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Eurovision 2024: Christer Björkman and Per Blankens are the last additions to the contest’s core team!

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The Director’s Team for Eurovision 2024 was completed today, with the Swedish public broadcaster, adding two more core members. We are talking about the well-known Christer Björkman, and the experienced Per Blankens.

Christer Björkman has a really long journey in both Melodifestivalen and Eurovision Song Contest, while Pen Blankers, has worked in many music shows, like Melodifestivalen, Idol, American Idol and the song contest The Next for China’s Dragon TV in Shangai.

Christer Björkman stated:

“Eurovision’s values are more important than ever, where diversity and community are the foundation. Therefore, I am extremely proud to once again be one of the producers for this event –  it was impossible to say no”

Per Blankers added the following:

“I remember my years at Melodifestivalen as fantastic, but to be able to participate in the big Eurovision Song Contest party in this way is a dream come true. To be able to work so closely with Eurovision’s television elite will be an incredible adventure!”

Earlier this year, SVT presented the executive team that will be responsible for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest. The team consists of Ebba Adielsson, Christel Tholse Willers, Tobias Åberg and Johan Bernhagen. Other names that were later added to the production are David Wessén – Head of  Production Department, Mats Lindgren – Head of Legal Department, Madeleine Sinding-Larsen – Head of Media και Linnea Lopez – Executive Assistant.

The 68th Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Malmö, Sweden in 7, 9 and 11th of May 2024, after the second win of Loreen in Liverpool, with her song “Tattoo”:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Malmö!

Source: eurovision.tv

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Sweden: Melodifestivalen 2024 submissions are now open!

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As we have already informed you in one of our past articles, the Swedish Public Broadcaster, SVT would open the submission window for all the potential Melodifestivalen 2024 entries.

Today, SVT just opened the submission window for potential Melodifestivalen 2024 entries. The winner of the contest will represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.

Those interested to submit entries can do so, starting from today at 9:00 am CET, up until 15 September through the online submission page, claiming one of the 30 spots in one of the five heats of the Melodifestivalen tour, in the hopes of representing the country in next year’s contest to be held in Malmö, Sweden.

Sweden will host the 68th Eurovision Song Contest after Loreen’s iconic second win with the song “Tattoo“:

Who do you wanna see taking part at Melodifestivalen 2024 and who to represent Sweden in next year’s contest that will be held in Malmö? Let us know in the comments section below!

Source: SVT

Sweden: Watch a clip of the stand-in rehearsal of Loreen’s “Tattoo”!

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It is almost three months since the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. 37 performers stepped on the stage of the M&S Bank Arena giving it all and representing their countries in the biggest song competition in the world, after months of intense preparations.

The impressive stage performances that they pulled off were first tried on the Eurovision stage a few days before their arrival through simulations, known as stand in rehearsals. Stand in rehearsals are usually executed by local artists and performers so all participants can know in advance the television result of the performances. On a later stage, they have the opportunity to ask for changes during the technical rehearsals executed by the representatives themselves.

You can watch the stand-in rehearsals of the countries below:

A little while ago, the highly anticipated rehearsal of Loreen’s “Tattoo” was leaked online:

@songeurovision Відповідь користувачу @manty_22 #eurovision2023 #sweden #loreentattoo ♬ Tattoo – Loreen

What do you think of the stand-in rehearsal? Did you see any difference between this and the final performance?

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!

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Eurovision 2024: Malmö was the only option, Aftonbladet reports!

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The decision was made yesterday when the Swedish public broadcaster SVT and EBU announced that the 68th Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Malmö and Malmö Arena! However, according to Torbjörn Ek and Aftonbladet, none of the other applicant cities fulfilled all the prerequisites on the checklist of SVT and EBU, other than just Malmö. Malmö was the only option as it seems and Tobbe tried to breakdown the reasons why the rest of the cities were not considered as potential host cities!

Gothenburg chances

After Malmö 2013 and Stockholm 2016, many were hoping that Gothenburg would host Eurovision 2024. Earlier than the actual city announcement, we had reported that neither Gothenburg nor Örnsköldsvik were selected to host Eurovision 2024, a 50-year-old arena with several accessibility issues would not be able to host a production of 2024.

Örnsköldsvik chances

With Örnsköldsvik there were two main issues! Firstly, there are two flights a day to Örnsköldsvik. With 50 seats on each flight. And secondly, there are nowhere near as many hotel rooms as a Eurovision requires. Övik advocated train travel, but just going through Sweden takes over 10 hours (Fastest train journey Malmö – Övik takes 10:40h according to SJ). And then you must have reached the national border first as well. And the hotel rooms would be redeemed with cruise ships in port. One could say that this is smart, but also it is a little awkward, a little too much uncertainty for SVT to dare to gamble.

Stockholm chances

Stockholm would be a great option. A big city but easily accessible, many things within 1h walking distance, large arenas. But with Globen closed for renovation, trilling football clubs on Friends Arena and Tele2 and the city’s own proposal with a temporary arena (in practice a giant tent like at a music festival) in Frihamnen, one began to suspect inadvisability.

In a year when the world economy is shaking, it is not time for SVT to bet on alternatives with far too uncertain cards. The question marks surrounding an arena that doesn’t even exist, with all the known and unknown uncertainties it entails, simply became far too uncomfortable. Not to mention that Swedes and people living in Stockholm would not like to pay off such a temporary solution and see their tax bills getting bigger.

Hotel availability issues emerged

Malmö was the only safe card. But how are things in terms of lodging and availability? As Aftonbladet‘s Hanna Lindström and Torbjörn Ek report on the booking platforms, there is not a single free hotel room left in Malmö between May 11-12, that was barely half an hour after the announcement that the city would host Eurovision 2024. An easy solution would then be for someone to take the train to Copenhagen or ask a friend to put them up.

More rooms can be released

The large hotel chains Scandic, Clarion and Best Western in Malmö are fully booked during the competition, as it looks right now. But the hope for a night in a hotel room in Malmö is not lost yet. Johan Michelson , CEO of Best Western Hotels writes that the hotel will likely release more rooms closer to the event, when you have a better overview of demand.

At Scandic, however, the situation looks different. There, the hotel rooms are, just as it looks, sold out and they recommend going over to the neighboring country. Karin Sinclair, pricing manager for Scandic in Sweden comments on this:

“Our hotels in Malmö are currently fully booked during Eurovision and we always release the rooms we have immediately. I recommend keeping an eye on our website if availability changes and a tip is to keep an eye on our hotels in Copenhagen – it’s just a quick train ride across the bridge.”

9 out of 10 rooms go to Eurovision fans

Clarion hotels also have fully booked rooms on the day of the finals. Jens Lyckman , CEO of Clarion Malmö Live, elaborates to Sydsvenskan on the situation:

“In Malmö there are a total of just over 4,000 hotel rooms. 90 percent of that capacity is already assigned to the event”

Some might stay in Kastrup

Johan Hermansson , director of the leisure administration in Malmö, believes that Malmö is an easily accessible city and that it is possible to visit the city during the day of the Schlagerfest.

“When there are big events here in the Öresund region, it’s easy to get to them. Some come to Kastrup and stay in hotels, but many come with the Pågatågen and stay overnight for a fun event in Malmö. It is one of the strengths that we can attract visitors from our immediate area, which we really welcome and are also very happy for those who come from a little further away.”

Do you think that Malmö was a good choice to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest? Do you intend to go to Malmö next year to watch any of the three available shows? Let us know in the comments section below!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun.com for all the latest news regarding Eurovision Song Contest 2024, which will be held in Sweden!

Source: Aftonbladet, Aftonbladet, Sydsvenskan

Breaking News: Eurovision 2024 will take place in Malmö!

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The decision has been made. Just a while ago the Swedish public broadcaster SVT and EBU announced that the 68th Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Malmö and Malmö Arena!

Announced Dates

Semi-Final 1: Tuesday May 7th

Semi-Final 2: Thursday May 9th

Grand Final: Saturday May 11th

What we know until now

Malmö had always expressed a strong interest in hosting the contest! They had hosted it back in 1992 and also in 2013 after the first victory of Loreen in 2012 with the iconic Swedish entry “Euphoria“ and now once more after the second victory of Loreen this year with the song “Tattoo“!

 

Malmö had the biggest chances to host next year’s contest after plans of Stockholm city got revealed that they intend to build a temporary arena in Frihamnen, Stockholm from scratch, when a part of their bid got leaked a few weeks ago!

Eurovision 2024 in Malmö Arena

The venue that will host the contest is called Malmö Arena, which is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Malmö, Sweden, and the venue for home games of SHL ice hockey club Malmö Redhawks. It is the largest arena in the SHL, and the second-largest indoor arena in Sweden, with a capacity of 12,600 for sports and 15,500 for concerts, only trailing the Globe Arena, located in Stockholm. Apart from hosting Redhawks hockey matches, the arena is often the venue for team handball, floorball, concerts, and other events. It has also hosted indoor athletics.

Malmö Arena hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 between 14 and 18 May 2013 and the 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships from 26 December 2013 to 5 January 2014. It has also hosted several Melodifestivalen heats throughout the years.

The arena is located right at Hyllie railway station, from where there are rail and bus connections to Malmö Central Station, Copenhagen Airport, and Copenhagen Central Station.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun.com for all the latest news regarding Eurovision Song Contest 2024, which will be held in Sweden!

Breaking News: Eurovision 2024 will NOT take place in Gothenburg or Örnsköldsvik! | Host city expected to be announced at 2pm CET!

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Gothenburg, Stockholm, Malmö and Örnsköldsvik have applied to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, after Loreen has won this year’s contest with the song “Tattoo“.

Today, Göteborg & Company received information from SVT‘s project manager that the Eurovision Song Contest will not be held in Gothenburg next year.

Magnus Hallberg, vice president & event manager at Göteborg & Co. mentions:

“It’s very sad. We are competitive people so we would have liked to have won and also had great support from politicians, the Swedish trade fair, the hotels and Gothia. But it is what it is.”

SVT did not give any reason why Gothenburg was not awarded the host of Eurovision. Also, according to information to Aftonbladet, as Annie Månsson and Torbjörn Ek reported a few minutes ago, Örnsköldsvik is also not selected to organize the competition.

SVT is expected to announce which city will be selected to host the event today, as we have already informed you a couple of weeks ago, and according to Aftonbladet at 2pm CET.

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Sweden!

Source: Göteborgs-Posten, Aftonbladet

Sweden: SVT will announce the host city of next year’s contest, next week!

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As we have already written in many of our past articles about the host city race of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, the announcement is expected to be made on the 7th of July.

Göteborgs-Posten today confirms that, by the end of next week, SVT will announce the city that will get the chance to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, following Loreen’s second victory with the song “Tattoo”. That means that in less than a week from now we will know which of the cities that have submitted their bid, will be selected to host next year’s contest!

But how probable is it for each city that has submitted a bid, to host next year’s contest? Read more below!

Four cities in the hopes of hosting next year’s contest

Malmö has always expressed a strong interest in hosting the contest and they have officially submitted their bid to host next year’s contest! Malmö had hosted it back in 1992 and also in 2013 after the first victory of Loreen in 2012 with the iconic Swedish entry “Euphoria“.

Currently, Malmö has the biggest chances to host next year’s contest and less than seven days are left until the announcement which will make it clear if Malmö will get selected to be the host city or not!

As already reported, Stockholm has officially submitted their bid to host the contest that Loreen brought back home with her second victory one month ago.

Stockholm currently faces a few issues, mostly regarding the hosting venue of the contest. Friends Arena is booked for Taylor Swift’s concerts on the 17th and 18th of May and Tele2 Arena is booked throughout May for the football matches of AIK and Hammarby Fotboll respectively.

Another issue that has come up, is the fact that the hosting bid of Stockholm City, includes plans to build a temporary arena from scratch, at Frihamnen port of Stockholm, which will then become the center of the event and the arena, which will hold between 11,000 and 15,000 people, will also remain for a limited time, then it will be removed.

According to Aftonbladet’s Fredrik Björkman, Moderaternas, or Moderates in English, a liberal-conservative party, strongly opposes to the case that such a decision is taken. More specifically, Dennis Wedin, opposition city councillor of the political party, has mentioned:

“It is unacceptable that Stockholm’s taxpayers should be stuck with building a new arena linked to this when we have so many other core municipal activities that need money right now in a tough financial situation. It sounds very tone-deaf!”

Following the submission of Stockholm, Gothenburg wouldn’t miss out on submitting their own bid to host the contest next year. Gothenburg has only hosted the contest back in 1985 and it seem like they are quite eager to host next year’s contest.

However, Scandinavium, which could be the venue to host the contest in case Gothenburggets selected as the host city of 2024, has some accessibility issues that might not allow the city to be selected. For the same reasons Gothenburg bid had gotten rejected by EBU in the recent past.

According to reports from SVT, Gothenburg’s political majority back the city council’s bid to host next year’s contest! This came up from the announcement that the city’s red-green party gave, on Wednesday evening.

Municipal councillor Daniel Bernmar has stated:

”It would benefit both the citizens of Gothenburg and cultural life. We can do this with large international events, so we see it as positive”

Örnsköldsvik has never hosted the Eurovision Song Contest before. Övik is a small city up north in Sweden, in Västernorrland with a little less than 33.000 inhabitants.

Örnsköldsvik had hosted this year’s Melodifestivalen Semifinalen at Hägglunds Arena, where the arena looked a bit tiny compared to other shows of the tour. The municipality in order to tackle any accommodation issues and to be able to welcome all the event visitors, said that cruise ships in the harbor will be used as additional accommodation.

This came as a response to several reports back in the beginning of March, of rip-off prices to a rather limited and not decent enough selection of hotel rooms when the Semi-Final show of Melodifestivalen took place there, making us think that the chances of Örnsköldsvik hosting the contest are a bit tad.

Sweden will host the 68th Eurovision Song Contest after Loreen’s iconic second win with the song “Tattoo“:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Sweden!

Sources: Göteborgs-Posten, SVT, Aftonbladet

Sweden: SVT announces format changes for Melodifestivalen 2024!

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More than one month ago Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest hosted in Liverpool, when Loreen perfmormed the song “Tattoo” and managed to pull off her second victory, rendering her the second person and the first woman to ever score a double victory at the contest!

Sweden knows how to keep our interest warm about their contest that they get to host next year, with several announcements during summer, among which is the announcement of the host city, expected in a bit more than a week from now on the 7th of July.

Same goes for the most loved national selection process, Melodifestivalen, which is highly anticipated this year, following the Swedish victory at the contest. SVT a while ago announced changes in the format of the weekly heats of the show, following the changes that had been announced for the tour of 2023 and 2022 respectively. Project manager of Melodifestivalen, Anders Wistbacka, commented on the announced changes:

“We always want to make Melodifestivalen even better and more exciting for our audience. With this completely new arrangement, we believe we can maintain viewers’ engagement throughout the season. 

It’s no secret that we’ve lost audiences in the semi-finals. Now we hope to keep the excitement up through all the programs”

What are next year’s changes in the format of Melodifestivalen?

Now a total of 30 acts will compete throughout the Melodifestivalen tour, which will be split into five groups of six acts which will compete in each of the five heats of the tour. That is the first change, compared to this years format, where there were four groups of seven acts, 28 in total, which competed in four heats.

In each of the heats, two acts qualify directly to the final, two remain at the competition and two are disqualified. The final show remains the same, will still have twelve competing entries and the final score is calculated 50% by the public vote via the app or sms and 50% of an international jury.

How are the two remaining finalists announced?

SVT has created a completely new program, which will be broadcast live from the arena directly after the 5th heat ends! All the competing artists are in place and the viewers get to see a quick recap of all the ten performances. The result is based on an aggregate score of the number of votes in the heats and the number of votes of the new program.

The entry submission window for Melodifestivalen 2024 opens on the 25th of August at 09:00 CET and ends on the 15th of September at 11:59 CET, when the hopefuls will get the chance to submit their entries at melodifestivalen.se.

Sweden will host the 68th Eurovision Song Contest after Loreen’s iconic second win with the song “Tattoo“:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Sweden!

Source: SVT

Sweden: Plans to build a temporary arena for Eurovision 2024?

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Four cities are competing to host Eurovision 2024, including the capital city of Stockholm, which is the favorite to host the next competition. While the selection process is underway and the candidate cities Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, and Örnsköldsvik have received documents outlining the necessary requirements, an article in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter is stirring things up regarding the venue of next year’s competition.

As mentioned, Stockholm is the frontrunner to organize the competition as it has all the necessary infrastructure. However, the main issue revolves around the stadium where Eurovision 2024 will take place. While  Friends Arena was the preferred choice, it appears that Taylor Swift’s concert on May 17th in Stockholm, a date within a possible week of the Eurovision according to a leaked confidential document from SVT, and moreover, at a stadium included in the city’s proposal, is changing the plans of the organizers.

According to the latest publication in Dagens Nyheter, there are plans to construct an arena specifically for hosting Eurovision 2024. Due to the increased requirements of the event, this proposal aims to solve the problem of finding a suitable venue for a significant period of time, at least six weeks, which has been one of the main problems for the organizers every year.

The proposal includes the construction of a temporary arena with a capacity ranging from 11,180 to 14,700 spectators in the Frihamnen area of Stockholm. The article adds that the venue will remain operational for a certain period of time after the competition. The proposal is supported by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, the Property Owners’ Association, as well as the tourism organization “Visit Stockholm.”

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun.com for all the developments regarding the organization of Eurovision 2024!

Source: Dagens Nyheter

Eurovision 2024: SVT wants to reduce Eurovision airtime by a full hour!

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As we have already reported, cities around Sweden which wish to host the Eurovision Song Contest of 2024, have all received an extensive confidential list of 123 points of prerequisites by SVT, that the city that receives the task of hosting the world’s largest live music competition should make sure are in place!

This extensive document has covered literally everything! From the audience capacity that the proposed arena can take in, seated and standed, that needs to be reported by each applicant city, to the ability of the roof to hold suspended loads and by how much weight! This is something that was relevant for Loreen this year and is usually a recurring question for the delegations that want to hang scenography on the ceiling.

What is really interesting is, as Aftonbladet journalist Torbjörn Ek has revealed, that there is actually time/duration indication mentioned to the confidential document Sweden’s largest daily has in their hands! Under the item “Important dates“, as previously reported, SVT lists which two weeks may be relevant to carry out the three Eurovision broadcasts. It states that the semi-finals and finals will either be broadcast on 7, 9 and 11 May or 14, 16 and 18 May. But also that the semi-finals are expected to be broadcast between 21:00 and 23:00 and the final between 21:00 and 00:15! In Liverpool the broadcast was scheduled for four hours, 21:00 to 01:00, but it dragged on and on Youtube you can see that the broadcast was 4 hours 14 minutes and 45 seconds long.

It seems that this is also something that has been discussed among broadcasting TV companies and now SVT seems to be set on shortening the broadcast by a full hour. Let’s see if this will eventually be implemented, in what way and to what cost!

Sweden will host the 68th Eurovision Song Contest after Loreen’s iconic second win with the song “Tattoo“:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Sweden!

Source: Aftonbladet