the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the annual Eurovision Song Contest, has categorically stated that next year’s competition will not take place in Ukraine.
“The EBU fully understands the disappointment that greeted the announcement that the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) cannot be staged in Ukraine, this year’s winning country,” they said in a statement. “The decision was guided by the EBU’s responsibility to ensure the conditions are met to guarantee the safety and security of everyone working and participating in the event, the planning of which needs to begin immediately in the host country.”
The EBU first announced last Friday, June 17, that they had taken the decision to hold next year’s contest elsewhere due to Russia’s invasion of the country in February and the subsequent war, which is still ongoing.
Traditionally, the country which wins Eurovision is entitled to host the contest the following year unless they choose not to. Ukraine won this year’s contest in Turin, Italy with rap group Kalush Orchestra.
However, last Friday the EBU published a statement saying that following “objective analysis” the governing board for the Eurovision Song Contest had concluded “with deep regret” that Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC would be unable to fulfil the required “the security and operational guarantees” due to the war.
The same day, Ukraine’s culture minister Tkachenko Oleksandr responded with a statement on social media that said “Ukraine does not agree with the nature of such a decision” and said the EBU had “confronted” Ukraine “with the fact without discussion on other options.”
The attitude was not entirely surprising following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement on Instagram after the contest in May, in which he congratulated Kalush Orchestra and wrote: “Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! […] We will do our best to one day host the participants and guests of Eurovision in Ukrainian Mariupol. Free, peaceful, rebuilt!”
His view was echoed by both Kalush Orchestra lead singer Oleh Psiuk – who said at the subsquent press conference “I’m sure that next year Ukraine will be happy to host [Eurovision] in the new, integrated and happy Ukraine” – and UA:PBC representative Oksana Skybinska. When Variety asked at the press conference which country Ukraine might nominate to host the contest on its behalf in the event it was not able to host, Skybinska replied: “It’s really too soon to talk about these details. Of course, we will do everything possible to make the Eurovision Song Contest happen in the new peaceful Ukraine.”