The UK cities in contention to host Eurovision 2023 have been revealed.
Zoe Ball and Scott Mills announced the shortlist of cities on BBC Radio 2 on Friday (12 August).
“It’s exciting that we’re talking about Eurovision in August,” Mills said, before naming the cities that are being considered to host the annual contest in honour of 2022 winners Ukraine.
Since it was revealed Ukraine would be unable to host the event due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country, 20 cities in the UK announced their bids to host the event.
However, only seven have been named as contenders. These cities are Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.
Mills said these cities were deemed to have the “capability and capacity” to host the event, stating they proved they had the “passion” involved to celebrate Eurovision.
These cities will go through to a second and final stage, following which they will be expected to “give a bit more detail” about what they would do if they were successful in their bids.
The final decision will be announced later this year. The Eurovision contest was last hosted in the UK in 1997, the eighth time the event had visited British soil.
It was announced in July that the UK would host the event in Ukraine’s honour, with Martin Österdahl, the Eurovision executive supervisor, stating: “We’re exceptionally grateful that the BBC has accepted to stage the Eurovision Song Contest in the UK in 2023.
Kalush Orchestra won the contest for Ukraine in May after receiving overwhelming support in the public vote. The UK’s entry, Sam Ryder, came in second place.
Shortly after the country’s victory, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Facebook post: “Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe! Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! For the third time in its history. And I believe – not for the last time.”
Since then, though, Eurovision’s governing board the Reference Group concluded that “given the current circumstances, the security and operational guarantees required for a broadcaster to host, organise and produce the Eurovision Song Contest under the ESC Rules cannot be fulfilled”.
The next Eurovision Song Contest will take place in May 2023.
