The BBC will celebrate 60 years of Eurovision with a concert co-hosted by Graham Norton featuring 2014 winner Conchita Wurst and past glories including Sweden’s triumphant effort from 1984, Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley by Herreys.
The event, a centrepiece of the European Broadcasting Union’s celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the show, will showcase the best songs from the competition for broadcast on BBC1 and countries across Europe.
London’s Hammersmith Apollo will host the concert with Norton and Sweden’s Petra Mede, anchor of the 2013 contest. Wurst won in 2014 with power ballad Rise Like A Phoenix.
It remains to be seen which of the UK’s entries will be chosen to represent the home nation’s occasionally glorious – but more recently only for the scale of its failure – history in the competition.
Katrina and the Waves – the UK’s last winner with Love Shines A Light in 1997 – are surely a must-have, Englebert Humperdink and Bonnie Tyler less so. And will Sir Terry Wogan, who quit commentating on the show in a grump, take to the stage?
The third show-stopper so far to be confirmed is Natasha St-Pier, who represented France in the 2001 contest and will return to Eurovision’s warm embrace to sing Je N’ai Que Mon Ame.
The concert will take place on 31 March and will be broadcast on BBC1 shortly afterwards. Highlights of the concert will also be broadcast on Radio 2.
BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore said: “We are delighted that the EBU has given BBC One the honour of kick-starting the 60th anniversary celebrations and welcoming these iconic Eurovision performers to the UK and into people’s homes once more.”
Jon Ola Sand, the EBU’s executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest described the contest as a “a true European institution that has led the way in TV entertainment.”
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