Malmö, Sweden will host Eurovision 2024

Sweden's Loreen won the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by the United Kingdom on behalf of Ukraine in the city of Liverpool. The song "Tattoo" won the contest with 583 points, conquering the jury by earning 340 points. Loreen is the second performer to win Eurovision twice, having won the 2012 Contest with the song "Euphoria". This also gave Sweden its seventh win, tying Ireland for most wins by a single country.

Sweden's broadcaster SVT wasted no time in soliciting bids and choosing Malmö as the host city on July 7, 2023. Stockholm and Gothenburg submitted bids that would have required building a temporary venue while Örnsköldsvik may not have had the infrastructure required by the EBU to host the international event. Malmö has previously hosted the Contest in 1992 and 2013.

The Contest semi-finals are scheduled for Tuesday, May 7 and Thursday, May 9. The Grand Final is scheduled for Saturday, May 11.

Participating Countries

On December 5, the EBU announced a list of 37 countries expected to compete in Eurovision 2024. This Airtable table will collect information about the entries as selection season progresses. Feel free to sort and filter—your changes will not be saved.

All countries that participated in Eurovision 2023 are scheduled to return except for Romania. Romania announced on January 25 that a budget could not be approved to allow for participation.

Luxembourg will be returning to the Contest, having last competed in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet, Ireland.

A Note About Israel Coverage

January 2024

In light of the situation currently unfolding in Israel and Palestine, we will be adjusting our coverage of Israel’s participation in Eurovision 2024. If you follow Eurovision blogs such as Eurovoix, That Eurovision Site, and ESCXTRA, they have released statements on restricting coverage of Israel’s contestant selection process. This is in response to Israel’s broadcaster using their selection program to promote the country’s military and its actions taken in Gaza.

Given the weekly format of the EuroWhat? Podcast, we are able to adopt more of a wait-and-see approach in terms of what we talk about and when we talk about it. This format also mixes in commentary, which can be construed as critical, supportive, or both (particularly when the two of us disagree).

To that end, our current plan for discussing Contest logistics related to Israel will be a similar plan of action as the blogs. We will report when Israel selects their entrant and reveals their song, but we will not be offering commentary or first impressions. We may also reference Israel when discussing the semi-final allocation, but we do not intend to center the allocation discussion on this point.

We have not yet determined how we will be approaching discussing Israel’s entry when we get to our formal review series in March and April. A lot can change in the next few months and we want to remain flexible in planning—again, our wait-and-see approach.

We do not intend to be free publicity for Israel’s broadcaster or its entry, but we can’t ignore that their participation in the Contest will have repercussions for all participating broadcasters, organizations, and audiences. Our job as media is to document the choices made by the delegations and the EBU, as well as the consequences that follow. There is no correct path forward, and we may be out of our depth as we try to proceed, but we do need to try to proceed as we attempt to document and analyze Eurovision 2024.

We will update this note as needed during this season and welcome your feedback. Please check the Contact page for our email and socials.

April 2024

The Eurowhat Podcast will not be covering Israel’s entry for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest as part of our review series this year beyond reporting on the performer and song selected.

We do not support the attacks Hamas made on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of over 1200 people. However, we also think the Israeli government’s response has been massively disproportionate.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are dead or dying slowly from lack of food or healthcare. Hundreds of innocent civilians have been treated as acceptable collateral damage in pursuit of singular targets. The direct targeting of workers for groups like World Central Kitchen have been carried out to discourage further attempts to get necessary food and supplies to the people of Gaza.

There needs to be a complete ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. This is a genocide, and it is unacceptable.

Eden Golan was selected by a network other than KAN, the broadcaster who represents Israel at Eurovision. Focusing on the song KAN selected and the EBU’s response to that song’s original lyrics:

Israel’s entry this year was written by three Israeli songwriters chosen by KAN, and the original lyrics contained references to the October 7 attacks by Hamas. Because we have both the original and revised lyrics, it’s easy to see that while the directly pointed elements have been replaced, the general sentiment of the song is still there. This song is still about the October 7 attacks. It’s like the TV cut of a movie where objectionable dialogue has been replaced with one of those ridiculous sound-alikes - if you know what was originally said, it’s hard to not still hear what was meant even when the words are changed to something completely different.

The revamped version of “Hurricane” has just enough lyrical changes to be accepted by the EBU. It's clear that KAN and Israel see it as imperative that they be seen on the Eurovision stage, regardless of the quality of the song and its staging. This turns the song into propaganda.

In previous situations where propaganda-level political content has been presented, such as Belarus in 2021, the EBU refused to address inadequate re-writes and did not allow the song, leading to the nation's disqualification.

There have absolutely been songs about political conflict in the contest before. It’s unlikely Greece would be allowed to perform something like “Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou” in this year’s contest the way they did in 1976 - with pointed lyrics about an ongoing event clearly meant as political commentary.

Ukraine's 2016 entry "1944" and Armenia's 2015 entry "Face the Shadow" are some more recent examples of political songs that have been allowed to compete. Both of these were reflections years after the incidents they were based upon, using those events either in brief mention or lamenting deep pieces of family history, not reacting to something that happened a few months ago.

When a nation internally selects their performer, song, or both, it's often because they want to be very specific in their messaging. Russia's choice of Julia Samoylova in 2017 and 2018 was pretty pointed - after several years of booing in the green room, the choice of a performer with a visible disability definitely felt like a cynical attempt to stifle further outcry in the arena.

To say Eurovision is completely politically neutral is a ridiculous statement. The contest is a chance for nations to exercise soft power, to introduce themselves on an international stage, and communicate their current relationship status with the rest of Europe. We disagree with the EBU's choice to allow this song, but it was their choice to make. There were likely multiple other factors and obligations that led to this shaking out the way it did since the EBU is a coalition of a LOT of broadcasters. That’s a lot of voices at the table.

That said, as fan media, our show also has a voice, and we can choose to not engage with this song in the context of this year’s contest. Neither of us has a broadcaster they can write to about this, but we hope anyone who's still angry and disappointed by the EBU's choice here channels that towards the people and broadcasters who put us in this position, and continue to put pressure on them to not let this happen again.

We also hope everyone who feels like they're in a similar position of not knowing how they’re going to deal with this extends grace to their fellow fans. We hope we can support one another even as we make different choices about what we're doing with this year’s contest.

Running Order

The semi-final allocation draw took place Tuesday, January 30. 31 countries were divided into pots based on voting similarities and randomly assigned to either the first half or second half of one of the two semi-finals.

The countries of the Big 5—France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom—along with the host country Sweden will automatically advance to the Grand Final. However, each of these auto-qualifiers were assigned to participate in the voting for one of the semi-finals.

The running order for each semi-final was determined by the show producers once all entries were submitted. New for 2024, the auto-qualifiers have also been slotted into the lineup for their assigned semi-final as showcase performances.

As host country, Sweden has already drawn its position in the Grand Final running order. Sweden drew slot 1. The remaining participants will draw for general placement in the Grand Final running order:

• First Half (6)
• Second Half (6)
• "Producers' Choice" (13, new for 2024)

Selection Season

Any song released after September 1, 2023 is eligible to compete in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. Each participating country has until mid-March to select their entry. The processes range from fully internal (the broadcaster chooses the artist and the song) to home audiences voting in multiple week music competitions.

France was first to announce their song and artist on November 8. The last selection shows are expected to take place Saturday, March 9 with a handful of internal selections and revamps most likely revealed through March 16.

Here is a calendar with known dates and times for televised selection shows. Click on an item to get a link to where you should be able to stream the program. Times displayed are US Eastern.