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THERE’S A SET process that will be followed in terms of deciding where the Eurovision Song Contest is staged next year in the event that Ukraine win the final in Turin’s Pala Alpitour tomorrow night, the head of the European Broadcasting Union has said.
Speaking to The Journal at the Eurovision press centre this afternoon, EBU Director General Noel Curran – who previously held the same role at RTÉ – also said it was unlikely Russia would take part in the 2023 contest as a process is under way to fully suspend its broadcasters from the organisation.
Folk hip-hop act Kalush Orchestra are overwhelming favourites to claim the top prize for Ukraine tomorrow with their song Stefania.
Written last year by frontman Oleh Psiuk as a tribute to his mother, the song – with its haunting refrain and nostalgic lyrics – has since taken on an outsized meaning in Ukraine.
And given the focus on Ukraine since Russia’s February invasion – not to mention the number of Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their home country to other European nations – the entry is expected to generate a huge public vote tomorrow night.
As a result bookies have made it odds-on to top the leaderboard – but the UK, Sweden, Italy and a host of others are also highly rated heading into the decider.
In the normal course of events, whichever country wins the Eurovision also wins the right to host the contest the following year.
But even in the most optimistic scenario, it’s unlikely Ukraine would be able to surmount the various safety and infrastructure challenges necessary to host the contest next year.
Curran said, however, that he was reluctant to be drawn on what might happen in 2023 as he didn’t want to pre-empt the voting process.
To be honest I almost don’t want to comment on that because it sounds like we expect them to win. I actually don’t know who’s going to win, genuinely. People are expecting Ukraine to win but there is a huge backing for Italy, huge backing for the UK, Spain and a range of others.
A similar process takes place every year with the management of the winning entry’s national broadcaster, Curran said.
“What we will do is – whoever wins – we will sit down with the director general and the management and we will say ‘how’s this going to work?’
We have milestones of criteria that have to be met by anyone in terms of where it’s going to be – venue, financing, safety – across all of these issues. We have milestones for everybody in terms of dates when certain milestones have to be met, and whoever wins we will sit down and go through it with them.
Russia, of course, were banned from competing in this year’s contest back in February.
The question of how to respond to the country’s assault on its neighbour landed on Curran’s desk in the immediate aftermath the invasion, he said.
The EBU initially came in for some criticism after releasing a statement on the first day of the war saying that Russia would remain in the contest as it was a ”non-political cultural event”.
The decision was reversed within the space of 24 hours. Over the course of the following days Russia was suspended or expelled from a host of other cultural and sporting events or competitions.
“On the Russia decision we discussed it with the executive board – our executive board is made up of director generals from the big and smaller broadcasters around Europe, so I would have called the executive board meeting quickly to make the decision.
“During that time I would have rung around director generals to get a sense of where the membership were and what their view was and I would have brought that back to the executive board and then the executive board made the decision to suspend.”
The initial 24 February statement, Curran pointed out, said the EBU would monitor the situation. It soon became apparent to broadcasters across Europe, however, that the invasion had “changed everything”.
“I think it was pretty clear to us that we wouldn’t be able to have Russia take part in the competition.
You can drag these things out and you can delay and delay them and then you end up making the decision and that looks like you’ve been forced into it. I think we were one of the first organisations to react in the kind of cultural or sport or sporting sphere.
The EBU – which is, essentially, an alliance of public service broadcasters from countries across Europe – is now taking steps to fully suspend Russia’s broadcasters from its activities.
The Russian broadcasters have been notified of the decision and it’s expected to be signed-off at an executive board meeting at the end of the month.
As a result, we’re unlikely to see a Russian contestant back at the Eurovision anytime soon.
“Obviously if they’re suspended they can’t and wouldn’t be able to take part.”
High expectations
The Eurovision is by far the biggest event in the EBU’s calendar – and expectations are high ahead of tomorrow night’s final after a bumper audience for the first post-Covid contest in Rotterdam last year.
More than 183 million viewers tuned in last year and the contest has seen an explosion of interest on social media. There was also a significant increase in the number of 15- to 24-year-olds tuning in to watch on TV.
“I’m not sure people fully realise just how big a social media phenomenon it is,” said Curran, whose association with the contest began more than two decades ago when he served as executive producer for the 1997 show in Dublin.
The UK entry has 12 million TikTok followers. The Italian entry, their video on Youtube has already been viewed 55 million times – and that’s before the final.
So the viability of the contest is secure – it’s a much bigger event that’s growing every year.
The showpiece final tomorrow night represents the culmination of weeks of activity here at the massive Pala Alpitour venue and thousands of hours of work from the artists, crew and hosts.
The all-important Jury Dress Rehearsal – where panels from each participating nation cast their votes – is taking place tonight.
There’ll be another full run-through of the show to iron out any final production kinks tomorrow afternoon, concluding just a few hours before the main event kicks off at 8pm Irish time.
Daragh Brophy will be covering all things Eurovision from Turin up until the early hours of Sunday morning. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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A suspended sentence? He should be locked up for years along with all the others guilty of cover ups. Like the majority of Irish people I was born and grew up Catholic but haven’t practised for years, if any other organisation behaved in the way this does it would be shut down years ago. What has come to light about this organisation over the last number of years should surely be enough to destroy whatever bit of credibility they were seen as having in the past.
@Mary Cullinane: Nobody is born Catholic, It was forced on you before you had the sense to realise it was a lie. Thankfully it’s dying off now. Good riddance to it.
@Mary Cullinane: I agree with you about the sentence, but at least he was charged with the offence. Over here, there was widespread systematic covering up done by senior and junior clerics. How many bishops here have been charged?
@Mary Cullinane: really he should share the cell and sentence of whoever he was protecting.
Nonetheless the conviction itself is a major step forward , even in a secular state like France.
I read a theory once that in the turmoil of the first world financial meltdown, some aristocrats were prosecuted as normal subjects. And that that shift, a fall from grace, was one of the early seeds leading to the French Revolution.
@Rob Cahill: I am 64 now and Ireland was such a different place back then and indeed for many years after I was born. I would be the first to admit that we were brainwashed by the Church’s teaching as regards so many things we all accept as being part of life now like contraception, divorce, the stigma of being an unmarried mother etc etc. I don’t blame my parents for bringing me up Catholic, they didn’t know any different themselves, they lived in a time when there was no television, very little radio, no internet & so on and it wasn’t until television became common in households and people began to see life outside of our own little bubble that we began to question things and see that maybe everything the Church said wasn’t always right. What really made me stop practising was when the whole abuse thing started to come to light & I realised that here were these Priests & Bishops telling me what I could & couldn’t do in my life & then realising the horrors of what was actually going on in their own organisation. I still consider myself Christian and I like to think that there is something else after this life but no more organised man made religion for me.
This article is up 2 hours and still no sign of Greg Kelly to remind us that abuse happens ousid the church too so it’s all ok.
@Rob Cahill: or the bould Seamus. (either the same person or they’re romantic lovers)
@Rob Cahill: Well said. Spread the word!!!!
@Mary Cullinane: Lovely reply.
@Rob Cahill: I have never seen Greg or anyone else condone child abuse on here.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: I can’t believe that you are teaching young people. God help them.
This goes right to the top; Pope Francis himself is known to have moved abusers around so I don’t see why he can’t go to trial, unless there’s a Vatican City law that would prevent it.
Would Italian law take precedence?
@bopter: the Vatican is a state in itself
@bopter: what a loada b0ll0x all this perceived cleaning up of the church is. Nothing but lip service which at least should have been paid a decade ago or when he came into power. There isn’t one person in the hierarchy that genuinely wants to clean up the church. They’re only now putting in concrete safeguards and procedures for protecting children. No one in their right mind would leave their child in the care of the church now and they know it. It’s all smoke.
@bopter: Italian laws are for Italy not France. The said holy see being a free state has its own laws. This bishop appeared before a French Court of justice and the French law allied. Now nobody believed that he would be condemned because there was no direct proof.
Recently watched an episode of Codes and Conspiracies “The Vatican” some of the stuff the church got up to and still is doing would make your toes curl…it’s shocking but not surprising…
@Robin Basstard: Some of the stuff the church got up to with my family alone is ridiculous.. I assume most people have the same stories somewhere in their history.
This is disgraceful, 68 is not too old to prosecute..the statue of limitations in law should NOT apply to child rape or complicity in child rape. This is not an ordinary crime, it is vile and pure evil and needs to be properly punished.
Suspended? Where is the deterrence when THIS is the message being sent to the next cardinal who wants to cover up child rape?
Honestly as a practicing Catholic, I am shocked by this sentence. If as stated this was a normal individual they would be locked up for a long time put on the Sex offenders list and forgotten about.
This case is about covering up the offence which if it was murder you would be sentenced according to the crime who h is a long time in jail..
@Sportmad: So stop practising it. Why do you need any organisation nevermind one so corrupt inbetween you and your deity??
Different rules for certain people
Does the church never learn. Shame on them
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