The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most-watched TV events of the year, with people tuning in from as far afield as Australia and the USA to watch the musical spectacular.
A peak of 8.1 million UK viewers watched the 2018 song contest Grand Final in Lisbon, Portugal on 12th May and now thoughts have turned to the 2019 contest.
- Israel wins Eurovision 2018 while UK’s SuRie finishes 24th
- Who sung for the UK at Eurovision 2018?
- Who will be the UK’s entry at Eurovision 2019?
- The most memorable moments of Eurovision 2018
But where will Eurovision 2019 be? Who will host it? And who will represent the UK? We’ll be updating this page regularly to keep you in the loop with all the latest song contest news as we get it…
When is the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 on TV?
The Eurovision Song Contest will be held on Saturday May 18th 2019. The first semi-final takes place on Tuesday 14th May with the second semi-final following on Thursday 16th May.
Where will Eurovision 2019 be held?
The 2019 song contest will be held in Israel, thanks to their victory at the 2018 Grand Final in Lisbon, Portugal. The city of Tel Aviv has be chosen to host the Song Contest.
Where is Tel Aviv?
Tel-Aviv, Israel’s second largest city, is located on the Mediterranean coast. It has a population of over 400,000 people.
Who are the acts competing at Eurovision 2019?
Not all participating countries have yet revealed their acts, but you can see the confirmed performers here.
Who is representing the UK at Eurovision 2019?
It’s up to you! Once again, the BBC programme Eurovision: You Decide will ask viewers to vote on 8th February 2019 for who they think should be the UK’s entry at the Eurovision Song Contest.
There are six acts to choose from, but only one contestant can win. Find out more about the show and who’s in the running here.
Who was the winner of Eurovision 2018?
Israel’s Netta Barzilai was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, storming to victory with her song, TOY, in Lisbon.
Why is Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest?
Well, Eurovision isn’t strictly geographic. The contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is made up of various broadcasters from countries across Europe and beyond. The BBC is a member of the EBU, as is RTE in Ireland, Rai in Italy, SVT in Sweden and so on. There are 73 member stations from more than 56 countries, including Israel, and they’re entitled to send acts to Eurovision if they wish.
Israel’s been a member of the EBU for decades and won the Eurovision a grand total of four times.
Dana International’s victory in 1998 remains one of their most famous Eurovision wins.
How can I get tickets to the Eurovision Song Contest 2019?
This year’s release has been delayed with tickets expected to go on sale in late February – this article will be updated as soon as details are announced.
How does the Eurovision Song Contest voting work?
Eurovision was originally judged by juries before being opened to the public for a tele vote but when people started getting worked up about political Bloc Voting (the idea that countries in Eastern Europe were all just voting for their friends and neighbours) they introduced a new dual system.
The juries from each country (made up of five music industry professionals) award 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs, and reveal those jury scores through their national spokesperson in the usual time-consuming yet exciting way.
Viewers from each country also vote via phone or SMS, awarding 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs. Then, all the results from each country’s public votes are combined to give one overall Eurovision viewer score per song.
Spokespersons from each country read out the jury results – those all-important douze points – during the live show.
Then the Eurovision presenters read out the results of the European televote – or public vote – in ascending order, beginning with the country that received the lowest number of televotes – public votes – and finishing with the country that received the highest.
Viewers in all the competing countries – including those who were knocked out in the semi-finals – can vote up to 20 times for the songs of their choice, but they can’t vote for their own country.
The country with the highest number of votes wins the competition and gets to host it the next year.
Who is performing at the interval in Eurovision 2019?
Pop icon Madonna is set to take the stage after the competitors have performed. Here’s hoping she’ll perform Hung Up, a track that heavily samples Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, a song penned by Eurovision legends ABBA.
Also performing is magician Lior Suchard, Israel’s answer to Derren Brown. We’ve got no idea why either.
Master Mentalist @LiorSuchard will be a special guest star at this year's Eurovision Grand Final.
Check out what happened when he met @JonOlaSand!#DareToDream #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/j0e3kSRnI0
— Eurovision (@Eurovision) March 1, 2019
How do you vote in the Eurovision Song Contest?
You can vote by telephone. Here are the official BBC guidelines for UK voters:
“After all countries have performed, viewers will be invited to vote for their favourite act/s.
Voting is by telephone only. Voters in the UK can choose either to call from their landline using the long (11-digit) number for the country of their choice or from their mobile phones using the shortcode (7-digit) number for the country of their choice.
Please note that callers from the Channel Islands and Isle of Man should call from their landlines using the long (11-digit) number to avoid higher mobile charges, as the short (7-digit) numbers are not available in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for reasons outside of the BBC’s control.”
The numbers to be used will be given during the programmes.
Why isn’t Bulgaria competing in Eurovision 2019?
Although the country has performed well in recent competitions, achieving a second and fourth place finish in the past three years, Bulgaria will be absent from Eurovision 2019.
According to a statement released by the country’s national public broadcaster BNT, this is due to “financial reasons”.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT | 15 OCTOBER | Sofia, Bulgaria
We are sad to announce that Bulgaria withdraws from #Eurovision. The decision is based on financial reasons because the costs of the project far exceed the financial capacity of BNT according to the Management of the broadcaster— BNT Eurovision Bulgaria 🇧🇬 (@bg_eurovision) October 15, 2018
This isn’t the first time the country has pulled out on such grounds, with the same broadcaster withdrawing from the 2014 and 2015 competitions due to its expensive participation fee.
As per Eurovision rules, Bulgaria will not provide votes in this year’s contest as it has no participating broadcaster.
Why isn’t Ukraine competing in Eurovision 2019?
Ukraine were due to send an act to the 2019 contest in Israel, with Maruv winning a national contest. But after topping the vote, she stepped down due to a failure to agree with the national broadcaster on what she deemed to be a restrictive contract. “I am a musician, rather than a tool of the political stage,” she said. The second- and third-placed acts were then approached to take her place but both declined, leading Ukraine to pull out of this year’s contest altogether.
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