This May, Basel will be brought alive with the arrival of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. Here’s what you need to know about the carnival of colour, why it is being held in Switzerland and how you can watch the show:
Founded in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has been delighting audiences across the world for decades. The ESC is organised by the European Broadcasting Union and is designed to be a competition to see which country can produce the catchiest, best-written and highest quality song possible.
In its modern iteration, the final sees countries awarded points from expert juries in each of the participating nations, alongside a popular vote. The country that wins hosts the Eurovision competition the following year.
The organisers originally saw Eurovision as a way of bringing broadcasters across the continent together to put on a big show. The name comes from British journalist George Campey, who used the term to describe a British television programme being broadcast in the Netherlands for the first time in 1951.
In the last few decades, Eurovision has developed a strong following in Europe and around the world - 163 million people tuned into the semi-finals and final in 2024. Since the 1990s, the competition has also developed a strong fanbase within LGBTQ+ communities, with many Eurovision winners being members of the group - it is sometimes affectionately known as the "Gay Olympics".
Switzerland earned the right to host Eurovision 2025 after singer-songwriter Nemo won the competition in Malmö last year with their hit song “The Code”. The artist from Biel / Bienne, Canton Bern, took fifth place in the popular vote but topped the jury vote, winning a grand total of 591 points. Croatia and Ukraine completed the podium with 547 and 453 points, respectively.
Nemo’s performance is the third time Switzerland has won Eurovision, having placed first in the inaugural competition with Lys Assia’s Refrain in 1956, and with Celine Dion’s Ne partez pas sans moi in 1988.
Following Switzerland’s victory, the race was on to see which city would host Eurovision. After bids from Zurich, Geneva, Biel / Bienne, Basel, and even St. Gallen, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation decided to host the competition in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel.
The Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland will be held from May 13 to 17, 2025. A total of 37 different countries will be participating in the competition this year.
The first semi-final will begin at 9pm on May 13, during which 15 nations will compete to see which 10 songs will be given a spot in the grand final. This will be repeated at 9pm on May 15, when 16 other countries will compete to get into the top 10 and reach the final.
The final itself will begin at 9pm on May 17. Though its finish time depends on the voting and various technical constraints, the winner of Eurovision 2025 should be crowned in the early hours of May 18.
With Switzerland hosting Eurovision for the first time in 36 years, there will be many great ways to enjoy and watch the competition in the alpine nation.
Of course, the luckiest Eurovision fans will be packed into the St. Jakobshalle to see the show live. According to the organisers, the stage and set of the competition are designed to reflect the Swiss mountains and the nation’s diversity.
“Our goal was to create a revolutionary stage…Thanks to the immersive stage layout, the audience will get to be part of Eurovision like never before," production designer Florian Wieder wrote on the ESC website.
Sadly for those who haven’t already planned their journeys to the city of the Rhine, all tickets for the semi-finals and the final have sold out.
However, for those who don’t have tickets, there are still many ways to get your Eurovision fix in Basel. In St. Jakobspark, for instance, a football stadium near the main venue, there will be a giant public viewing of the grand final.
A Eurovision Village will also be set up in Hall 1 of Basel Messe for fans to explore. The space includes live concerts, public viewings of the event and food and drink stands. What’s more, entry is entirely free.
Other public viewings of the ESC in the city will be held at Markthalle Basel, the Helvetia Campus, St. Paul’s Church, Elisabeth Church and Das Viertel.
Across the rest of Switzerland, various bars, nightclubs and other venues are planning Eurovision viewing parties and events to really get you in the mood for dancing. Some of the largest events planned outside Basel include free public viewings of the final at the Konzerthaus Schüür in Lucerne and the AHA in Aarau.
For those planning cosy nights in or Eurovision parties at home, the contest will be broadcast on SRF, RTS and RSI. The final of the competition will also be shown for free in English on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
To date, only Spain (1968, 1969), Luxembourg (1972, 1973) and Israel (1978, 1979) have won the Eurovision Song Contest back to back, while Ireland is the only nation to win it three times in a row, between 1992 and 1994. Nevertheless, Switzerland’s chances are not too slim.
For one, as host nation, Switzerland gets an automatic place in the final alongside the “big five” countries, the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy. These other countries get in due to the size of their financial contribution to the competition.
In 2025, Switzerland will be represented by Zoë Më from Basel and her song Voyage. Unlike Nemo’s bombastic, alternative and occasionally operatic offering in The Code, Voyage is a softer, more melodic French-language song about a romance gone awry.
Video: Eurovision Song Contest / YouTube
As it stands, Sweden is on track for its eighth Eurovision title, with Bara bada bastu from KAJ being the bookies' favourite. Austria, France and the Netherlands are also in with a chance of taking the title.
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