Eurovision 2024: What We Know So Far (as of December 2023)

Our final blog post for the year of 2023! Let's see what we have. Keep in mind though, since the last blog post was so wordy, I'll cut out substantial bits that no longer apply.

Eurovision 2024

Host Country: Sweden

Host City: Malmö (Malmö Arena)

You can read more about the host city "race" as well as SVT's host city demands in WWKSF blog posts of previous months.

Hosts: Gina Dirawi?

Some names that have been posited include Måns and Petra Mede (of course), Sanna Nielsen (Sweden 2014 "Undo"), as well as Farah Abadi (Melodifestivalen 2022-23 co-host, 2023 Swedish jury spokesperson), Sarah Dawn Finer and Oscar Zia. On 17/11, when approached by Eurovision fan press at Het Grote Songfestivalfeest in Amsterdam, Måns Zelmerlöw said that he had not been approached by SVT to host the contest.

Near the end of November, it has increasingly been rumoured that Gina Dirawi may be selected as a presenter for Eurovision 2024. Dirawi is a Swedish television presenter of Palestinian descent. During the talk show Hellenius Hörna, Dirawi was asked about the possibility of hosting Eurovision. Dirawi allegedly tried to avoid the question and told the audience to keep quiet, and the particular segment was later cut out of the live broadcast.

Show Dates: 7th May, 9th May, 11th May

This was announced alongside the host city.

Rule Changes: jury reform?, show shortened by an hour?, AI ban

On 14/6, TV2 in Norway reported that the EBU are discussing the jury system, and that in fact NRK has been communicating with them regarding the system. The NRK official added that the assessment by the Eurovision Reference Group will be completed and decided upon in January. Specifically, according to Norwegian head of delegation Stig Karlsen during a guest appearance on a podcast, NRK were planning to propose a 70/30 televote/jury split to the EBU during a meeting in September. On 12/9, a workshop of delegations took place in Berlin, during which Karlsen posted a photo on social media saying "mission complete". Karlsen later clarified on a podcast that no agreement had been made over reducing the power of the jury, and that he has "full confidence" in the EBU whatever they may do with the jury going forward.

On 16/6, Aftonbladet reported that SVT are planning to shorten Eurovision airtime by a full hour. In the same document detailing the 123 points to fulfill for a host city, it was revealed that SVT have plans to broadcast semi-finals between 21:00 and 23:00, and the final between 21:00 and 0:15. After being announced as TV Producer, Per Blankens said to Aftonbladet that it is "high on the agenda" to shorten the show by up to an hour.

On 24/8, Bloomberg reported that the EBU was contemplating banning artificial intelligence from the Eurovision Song Contest. Speculation became rife when SMRTV, the broadcaster for San Marino, announced on 29/11 a collaboration with an AI startup to write songs for their national final. However, it looks like this was scrapped several days later, as the submission portal had been closed, and only 11 submissions were received there, several of which being troll entries.

On 2/11, the rules for Eurovision 2024 were released. Notably, it mentions that "the points of the National Audiences and of the National Juries shall be combined according to a ratio which is determined by the EBU, subject to the Reference Group approval". However, fans quickly pointed out that this line was also present in previous rulebooks. Otherwise, rules largely remain the same as 2023, with televote-only semi-finals, and the inclusion of a Rest Of The World vote.

Eurovision Reference Group: member changes

Astrid Dutrenit (NPO), Sietse Bakker (NPO), Yuval Cohen (KAN), and David Tserunyan (AMPTV) have left the group, while Ebba Adielsson (SVT) and Ana Maria Bordas (RTVE) have joined. Bakel Walden (SRG SSR) is the new chairperson.

Personnel: Ebba Adielsson (Executive Producer), Christel Thoise Willers (Executive Producer for communication, press, brand and event), Tobias Åberg (Executive in Charge of Production), Johan Bernhagen (Executive Line Producer), Christer Björkman (Contest Producer), Per Blankens (TV Producer), Edward Af Sillen (script writer), Daniel Réhn (script writer)

With the exception of Adielsson who had previously been the head of SVT Entertainment, all of the above names have already had previous hosting involvement in ESC2013, while Åberg and Bernhagen were also involved in hosting ESC2016. Åberg also worked with the BBC in Liverpool as a technical expert. On 11/9, it was revealed that Christer Björkman, who was responsible for Melodifestivalen between 2002 and 2021, as well as Eurovision 2013, will return to be the Contest Producer, while Per Blankens (who had previously worked on Melodifestivalen as well) will be the TV Producer.

On 7/12, Aftonbladet reported that Edward Af Sillén, along with Daniel Réhn, will return to write scripts for the hosts, as well as the interval acts. Af Sillén, also a longtime Eurovision commentator for SVT, had previously already written the scripts for 2010, 2013, and 2016, including the iconic "Love Love Peace Peace" interval act.

Stage: cross-shaped, movable LED cubes

This was revealed on 19/12. Stage designed by Florian Wieder and Fredrik Stormby, the former of which had also worked on several Eurovision stages in the 2010s as well as 2021. As one may note from the above photo, the LED cubes above the stage somewhat resemble the suspended box used by Loreen in her Tattoo performance. The standing crowd will be surrounding the cross-shaped stage. Artists come out from the back, near the "United By Music" LED screen - the stage is not solitary - and walk across a bridge to get to the middle. In other renders, one can see that the bridge and the middle part of the cross may also be used to construct a corridor of lights. At this point in time, it is not certain where the green room will be situated.

Budget: unknown

On 18/9, it was reported by Sveriges Radio that the City of Malmö will spend 30 million Swedish krones, or about 2.5-2.6 million euros, on Eurovision. In comparison, the City of Liverpool spent about 2.3 million euros. It is however also likely for SVT to not spend as much as the BBC and British government did on Eurovision.

On 4/10, it was further reported that SVT will cut a further 200 million krona, or 17 million euros, and that between 70 and 80 positions will disappear. This is likely to cause further setbacks to the Eurovision hosting.

During an interview with the Eirevision podcast, Irish head of delegation Michael Kealy revealed that the EBU will once again increase the participation fee for broadcasters in 2024, although the exact numerical amount was not disclosed. This was revealed to the heads of delegation at the Berlin meeting in September. Kealy added that the reasoning for this was that the EBU deemed the contest "not financially sustainable" currently.

Interval Acts: ABBA songbook?, Zara Larsson?

Despite confirming that they will not perform on the Eurovision 2024 stage ("you don't have to be there to celebrate ABBA"), Bjorn and Benny have said that they may consider appearing at the show in person for the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision.

World-famous pop star Zara Larsson has said in an interview that she would "love to be part of the interval act next year". On 1/7, Larsson confirmed during Nyhetsmorgon that she is currently in talks to perform at Eurovision 2024.

Tickets: first went on sale on 28/11

The first set of tickets went on sale on 28/11, where many users reported being put in an unusually long queue in the hundreds of thousands. Further sales and re-sales will take place in December and beyond, the first of which took place on 15/12. Some re-sale tickets went for as much as 5000 Swedish krona.

Allocation Draw: 30/1/2024, 19:00 CET

Now officially referred as "The Draw". Exact location still not yet known. To be hosted by Pernilla Månsson Colt, who also hosted the draw in 2013, as well as Farah Abadi, 2023 Swedish jury spokesperson and host of Melodifestivalen 2022-2023. The pots of countries have not yet been revealed, most likely pending Romania.

Pre-parties:

• PrePartyES (28th - 30th March 2024, Sala La Riviera, Madrid, Spain)

28/3 will feature a "dress party", 29/3 will feature a dozen Eurovision stars as well as a ESC2024 flag parade and 30/3 will feature the Eurovision 2024 artists singing. Tickets started going on sale on 22/11.

• Barcelona Eurovision Party (4th - 6th April 2024, Sant Jordi Club, Barcelona, Spain)

Tickets are already on sale at the official website bcneurovision.com, and go for 48 euros and up. The actual party takes place on the 6th, while the 4th and 5th will see the EUROfansCLUB take place in the Sala Safari and ESC YOUNG and EURO JUSTICE take place at La Terrazza respectively. It will feature Albina (Croatia 2021), Cornelia Jakobs (Sweden 2022), Herreys (Sweden 1984), among others.

• London Eurovision Party (7th April 2024, London)

Details TBA.

• Eurovision in Concert (13th April 2024, AFAS Live, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

To be hosted by Cornald Maas and Charlotte Perelli, the latter of which will also perform her Eurovision entries during the pre-party.

Eurovillage: Folkets Park, 26/4 - 12/5

As announced by Malmö City Council on their website when looking for volunteers. In addition, a "Eurovision Street" will be implemented between Folkets Park and Triangeln, although details are still not yet clear there. Folkets Park is rather far from Malmö Arena, however it is close to the Malmö train station where many visitors may arrive, presumably from Copenhagen.

Non-participating Countries: Andorra, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania?, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey

Read previous blog posts on news regarding Slovakia, Andorra, Monaco, Montenegro, Hungary and Turkey.

Rumours were rife when Victoria (Bulgaria 2020, 2021) said that there would be something special, and liked responses that related to Eurovision. In addition, the BNT Twitter account also agreed that there would be something special. However, this did not turn out to be Eurovision-related, and in fact Victoria announced her presence at Amsterdam Calling 2024 by saying "Bulgaria may not be in Eurovision, but...".

On 15/9, the MRT 2024 budget was released, and it was found that 1.5M Macedonian Denar (~24k euros) had been allocated to Eurovision and Junior Eurovision participation in 2024. Despite this however, North Macedonia did not appear on the final participation list. It was later explained that 2024 will be the 80th anniversary of Macedonian radio, and the 60th anniversary of Macedonian television, therefore MRT with their limited funds wants to focus on the celebration of that rather than doing Eurovision. Whether they will participate in Junior Eurovision 2024 is not yet known.

Regarding Romania, Ovi Jacobsen (2010, 2014) and Mihai Trăistariu (2006) have both announced on social media that they are writing entries to represent Romania in Eurovision 2024. After the participant list was revealed, it was reported on the Eurovision website that negotiations were still ongoing with the Romanian broadcaster. Fans from Romania also revealed that TVR had in fact gotten a deadline extension from the EBU, and this was needed due to the 2024 Romanian budget only to be ratified near Christmas. The aforementioned Mihai Trăistariu also posted on 8/12 that he has found "the right track" that he will submit to the Romanian broadcaster, or even other broadcasters if he "has no choice".

Returns: Luxembourg

On 12/5, the day before the grand final of Eurovision 2023, the EBU announced that Luxembourg will return to the contest after 30 years of absence. Wonder who's written an entire separate blog post on that...

Participating Countries: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania*, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

This was announced on 5/12 by the EBU, although the list is not set in stone, pending Romania. Australia and Georgia have confirmed participation but not provided any further information. The deadline for participation confirmation was 15/9, although countries were able to withdraw without any cost until 13/10. As mentioned earlier, TVR has gotten an extension on the deadline.

On 17/10, RTSH posted the official participant list of FIK 62, along with their respective song titles. Names included FIK 61 jury winner Elsa Lila, Kejsi Tola (Albania 2009), Kastro Zizo, Besa Kokëdhima, Samanta Karavella, Sardi Strugaj, and Olimpia Smajlaj, among others. In addition, it was also announced that like last year, the songs will not be published until they have been performed once at the festival. On 2/11, Kejsi Tola and Samanta Karavella were confirmed to be withdrawing from the festival, and were subsequently replaced with other candidates. This comes after the announcement that the voting system would revert to the 2023 system, with the jury and televote selecting different winners, and the televote winner going to Eurovision. The running orders for the first two nights were also drawn. Notably, the two big favourites Elsa Lila and Besa Kokëdhima were both drawn second in their respective nights. On 30/11, it was announced that Kledi Kadiu, Xhuliano Dule and Krisa Çaushi will be the hosts of the festival. On 1/12, it was revealed that Sardi Strugaj would also withdraw from the festival, apparently later cited as saying that the festival had been rigged for Elsa Lila. On 10/12, Bojken Lako, director of FIK 62, revealed that the jury for FIK will now consist of 11 people instead of 5, and like last year, will not decide the Eurovision entry. The jury will also decide qualifiers to the final via the newcomers group, however confusingly the non-qualifiers are still eligible to win the Eurovision ticket. In addition, with the exception of bands, only 3 people are now allowed on stage in total. Six different prizes were awarded during the show. The final of FIK 62 took place on 22/12. Despite fan hype for Elsa Lila and earlier rumours of televote riggery for her, she did not end up winning or even coming top 3 in any award, instead with Besa Kokëdhima having won the televote with the song "Zemrën N'dorë". Elsa Lila later alleged that corruption took place with the televote, as Besa's father is a rich politician in Albania, and said that she would never return to FIK.

After some fake rumours of a national final, the newest rumours in Armenia are now claiming that Iveta Mukuchyan will return to the contest, with a song in Armenian. Another rumour claims that an artist named PARG will represent Armenia at Eurovision 2024.

After months of discussion and speculation, it was finally announced by the EBU that Australia will indeed take part in Eurovision 2024. According to some rumours, the 2024 entry will be partially funded by the Victorian government. Speculation was rife when after the stage design was revealed, Dannii Minogue quoted the post on Twitter, writing "The stage is set…and the countdown has begun!". Notably, Dannii comes from Melbourne, which is in the state of Victoria.

Austria are returning to an internal selection. Possible names include Slomo, Julia Steen, Thomas Glan and Dominik Gassner. On 2/10, Forcher posted on Facebook that they have received over 60 submissions, and that the Eurovision 2024 Austrian representative would be announced no later than December. In addition, he also revealed that a public voting had been planned, however it could not be implemented for legal reasons. According to more updated Austrian sources, the representative announcement is now expected in mid-January.

On 14/7, Ictimai TV, the Azerbaijani broadcaster, opened song submissions for Eurovision 2024. The submissions closed on 30/9. On 3/10, ITV revealed that 214 submissions had been received, 88 of which had been written by Azerbaijanis. On 20/10, ITV announced that they had begun the live auditioning process with 16 candidates. On 29/10, ITV posted their shortlist of 15 candidates, among which was Aisel who had already represented Azerbaijan in 2018. On 15/11, the shortlist was further shortened to 6, which still contained Aisel, among others. These six acts will now be reviewed by a set of focus groups. In addition, the contestants were asked about details of their song, such as what kind of movie the song would go with. Among the questions, it appears that Aisel's song will be in the Azerbaijani language, which is also the case with her non-Eurovision music.

RTBF announced on 30/8 that dark pop artist Mustii will represent Belgium in Malmo. According to an interview from VRT, his track will be released in February 2024, and Mustii says that he "wants to go to Eurovision with my own DNA" and be "sincere and authentic".

The Croatian national final Dora will take place in February, with the exact number of shows being determined by 10/1 at the latest. The final will tentatively take place on 24/2. After submissions closed, it was reported that 203 submissions had been received, a record. In addition, 24 songs were selected by a jury, with 4 reserves. The names were announced on 15/12, including Vatra, Let 3, Lana Mandarić, Zsa Zsa, Damir Kedžo (Croatia 2020) and Boris Štok. In addition, the head of delegation confirmed that there will indeed be a semi final in the national final. The last time Dora had a semi final was 2010, and the last time there were two semi-finals was 2007. On 29/12, Croatian media reported that for the first time since 2011, the national final may not take place in Opatija, as HRT are "not able to" do it there. Dora may thus return to the Croatian capital Zagreb, however this is yet to be confirmed.

On 25/9, it was announced that 16-year-old Cypriot-Australian Silia Kapsis will represent Cyprus in Eurovision 2024. Kapsis will sing a song written by Dimitris Kontopoulos. On 23/11, it was revealed that Kelly Sweeney and Guy Groove, two Los Angeles-based choreographers, will be choreographing Kapsis' performance for Eurovision 2024.

Czechia returned to the national final ESCZ. On 14/11, it was revealed that the national final would take place on 4/12 at the Roxy Club in Prague, to be presented once again by Adam Misik. In addition, Cesár Sampson would be the green room host, interviewing contestants before they go on stage. On 29/11, the 7 finalists were revealed. During the national final, Lake Malawi and We Are Domi performed as opening and closing acts respectively. After the show, voting was opened for a week, with both Czech (30%) and international (70%) viewers being able to vote via either the Eurovision app or on the Choicely website. On 13/12, it was announced that Aiko had won the national final with the song "Pedestal", winning the international vote by a large margin (albeit slightly miscalculated by the Czech delegation), and coming 5th in the Czech vote where Elly had a landslide victory instead. Aiko will now represent the Czech Republic in Eurovision 2024. It was later revealed that Aiko will be working with her producer to lengthen the song (which currently stands just over 2:30) as well as to make a revamp.

Denmark are returning to their national final DMGP. On 28/9, DR announced that the national final will take place at the Koncertsalen in Copenhagen on 17/2. In addition, they also said that there will be a "closer screening of songs", and that the jury will now include music industry professionals from Denmark and elsewhere. There will still be 8 entries in the national final, same as previous years. On 4/11, Erik Struve Hansen revealed that about 500 entries were received. In addition, the selected entries will be released about 3 weeks before the show. In addition, one week before the show, on 10/2, there will be a special session where all contestants will have to sing their song acoustic. There will again be two voting rounds. In the first round, the hosts will announce the finalists in random order, although it was not revealed how many songs will be sent to the second round. There will be 10 Danish and 10 foreign jury members, and it was also revealed that former Eurovision commentator Ole Tøpholm had an important role in the selection of the jury members. The members of the jury are not yet known, but will be announced during the show. On 27/11, it was announced that the hosts for the show will be Stéphanie Surrugue and Sara Bro. On 1/12, it was announced that the 8 acts have been decided, one of which had apparently previously already been on the Eurovision stage.

On 5/7, ERR reported that the chief producer of Eesti Laul (the Estonian national final), Tomi Rahula, will be stepping down from this post after having been in this role for 5 years. On 15/9, submissions for Eesti Laul 2024 were opened. Format changes were also announced; in particular, there will only be one semi-final, with 15 songs fighting to be the 5 which qualify for the final. They will be joined in the final by 5 other songs, which will have been directly admitted to the final, making 10 songs in the final. The final of the national final will take place on 17/2 at the Tondiraba Ice Hall. On 2/11, it was announced that Tõnis Niinemets and Grete Kuld will return to present the national final. The artists were announced on 6/11 and 7/11 on the show Ringvaade, which consisted of Ollie (EL2023 "Venom"), Carlos Ukareda (EL2023 "Whiskey Don't Forget"), Laura Põldvere (Estonia 2005, UMK 2021), among others. The songs were released on 8/12. Current fan favourites include 5Miinust x Puuluup, OLLIE, and Cecilia. As of 31/12, 5Miinust x Puuluup seems to be the overwhelming favourite of the Estonian public, still staying at #1 in the weekly top music videos ranking on Youtube in Estonia.

Finland are returning to their national final named UMK. On 3/10, Yle announced that UMK24 will take place in the Nokia Arena in Tampere, which can hold up to 15000 people. Furthermore, the final will take place on 10/2, and tickets went on sale on 5/10, and sold out within an hour. The chair of the UMK jury also commented on the selected songs, saying that the seven entries this year are the "all-time best group of entries", which consist of:

• a talented artist's first 90s-style dance song

• a power song by a true vocal talent

• perhaps the best song of an indie favourite's career

• two big name performers doing a surprising duo with a serious refrain

• a thunderous rock anthem by a world-touring band

• a seriously intense song from one of the most listened-to artists in Finland

• a hard-hitting club banger by a well-known artist making a comeback

419 entries were submitted (up from 363 last year), and the finalists will be announced on 10/1. The first music video was filmed on 7/11. On 11/12, Yle announced that the national final will be hosted by comedian Pilvi Hämäläinen, Benjamin (UMK 2023 "Hoida Mut"), and former Miss Finland Viivi Pumpanen.

On 8/11, after months of silence, France Televisions suddenly announced that Slimane will be representing France with the song "Mon Amour". The song was released later that same day, and is an emotional ballad typical of Slimane's style. Slimane is a very famous French artist, having had several number 1 hits in France.

On 7/9, German broadcaster NDR opened song submissions for the national final "Eurovision Song Contest, Das Deutsche Finale 2024", and the submissions will close on 15/10. Unlike last year, there will no longer be a TikTok wildcard. Artists can also enter even if they do not yet have a song. The national final will take place on 16/2 in Berlin. It was also reported that NDR may hand Eurovision over to another regional broadcaster starting in 2025, although this is still under discussion. On 21/9, Allgäuer Zeitung reported that Ralph Siegel, who had written "Ein Bisschen Frieden", Germany's first-ever winning entry, has now submitted an entry to the German national final. He has written a song for a 23 year old singer named Aileen Sager, and says that he dreams to "win for Germany again". Another interested name was Tilly Electronics. Ikke Hüftgold, who had come second in the 2023 national final, also said that he had submitted another song for 2024, although he later said that this was not for Germany, but for a smaller country (interpreted by fans as San Marino). It was announced on 4/10 that due to "popular demand", the submissions would be extended to 15/10. On 17/10, NDR announced that 693 submissions had been received, 572 of which submitted one or more songs, while the rest did not have a song. A few such submissions were Alexandra Hofmann, with a song written by Jørgen Olsen, Stefanie Heinzmann, From Fall To Spring, Melissa Mantzoukis, ALLY, Apollson, Florian Suerie, and Spielhagen. On 25/11, ESC Kompakt reported that 32 songs were still in the running, and that a third of said songs are sung in the German language. On 6/12, a new format named "Ich Will Zum ESC" ("I want to go to ESC") was announced, which will determine one extra finalist for the actual German national final. This format starts on 25/1, involves 15 contestants, and will be hosted by Conchita Wurst and Germany-based Irish musician Rea Garvey. The final of IZWE will take place on 8/2. It was noted by Eurofans that given the German tendency to vote for the "underdog", the winner of this format will most likely also win the national final.

Despite fears of withdrawal due to a combination of poor results and a pro-Russian government, GPB confirmed Eurovision 2024 participation on 15/9. The artist and song selection method is as yet unknown, although fans have speculated that given the silence and lack of The Voice Georgia or another talent show being used as the selection method, there might be an internal selection. Looking at past internal selections from Georgia, the candidate would then likely be announced in December.

On 24/10, ERT revealed that Marina Satti will represent Greece in Malmö. An already established artist in Greece, she focuses on pop music with strong Greek influences. It was also announced that song submissions were open until 1/12 for any prospective songwriters to send in a song for Marina Satti to sing at Eurovision 2024. One interested songwriter is Kostas Karalis, who claimed that his song would be able to bring Greece into the top 3. Otherwise, Satti also said in an interview that she already has several songs ready, and has also approached other songwriters, both old and new collaborators. She also stressed that she will be authentic to her style when selecting a song for Eurovision, although she might sing in English which is not typical of her, as her discography is almost exclusively in Greek. On 7/11, it was reported that Dora Chierakis and Sofia Dranidou will be returning as Head of Project and Head of Mission for ERT, with Dranidou also doubling as the head of delegation. It was claimed on the talk show "SUPER Katerina" on 15/11 that Satti's entry will not be selected by any internal ERT committee, and that there would be new commentators for Eurovision as well. In an interview on 20/11, Marina Satti said that she wanted to break stereotypes about Greek music, and that there are no losers or winners in Eurovision. Some reports had suggested that a national final might be held to select Satti's entry, but this was later denied. On 10/12, it was reported on talk show "Geia Sou" that Marina Satti and her team have looked through most of the 150 songs that were received, and so far she has rejected all of them. As mentioned earlier, Satti already has her own songs that she could pick instead. The report was later refuted by Satti however, who said that she had not gone through most of the songs yet, including one which was written by a songwriter who co-wrote Tattoo and Euphoria.

On 15/6, the submissions for Icelandic national final Söngvakeppnin were opened, and they closed on 10/9. On 13/10, RUV announced that they had received 118 songs. In addition, the first semi-final of Söngvakeppnin will take place on 17/2, the second semi-final on 24/2, and the final on 2/3. 10 songs will take part in the national final, and they will be revealed during the show "Lögin í Söngvakeppninni" on 27/1. On 24/10, Daði (Iceland 2020, 2021) posted a cryptic tweet saying that "Iceland will win Eurovision 2024", but then added that he himself will not be participating. On 12/12, the Icelandic Society of Authors & Composers released a statement for RUV to not take part in Eurovision 2024 if Israel continues to take part. This was later echoed by OGAE Iceland, who voted on 24/12 by a 71% majority to also call on RUV to withdraw in case of continued Israeli participation. This mirrors Icelandic public opinion, with a public survey in the same week showing that of the over 1100 responses, 76% of respondents believed that Israel should not be allowed to take part in Eurovision 2024, and 64% believed that Iceland should withdraw if Israel still participates.

On 20/6, Irish artist Roisin O, who had an album reach number 3 in Ireland in 2022, also said in an interview with Independent.ie that if she had enough support she would "definitely give it [Eurovision] a go", and that she would want to do it right since the whole process takes six months. Another interested artist is aliensincaves, an alternative rock group from Waterford, who announced on Twitter that they will submit a song to Eurosong 2024. On 29/8, Irish artist Erica Cody (who was on the jury in 2023) said in an interview that she is interested in doing Eurovision, she has the song (and even the choreography and creative direction) and she "wants to do Ireland proud". Another name that submitted a song was folk metal band Cruachan, who had also entered an entry in 2023. In recent days, it was also revealed that Brooke (Ireland 2022) had also submitted an entry, hoping to return to Eurovision after 2 years. On the Eirevision podcast, head of delegation Michael Kealy stated that the national final will most likely once again be on the Late Late Show, which has since gotten a new host after the previous one was ousted for financial scandals. According to certain rumours, fasttracking once again took place this year for some artists, allowing more established names to directly enter the national final without vetting from the internal jury. On 31/12, Irish Eurovision podcast Eirevision revealed that the songs taking part in Eurosong 2024 will be revealed starting on 8/1, on the Ray D'Arcy show on RTE Radio 1.

Israel is returning to their national final "HaKokhav HaBa", known in English as "Rising Star", which had previously already been used between 2015 and 2020 as Israel's national final. It will be broadcast by Keshet 12. On 24/7, the hosts and judging panel for the show were announced. The hosts are the same ones who hosted between 2015-2020. The judging panel will be led by Aden Hason, who composed Israel's 2018 Junior Eurovision entry. In addition, it was also announced that casting has already begun, and the auditions will be filmed in September, while the program itself is expected to be broadcast in November. The first auditions took place on 10/9, at the Tel Aviv Expo which hosted Eurovision 2019. Unlike the auditions later in September however, these auditions would not be filmed. The first episode of Rising Star was aired on 20/11, which featured many of the auditioned singers in military outfits, as well as clips of IDF soldiers in combat. After an inquiry by a Belgian newspaper, the EBU wrote that "it is a contest for broadcasters – not for governments – and the Israeli public broadcaster has been participating in the contest for 50 years" to justify their continued inclusion of Israel in the contest. On 26/12, the IDF announced the death in combat of Shaoli Greenglick, who had been taking part in Rising Star and was considered a favourite to win the selection.

On 15/5, it was reported that Eurovision will continue to be broadcast on Rai 1 in 2024. Furthermore, Sanremo 2024 will be Amadeus' last Sanremo for the time being, as he will step down as host and director after 2024 but does not rule out returning to host the show in a few years.The rules for Sanremo Giovani were also published, and only three young artists from Giovani will enter and participate in Sanremo 2024, as opposed to six last year. Sanremo will take place between 6/2 and 10/2. On 10/7, Amadeus announced changes to the festival. See previous blog posts for the rule changes. On 30/10, Fiorello announced that he will be hosting his morning show from Sanremo during the week of the festival, and will also be joining Amadeus onstage for the final of Sanremo. On 1/11, All Music Italia reported that Annalisa's Sanremo song will be a "mid tempo track with a hypnotic chorus". In addition, Edwyin Roberts, co-author of Fai Rumore, apparently also contributed to the writing of Il Volo and Dargen D'Amico's songs. Also, Alessandra Amoroso has apparently submitted an emotional ballad, while The Kolors' entry is as impactful as their earlier hit "Italodisco". On 30/11, the co-hosts for each night were announced. Notably, Marco Mengoni will co-host the first night, Giorgia the second, and Fiorello the final night. The big artists were announced on 3/12. Among others, they include Emma, Diodato, Sangiovanni, Il Volo, Geolier, Alessandra Amoroso, Negramaro, Mahmood, Loredana Berte, Annalisa, Mr. Rain, and Ricchi e Poveri. Italian press also reports that such names as Ermal Meta had been rejected. The final of Sanremo Giovani took place on 19/12, after which it was revealed that Clara, Santi Francesi and bnkr44 will take part in Sanremo proper in February, making a total of 30 participants. In addition, the song titles of the big artists were also revealed.

On 11/9, LTV announced the return of Latvian national final Supernova. The artists will be revealed in January, and the final will take place in February. On 14/11, it was reported that Leon Myszkowski, Justyna (Poland 1995)'s oldest son, was working with Markus Riva from Latvia to write an entry for the Latvian national final. After submissions closed on 1/12, LTV announced that 108 entries had been received, 13 fewer than last year.

On 18/10, LRT announced that the national final has been renamed to "Eurovizija.LT", and submissions were opened. Juries will no longer provide any feedback on the performances during the show, but they will still be the tiebreaker in the semi-finals. In the final however, there will now be a superfinal like in Estonia, where the top 3 of the combined results will enter a televote-only superfinal, and the top 3 will perform a second time. The first semi-final will be broadcast on 13/1, although it will still be pre-recorded earlier in the week as previous. On 14/11, The Roop announced that they have once again submitted a song to the national final, causing Lithuania to quickly short in Eurovision winning odds. And sure enough, when the names were announced on 19/12, The Roop was among the 40 names, as well as Monika Marija, Andrius Pojavis (Lithuania 2013), Il Senso, Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė, Lina Štalytė, MeidĖ, Queens Of Roses, Vilija (Lithuania 2014), Žalvarinis, among others. There will be 5 heats, with only 2 out of 8 artists qualifying from each one for the final on 17/2.

It was announced on the day before the 2023 grand final that Luxembourg will return to the contest in 2024 after 30 years of absence. RTL revealed on 3/7 that a national final will take place on 27/1 to select the Luxembourgish entry for Eurovision 2024. Submissions took place through the eurovision.lu website, and had an emphasis on singers from or closely related to Luxembourg. Both the auditions and the national final will take place at the Rockhal in Esch-sur-Alzette, or Esch/Belval. On 11/7, Dave Gloesener, head of Eurovision at RTL, said in an interview that "the public will have their say" in deciding the Luxembourgish representative. In addition, they plan to not only broadcast the national final on TV, but also online where there will be commentaries in three(!!) different languages. After submissions closed, RTL revealed that they had received 459 entries, or 1 entry per almost 1400 people in Luxembourg. On 1/12, the national final was announced to be named "Luxembourg Song Contest". On 11/12, the 8 finalists were revealed. They include 15-year-old Naomi Ayé (which I previously reported on this blog), Edsun, and Chaild, among others.

On 21/8, TVM announced new details for MESC 2024. There will no longer be quarter-finals. In a move away from the norm, the live final will not feature live performances. Instead, each artist will film three live-on-tapes in December 2023, and then the best one (along with the music video) is selected to be broadcast during the final. The winner is then selected via a combination of jury voting and televoting. On 18/11, TVM revealed the 36 semi-finalists for MESC 2024. The first semi-final took place on 28/10, however the qualifiers were not revealed until the end of the fourth semi-final. On 25/11, the 12 qualifiers were revealed. These included MATT BLXCK, Ryan Hili, Denise, Sirena, Greta Tude, among others. These qualifiers will now compete in the final in January 2024, where each finalist gets a grant of 5000 euros to film a music video.

On 22/11, TRM announced the return of the Moldovan national final Etapa Națională. Submissions were open until 22/12. Live auditions will take place on 13/10, where 10 finalists will be selected. Those 10 finalists will then compete in the live national final on 17/2. On 26/12, the finalists were announced, which included Aliona Moon and Milla, Bumbac Tudor, Natalia Barbu, Valeria Pasha (one of Pasha Parfeni's backing vocalists), Viola Julea, among others. The songs were also released at the same time. However, Aliona Moon and Milla withdrew from the national final the day after the announcement, with no reasoning given. Current favourites include Natalia Barbu and Formatia "Vele".

On 12/7, AVROTROS announced that Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen has been appointed as the new Dutch Head of Delegation, as well as the chairman of the Dutch selection committee. On 22/8, it was announced that Jacqueline Govaert and Jaap Reesema will join the internal selection committee of AVROTROS. After submissions closed, AVROTROS revealed that they in fact received more than 600 entries, a record for the Netherlands. Cornald Maas, Dutch commentator and committee member, also noted that most of the entries were in English, but almost a hundred of them were in Dutch, and some entries also included lyrics in French, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish and Italian. On 11/12, it was officially announced that Joost Klein will represent the Netherlands in Eurovision 2024, despite previous rumours that the final shortlist consisted of Ilse DeLange, Numidia, and Karsu. Joost further elaborated in an interview that his song was co-written with Donald Ellerström and will be fully in Dutch, although it is not yet known when the song will be released.

Norway is returning to their longstanding national final Melodi Grand Prix. The songwriting camp for MGP started in early April in Oslo. Submissions for the national final started on 9/6, and in a change from previous years where songs would be released on the week of each show, any Norwegian songs released on or after 1/9 can be submitted to the national final. NRK hopes that this will lead fans to "put pressure" on artists and MGP editors to pick certain songs for the contest. Regardless, as usual, the MGP lineup will be released in January. Various familiar Norwegian names have been seen with renowned Nordic songwriters: KEiiNO posted on 12/8 about writing a song with Dino Medanhodzic in Stockholm, while a day later it was revealed that Raylee has been writing a song with Laurell Barker, who also co-wrote "Wild" and "Hero", her previous MGP entries. On 21/10, it was revealed that the national final will take place on 13/1, 20/1 and 27/1 for the semi-finals, and 3/2 for the final. Each semi-final will see 6 candidates compete to get into the 3 spots for the final. On 7/11, head of delegation Stig Karlsen revealed that MGP will have a jury in the final, but the weighting will be 60% televote, 40% jury. Among the entries, there will be "big artists and new stars, broad genres and a good show". Karlsen also claimed as usual that they have songs that can compete to win Eurovision. On 30/11, it was revealed that the hosts for MGP will be Fredrik Solvang and Marion Ravn. The contestants will be revealed on 5/1.

For Poland in Eurovision 2024, one interested name is Justyna Steczkowska, who represented Poland in 1995 with the song "Sama". Justyna, currently a judge on The Voice Poland, said that she has "an interesting idea for a song that would have a chance of being well-received". On 14/11, it was reported that Leon Myszkowski, Justyna's oldest son, was working with Markus Riva from Latvia to write an entry for the Latvian national final, therefore Justyna could theoretically compete against her own son in Eurovision. In late November, Justyna wrote on social media that her proposal is "strong and multidimensional", and that it was written in collaboration with Hotel Torino, two songwriters who have been involved in several Polish JESC entries. Other interested names include Dominik Dudek, Natasza Urbańska, Marcin Maciejczak, Anna Jurksztowicz with the song "Varsovie", Luna with the song "The Tower", and Edyta Górniak (Poland 1994). Justyna later revealed that the song is named "Witch-er Tarohoro", and that she will perform it at the New Year's Eve concert hosted by TVP. Last year, Blanka also performed "Solo" on the same concert. The song was released on 28/12. Amidst TVP officials being fired by the new government led by Donald Tusk and TVP being put into liquidation, rumours in Poland are claiming that Marta Piekarska, current Polish Head of Delegation for Junior Eurovision, will be appointed the new HOD also for the adult contest.

The national final Festival Da Cancao will continue, with submissions having closed on 15/10. There will be 20 acts and two semi-finals as usual, with 14 of those acts being invited by RTP and the 6 from public submissions (up from 4 in 2023). On 16/10, RTP announced that a record 809 submissions had been received from the public submission portal, only 6 of which were selected by a jury panel by 31/10 to take part in the national final. The 20 songwriters were revealed on 6/11, which included LEFT, Iolanda, João Borsch, Perpétua, Nena, among others. On 28/12, the semi-final split was announced, which saw the songwriters allocated randomly into the two semi-finals. Notably, the dates of the national final are still not yet known. Fans pointed out that in 2024, the Portuguese legislative elections will be taking place on 10/3, even though FdC 2024 would make the most sense to have its final on 9/3 given previous practice. Having both events in one weekend would cause great stress on the broadcaster.

It is not yet known whether Romania will take part in Eurovision 2024, with TVR indicating to Eurovoix that "the matter is being discussed", however Ovi Jacobsen (Romania 2010, 2014) posted on social media that he is working on a new song in the studio, prompting return rumours. On 26/10, a user posted an image in the Romanian Eurovision Community page on Facebook, indicating that the Romanian government has approved the budget for TVR for 2024, including participation in Eurovision 2024. As mentioned earlier, TVR are still in negotiations with the EBU after getting a deadline extension. On 13/12, the budget was officially approved, however an official Eurovision participation announcement is pending from TVR.

On 8/8, SMRTV announced that the selection Una Voce Per San Marino will return for a third edition, in a contract with Media Evolution. And unlike the previous edition, "big" artists will once again be directly admitted to the final, as in 2022. On 10/10, SMRTV announced that 8 big artists and 8 emerging artists ("emergenti") will take part in the final of the national final. In addition, applications were opened, and will close on 10/1. Academy and casting sessions started on 10/11, with the last one taking place on 20/1, upon which 80 or more semi-finalists will be selected. The semi-finals will take place on 16/2 and 17/2, where contestants must sing their intended Eurovision 2024 song either partially or fully live. As per previous years, the jury will be composed of 5 members, which will decide the winner of the national final. On 5/11, SMRTV revealed that 270 entries had been received so far, with entries coming from even countries like Mauritania. On 29/11, the date of the final was changed from 2/3 to 24/2. On 31/12, another set of auditionees were announced, which included Colet and Megara (Benidorm Fest 2022), among others.

On 14/7, RTS confirmed to OGAE Serbia that Serbia will participate in Eurovision 2024, and that there will be a national selection to decide the entry. On 6/12, RTS revealed that the final of Pesma Za Evroviziju '24 will take place on 2/3, while the semi-finals will provisionally take place on 27 and 29/2 respectively. Like 2023, there will not be a live audience, and the national final takes place in the RTS studio. 235 entries were received. The 28 participants were revealed on 21/12, which include Zorja, Filip Baloš, Breskvica, Teya Dora, Nadia, Zejna, Konstrakta, among several others.

On 17/10, RTVSLO announced that they were launching a new national final named "Misija Malmö", which would consist at most of 4 entries. The entries would be announced on 11/12, and the national final itself would take place in January. Submissions closed on 15/11. On 5/12 however, RTVSLO announced that instead of a national final, they will instead continue with internal selections. In addition, the selected artist's song is fully in Slovenian. On 10/12, RTVSLO posted a video, which revealed that more than 100 songs were sent to the broadcaster, of which 5 were selected by an internal jury. Then, an international jury voted on these 5 songs, and one song got more than half of the votes. On 12/12, it was revealed that Raiven will represent Slovenia with the song "Veronika", a song about a Slovenian countess who was accused of witchcraft. The song will be revealed on 20/1. In an interview, Raiven says that her song will have "elements of classical music", and that it was not created specifically for EMA or Eurovision. When pushed on comparisons to earlier songs, she said that it is closest to "Zažarim", but also with small elements of "Kaos".

Spain is returning to their national final Benidorm Fest. On 26/7, a press conference took place presenting the 2024 edition of Benidorm Fest. The two semi-finals will take place on 30/1 and 1/2, while the final will be on 3/2. In addition, it was also announced that there would be a songwriting camp in September, which sought to bring together "international composers" to develop potential songs for the festival. It was however noted that songs from this camp will not have priority entry into Benidorm Fest. RTVE would also internally contact established artists and invite them to apply to enter the festival. After submissions closed, it was revealed that 825 songs were received, a record number of songs, all of which (unlike previous years where there were more songs) already had a singer. Fewer than 30 songs came from the aforementioned songwriting camp. On 12/11, the 16 artists taking part in the national final were revealed. The list featured artists such as Almacor, Angy, Maria Pelae, Nebulossa (who had previously competed in San Marino's national final), and Sofia Coll. On 29/11, it was reported that the live shows will be produced by Boomerang TV, and that they are considering having actors from TV series 'La Promesa' presenting the national final. The songs were released on 14/12. Current favourites include Almacor, Maria Pelae, Nebulossa, and Sofia Coll. Almacor later revealed that his staging will be done by Mario Crea, who had staged Aitana's performance at the Los 40 music awards.

On 29/6, SVT announced format changes for Melodifestivalen 2024. There will be an additional 2 songs competing in the contest bringing the total number of songs up to 30. Those 30 songs will take part in 5 heats, with each heat consisting of 6 songs. From each heat, 2 songs will qualify for the final. Directly after the final heat, 2 more songs will qualify from the non-qualifiers; in particular, all the songs from the heats which placed 3rd or 4th will once again be up for voting via app or SMS in a live program from the arena. The two qualifiers will be determined by a sum of the votes those entries had already received, plus the votes the entries receive during this extra voting round. On 20/9, the locations and dates of Melodifestivalen 2024 were announced by SVT. The first heat will take place in Eurovision host city Malmö on 3/2, with heats in different cities every week thereafter, culminating in a final in Stockholm on 9/3. On 22/11, Aftonbladet reported that Carina Berg and Björn Gustafsson will be hosting Melodifestivalen 2024, the latter having performed in Melodifestivalen 2008 with a love song to the former, who at the time had been married to the then-host of the festival. The 30 participants were finally revealed on 1/12, which include Smash Into Pieces, Dotter, LIAMOO, Samir & Viktor, Cazzi Opeia, Lisa Ajax, Marcus & Martinus, Clara Klingenström, Medina, Maria Sur, Gunilla Persson, Fröken Snusk, Danny Saucedo, among others.

Between 30/5 and 1/6, the SUISA songwriting camp took place in Zurich, where the songs are usually submitted to the Swiss broadcaster for consideration in Eurovision. Among others, it involved Elsie Bay, Linda Dale (Queen of Kings songwriter), and Teya from Teya and Salena, with the latter tweeting that she thinks it is very likely for the 2024 Swiss entry to come from this songwriting camp, and also thinks that fans will love the song. On 2/8, SRF announced that they will be returning to an internal selection, and they are "looking for a modern, striking song that complies with international requirements". On 4/12, it was revealed that the submissions have been narrowed down to 5 songs, and that it was being sent out to a professional jury and an international audience panel. In addition, the final decision will be made at the start of 2024, and revealed in March. On 22/12, the Swiss head of delegation revealed on his Instagram story that Switzerland will not be sending a male ballad for 2024, however no further details were announced.

After submissions closed, UA:PBC revealed that they had received 389 submissions from 288 performers, 222 of which were soloists. Vidbir producer Pianoboy (real name Dmytro Shurov) also said that among the submissions were "4 smashing hits, 10 potential hits, and a few interesting comebacks". 58% of the songs were in Ukrainian, 33% were in English, 9% were bilingual, and less than 1% in other languages. On 9/11, the 20-long longlist was revealed. These names included a duet of alyona alyona & Jerry Heil, MELOVIN (Ukraine 2018), among others. MELOVIN soon after revealed that he was diagnosed with a chronic illness, although it is not known if this will impact his participation in the national selection. On 17/11, the first 10 finalists were revealed after live auditions took place. These finalists included alyona alyona & Jerry Heil, MELOVIN, YAGODY, Ziferblat, among others. The national final will take place on 3/2, with Timur Miroshnychenko plus a TBA female host. On 13/12, UA:PBC released the songs for the longlist entries. Minus one withdrawal, these 9 acts were then voted upon in the "Diia" app by Ukrainians to select the 11th finalist. The wildcard vote ended on 21/12, and the winner was revealed to be ANKA, with the song "Palala", who will join the other 10 finalists to take part in the live national final. The songs of the other finalists will be revealed in January.

On 1/8, TaP Music officially announced on Twitter that they were "handing back the baton" to the BBC. On 18/10, the BBC posted in an article that Eurovision will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and also noted that "the search for the 2024 act and song for the United Kingdom has taken place over the summer". On 26/11, British tabloid The Sun reported that Olly Alexander, lead singer of Years & Years and artist with several number 1 hit singles, is currently already in "advanced talks" with the BBC to represent the UK at Eurovision 2024, and is the favourite among higher-ups. Olly Alexander had previously also been considered in 2022, and much news was made when it was reported that he was rejected in favour of Sam Ryder. This was confirmed on 16/12, when the BBC officially announced Olly as the British representative for 2024. It was also announced that his song was co-written and produced by Danny L Harle, who recently also wrote Dua Lipa's latest single "Houdini", and who was also behind a number of tracks of other famous Anglophone artists, such as Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek. Olly also revealed that the song is an electronic dance song, "not a ballad", and will have 80s influences. After the announcement of Olly as representative, the UK jumped to become the favourite to win Eurovision in the (primarily British-run) bookmakers, marking the first time in decades that this has occurred. According to fan theories analyzing the background image in front of which Olly filmed his announcement video, Olly's song may be named "Dizzy", however this is only speculation. The release date of the song is not yet known.

So that's all I know about Eurovision 2024 so far! Do let me know if you find more information that I may have missed. I'll warn you, this video is VERY long. Get some popcorn, put it on while you're doing chores or on a road trip, whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOJth3HJg9s