Vienna organized the Songfestival earlier in 1967 and in 2015. The city now shares fourth place with Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm of cities that most often organized the event. Only Dublin, London and Luxembourg organized the song festival more often.
Songfestival director Martin Green is happy that the event will take place in Vienna next year. “Wenens reputation as one of the most musical cities in the world and the location in the heart of Europe make it the perfect host city for the seventieth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest,” he says in a statement. “Together with Gastomroep ORF and the city of Vienna, we will organize a spectacular music party that will find echo of the world.”
In May of this year, the Austrian singer Johannes Pietsch (JJ) won the Songfestival in Basel with his song Wasted Love. Claude, the Dutch entry, also managed to reach the final, but finally finished in twelfth place, thanks in part to a strong jurycore. Top favorite Sweden finished fourth.
The first semifinal of the Songfestival is on Tuesday 12 May, followed by the second on Thursday 14 May. The grand finale of the seventieth edition of the music event will take place on Saturday 16 May in the Wiener Stadthalle, where the Songfestival was also held ten years ago.