The northern English city of Liverpool will host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, on behalf of this year’s winners Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict there.

Liverpool edged out the other candidate, Glasgow, as host city in a draw held live on BBC television on Friday.

While decades-long tradition dictates that the winner of the contest gets to host it the following year, the European Broadcasting Union had said safety and security reasons meant runners-up the United Kingdom were instead invited to host.

The BBC will stage the event, which normally draws a television audience of close to 200 million and was last held in the UK in 1998.

The music show will take place at the Liverpool Arena, with the two semi-finals on May 9 and May 11 and culminating in the grand final on May 13.
Ukraine will automatically qualify to the grand final of the competition, the EBU said.

The UK’s entry to this year’s Eurovision contest in Italy in May came second behind Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, which rode a wave of public support to claim an emotional victory.

“We are very pleased that next year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Liverpool,” Kalush Orchestra said on Friday.

“Although we are sad that next year’s competition cannot take place in our homeland, we know that the people of Liverpool will be warm hosts and the organisers will be able to add a real Ukrainian flavour to Eurovision 2023 in this city.”

– with AAP

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