Basel, Switzerland will host Eurovision 2025

Switzerland's Nemo won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Malmö, Sweden. The song "The Code" won the 68th edition of the Contest with 591 points. Nemo won the jury with 365 points, earning 12s from 22 countries. This will be the third time Switzerland has hosted Eurovision. The first was the very first Contest in 1956, which Switzerland won. The second time was in 1989 following Celine Dion's win with "Ne partez pas sans moi".

Switzerland's broadcaster SRG SSR announced Basel as the host city on August 30. The host venue will be St. Jakobshalle, a sports and entertainment arena that opened in 1976. While the local government approved funding for ancillary activities associated with hosting Eurovision, a referendum will be held in November 2024 that could override that approval.

The Contest semi-finals are scheduled for Tuesday, May 13 and Thursday, May 15. The Grand Final is scheduled for Saturday, May 17.

Participating Countries

As of November 27, 37 countries have indicated they intend to participate in Eurovision 2025.

36 of the 37 countries that participated in Eurovision 2024 have indicated interest in participating. A post on ESC Discord indicates that Armenia intends to participate, but we have not received confirmation from the broadcaster or Eurovision.

Montenegro will be returning to the Contest. Montenegro's last appearance was Eurovision 2022 in Turin. Montenegro will be hosting the first national final of the 2025 season with Montesong at the end of November.

A Note About Israel Coverage

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.

To that end, we will report when Israel selects their entrant and reveals their song, but we will not be offering commentary.

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.

Selection Season

Any song released after September 1, 2024 is eligible to compete in the 2025 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.

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.

Playlists

As countries with public-facing selection processes announce competing entries, we will be adding songs to this Selection Season playlist: