Eurovision Song Contest 2025: now it's up to the cities
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Bern (ots)
Three weeks ago, an SRG task force started preparations for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which will be held in Switzerland. The cities interested in hosting the ESC received the detailed requirements catalogue this week.
It was not even three weeks ago - on 11 May - that Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland in the Swedish city of Malmö with an extraordinary song and an outstanding performance. Traditionally, the winning country hosts the ESC the following year. As time is short, a 12-person SRG task force, which was set up in anticipation ahead of the ESC, started working on the preparations the very next day after Nemo's victory. Organising the world's biggest music contest in just a year is a mammoth task. Indeed, the ESC is much more than a TV show, it is a major event over several days.
Cities prepare their bids
The very first thing to do was to customise the very extensive requirements catalogue (known as the "City Bid Book") of the European Broadcasting Union EBU to the Swiss context for candidate cities. This week, the City Bid Book was sent out to all cities competing to host the ESC in 2025. SRG does not disclose which cities they are, but candidate cities are of course free to publicise the fact that they are running. The requirements catalogue sent out to cities is not made public either.
The cities now have until the end of June to work with the venue operators and the cantons to prepare their bids on the basis of the City Bid Book. The winning city is scheduled to be announced in late August. The ESC 2025 will be held in mid-May, but the precise date has yet to be decided.
Project structure being worked out
In parallel to the city bid evaluation process, the task force is currently busy working out the final ESC project structure. From overall responsibility (executive producer) to head of production (show producer) and content producer, to head of security and marketing director, there are many roles to fill. The task force can draw on the EBU's extensive experience and recommendations in this area. SRG employees will be released for the project, and EBU experts - and, in a subsequent step, externals - will also be involved. The task force is purposely keeping up the pace, but the time pressure should not adversely affect the processes.
Contact:
SRG SSR Press Office
Edi Estermann
medienstelle.srg@srgssr.ch / Phone +41(0)58 136 21 21