The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted next year in a city in the United Kingdom, to be decided later. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced this on Monday (25 July). Ukraine was originally supposed to organise the event, but due to the Russian invasion this will not happen.
Traditionally the Song Contest is organised by the most recent winner. The United Kingdom came second last time. According to the EBU, the country will organise the event "on behalf of" Ukraine. This way the war-ravaged country will get a place in the final and there will be "Ukrainian elements" in the shows.
After the recent win of the Ukrainian rap band Kalush Orchestra, President Volodymyr Zelensky hoped aloud that the music event could be hosted next year in the southern port city of Mariupol. He hoped that the city that was reduced to ruins by the Russians would then be "free, peaceful and restored", but that still appears to be a distant prospect at the moment.
