Sweden will host the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in 2024. This right for the country was given to the singer Loreen, who performed the song "Tattoo" in the 2023 final.
Interesting facts about the 2023 contest
Before we talk about what Eurovision will be like in 2024, let's remember what was remarkable about the recently completed 67th contest held in Liverpool (UK).
Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was remembered for the following facts:
- change of host country (Great Britain hosted guests on behalf of Ukraine);
- in 2023 the EBU introduced a new voting system;
- The debuts of Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein and Kosovo, scheduled for 2023, never took place;
- last Eurovision took place without participants from and Belarus;
- 8 countries refused to participate;
- Sweden got the 7th victory and joined the ranks of the undisputed leaders in the history of Eurovision;
- After the announcement of the results, the winner was accused of plagiarism, as the audience found the new hit to be very close to Mika Newton's song "Captive" , as well as the hit "The Winner Takes It All" by ABBA.
But, despite all the scandals and difficulties, Liverpool did an excellent job, and the victory was officially given to the singer Lorraine from Sweden. The top five also included:
| Location | Country | Artist | Song |
| 1 | Sweden | Loreen | " Tattoo" |
| 2 | Finland | Käärijä | " Cha Cha Cha" |
| 3 | France | La Zarra | " Évidemment" |
| 4 | Norway | Alessandra Watle Mele | " Queen of Kings" |
| 5 | Austria | Teya & Salena | " Who the Hell is Edgar?" |
2024 Contest
According to the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024, the host country is the country that won the 2023 song contest, so Eurovision 2024 will be held in Sweden.
Venue
At the moment, the decision on exactly where the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in 2024 has not yet been made. Several of the largest arenas in Sweden claim to host the contest at once, having hosted the Melodifestivalen and Eurovision contests more than once in the past.
There are eight arenas and six cities of contenders on the list so far. Let's distribute them in descending order according to the "capacity" parameter:
| № | Arena | City | Capacity |
| 1 | Friends Arena | Stockholm | 65,000 people |
| 2 | Tele2 Arena | Stockholm | 45,000 people |
| 3 | Malmo Aren | Malmö | 15 500 people |
| 4 | Scandinavium | Gothenburg | 14,000 people |
| 5 | Fjällräven Center | Ernskoldsvik | 9 800 people |
| 6 | Husqvarna Garden | Jönköping | 7,000 people |
| 7 | Partille Arena | Gothenburg | 5 500 people |
| 8 | Stiga Sports Arena | Eskilstuna | 3 700 people |
The decision on exactly where in Sweden Eurovision 2024 will take place will be made closer to mid-autumn. As soon as the venue is officially confirmed, we will promptly add information to this material.
Dates
Preparation for Eurovision 2024 started immediately after the end of the final of the previous contest - May 14, 2023.
Dates of the regional qualifying rounds are not set by the contest rules, so each country can develop its own mechanism for determining the best soloist and audition calendar.
Three gala concerts will be held internationally:
| First semi-final | May 7, 2024 |
| Second semi-final | May 9, 2024 |
| Final | May 11, 2024 |
dates are approximate and subject to change
Traditionally, the date of the final gala concert falls on the second Saturday of May, so presumably the Eurovision 2024 final will take place on May 11.
Countries participating
Potential participating countries are already starting to submit official applications, although it will be possible to do this legally until February 2024.
As of June 2023, it is reliably known that Luxembourg will take part in Eurovision in 2024 after a 30-year break.
37 countries took part in 2023, but it is still difficult to predict what the number of entries for Eurovision 2024 will be, because new participants may appear, and previously announced ones may change their decision.
One of the reasons for refusals may be the prohibitive size of the entry fee. The amount depends on the number of participants, so a decrease in the number of entries directly leads to an increase in the cost for each artist entered.
Will Russia be represented
Of course, everyone is interested in the question of whether we will see representatives of the Russian Federation in Sweden and who, in this case, will go to Eurovision 2024 from.Unfortunately, at the moment there is no unequivocal answer to the question that worries all fans of this contest, because the membership of Belarus has also been suspended. Moreover, back in 2022, Russia withdrew from the European Broadcasting Union, so at the moment it is impossible not only for our performers to participate in the competition itself, but also for broadcasting gala concerts by domestic media.
Recently, there are more and more calls to apply to the song contest the principles that have long been operating in the sports world. This means that if a decision is made, Russia will be able to go to Eurovision 2024 (or subsequent contests) as a neutral participant.
Another way out for national groups and soloists is a performance from any other country, which is allowed by the rules of the competition. Naturally, in this case, they will win on behalf of another state, which means that according to the results of such a victory, Russia will not be able to qualify for the next competition.
But do not be upset, because there is still a lot of time until February and everything can change dramatically. If important news appears, we will be the first to tell you who will represent Russia at Eurovision in 2024, promptly supplementing this material with relevant facts.
Recall that in 2022 Slavia Simonova (Yaroslava Simonova), the young winner of the Blue Bird TV project and the Debut of the Year award, was supposed to represent the Russian Federation.
Among the applicants were also called:
- Diana Ankudinova;
- Alexandra Panayotova;
- Clav Koku;
- Vanya Dmitrienko;
- Danya Milokhin;
- Egor Creed.
According to the country could also be represented:
New voting rules
In 2024, the winner will be chosen according to the new rules that the EBU established last year:
- in the semi-finals, only the audience will decide who wins;
- Eurovision fans from countries that did not represent the participant for the contest (including viewers from Belarus and Belarus) will get the right to vote;
- in the final, the rule will remain, according to which the winner will be determined by both the audience and the jury.
The changes were made after a loud scandal that erupted in 2022 due to the fact that some of the votes from residents of a number of countries of the world were simply not taken into account, which, according to some participants, deprived them of their chances to take a place, if not on the podium, then at least in the top three.
