct funding towards the broadcaster for the costs of participation in EBU events, meaning that Romania would most likely take part in the contest.
Active EBU member broadcasters in and have so far confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU.
Associate EBU members
In 2019, Australian broadcaster SBS was granted participation in the contest until 2023. On 21 September 2023, SBS revealed that it was in talks with the EBU to secure the country's participation in future editions. On 31 October 2023, the broadcaster confirmed that it would broadcast the 2024 contest and stated its intention to continue competing in the event, but added that the country's future participation was still under discussion.
Non-EBU members
In February 2023, Kosovar broadcaster RTK started to develop its intended national selection format for the contest while pushing for EBU membership and for a Eurovision 2024 invitation. On 16 October 2023, shortly before its launch, the director of the festival, Adi Krasta, confirmed that Kosovo would not be taking part in Eurovision in 2024, but reported that directors at EBU were "extremely enthusiastic" about the festival.
Production
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will be produced by the Swedish national broadcaster (SVT). The core team will consist of Ebba Adielsson as chief executive producer, as executive producer in charge of communications, Tobias Åberg as executive in charge of production, Johan Bernhagen as executive line producer, Christer Björkman as contest producer, and as TV producer. Additional production personnel will include head of production David Wessén, head of legal Mats Lindgren, head of media Madeleine Sinding-Larsen, and executive assistant Linnea Lopez.
Willers, Åberg, Bernhagen, Björkman and Lindgren have previously worked on the , 2013 and/or 2016 contests, in various capacities. Björkman has also produced the American Song Contest (an adaptation of the Eurovision format for the United States) and has been largely involved in , the Swedish national final for Eurovision, at which Blankens, Sinding-Larsen and Willers have also worked.
Malmö Municipality will contribute (approximately ) to the budget of the contest.
Format
Semi-final allocation draw
An allocation draw is organised to determine the participating countries' designated semi-final. The semi-finalists are divided over a number of pots, based on historical voting patterns, with the purpose of reducing the chance of "bloc voting" and to increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determines which semi-final each of the automatic qualifiershost country and "Big Five" countries (and the )will vote in and be required to broadcast. The ceremony is expected to be held in January 2024 and to include the passing of the host city insignia from the mayor (or equivalent role) of the previous host city to the one of the next host cityi.e. from Andrew Lewis, chief executive of the Liverpool City Council, to Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, commissioner of Malmö Municipality.
Proposed changes
A number of changes to the format of the contest have been proposed and/or considered for the 2024 edition. The first discussions on the matter took place at the annual Eurovision Song Contest Workshop, held at the in Berlin, Germany, on 12 September 2023. Decisions as to whether and what changes will be applied are up to the contest's reference group. The rules of the 2024 contest were published in November 2023; no notable changes were made compared to the previous edition.
Voting system and rules
After the outcome of the 2023 contest, which saw win despite 's lead in the televoting, sparked controversy among the audience, Norwegian broadcaster NRK started talks with the EBU regarding a potential revision of the jury voting procedure; it has been noted that Norwegian entries in recent years have also been penalised by the juries, particularly in and , when the country finished in sixth and fifth place overall, respectively, despite coming first in 2019 and third in 2023 with the televote. In an interview, the Norwegian head of delegation discussed the idea of reducing the jury's weight on the final score from the current 49.4% to 40% or 30%. Any changes to the voting system are expected to be officially announced in January 2024.
At the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2023, the EBU's deputy director-general Jean-Philip de Tender discussed the possibility of banning AI-generated content from the contest in order to preserve human contribution, maintaining that "creativity should come from humans and not from machines".
In late September 2023, Carolina Norén, 's commentator for the contest, revealed that she had resumed talks with executive supervisor Martin Österdahl concerning the qualification system; Norén suggested reviewing the rule whereby the "Big Five" countries directly qualify for the final, proposing to restrict it to only the previous winner and host country, and to require the "Big Five" to compete in the semi-finals.
Running time
Host broadcaster SVT is evaluating reducing the runtime of the final by approximately an hour, as it has significantly increased since the introduction of features such as the opening flag parade in 2013 and the split jury/televote system in 2016.
Broadcasts
All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing insight and voting information to their local audience. While they must broadcast at least the semi-final they are voting in and the final, most broadcasters air all three shows with different programming plans. In addition, some non-participating broadcasters air the contest. The Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel provides international live streams with no commentary of all shows.
The following are the broadcasters that have confirmed in whole or in part their broadcasting plans:
Notes
References
External links
2020s in Malmö
2024 in Swedish television
2024 song contests
2024
Events at Malmö Arena
Events in Malmö
May 2024 events in Sweden
Music competitions in Sweden