Eurovision organizers promised Tuesday that the 2025 version of the track contest will probably be all about surprises, with two months to go earlier than showtime.
The Swiss metropolis of Basel is internet hosting this 12 months’s version of the glitzy extravaganza, one in every of world’s greatest annual dwell tv occasions.
The kitsch celebration is being staged on the St. Jakobshalle indoor area, with the semi-finals on May 13 and 15, and the ultimate on May 17.
Organisers are nonetheless configuring the set to cram in as many followers as potential — and are leaving folks guessing as as to whether a sure megastar will grace the stage.
“Every year, the Eurovision song contest is a very special and unique experience,” Eurovision 2025 co-executive producer Moritz Stadler informed AFP.
“Eurovision is only about surprises,” he mentioned. “We started last May with only crazy ideas. We made crazy ideas concepts in December. And now since December, we really try to reach what we have imagined in those crazy ideas. So it’s all about surprises.”
Singing “The Code”, Swiss vocalist Nemo’s 2024 Eurovision victory in Malmo, Sweden gave Switzerland the correct to host this 12 months’s version.
The Swiss received the inaugural track contest in 1956, then triumphed once more when Canada’s Celine Dion competed for the Alpine nation in 1988, launching her profession internationally.
Dion’s show-stopping star flip closed the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.
But Stadler was tight-lipped about whether or not she may seem in Basel.
“Celine Dion and the Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland go together. That’s clear. Now, will she be in Basel? Will she be in the show or not? There are plenty of possibilities and we’re working on them,” he mentioned.
The area stage design is impressed by Switzerland’s mountains and linguistic variety, whereas the signature music for the present combines yodeling, a Basel drum corps, dulcimers and alphorns.
The first wave of 42,000 tickets bought inside 20 minutes, with 250,000 gadgets within the ready queue.
The workforce are nonetheless finalizing the sector format, “pushing the walls” to suit as many individuals in as potential, mentioned Stadler.
“For us, it’s extremely important that the Eurovision Song Contest remains the biggest entertainment show on Earth,” he mentioned. “This is what we work for. This is what you will see on screen. This is how we will show Switzerland to the world, to all those 180 million-plus people.”
Beat Lauchli, the host metropolis mission chief, mentioned Basel’s location bordering France and Germany, its cultural traditions and medium dimension made it well-placed to welcome Eurovision and its colourful military of devotees.
“People living in Basel have quite an open mind and are ready to welcome Eurovision fans,” he informed AFP.
Basel hosts one in every of Europe’s best-known carnivals — beginning this 12 months on Monday — and Eurovision is hoping to attract on the carnival spirit, its creativity, and its sense of a spot that doesn’t take itself too significantly.
The metropolis has put 35 million Swiss francs ($39 million) into internet hosting Eurovision and is at the moment on price range. Lauchli mentioned Liverpool recouped about 60 million euros ($63 million) from internet hosting the 2023 version and Basel hopes to see related returns.
Israel’s participation in final 12 months’s occasion in Sweden attracted pro-Palestinian demonstrations and Lauchli mentioned Basel would do “whatever we can so that everybody feels safe and secure with us”.
A survivor of the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault will signify Israel in Basel. When Hamas militants killed over 370 folks on the Nova music competition, Yuval Raphael survived by hiding beneath a pile of our bodies.
© 2025 AFP