A music chief in Liverpool has written about why the city would be the 'perfect' host city for next year's Eurovision Song Contest.
The BBC is in talks with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to potentially host next year's contest in the UK after it was decided that it would not be safe to hold the event in Ukraine because of Russia's ongoing invasion of the country. Ukraine rap-folk band Kalush Orchestra scored an emotional victory in this year's contest in Turin, Italy, with UK entrant Sam Ryder coming in second place, having topped the jury vote. It was the UK's best result since 1998.
The winning country is usually asked to host the following year's event, but the EBU said today it had carried out a study with Ukrainian state broadcaster UA:PBC and external specialists, amid the conflict, confirming that the "security and operational guarantees" required to host the event cannot be fulfilled in the war-torn country.
READ MORE: Liverpool will make 'serious case' to bring Eurovision Song Contest to city
The statement added: "As a result of this decision, in accordance with the rules and to ensure the continuity of the event, the EBU will now begin discussions with the BBC, as this year's runner-up, to potentially host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in the United Kingdom."
The news started a flurry of activity with multiple UK cities immediately putting themselves forward including Manchester and Leeds. Liverpool was quick out of the blocks, with Mayor Joanne Anderson and cabinet member for culture Harry Doyle leading the charge. They said the city will be making a serious bid that will pay tribute to Ukraine.
Now Kevin McManus, Liverpool's head of UNESCO City of Music has written about why he thinks Liverpool would be the ideal city to host Eurovision next year. Mr McManus said: "Of course in an ideal world it would be held in Ukraine, the nation that won this year’s contest, but sadly for reasons we all understand, that is unlikely to be possible.
"This year the UK broke with long established tradition and for once actually came up with a decent song and a great performance. and finished second. So, it seems fair that if Ukraine isn’t in a position to host then the honour of doing so should fall to the UK. I’m absolutely certain that if Liverpool were to host the event then it would be done in the right spirit with a generous and warm acknowledgement of Ukraine."
"I’d have loved to have been in Turin for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to watch the whole thing unfold, while the city was gradually taken over by musicians and fans from across the world. It just seems to be one of those rare events that makes everyone smile – people take it seriously – but also want it to be as much fun as possible."
He added: "It did make me think that Liverpool would be the perfect city to host this musical extravaganza. Can you imagine the fun that contestants, audiences and the media would have here? Can you imagine how much the people of Liverpool would embrace the beautiful chaos of this unique event? That’s before you even begin to consider the economic value to the city of all those hotel beds and the reputational benefits of images of our city being beamed across the world. We are a music city, so why wouldn’t we want to have the world’s biggest song contest here?
"I know Eurovision is sometimes seen as a bit cheesy but what is wrong with that. In these politically troubled times music it is one of the few things that can bring people together. It is a shared language and there is a primal instinct in humans to sing, or make music, in one form or another."
"I think Liverpool would be the perfect place to host Eurovision – we are after all the world’s foremost music city and, as anybody who has ever spent a weekend here knows – we love a party. If you put these two things together you get something that looks suspiciously like the Eurovision Song Contest."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
