The ESC Reference Group has released a statement following a comment made regarding Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest during Tuesday night’s show of Inför Eurovision.
During Tuesday night’s show Inför Eurovision Song Contest which was broadcast on SVT1, questions were raised regarding what would happen if Australia were to win the Eurovision Song Contest and who would host the contest the following year.
Sarah Dawn Finer and Christer Björkman, the hosts of the show, discussed the topic of Australia participating as a guest in this year’s competition to celebrate the 60 years of the Eurovision Song Contest and also went on to talk about their entry, Tonight again.
During the show, Sarah raised the question of what would happen if Australia were to win the competition, wondering if it was possible for the country to go on and host the contest the following year. Co-host of the programme Christer Björkman went on to respond:
Unfortunately, we cannot fly to Australia. One of the terms of the deal for participation of Australia was that Australia would host the contest in cooperation with another European broadcaster. And if that would be Germany, then the Eurovision Song Contest will be organised together with Australia. And this is absolutely possible.
Following the comments which were made on the show, Frank-Dieter Freiling, chairman of the ESC Reference Group, released a statement:
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.
Therefore, it’s been confirmed nothing has been decided nor settled regarding hosting procedures if Australia was to win the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.
