What an ESC victory for Nemo would mean for Switzerland
Published: Saturday, May 11th 2024, 08:20
Volver a Live Feed
If Nemo wins the 68th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) on Saturday evening, the 69th edition of the competition will take place in Switzerland. Nemo is in the final of this year's music competition with "The Code" and is also one of the favorite acts.
Cities such as Zurich, Bern, Geneva or Basel could be considered for hosting the event. Yves Schifferle, Head of Show, mentioned these locations with large halls and good infrastructure to SRF Swiss Radio and Television at the beginning of April. The corresponding costs would be incurred by SRG, but also by the host city; the participating countries would also have to contribute. Schifferle did not say how high the costs would be, but added that talks had been held with other countries.
The organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, is also keeping a low profile when it comes to figures. According to speculation, the cost of staging the ESC 2023 in Liverpool was between 27 and 36 million pounds (30 to 40 million Swiss francs), as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on Thursday. The sum was split between the city, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the government and the other participating countries.
Nevertheless, the ESC could be worthwhile for the respective host city, as a study by the University of Liverpool showed: new jobs were created in the British city and tourism benefited from more visitors - also in the longer term, as the "Handelzeitung" wrote on Wednesday. And: when the music competition took place in Vienna in 2015, the city generated a plus of more than 27 million francs.
A Swiss city could make it into the crown because the respective winning country normally hosts the ESC the following year. One exception, however, was in 2023, when the ESC was held in the UK and not in the winning country of Ukraine - due to the Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country. If Nemo wins the final in Malmö, the next music competition will be held in Switzerland - which could be financially worthwhile.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic