Dust off the glitter and stock up on pyrotechnics: The Eurovision Song Contest arrives in Asia.
The organizers of Eurovision, the sumptuous singing competition which annually attracts audiences comparable to that of the Super Bowl in Europe and beyond, announced on Tuesday that it would organize Asia’s first-ever Eurovision Song Contest in Bangkok on November 14.
A heavyweight in the music industry South Korea is one of 10 countries competing, alongside Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Vietnam and host country Thailand. Organizers said other countries are expected to join the event in the coming months.
The rules for the new competition have not yet been announced. As part of the Eurovision Song Contest, a broadcaster from each country selects an artist to perform an original song, up to three minutes long, to be performed live on stage. Artists whose careers took off after their participation in Eurovision include ABBA, Celine Dion and Olivia Newton-John.
“As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, it seems particularly meaningful to open this next chapter with Asia, a region rich in culture, creativity and talent,” said Martin Green, director of the Eurovision Song Contest, in a press release announcing the new event.
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In recent years, Eurovision has been a hot spot of controversy as geopolitical conflicts overshadow the chant, with Russia kicked out of the contest after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israel faces calls for exclusion from the contest and a boycott of its war in Gaza. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan entered the contest while locked in a decades-long dispute on the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
And while regional powers China And Japan If countries do not participate so far, it is possible that geopolitics will be brought up in the Asian competition, just like in its European counterpart. Thailand and Cambodia have a border dispute in which tensions flared recently, and several countries have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The idea of an Asian edition of Eurovision has been circulating since at least 2008, but it never managed to get off the ground. Organizers said the event could attract an audience of more than 600 million people, more than triple the 166 million who watched the last Eurovision. according to audience figures of the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the competition. But launching a new television tradition could prove difficult in an era where media is increasingly consumed digitally.
Last year, Russia tried to relaunch of a Soviet alternative to Eurovision, the Intervision Song Contest. It’s unclear how many people saw Vietnam’s Duc Phuc win this competition, but organizers say they will hold a 2026 edition of Intervision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in September.
Eurovision has already attempted to expand beyond its main competition. In 2022, the American Song Contest aired on NBC with all 50 states and several U.S. territories competing, but it was not renewed for the following year. Its winner, AleXa, a K-pop singer from Oklahoma, went on to participate in the selection process to be Sweden’s entry for this year’s Eurovision, although she ultimately failed to qualify.
