Next year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted in Britain. The organizers of the contest announced Monday, after concluding it is too risky to hold the much-loved pop extravaganza in the designated host country, Ukraine.
The U.K. said the 2023 event would be a celebration of Ukrainian culture and creativity.
Ukraine won the right to host the glitzy pan-continental music competition when its entry, from the folk-rap ensemble Kalush Orchestra, won this year’s contest in May. Britain’s Sam Ryder was second.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, said it had concluded that “regrettably, next year’s event could not be held in Ukraine for safety and security reasons.” It said Britain’s BBC had agreed to broadcast the show on behalf of Ukrainian broadcaster UA: PBC.
Ukraine has won the contest three times and hosted Eurovision in 2005 and 2017. The competition has been held in Britain eight times, most recently in 1998, the year after the U.K. last won.
Organizers strive to keep pop and politics apart by banning overtly political symbols and lyrics but global tensions have often imposed themselves on the contest.
Russia was kicked out of this year’s competition because it invaded Ukraine in February.
