Eurovision 2020: It’s official: Rotterdam will host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest

Although rumors about the next Eurovision host city had been circulated since two days ago,actually today the official announcement from Dutch public broadcaster has come out.

The official announcement by the organizing committee

The announcement was made through the contest’s  official website, EBU social networks, and the Dutch public broadcaster .

When Duncan Laurence won the Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands earlier this year, a total of nine cities initially applied in the hope of hosting the contest.  But the battle proved difficult for many of them, after one withdrew its candidacy, starting with Leobarden, since the arena it had did not meet the height requirements set by the EBU.

Then Amsterdam, The Hague and Breda left the race on a variety of issues, with only five cities officially submitting their candidacy.  Eventually Rotterdam and Maastricht were left to arrive at today’s announcement that Rotterdam will be the city that will host the next Eurovision.

A city in the center of Europe

Rotterdam was the favorite to win the event and eventually it did it. It has easy accessibility and a wonderful arena, the Ahoy, where big music events take place every year, and it also hosted Junior Eurovision in 2007.

Rotterdam has Europe’s largest port and is well connected by ferry to the United Kingdom and France.  Travelers wishing to travel to Rotterdam from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport can be reached in about 20 minutes by train.  The city is 23 km from The Hague and 61 km from Utrecht.  In addition to trains, Rotterdam has various modes of transport, such as trams, subways and buses as well as water buses.

This will be the fifth time the Netherlands hosts the Eurovision contest on its territory (1958, 1970, 1976 and 1980), but the first in Rotterdam!

The dates of the three shows

At the same time, the announcement of the hosting city came the dates of the three shows also locked.  Specifically, the two semifinals will take place on Tuesday May 12 and Thursday May 14, respectively, with the Grand Final scheduled for Saturday May 16, 2020.