Following the cancellation of the 2017 Eurovision host city announcement yesterday, Mr. Jon Ola Sand (EBU’s Executive Supervisor) has shed more light on the host city selection and spoken about the complexity involved in the procedure.
NTU, the Ukrainian national broadcaster has confirmed that yesterday’s announcement was postponed due to further verification and evaluation of the final details concerning the bidding cities.
The selection of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will be one of the key factors of next year’s competition, thus being the most critical decision of the forthcoming event. Hence this requires both the necessary time and evaluation before taking the final decision, and selecting the right Host City.
Mr. Jon Ola Sand (EBU’s Executive Supervisor) in an interview to the Eurovision Song Contest’s official website has said that the Eurovision host city requires to have an airport with international connections, good infrastructure, a proper transport system, a press centre for 1,500 journalists next to the venue, a suitable venue that can accommodate at least 10,000 spectators, good infrastructure, facilities for the participating delegations and sufficient hotel rooms with different price ranges.
Mr. Sand commented that there were no ready venues in Ukraine to host the Eurovision Song Contest, therefore a lot of time was spent in discussing the proposals with the 3 finalist cities in order to find the best solution.
He mentions that hosting the Eurovision Song Contest is a great opportunity for the city to showcase itself on the world scene, thus attracting much exposure and attention globally.
Mr Sand also said that the EBU plays an essential role in the selection of the ESC Host City and that the final decision regarding the selection of the Host City lies in the hands of the EBU.
Mr. Jon Ola Sand says:
Everything has to be scrutinised. It’s not a case of talking to the city once or twice. You need to sit down and negotiate down to the smallest detail. This year the key challenge has been to find a city that can meet all the expectations that the EBU and Host Broadcaster have. That is why we are having detailed discussions and are on top of this so that these expectations are met.
A total of 6 cities submitted their respective bids in order to host the forthcoming 2017 Eurovision Song Contest: Kherson, Dnipro, Odessa, Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv. The Ukrainian broadcaster shortlisted them to the final 3 (Kyiv, Odessa and Dnipro). Hereafter the EBU along with the Eurovision 2017 Committee and NTU visited all 3 cities and in order to inspect their respective bids and infrastructure. Now we await the final deliberation
The announcement of the 2017 Eurovision Host City is expected to take place next week.
Ukraine will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest for the 2nd time thanks to Jamala’s Eurovision victory in Stockholm with her entry 1944.
The preliminary dates for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest have been set on 9, 11 and 13 May.
