Eurovision Show to Offer Songs in Non-Competitive Format Following Song Contest Cancellation
Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light will feature artists who had been slated to compete in the song contest appearing from locations across Europe.
Update (May 5): According to a new release, “Public broadcasters from all over Europe have revealed further details of their alternative Eurovision 2020 broadcasting plans, including one-off shows featuring past and present Eurovision representatives, viewer voting polls, documentaries and more.” See the new info here.
In the wake of the cancelation of the 2020 Eurovision song contest due to coronavirus, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has announced that a show featuring Eurovision contestants singing in solidarity will be broadcast live from locations across Europe on May 16.
The live, two-hour show “will honor all 41 songs, in a non-competitive format, as well as providing plenty of surprises for fans and viewers at home,” reads the announcement on the Eurovision website.
The 2020 Eurovision song contest, the event’s 65th edition, was to have been broadcast from Rotterdam on May 12, 14 and 16, and seen live globally.
At the time of the cancelation the organizers said they would not stage a remote show because “it’s in the DNA of the Eurovision Song Contest to bring delegations, artists and fans together in one place…we felt that under the extreme circumstances we face this year, organizing the Eurovision Song Contest in another way would not be in keeping with our values and the tradition of the event.”
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For the new non-competitive and solidarity-themed show, artists who had been slated to represent their countries in the 2020 contest will join from their respective locations across Europe, performing past Eurovision hits, “with unifying lyrics appropriate for the current situation we find ourselves in.”
Past Eurovision contestants will also participate, “linking Europe through other familiar songs from the past, performed in iconic European locations.”
Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light, hosted by Dutch Eurovision presenters Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit, is being produced by the EBU and Dutch broadcasting companies NPO, NOS and Avrotros.
Details about the line-up and participating national broadcasters have yet to be announced. The show will also be seen on Eurovision’s official YouTube channel.
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