Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky is determined to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to Mariupol after the group Kalush Orchestra’s victory at the song festival tonight. The port city was devastated by Russian attacks and the Red Cross called the situation “apocalyptic,” but Zelensky believes the event could get there “one day.”
‘Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe!’ the president writes tonight to his nearly 17 million followers on Instagram.
Then he promises: ‘Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! For the third time in its history. And I believe – not the last.’
So the president has Mariupol in mind. “We will do our best to one day receive the Eurovision participants and guests in Mariupol, Ukraine. Free, quiet, rebuilt! †
Kalush Orchestra frontman Oleh Psiuk also expects the Eurovision Song Contest to take place next year “in a new and happy Ukraine”, he said after a press conference. Psiuk called the wartime victory very important. “Ukrainian culture is under attack and we show that the culture and music are alive and have their own meaning.”
To the Netherlands?
Kalush Orchestra won tonight the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, which took place in Turin, Italy. The group dedicated the victory to ‘every inhabitant of Ukraine’.
Because of the war in the country, the question is to what extent Zelensky’s wish can become reality. If Ukraine cannot organize the event, the Netherlands would come into the picture. But broadcaster AvroTros and the NPO, co-organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam last year, think it is too early to say anything about a new edition in the Netherlands just after Ukraine’s victory.
“Tonight we will first consider the beautiful and symbolic victory of Ukraine,” says the NPO. “Should the EBU request the NPO to take over the organization of the Eurovision song contest again, we will think about it together with all parties involved.”
AvroTros also says that it is “first of all up to Ukraine and the EBU to discuss the organization of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023”. The broadcaster also congratulates the country on the ‘important and deserved’ victory.
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