EBU: Proposal to abolish the Big 5 privilege from the contest!
The Swedish radio commentator for Eurovision , Carolina Norén , was invited as a guest on The Euro Trip Podcast. Norén shared her discussion with the Eurovision Executive Supervisor, Martin Österdahl, about a change on the Big 5 status in the contest.
The Swedish commentator, speaking to the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, suggested that the EBU should not guarantee the Big 5 a direct place in the finals. Instead, the Big-5 ( France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain ) shall be put to compete in the Semi-Finals, for a fairer result.
I think you should take away the Big Five. Let just the winner be qualified directly to the final and let everybody compete in the same way through the Semi Finals to the Final.
Although Martin Österdahl, seemed to be processing this idea, as it would be a special and big change, he nevertheless replied that at the moment there is no such possibility.
As it is known, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain constitute the Big 5. The Big 5 are the most important financial contributors to the contest as well as countries with a big Eurovision background. In addition, they pay the highest participation fees to the EBU, so they do not have to compete in the Semi-Finals to earn a place in the Grand Final.
Do you agree on abolishing the Big 5 privilege? Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all news!
Not a good idea, if that happened then the big five (maybe not Italy) would NEVER qualify and would be spending the highest fees for absolutely nothing. Keep the big 5
I agree with you, I think that they might just pay less if they remove the privilege given for contributing the most money to the contest.
If the big 5 are not in the final then they should only pay the same as everyone else for entry! Without the big 5 there is no Eurovision
well to me it is not a big deal , but i would like once ONCE the BIG5 would give up that privilige and compete same way with the rest of us. so that the BIG 5 would know what we have to go trough. it only need to be one time thing juts to get them know how much the rest of us have to work to get in the final. just one time.
But if that happened than the other’s would have to pay more $$ cause if they didn’t automatically qualify than they’d spend less. Just think about it…
That definitely wouldn’t be fair for the UK, everyone hates us so we would never get through to the final. Yet we would still be putting in more money than the other countries. If it came to it then we should contribute the same instead of more. It’s only fair the big 5 to automatically qualify
Exactly
For example, the Netherlands already pay more than San Marino to participate in the competition without the Netherlands going directly to the final.
The big 5 countries should try to participate in the semi-finals for a few years to see if they progress.
It’s time for Big 5 to go away. Every country should be equal- stop favouring some because they are paying more. I bet there many different ways to sponsor Eurovision than bribery about everyone knows. What if another country would like to pay more and contribute to the festival? that means we will have big 6 , 7 etc? Or is just proper unfair play!!! Stop favouring richer !