SWITZERLAND HAS ANNOUNCED the city that will host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

The country won the right to host next year’s Eurovision after Swiss singer Nemo won this year’s song contest in Malmö, Sweden.

Nemo won Malmö 2024 with their song The Code, which tells the story of coming to terms with their non-binary identity.

The Eurovision Song Contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area.

This morning, host broadcaster SRG SSR and the EBU announced Basel as the host city for next year’s Eurovision.

Basel, the third-most populous city in Switzerland, beat out Geneva for hosting duties.

The semi-finals will be held on 13 and 15 May, with the Grand Final of the 69^th Eurovision Song Contest being held on 17 May.

The contest will be staged at St. Jakobshalle in the Munchenstein district on the edge of Basel.

Opened in 1976, it calls itself Switzerland’s top multi-purpose arena and can hold more than 12,000 spectators.

Swizz broadcaster SRG SSR said the venue, public transport links, sustainability, hotel accommodation, security, investment, event experience and the support from the city were key factors in assessing the bids.

The process was supervised by the accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Two bids – Bern in conjunction with Nemo’s hometown Biel, plus Zurich – were eliminated in mid-July, leaving just Geneva and Basel in play.

The financial demands of hosting Eurovision sparked threats of local referendums to try to scupper the bids.

Swiss voters are used to having a direct say on how their taxes are spent, and some were bristling at the potential costs and hassle of bringing the Eurovision circus to town.

Under Switzerland’s direct democratic system, popular votes can be triggered on most any issue if enough signatures are gathered.

Public money squabbles over big events are not uncommon in Switzerland.

The country will host the 2025 women’s European football championships, but the government wanted to reduce its promised contribution of 15 million Swiss francs to four million, before parliament reversed the cut.

Eurovision is a non-profit event, mostly financed by weighted contributions from participating EBU broadcasters.

Eurovision says that “given the benefits that will flow” to the host city, it must make a contribution to the competition’s hosting.

This can be “either financially or ‘in kind’ (e.g. covering expenses of city branding, side events, security, etc.)”.

The four potential host cities were lining up packages of 20-40 million Swiss francs (€21m – €42m).

Switzerland hosted and won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano, back in 1956.

The president of the Government of Basel, Conradin Cramer, said: “As an open city in the border triangle of Germany, France and Switzerland, we overcome borders of all kinds every day.

“This fits in perfectly with the Eurovision Song Contest.

Bambie Thug represented Ireland in this year’s Eurovision and came in sixth place, the highest placement for an Irish act in 24 years. 

-With additional reporting from - © AFP 2024