The race to become the next host city has already begun!
Only one week after Loreen took the Eurovision trophy home to Sweden, multiple cities expressed their interest in the honor of becoming the host for 2024. While Loreen herself stated that her preference goes out to the city of Stockholm, the decision is not up to her and not easily made.
Gothenburg
The Southwestern city of Gothenburg has come forward as one of the first cities to express their desire to welcome fans next May. This wouldn’t be a first, as Gothenburg has hosted the contest before in 1985, the year the Bobbysocks! from Norway won with ‘La det swinge’. It was held in the city’s biggest venue, the Scandinavium. The venue holds up to 12.000 visitors and is often used by icehockeyclub Frölunda HC.
Gothenburg’s biggest event organizer, Got Event, told media that they would be happy to welcome Europe to the Scandinavium. This means Gothenburg has the experience and a serious interest to be considered a solid candidate for Eurovision 2024. So far so good, right..?
Mixed reactions and failed EBU criteria
Unfortunately not all of Gothenburg’s citizens are as excited as Got Events to bring the contest to the Scandinavium. It was a recent topic on the Swedish radio that many inhabitants of the city wouldn’t be happy to see thousands of fans come to celebrate Eurovision. Besides that, the roof of the Scandinavium is currently not up to EBU’s standards for hosting the show, as it’s too small to hang all the stage lights in.
The Swedish broadcaster SVT has not yet made any annoucements regarding the hosting of Eurovision 2024.
Sweden in Eurovision
Making their debut in 1958, Sweden have always maintained an excellent record of results at Eurovision. Sweden made it to the top three for the first time in 1966. The Swedish entry “Nygammal vals” finished in 2nd place at the contest in Luxembourg City. They then scored their first win in 1974 with “Waterloo”, launching ABBA into global success. “Waterloo” was also chosen as the winner of Eurovision’s 50th anniversary celebration show Congratulations in 2005.
This year, Sweden has won for the seventh time, making it the most successful country in the contest, tied with Ireland. Backed by a convincing amount of jury votes, Loreen won in Liverpool with the song ‘Tattoo’.
Over the years, Sweden have won a further six times – Herreys (1984), Carola (1991), Charlotte Nilsson (1999), Loreen (2012 & 2023) and Måns Zelmerlöw (2015). They have also finished in 3rd place six times – but after their second place finish in 1966, they have never finished as runner-up again.
SOURCE:ESCXTRA
IMAGE SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA