In the wake of the mediatic storm afflicting the Eurovision Song Contest regarding who will host the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest if Australia are to win the competition in Vienna, ESCToday decided to contact the German national broadcaster NDR in order shed more light into the matter after Germany had allegedly been named as the stand-in host country in the scenario if Australia were to belt the grand prix this year.

The spark was set off last Tuesday when Mr. Christer Bjorkman (Head of Delegation for Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest / Melodifestivalen (SVT) producer) stated that in case Australia won the competition, the country would co-host it with Germany. Christer Bjorkman was on SVT’s show Inför Eurovision where he was discussing the forthcoming ESC’s entries and preparations with Sarah Dawn Finer. They both discussed Australia’s debut in the contest and Sarah popped the BIG Question:  If the Aussies were to win the competition where would the contest be held?

This set off the alarms among the Eurovision community and fans leading to various speculations and reactions both in the media and Eurovision fan sites.

ESCToday contacted NDR in order to throw more light on the matter and find out if Germany was in fact standing-by as the possible host country if Australia were to win the competition in Vienna. NDR gave ESCToday the following answer:

Quoting Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling, chairman of the ESC Reference Group, Senior Vice President, International Affairs ZDF-German Television:

When Australia would win the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, the next contest will take place in Europe, as announced earlier, for practical reasons. In such case, there are numerous potential European broadcasters SBS Australia could partner with, one of them being NDR in Germany, amongst several others. The cooperation with one particular public broadcaster would only be further explored and formalised should Australia win the upcoming contest. To leave no doubt for speculation about the possible host country of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in case of an Australian win, we stress that Mr. Björkman’s unfortunate comments are nothing but premature.

ORF and the EBU announced last February that Australia had been invited to compete at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest and had been given a Wild Card to compete in the grand final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in  Vienna on 23 May. It was also announced that Australia would vote in all 3 Eurovision live shows (19, 21, 23 May) and in case the country were to win the event, the contest would be organized on European soil and would be a collaboration between SBS (the Australian national broadcaster) and an EBU member broadcaster.

If Australia is to win the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest the country will be allowed to compete in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. The EBU also stated that Australia’s participation at the 60th Eurovision Song Contest is a one off participation.

Guy Sebastian was selected via an internal selection to represent Australia with his Eurovision entry Tonight again. Guy will be the very first Australian Eurovision representative.

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 19, 21 and 23 May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest!