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

This is the year! Let's see how we're starting off our Eurovision year.

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. 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. It was however brought up again later, as SMRTV announced intentions to hold a songwriting camp to improve on 10 AI-generated tracks. See San Marino section for more.

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.

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. In January, Romanian media reported that the participation fee for Romania this year would be 180 thousand euros.

On 14/1, the Malmö Municipal Board revealed their budget allocation for Eurovision 2024, with the largest sum of money going towards the Eurovillage. Karin Karlsson, who is heading the preparations, noted that the situation was more expensive than it had been 10 years ago, with more people and businesses collaborating with the preparations.

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. On 20/1, she reiterated in an interview with Sveriges Radio that performing at Eurovision (as an interval act) would be "the ultimate privilege", and that she is "all set" for Eurovision. She also says in that interview however that she has not received an offer from SVT to perform at Eurovision.

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". 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. Among other results, Luxembourg was drawn into a semi-final without France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, or Belgium; Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia were drawn into the same semi-final; Armenia and Azerbaijan are in different semi-finals; Cyprus and Greece are also in different semi-finals; and Iceland, Finland and Sweden (voting) were drawn into the same semi-final.

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. Confirmed 2024 artists include Besa.

• Greek pre-party (late March, TBA, Athens, Greece)

As reported by Greek Eurovision site Eurovisionfun. To include both Eurovision 2024 artists as well as popular former Eurovision artists.

• 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. To be hosted by Alex Marteen. Confirmed 2024 artists include Raiven.

• London Eurovision Party (7th April 2024, HERE at Outernet, London, United Kingdom)

Tickets to go on sale starting 20/1. Confirmed 2024 artists include Nutsa Buzaladze, Raiven, and Slimane.

• Israel Calling (11th April 2024, TBA, Tel Aviv, Israel)

• 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. Confirmed 2024 artists include Aiko, Besa, Joost Klein, and Raiven.

• Nordic Eurovision Party (20:00, 14th April 2024, BERNS Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden)

To have a rotating host city every year among the Nordic countries (which apparently include the Faroe Islands and Greenland according to the logo design). Doors open at 19:00. An after-party will take place as well for press, fans, and artists. Ticket levels include Eurofan Tickets for 800 SEK and General Standing Tickets at 600 SEK. Tickets started going on sale from 21/10.

• MalmöHagen/Copenhagen Eurovision Party (4th May 2024, Volume by DISIE, Copenhagen, Denmark)

To be hosted by British TV and radio host James Barr and drag queen Annie Rection. Confirmed names include Emmelie De Forrest, Hera Björk and Paul Rey. Will also feature a Vote Show for Eurovision 2024, "Drag-A-Vision", and afterwards Euroclub will last until 5:00. According to the Instagram page, ahead of the event, fans will be able to vote for which 20 acts appear live or virtually.

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.

On 6/1, Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG revealed that they are exploring using a music festival in 2024 to serve as a national selection for ESC 2024, if their 2025 budget allows. We may thus see Montenegro return to the contest in 2025. Regardless, Montenegro will not take part in Eurovision 2024.

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". In the end, the Board of Directors at TVR voted against Eurovision participation. Romania will therefore not take part in Eurovision 2024.

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, 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 had gotten an extension on the deadline, but ultimately voted against participation.

On 17/10, RTSH posted the official participant list of FIK 62, along with their respective song titles. On 30/11, it was announced that Kledi Kadiu, Xhuliano Dule and Krisa Çaushi would be the hosts of the festival. On 1/12, it was revealed that Sardi Strugaj would also withdraw from the festival. Six different prizes were awarded during the show. The final of FIK 62 took place on 22/12. In the end, Besa Kokëdhima won the televote with the song "Zemrën N'dorë". Besa will now represent Albania at Eurovision 2024.

Recently, it has been speculated that long-time fan favourite Ladaniva will (finally) be representing Armenia at Eurovision, as the lead singer of Ladaniva recently started following the Armenian head of delegation on Instagram.

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. On 18/1, it was found that Dannii will be releasing a new single named "Thinking 'Bout Us" on 9/2, thus leading to speculation that this may be her Eurovision entry.

Austria are returning to an internal selection. 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. On 16/1, it was announced that Kaleen, real name Marie-Sophie Kreissl, will represent Austria at Eurovision 2024 with the song "We Will Rave", described as a "techno-inspired pop track". The song was written by Jimmy Joker Thörnfeldt, among others. She has previously worked as a choreographer and stage director, notably being the stand-in rehearsal for Fuego in Eurovision 2018, as well as being the choreographer for Who The Hell Is Edgar. She is reportedly also married to the resident Austrian stage director Marvin Dietmann, leading to accusations of nepotism within the selection process. Tentatively, the song is set to be released in early March, however both the song and even a choreographed performance were leaked almost immediately on Twitter shortly after the artist announcement.

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". After months of silence, Mustii announced on 11/1 that he has opened submissions for the general public to submit audio clips of them singing a certain snippet of the song, which will then be combined to form a "choir" in the track, akin to Iceland 2021. Submissions closed on 18/1, after which it was reported that over a thousand submissions had been received, and the finished product will likely be released in mid-February. In an interview on 22/1, Mustii revealed that his song is very personal, and has potential to be developed on a big stage like Eurovision.

The names for the Croatian national final Dora were announced on 15/12, including Vatra, Let 3, Lana Mandarić, Zsa Zsa, Damir Kedžo (Croatia 2020) and Boris Štok, although Zsa Zsa soon withdrew from the lineup, and was replaced with Baby Lasagna. 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. The songs were revealed on 4/1 on "Svijet Diskografije" on HRT Radio 2, and later uploaded to the HRT Youtube channel. On 8/1, HRT announced that the national final will take place on 22, 23, and 25/2 in the Zagreb studios of HRT, meaning that for the first time since 2018, Dora will not take place in the city of Opatija. The current overwhelming favourite among Croatians seems to be Baby Lasagna, with the song "Rim Tim Tagi Dim". On 26/1, the semi-final distributions were revealed, where 8/12 artists of each semi-final will qualify for the final.

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. On 8/1, it was officially announced that Kapsis' song is named "Liar". Even before this announcement, it had been speculated that Melissa Mantzoukis' song, which had been submitted to the Greek broadcaster in 2023, would be recycled and given to Kapsis. Mantzoukis' song was also named "Liar", and was never publicly released. On 28/1, it was reported that Kapsis' music video will be filmed in late January.

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, and it was presented once again by Adam Misik. 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 and remove the swear words.

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. There will still be 8 entries in the national final, same as previous years. On 4/11, Erik Struve Hansen revealed that 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. The members of the jury are not yet known, but will be announced during the show. On 27/11, it was announced that Stéphanie Surrugue and Sara Bro will host DMGP 2024. On 25/1, DR announced that Aura Dione, Basim (Denmark 2014, "Cliche Love Song"), Chu Chu, Janus Wiberg, RoseeLu, Saba, Stella, and Ublu will be competing in the national final. it was also revealed that Ole Tøpholm (commentator 2011-2019) will return to commentating on Eurovision for DR.

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, 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, Inga, 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. The semi-final took place on 20/1, where 5Miinusti & Puuluup, Ollie, Ewert & The Two Dragons, Peter Põder, and Anet Vaikmaa qualified for the final.

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. 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". 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. The 7 artists were revealed on 10/1. They included Cyan Kicks (UMK 2022), Sexmane (brother of Isaac Sene (UMK 2022)), Sara Siipola, Jesse Markin, Windows95Man, Sini Sabotage, and Mikael Gabriel x Nublu. After the announcement, Jesse Markin said that he would not do Eurovision if he won UMK and Israel was still participating, after which Yle responded that they have set up a mechanism to deal with this kind of scenario. This comes after the UMK team posted a statement earlier on in December saying that UMK will take place regardless of whether Finland takes part in Eurovision. There was also controversy surrounding Mikael Gabriel, who had recently expressed antivax opinions on social media, and a few years ago had gotten a tattoo of Vladimir Putin. The songs were then released one by one starting 10/1. The current big favourite, both among international fans and Finns alike, seems to be Sara Siipola with "Paskana". On 25/1, the running order for UMK was revealed. Sini Sabotage will open the show, while Windows95man will close it. Sara Siipola performs 5th out of 7th.

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 closed on 15/10. 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 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 interested names 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. On 17/1, Grossstadtgeflüster announced that they had in fact not submitted their song "Ich Kündige" to the broadcaster. This rumour was first perpetuated by Twitter account "Eurovision Azerbaijan", and the song subsequently became a huge hit, both in Germany, as well as in Ukraine and the Baltic states. Nonetheless, the finalists for Das Deutsche Finale 2024 were revealed on 19/1, along with their songs. These include Max Mutzke (Germany 2004), Ryk, Marie Reim, among others. According to German fans, the German public are most likely to vote for Max Mutzke, although a fan favourite is Ryk with "Oh Boy".

Despite fears of withdrawal due to a combination of poor results and a pro-Russian government, GPB confirmed Eurovision 2024 participation on 15/9. And despite earlier speculation that Bzikebi (Georgia JESC 2008) would represent Georgia, on 12/1, it was announced that Nutsa Buzaladze was internally selected to represent Georgia at Eurovision 2024. She had previously won New Wave 2014, which was hosted in Jūrmala, Latvia, at the age of 17. A year later, Buzaladze took part in The Voice Turkey with Hadise as her coach. Buzaladze had also gotten 2nd place in the Georgian national final in 2017 with the song "White Horses Run". More recently, in 2023 Buzaladze took part in American Idol, did a duet with Kylie Minogue, and ended up 12th place in the final while gaining international recognition. Shortly after the artist reveal, it was also announced that songwriters can send in potential Eurovision songs for Nutsa, and submissions will close on 30/1. Nutsa later said in an interview that she is looking for a "dancey bop", and may include Georgian folk elements if it fits the song.

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 6/1, choreographer Metznoun Mecnun Giasar, better known as Majnoon, responded to a question on Instagram about going back to Greece with "for the culture" and tagged Marina Satti. Majnoon, among other things, has choreographed Rosalia's Motomami tour, and fans are now speculating that he may work with Satti for the Eurovision entry. On 28/1, it was reported that Satti will be working with rapper OGE on production of her Eurovision entry, who also co-wrote PONOS KRIFOS, another song from Satti.

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 23/1, RUV announced that Söngvakeppnin, at least for the time being, will be unlinked from Eurovision. The decision on whether to take part in Eurovision will be taken by RUV in conjunction with the winner of the national final. This thus leaves Iceland's Eurovision participation in an unknown state until after the conclusion of Söngvakeppnin. In addition, an RUV official also stated that they have relayed their concerns relating to Israel and Gaza to the EBU. On 27/1, the artists and songs for Söngvakeppnin were revealed. They include Palestinian artist Bashar Murad with a song named "Wild West / Vestrið Villt", Sigga Ózk, Hera Björk (Iceland 2010), among others.

Starting on 8/1, the Eurosong entries were revealed on the Ray D'Arcy Show. They included Erica Cody, as well as names like Ailsha with "Go Tobann" and Bambie Thug. The national final itself took place on the Late Late Show (as usual) on 26/1. The victor turned out to be Bambie Thug, who had won both the Irish jury vote and the televote. Bambie Thug will now represent Ireland in Eurovision 2024 with "Doomsday Blue".

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. The first auditions took place on 10/9, at the Tel Aviv Expo which hosted Eurovision 2019. 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. The EBU wrote in response to an inquiry that "it [Eurovision] 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 11/1, Eurovision 2019 host Assi Azar claimed that Israel will win Eurovision 2024 due to the war and "international solidarity" akin to that of Ukraine, regardless of how good Israel's song will be. On 16/1, KAN announced that song submissions have been opened, and will close on 11/2. The winning song, which must contain some lyrics in Hebrew, will be revealed in late February or early March, and will be assigned to the winner of Rising Star. One favourite is Eden Golan, an Israeli singer of Latvian-Ukrainian origin.

On 15/5, it was reported that Eurovision will continue to be broadcast on Rai 1 in 2024. Sanremo will take place between 6/2 and 10/2. On 10/7, musical director Amadeus announced changes to the festival. See previous blog posts for the rule changes. 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. Notably during the presentation, Amadeus asked Annalisa for the name of her song which she will sing "to all of Italy and all of Europe", leading to speculation that Amadeus wants Annalisa to do Eurovision. Rehearsals with the Sanremo orchestra began in early January. The stage is also under construction, and crucially there will no longer be a staircase in the middle leading into the stage. On 11/1, it was announced that Lazza, Rosa Chemical, Arisa, and Tananai will be performing on the Piazza Colombo during each evening respectively. The lyrics to the competing songs will be released on 31/1. The press had their first listen of the competing songs on 15/1, after which several reviews on their thoughts on the entries were released. Favourites among the press include Loredana Berte, Annalisa, Angelina Mango, Diodato, Mahmood, Dargen D'Amico, Negramaro, and Gazzelle. Notably, Annalisa reached number 1 in the combined Sanremo 2024 odds, predicted with a 16% probability of winning the festival. In addition, 4 out of the top 5 in said odds are female artists, in a clear change of pace to the traditionally male-dominated top odds. On 26/1, the duets for Sanremo were announced, which include Sangiovanni with Aitana, Fred De Palma with Eiffel 65, Annalisa with La Rappresentante Di Lista, Ricchi E Poveri with Paola & Chiara, among others.

On 9/1, the entries in Supernova, the Latvian national final, were revealed. Some names include Agnese Rakovska (former lead singer of Triana Park), AVEI, Ukrainian-language group Funkinbiz with the song "Na Chystu Vodu", and Dons with "Hollow", the latter of which appears to be the clear favourite among Latvians. Unusually, Markus Riva, a regular to the national final and who had been working on a duet with Polish singer Leon Myszkowski for Supernova, was not included in the lineup. The national final will be hosted by Lauris Reiniks and Ketija Šēnberga. On 30/1, the running order for the semi-final of Supernova was revealed. Agnese Rakovska will open the show, while Edvards Strazdiņš will close the show. Dons will perform 11th out of 15. The semi-final will take place on 3/2, while the final will take place a week later on 10/2.

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, Lina Štalytė, MeidĖ, Queens Of Roses, Vilija (Lithuania 2014), among others. There will be 5 heats, with only 2 out of 8 artists qualifying from each one for the final on 17/2. On 8/1, it was announced that Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė has withdrawn from the national final, and will be replaced with Marius Petrauskas with the song "Kol Laiko Yra". The first heat took place on 13/1, with Silvester Belt and VB Gang qualifying to the final, and with Silvester Belt's song "Luktelk" ("wait a little bit") reaching number 1 in Spotify in Lithuania. The second heat took place on 20/1, with Aistè and Žalvarinis qualifying for the final. The third semi-final took place on 27/1, with Shower and Pluie De Comètes qualifying for the final, and with Shower's entry "Impossible" reaching 10th in the Top 50 Spotify charts of Lithuania.

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 would take place on 27/1 to select the Luxembourgish entry for Eurovision 2024. The national final took place at the Rockhal in Esch-sur-Alzette, or Esch/Belval. 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 9/1, the songs were released. There was some controversy surrounding the entries, as it was found that of all the songs, only Edsun actually took part writing his own, while many were co-written by Swedes or Norwegians. Another Luxembourgish artist who had been involved in the process also revealed that many of the finalists were only allowed to proceed if they sang a song given to them by the organizers. The show was hosted by Desiree Nosbusch, Melody Funck, Raoul Roos and Loic Juchem, and produced by Tali Eshkoli, former Israeli head of delegation. On 26/1, it was announced that there would be a superfinal, where the top 3 would enter a separate round of voting. In the end, Israeli-born singer Tali won the national final, with a song named "Fighter" written by French-Israeli songwriters.

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 9/1, TVM announced that there will be six days of MESC. The first three days (29-31/1) will be for interviews, music videos will be on 1/2, a "nostalgia night" on 2/2 and a final with live perfomances on 3/2. As usual, the winner will be selected by a combination of jury and televoting.

On 26/12, the live audition participants were announced, which included such names as Aliona Moon and Milla, Bumbac Tudor, Natalia Barbu, Valeria Pasha (one of Pasha Parfeni's backing vocalists), Viola Julea. 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. On 10/1, Vovi Robian, with the song "Robotul Vovi", withdrew from the national final, citing health reasons. Live auditions took place on 13/10, where 10 finalists were selected, which include Natalia Barbu, Valeria Pasha, Iulia Teleuca, Viola Julea, among others. Those 10 finalists will now compete in the live national final on 17/2. The running order draw took place on 17/1. Nicoleta Sava will open the show, while Iulia Teleuca will close it.

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. The final of MGp will take place on 3/2. 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. 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 were revealed on 5/1. Returning names include KEiiNO, Margeret Berger, and Farida (MGP 2022). Gaute Ormåsen is involved for a third year in a row, as he has co-written the song "My AI" by Super Rob & Erika Norwich. Current favourites include KEiiNO, Mileo, Super Rob & Erika Norwich, Gåte, and MIIA. On 13/1, the first semi-final took place, where Margeret Berger, Gothminister, and Ingrid Jasmin qualified for the final. On 20/1, the second semi-final took place, where Gåte, Super Rob & Erika Norwich, and Dag Erik Oksvold & Anne Fagermo qualified for the final. The final semi-final took place on 27/1, where KEiiNO, Miia, and Annprincess qualified for the final. On 28/1, it was reported that Gåte would have to rewrite the lyrics of their song, as the lyrical content was found to be identical to that of a 1000-year old mythical ballad. The day after, NRK revealed the running order for the final, where KEiiNO would open the show, while Gåte and Super Rob & Erika Norwich will be the last two acts. Current favourites include Gåte and KEiiNO.

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". 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. Justyna later revealed that the song is named "WITCH-ER Tarohoro". The song was released on 28/12. On New Year's Eve, Justyna performed WITCH-ER Tarohoro at the TVP NYE concert alongside a large group of dancers. Last year, Blanka also performed "Solo" at the same concert. Unexpectedly however, on 9/1 TVP (with a new administration) opened submissions for an internal selection. Submissions will be open until 2/2, and a five-member committee will choose the winning song. Justyna may still be selected, however there are other interested names such as LUNA with the song "The Tower". On 12/1, Polish media reported that Artur Orzech, Polish Eurovision commentator between 1992 and 2019, will now return to that post. In addition, the Junior Eurovision head of delegation Marta Piekarska will now also head the delegation 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. Having both events in one weekend would cause great stress on the broadcaster. The national final itself will take place on 24/2, 2/3 and 9/3. The songs and artists were presented on 18/1. It was also announced that Filomena Cautela and Vasco Palmeirim will return to host the final of the national final, while Tânia Ribas de Oliveira and José Carlos Malato will host one of the semi-finals. Current favourites include Iolanda, Filipa, and Mela.

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 10/1, it was found that TVR had updated their Eurovision website to include Eurovision 2024. In addition, the EBU appears to have set a deadline for Romania to confirm participation by 22/1 at the latest. On 25/1, the Board of Directors of TVR voted against Eurovision participation, with 5 votes in favour, 4 against, and 4 abstentions. Romania has thus withdrawn from the contest, and will not take part in the 2024 edition.

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 9/1, SMRTV announced a songwriting camp (with humans) to finalize 10 shortlisted tracks produced using AI software from CASPERAKI. One of these tracks will compete in the "big" category in the final of the national final. The list of 129 semi-finalists was published on 30/1.

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 23/1, it was announced that Dragana Kosjerina and Slaven Došlo will be hosting the national final. The songs of Pesma Za Euroviziju were revealed on 25/1, as well as the running order of the two semi-finals. Current favourites include Breskvica, Zejna, and Teya Dora.

On 5/12, RTVSLO announced that instead of a national final, they will instead continue with internal selections.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, 3-time EMA podium placer, will represent Slovenia with the song "Veronika", a song about a Slovenian countess who was accused of witchcraft. 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". Ahead of the premiere of the song, it was found that Bojan Cvjeticanin, lead singer of Joker Out, was involved as a co-writer of "Veronika", and was also present at the artist announcement event earlier on. The song was released on 20/1. On 24/1, Vanja Vardjan, the Editor-In-Chief of Entertainment at RTVSLO, resigned from his post after allegations of irregularities during the selection of Raiven as the 2024 representative. The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption have started to investigate alleged signs of corruption during the selection process. At the current stage, Raiven is likely unaffected and will still go to Eurovision.

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. On 12/11, the 16 artists taking part in the national final were revealed. The list featured artists such as Almacor, Angy Fernandez, 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. The songs were released on 14/12. Current favourites include Almacor, Angy Fernandez, Maria Pelae, Nebulossa, and St. Pedro. Almacor later revealed that his staging will be done by Mario Crea, who had staged Aitana's performance at the Los 40 music awards. As of early January, Nebulossa's track "Zorra" has gone viral in Spain, reaching #1 in the Spotify charts. On 9/1, it was revealed at a press conference that Ruth Lorenzo (Spain 2014), Marc Calderó, and Ana Prada will host the national final. In addition, the professional jury was also announced. In addition to the 4 Spanish names, the jury also included Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen (Dutch HOD), David Tserunyan (Armenian HOD), Lee Smithurst (UK HOD), and Nicoline Refsing, Danish staging director and artistic director of ESC2014. On 30/1, the first semi-final took place, where Nebulossa, Angy Fernandez, Sofia Coll and Miss Caffeina qualified for the final.

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. 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. On 9/1, the running orders for the five heats were revealed. The heats will be opened by Adam Woods, Maria Sur, Jacqline, Albin Tingwall and Marcus & Martinus, and the respective heats will be closed by Smash Into Pieces, Fröken Snusk, Cazzi Opeia, Danny Saucedo, and Medina. On 12/1, it was announced by SVT that Carina Berg will host Melodifestivalen 2024 alone. This deviates from the report made by Aftonbladet in November, which claimed that Björn Gustafsson would join Berg. This is the first time in 15 years where the national final was entirely presented by only one person, the last time of which was 2009 with Petra Mede. On 25/1, SVT announced that A*Teens would reunite as an interval act for the first semi-final of Melodifestivalen.

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.

On 9/11, the 20-long longlist for Ukrainian national final Vidbir 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 were revealed on 11/1. Current favourites include alyona alyona & Jerry Heil with "Teresa & Maria", Ingret with "Keeper", and YAGODY with "Tsunamia". On 19/1, it was announced that long-time Eurovision commentator Timur Miroshnychenko, Eurovision 2023 co-host Julia Sanina, and comedian Vasyl Baidak will host the national final. Voting for the jury members also opened on the "Diya" app; among the candidates were Kateryna Pavlenko from Go_A and Jamala. On 22/1, the jury members were revealed to be Jamala, Andrii Danylko (aka Verka Serduchka) and Serhii Tanchynec.

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. 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! Here's the video, but because of NF season, it's already quite a bit outdated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk7198UWI1Y