Several British cities have submitted a bid to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest among them Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol, and Belfast.
The shortlist will be announced on BBC Radio 2 on Friday morning by the European Broadcasting Union.
Liverpool Assistant Mayor and Cabinet Member for Culture and Visitor Economy, Councillor Harry Doyle was quoted by the BBC saying that the city of Liverpool would be “the perfect stage to celebrate this unique Eurovision”.
“We are excited to have submitted a bid for Liverpool to host Eurovision 2023,” he said.
He added that making a major event like the Eurovision in such a short timeframe is complicated and is going to need some careful and creative planning, but thinks Liverpool would be the perfect stage to celebrate this unique Eurovision.
“We look forward to finding out if we have been successful in getting through to the next stage of the process.”
Under normal circumstances, the country that the winning act comes from gets to host the next competition, but this time around Ukraine cannot host the contest as a result of the ongoing with Russia.
Kalush Orchestra won the competition for Ukraine in Turin, Italy in May
Recall that the Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won last year’s competition. As the UK entered, Sam Ryder was runner-up, and the UK is stepping down to host the annual competition.
The cities applying to host the event normally have to meet certain criteria.
The winning city has to be within easy reach of an international airport and have enough hotels to accommodate the people from all over Europe and beyond that are attending.
The winning city is also required to have a venue that accommodates at least 10,000 spectators.
Newcastle city announced its bid to host the 2023 song contest and the spokesman for Newcastle Council announced that “the city is famous for its Geordie welcome and is ready to host the event”.
He added that Newcastle stands united with Ukraine.
The winning city will be chosen in a two-stage process that looks at each city’s capacities and capabilities.
