The moment of truth has arrived!
The EBU and the Dutch broadcasters NPO, AVROTROS, and NOS announced today in a special live broadcast that the city of Rotterdam will host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday 12, Thursday 14 and Saturday 16 May 2020.
Earlier this year, right after Duncan Laurence dared to dream and gave The Netherlands its first win since 1975, Nine Dutch cities applied to host the contest in 2020:
- Amsterdam
- Arnhem
- Breda
- Den Bosch
- Leeuwarden
- Maastricht
- Rotterdam
- The Hague
- Utrecht
One after the other, most of them withdraw for various reasons and only two cities that met all requirements were left on the race, those were Maastricht and Rotterdam.
This year’s announcement scheduled earlier than previous years and were kept in high secrecy till the official revel today except for one mistake happened 2 days before the announcement when fans spotted a new event with the header “Rotterdam 2020” on the show official website (eurovision.tv). the event, of course, was removed a few minutes after but screenshots of the “leak” were already shared and discussed by the fans all the social media. the EBU tried to recover the mistakes and created another event on the page, this time with the name “Maastricht 2020” but after the damage was done, it was pretty obvious that Rotterdam won the race and will host the contest next year.
Today it was finally revealed that the Next Eurovision Song Contest Will take place in Rotterdam’s Ahoy arena. Unlike last year Expo convention center, Ahoy is big enough and can offer 16.5K seats which will probably affect the ticket prices when they go on sale.
The EBU has signed a long-term partnership with the haircare Moroccanoil to be the official sponsor of the show and also confirmed that the main production 4 nuclei team will be consists of:
- Sietse Bakker (Executive Producer Event)
- Inge van de Weerd (Executive Producer TV)
- Emilie Sickinghe (deputy Executive Producers)
- Jessica Stam (deputy Executive Producers)
🤝Meet the core team in charge of creating an incredible #Eurovision next year in The Netherlands! 🇳🇱
Find out all about them 👉 https://t.co/7y7JCvBreo
@avrotros @nos @PubliekeOmroep pic.twitter.com/z4cjPFM0BM— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) July 5, 2019
2020 slogan will be for the first time and open one. “Open Up” the chosen slogan invites us for diversity so that each one of us can open up to something else. Open up to music, Open up to each other, Open up to new ideas, Open up to Eurovision, etc.
The designed logo for the 65th edition of the contest was created by CLEVER°FRANKE agency and visualizes the 41 countries’ from the moment they joined the contest. Sietse Bakker, the Executive Producer Event of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 explains the idea behind the logo, saying “This design follows the characteristics of Dutch Design: minimalistic, experimental and innovative. It tells a story, it’s colorful, festive and, not unimportantly, widely applicable”
On December 2nd, 2019 the stage design stimulation by German designer Florian Wieder was unveiled. “An innovative stage design, grand in its simplicity and yet full of surprises” as Wieder describes it. you can read more about the design here:
The show hosts will be “Gewoon Jan Smit” tv host Jan Smit, AVRO broadcasters talent Chantal Janzen, and two times The Netherlands representative for The Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 and 2007 Edsilia Rombley.
besides the Three hosts on stage, the Dutch makeup artist and beauty vlogger NikkieTutorials will be the presenter of the Online backstage broadcast
41 countries will “open up” and participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. these are:
Eurovision 2020 Official Album
Participants:
Final:
France: Tom Leeb – “The Best in Me” 
Germany: Ben Dolic ft. B-OK – “Violent Thing”
Italy: Diodato – “Fai Rumore” (Sanremo 2020)
Spain: Blas Cantó – “Universo”
United Kingdom: James Newman – “My Last Breath”
The Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy – “Grow”
Semi-Final 1 (May 12th, 2020)
North Macedonia: Vasil – “You”
Belarus: VAL – “Da Vidna” (Евровидение-2020)
Lithuania: THE ROOP – “On Fire” (Eurovizijos Atranka Pabandom iš Naujo 2020)
Sweden: The Mamas – “Move” (Melodifestivalen 2020 SF1, SF2, SF3, SF4)
Slovenia: Ana Soklič – “Voda” (EMA + EMA FREŠ)
Australia: Montaigne – “Don’t Break Me” (Eurovision – Australia Decides 2020)
Ireland: Lesley Roy – Story Of My Life
Russia: Little Big -“Uno”
Norway: Ulrikke Brandstorp – “Attention” (MGP 2020)
Cyprus: Sandro – “Running”
Croatia: Damir Kedžo – “Divlji Vjetre” (Dora 2020)
Azerbaijan: Samira Efendi – “Cleopatra”
Malta: Destiny – “All Of My Love” (Maltese X-Factor)
Israel: Eden Alene – “Feker Libi” (Hakohav Haba La’Eurovision)
Ukraine: Go_A – “Соловей” (Vidbir 2020)
Romania: Roxen – “Alcohol You” (Selecţia Naţională)
Belgium: Hooverphonic – “Release Me”
Semi-Final 2 (May 14th, 2020)
Austria: Vincent Bueno– Alive
Moldova: Natalia Gordienko – “Prison” (O melodi pentru Europa)
Poland: Alicja Szemplińska – “Empires” (Szansa na Sukces)
San Marino: Senhit – “Freaky”
Serbia: Hurricane – “Hasta La Vista” (Beovizija 2020)
Iceland: Daði Freyr & Gagnamagnið – “Think About Things” (Söngvakeppnin 2020)
Czech Republic: Benny Cristo – “Kemama” (ESCZ 2020)
Greece: Stefania – “SUPERG!RL”
Estonia: Uku Suviste – “What Love Is” (Eesti Laul 2020)
Denmark: Ben & Tan – “Yes” (Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2020)
Bulgaria: Victoria Georgieva – “Tears Getting Sober”
Switzerland: Gjon’s Tears – Répondez-moi
Finland: Aksel Kankaanranta – Looking Back (UMK 2020)
Armenia: Athena Manoukian – “Chains On You” (Depi Evratesil / Դեպի Եվրատեսիլ)
Latvia: Samanta Tīna – “Still Breathing” (Supernova 2020)
Georgia: Tornike Kipiani – “Take Me As I Am”
Portugal: Elisa – Medo de Sentir (Festival da Canção 2020)
Albania: Arilena Ara – “Fall From The Sky” (Festival I Këngës 58)
** Use the 2020 calendar to make sure you’re not missing any National Final!
The 2020 Eurovision Village will be housed at Rotterdam’s iconic Binnenrotte, located in the heart of Rotterdam. the Village will be open between Saturday, May 9th, 2020 to Saturday, May 16th, 2020 and will have a lot of attraction for the fans and visitors such as live performances, themed parties, food trunks, etc.
UPDATE:
On March 18th, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EBU has announced that the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 will be canceled.
