The EBU have announce today that UA:PBC will be unable to host Eurovision 2023 and instead they have invited the BBC to take over preparations for the contest.
This news comes after period of uncertainty, as even a few days ago UA:PBC released a statement indicating very heavily that they were entirely able to fulfil hosting duties. The EBU have said with deep regret concluded that, given the current circumstances, the security and operational guarantees required for a broadcaster to host, organize and produce the Eurovision Song Contest under the ESC Rules cannot be fulfilled by UA:PBC.
They have now invited the BBC, as the United Kingdom came 2nd in Turin, to host the contest. The UK has previously hosted the contest on 8 occasions, 4 of which were stepping in for other countries, as 2023 will be. While we won’t know until the later summer or autumn where the BBC will host the contest, a likely frontrunner has become Edinburgh, as it is a sister city of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. However, there is some concern over Edinburgh’s perhaps lack of a suitable venue, so nearby Glasgow has been banded around as a possibility.
The EBU have stated that is it is their full intention that Ukraine’s win will be reflected in next year’s contest, and that will be a priority for them. Therefore it has been speculated that we could see a situation where the contest is hosted by one British and one Ukrainian presenter, we could get several past Ukrainian entries as interval acts and we could get a large focus on Ukrainian culture. In past years when other countries stepped in to host, the most that ever happened was the orchestra playing the previous years’ winner over the opening montage… this only happened once, and that was in 1972, which coincidentally was held by the BBC in Edinburgh.
While the BBC have yet to accept the offer to host, as will likely happen in the coming days, considering the comments of Government Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, who was enthusiastic about hosting the contest, it seems likely that the BBC will receive the full backing of the UK Government, in light of their continual support of Ukraine.
The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, has taken to Twitter to express her support for hosting the contest in Glasgow.
Additionally, the Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson, has said: “We send our love and solidarity as always to the people of Ukraine. Our city would love to do you proud and give your beautiful country the Eurovision platform it deserves.“
The BBC, themselves, have released a statement saying: “We have seen the announcement from the EBU. Clearly these aren’t a set of circumstances that anyone would want. Following their decision, we will of course discuss the BBC hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.“
