The Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the UK next year, and cities across the country – including Manchester – have already started submitting their bids to host the competition.
The European Broadcast Union and the BBC announced on Monday that the UK will host the 2023 contest in place of Ukraine, this year’s winners. This is because of the ongoing war with Russia.
The M.E.N. spoke to people across the city about the possibility of the historic song contest coming to the North-West. And, it’s safe to say everyone’s feeling pretty excited.
Hannah Gardner, 37, from Blackburn, said: “I do think it would be a fantastic thing for Manchester: it’s got so much musical heritage of its own that it’s kind of nice to have something like that brought here. It’s got a Hard Rock Cafe, which is awesome, it’s got the musical history there. And we were the kind of default winners, as great as it was for Ukraine.
“I think bringing it to England – and bringing it to the North, because we don’t get enough in the North, let it not be London – would be fantastic. Manchester has a brilliant community, especially after everything that happened. Ariana Grande did us a huge favour bringing the city together, let’s have that again – let’s have everyone smiling and out in the streets and celebrating, hopefully, a really good year.
“Alright, we don’t have the weather that everywhere else does, but Eurovision is nice and indoors, so that’s a bonus. It’d be a nice tourism boost that wouldn’t be related to football – wouldn’t that be a nice change for Manchester? Manchester’s got a lot of heart, it’s a great community, and it gets overlooked for a lot of great things. So, to the BBC: please let us have this one, we’ll make it worth your while.”
Chris: “I am a big Eurovision fan. It would be awesome [if it came to Manchester]. There’s huge gay representation in Manchester already, and obviously Eurovision is like queer church, so it would be great to bring those two worlds’ together.
"Canal Street on Eurovision night would be great. It would just be nice for us [the UK] to host it for once, because I feel like we’re never gonna do it from winning outright – though we came close! It would be great fun. It shouldn’t go to London, it should go somewhere that doesn’t get to host the international highlight events all the time.”
Craig Mcintosh, 54, Leicestershire: “I went to Eurovision in Stockholm, and it made a real difference to the city, it really was an amazing event. If the opportunity came for Eurovision to come to Manchester, it would be great for the city. I think the people of Manchester would buy in – they’d enjoy it immensely. Manchester’s the greatest city in the world, as I tell everyone on my travels, so for me, the Eurovision in Manchester would be amazing.”
Jay Anderson, 26, Salford: “I think Eurovision should [come to Manchester]: it would bring a lot more tourism into the city, it would be financially brilliant for local businesses after the last few years of issues with Covid lockdowns and all that. Bringing tourism back into the city would be a perfect thing for us."
Asked what his favourite thing is about Eurovision, Mr Anderson says: “It’s the variety of the acts, and, in the nicest possible sense, how ridiculous some of them are. All of the lighting and the costumes, it’s fascinating to see. I’m glad we managed to rank so highly this year.”
Lauren Felton, 35, Warrington: “I think it’d be a really good idea [to get Eurovision to Manchester] – it would bring a lot of people into the city centre and get people coming to visit Manchester. I’d 100% be more likely to watch if it was in Manchester.”
Pat Karney, Labour Councillor for Harpurhey/Collyhurst: “Let me first say, we have a very big Ukrainian community in Manchester and we would be working closely with them to do them proud. I think we can make a really powerful case: we’ve got an incredible track record of putting on global events, like the Commonwealth Games 20 years ago, we’ve got an international airport, we’ve got the hotels and the venues.
“Manchester is up for Eurovision – we’ve probably got the biggest fan base for Eurovision of any city in this country, there's a really unbelievable level of support. Put all that together, and it points to Manchester. There’s so many horrible things happening in the world, Eurovision is one of those great events that cheers everybody up, brings everyone together, you have endless parties and everyone’s watching it, and it’d be a major economic boost for the hotels and hospitality in the city.
“We’re very forensic about it – we like Eurovision, we’re Eurovision fans – but it’d be a major boost to Manchester. We’re working on the bid now, we’ve got the details of what the organisers want and we’re working on the bid at the moment. The bid will be going in soon, and I think we’re going to make a very powerful case.”
Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig wrote on Twitter: “Manchester will be bidding to host Eurovision. A world class music city, brilliant venues, experience in hosting major events, and of course one of the UK’s largest Ukrainian populations – we are confident we will make it a #eurovision to remember. More to follow.”
Sacha Lord, the Night Time Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester, also expressed his support, tweeting that “There is no better city than Manchester, to hold this.”
A number of other UK cities have announced their bids, including London, Sheffield, Liverpool and Glasgow.
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