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Eurovision 2024: Örsnköldsvik is confirmed to join the race, hoping to host Eurovision 2024!

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The submissions deadline for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest host city ended last night at 23:59. Today it got public that Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö have officially submitted their bids to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.

As we had previously reported, Örnsköldsvik had expressed interest in hosting the contest, following a successful contest in Liverpool, UK, this year. SVT now confirms that the municipality of Örnsköldsvik, or Övik as the Swedish people call it (too hard to pronounce), has applied to host Eurovision 2024.

The municipality also pointed out that in this year’s Melodifestivalen, 11 out of 28 entries had music makers with connection to Örnsköldsvik. The municipality makes it clear that they want to create a sustainable and climate-neutral Eurovision Song Contest.

How probable is it for Örnsköldsvik to host the contest?

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.

Cities confirmed to have submitted their bid to host next year

Possible city announcement date

In the two latest Swedish-hosted contests, back in 2013 with the announcement of Malmö and 2015 with the announcement of Stockholm, both took place on July 8. If SVT follows the same pattern, that means that within a month we will know which city will host next year’s contest, possibly on Friday 7th of July, 2023.

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

Eurovision 2024: Malmö officially submitted their bid to host Eurovision 2024!

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The submissions deadline for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest host city ended last night at 23:59. Up until then, it was clear that two cities had submitted their bid to host Eurovision Song Contest 2024, after Loreen won for a second time at this year’s contest held in Liverpool, Stockholm and Göteborg.

As we had previously reported, it was not yet clear if Malmö had submitted their bid to host next year. Not clear until now. It is confirmed that the city of Malmö has submitted their application to Swedish broadcaster SVT.

Already in the days after Loreen‘s win in the Eurovision Song Contest final, a month ago in Liverpool, voices within the city of Malmö hoped that the next final could be held in Malmö. At the same time, elected mayor of Malmö Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh warned that the financial situation could get in the way of a potential application.

Malmö city recreational director, Johan Hermansson commented:

“Malmö can host the Eurovision song contest in 2024. Malmö arena is one of Europe‘s most distinguished event arenas.”

How possible is it for Malmö to host the contest?

Malmö had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest twice already, once back in 1992 and a second time in 2013 after the first victory of Loreen in 2012 with the iconic Swedish entry “Euphoria“.

However, in our discussions with SVT, next year the broadcaster mentioned that they aim to set the hosting standards to a new high, which makes us believe that Malmö is highly unlikely to be selected, as the contest back in 2013 was considered to be a bit underwelming.

Cities confirmed to have submitted their bid to host next year

Possible city announcement date

In the two latest Swedish-hosted contests, back in 2013 with the announcement of Malmö and 2015 with the announcement of Stockholm, both took place on July 8. If SVT follows the same pattern, that means that within a month we will know which city will host next year’s contest, possibly on Friday 7th of July, 2023.

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: Sydsvenskan

Eurovision 2024: Bid submission window for Eurovision Song Contest 2024 host cities ends tonight!

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The deadline for Swedish cities, that are interested in hosting next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, to submit their bids to SVT ends tonight at 23:59. Quite a few cities have reportedly expressed their interest in hosting Eurovision Song Contest 2024, while two of them have formally announced that they are officially bidding on hosting the contest next year.

Stockholm

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. Two most probable venues, Friends Arena and Tele2 Arena are booked in May for the football matches of AIK and Hammarby Fotboll respectively. The municipality of Stockholm, which has been in early talks with all the relevant parts, is confident that all the venue issues and also some discussions with regards to funding of the contest will be resolved.

Gothenburg

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 Gothenburg gets 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.

Malmö

Malmö has also expressed a strong interest in hosting the contest. However it is not officially confirmed yet, so it still remains to be seen whether they have submitted their bid or not. 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“.

However, in our discussions with SVT, next year the broadcaster mentioned that they aim to set the hosting standards to a new high, which makes us believe that Malmö is highly unlikely to be selected, as the contest back in 2013 was considered to be a bit underwelming.

More cities interested in hosting the 2024 contest:

Sandviken did not proceed with the submission of their bid!

Despite their warm interest in hosting the contest, Sandviken with their proposal to investigate the possibilities of organizing the Eurovision Song Contest, in Göransson Arena, did not proceed with thesubmission of the bid eventually.

In the two latest Swedish-hosted contests, back in 2013 with the announcement of Malmö and 2015 with the announcement of Stockholm, both took place on July 8. If SVT follows the same pattern, that means that within a month we will know which city will host next year’s contest, possibly on Friday 7th of July, 2023.

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!

Loreen: Our favourite moments with the two-times-Eurovision-winner! | Watch the video!

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Not only once! Not just twice! Not even three times! It was four times that Eurovisionfun got the chance to meet Loreen in-person, interview her, discuss and most of all have much fun!

You can imagine, Loreen was very busy, gave lots of interviews to many big media around Europe and the rest of the world. Many large (an also some smaller ones) Eurovision fansites approached the Swedish delegation and Loreen’s team to request a short interview with her. But Loreen chose and trusted Eurovisionfun, giving four interviews to our reporters. You can have a look on all four comprehensive interviews by following the links below:

There are many moments that still remain unseen, but you can see many of our backstage moments and bloopers from all the times we’ve met Loreen in the video below:

Special thanks to SVT, Universal Sweden, the Swedish Delegation and Loreen’s team for allowing us to spend so much time with the queen of Eurovision and first woman ever to win Eurovision Song Contest for two times and to Loreen herself for being such a wonderful human being and making our moments with her so much fun!

“Until we meet again, cause this is not the end..” We will definitely meet again… This is not the end!

Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a moment of what will happen next, regarding next year’s contest:

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all news about Eurovision 2024, which will be hosted in Sweden next May!

Sweden: Loreen received a heroic welcome upon her return from Liverpool!

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The Swedish star of Eurovision, Loreen, received a heroic welcome upon her return from Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

SVT, organised an open concert for Loreen’s return, in Kungstradgarden. The concert was broadcasted in SVT2 and SVT Play. Loreen thanked the crowd for their love and support and offered them a special performance of her winning song, “Tattoo”. In the meantime the crowd shouted “Queen, Queen”.

After winning twice, Loreen broke a number of records:

  • She is the only woman to win the competition twice
  • She now equals Ireland’s Johnny Logan who has won the competition twice
  • She has given Sweden its 7th Eurovision victory thus equaling Ireland which has seven victories

The City Councilor of Stockholm, Karin Wanngard, was also present at the concert which was hosted by Per Sinding-Larsen.

Loreen then took the time to speak to her fans:

“With everything that the number stands for, humanity, hope, love. That’s what we Sweden stand for. I am so happy about it and proud of us.”

Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss anything regarding your favorite music contest:

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all the latest news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!

Sweden: Örnsköldsvik interested in hosting next year’s contest!

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Last Saturday, Sweden won for the 7th time, equalling the victories of Ireland in the contest! Loreen with the song “Tattoo” brought the contest back home and even if only a couple of days have passed, cities around Sweden have started expressing their interest to host next year’s contest!

Following Malmö, Örnsköldsvik, a city in Northern Sweden with a population of about 30.000 poeple, joins the “hunger games” of the host city for 2024. Örnsköldsvik had bid to host the contest back in 2016, when Måns Zemerlöw won, but ahead of the contest Örnsköldsvik was reportedly unable to host the contest due to insufficient capacity!

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 and also there have been reports of rip-off prices to rather limited and not decent enough selection of hotel rooms, during the weekend of the contest.

Follow us in all our social media, so that you’ll not lose a thing of what’s happening Eurovision:

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

Sweden: The city of Stockholm in early talks, eager to host Eurovision 2024!

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Today, at Kungsträdgården, a celebration to welcome Loreen back to Sweden was held, with thousands of people enthusiastically cheering while Loreen was performing “Tattoo” on the stage that was setup for the Hemkosten event!

According to Gustav Dahlander, Swedish journalist and SVT in-house expert for Melodifestivalen, during the event, Karin Wanngård, the Financial City Commissioner of Stockholm, stated when interviewed:

“Eurovision needs a big arena. To get a good party, you want a big audience, so of course, in that case it would primarily be Friends Arena.”

Friends Arena has a total capacity of approximately 60.000 people, but whenever it hosts Melodifestivalen Final Show, it gets halved, but can still host the impressive number of 30.000 people all seated. If Martin Österdahl selects Stockholm as the host city and Friends Arena as the hosting venue, then it can be one of the largest venues ever to host the contest!

Today was not the first time Stockholm expressed interest in hosting next year’s contest

According to major Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the City Hall of Stockholm had been in early talks with the financial center, the chamber of commerce and the Visit Stockholm insitution since the last weeks of March, following the victory of Loreen at the Swedish national selection process, Melodifestivalen!

The City of Stockholm, started planning internally way to early in advance, compared to when Måns Zemerlöw won, when Stockholm held their first meeting on the Monday directly after the victory. It seems like this time they wanted to be even more prepared.

According to the independent business organization, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the last time Sweden took home the Eurovision Song Contest and hosted the show in 2016, the created tourism economic effects were around SEK 263 million (approximately 230 million Euros), in the money value of the time. After a projection of the income at today’s prices, the same number of visitors would yield revenues of more than SEK 310 million (approximately 275 million Euros). Admittedly, it costs a lot to organize the competition, but hosting the contest can still bring significant profits to the city.

Loreen wants Stockholm to host the contest in 2024!

During the Winner’s Press Conference at M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool, UK, after our own Andreas Papayiannakis asked Loreen how she feels about equalling the victories of Ireland in the contest, Loreen unapologetically stated, referring to Swedish Head of Delegation Lotta Furebäck, that she prefers Stockholm to host next year’s contest!

“It better be Stockholm man! We need to talk about this, but it better be Stockholm!”

You can watch the relevant video below:

Despite the fact that major football teams AIK and Hammarby Fotboll, that play during the season at Friends Arena and Tele2 Arena respectively, are refusing to move temporarily to other stadiums for six weeks, Stockholm City is so eager to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, that it is very likely for all issues to be resolved soon. The football association is perfecly OK with moving games due to European Cup participation, so maybe they could just move one or two AIK home games a month or two. As for Tele2, Hammarby Fotboll and Djurgården can play at home for two days in a row, so Stockholm City hosting Eurovision 2024 seems doable.

Follow us in all our social media, so that you’ll not lose a thing of what’s happening Eurovision:

Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all the news regarding Eurovision!

Sources: Aftonbladet, Gustav Dahlander, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce

Loreen: “We need to recreate the staging in Liverpool, it’s really important for my audience!” | Exclusive Interview

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Eurovision 2012 winner, and this year’s Swedish representative at the Eurovision contest Loreen spoke exclusively at Eurovisionfun and Andreas Papagiannakis, all the way Liverpool, UK in the heart of this year’s contest!

Loreen sings “Until we meet again, cause this is not the end” and after all, it wasn’t the last time we’d talk to Loreen on March 11th, when she won the ticket to Liverpool, beating superstar duo Marcus & Martinus at Melodifestivalen 2023.

When asked if she is ready for her potential second win, second double (Johnny Logan, “What’s Another Year” – 1980 and “Hold Me Now” – 1987) and first double ever for a woman she told us:

“I’m not ready! I’m too focused! The only thing I’m ready for, that I’ve worked for, is to perform for all of you! And that’s exactly what I’m looking forward to and that’s what I’m focused on!”

Did she get stressed out by all the uncertainty caused by the staging restrictions of EBU, that didn’t allow her to have the exact same double LED screen (smörgåsgrillen, as I’ve called it) hanging from the Friends Arena ceiling at the Melodifestivalen final?

“We tried too hard to bring the same feeling on stage in Liverpool, if not what you call a sandwich toaster *laughs* at least a smaller version of it. I didn’t leave it up to my team, I always like to have a say and be 100% involved in solving problems that may come up!”

Eleven years after “Euphoria“, she believes that this year’s entry “Tattoo” will have the same impact in the audience;

“I don’t know at all, you are asking me this question but this is something I cannot control. What I do know is that I am trying my best to make something really beautiful for you!”

We challenged her to speak Greek to us and the only word she could think of was “souvlaki“, and then she added:

“A few days ago I was watching a video of a Greek dance, what’s it called? No, it’s not syrtaki! Tsifteteli I think, yes tsifteteli! I will learn to dance the tsifteteli! So when I meet you again we’ll dance together tsifteteli!”

She asked us and of course we taught her how to say “I love you, you are everything to me“! She can’t wait to see us, her audience, while she’s on stage:

“I am looking forward to seeing you all! I see literally all of you! I saw you in front of the Melodifestivalen stage in the finals too, that’s why I did that signal that I saw you before I started performing! That’s really my favorite moment before I start singing, to connect with all of you!”

Loreen remains the favorite to win, although she has seen her odds grow since the end of the rehearsals and Finland closing in dangerously close to her.

Sweden competes in the 11th place in the 1st Semi-Final on Tuesday 9 May.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

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Sweden: Loreen comments on her Eurovision 2023 rehearsals!

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Big favorite to win Eurovision 2023, Loreen, commented on her rehearsals and renewed stage appearance.

In an interview with SVT after her second rehearsal, Loreen said that she wanted to keep the same stage concept in Liverpool, bringing to the M & S Bank Arena the same vision she had in Melodifestivalen.

Due to the smaller platform, Loreen explained that she had to change some elements of her choreography, but also to get used to the new size of the structure herself.

The big problem, as was seen both in Melodifestivalen and in Liverpool, is the amount of smoke, since there is a risk of being covered by it.

It is the law of nature, everything is alive. And I like the way that you don’t really know, you can’t direct smoke anyway. Just as it is not possible to direct nature in any way, you cannot say Tree, grow! and expect it to happen.

Loreen remains the favorite to win, although she has seen her odds grow since the end of the rehearsals and Finland closing in dangerously close to her.

Sweden competes in the 11th place in the 1st Semi-Final on Tuesday 9 May.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Follow us in all our social media, so that you’ll not lose a thing of what’s happening in Liverpool:

Loreen: “There are things I had wanted to do in Stockholm that I think we are able to do in Liverpool!”

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Over the last couple of months, uncertainty had emerged regarding the staging of the Swedish participation at the Eurovision Song Contest. Despite the fact that the Swedish national broadcaster SVT had known the EBU staging restrictions for months, there was not a clear answer by the Swedish delegation on whether they will make any changes on the staging of “Tattoo“, in order to comply with the EBU rules.

A few weeks ago, Loreen took part at an AMA event on Reddit, where she revealed that all the staging issues have been resolved, removing any uncertainty about her appearance at M&S Bank Arena. But up to now Loreen had never spoken openly about the Swedish delegation thoughts on the staging.

Loreen has opened up in an interview she had with Expressen today revealing that they had several crisis meetings with SVT regarding the technical specifications of the stage of M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool:

A new stage always comes with other technical prerequisites. I have, together with SVT as a united team, had meetings discussing what is possible and what is not. What can we improve and where do we back off?

As usual, she kept a mystery around her final staging, firing up uncertainty and speculations shadowing her “Tattoo” Liverpool performance once more:

I won’t tell if there is a ceiling or not, you will see that on Sunday. There are things you can do now because of the larger stage. The equipment is different.

Finally, she revealed that there have been many ideas that she backed off for her performance in Stockholm that can be implemented on stage in Liverpool:

There are things I had wanted to do in Stockholm that I think we are able to do in Liverpool that can turn out really powerful.”

Like the number, Loreen is secretive about exactly how her outfit will look on stage in Liverpool, but gave a hint of what to expect:

It is quite an extensive number and there are so many details. Always when you have to create something, you have to “kill your darlings”. Now that we’ve had some time, me and Fadi al Khoury, my designer, have the stuff we didn’t have time to test. It’s a cinematic number so there’s a lot you can do.

This is actually what she has mentioned in one of her TikTok videos, that was published a couple of weeks ago:

@loreenofficial Let’s talk about “The Outfit” A massive thanks to the one and only Fadi el Khoury, who made this happen ❤️🙏🏽 🫶🏽 #FashionTok #loreentattoo #designer #eurovision2023 ♬ Tattoo – Loreen

Even though the resolution is still not public, an answer will be given at Loreen’s stand-in rehearsal, while her first technical rehearsal is scheduled for this Sunday 4/30.

You can watch the EurovisionFun team’s reaction to Sweden’s entry below:

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for more news about Sweden’s participation in Eurovision 2023!

Photo: Andreas Papayiannakis
Source: Expressen