Music Basel to host the ESC 2025
Basel will host the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in May 2025. Geneva lost out in the selection process, as announced by SRG on Friday.
30.08.2024, 10:02
30.08.2024, 10:04
SDA
The main venue will therefore be Basel's St. Jakobshalle. The costs for the ESC are estimated by the Basel government at 30 to 35 million francs. The city will thus be in the spotlight of millions of people: During the three live television shows from Malmö, Sweden, in 2024, 163 million people watched the music performances, including almost 800,000 from Switzerland alone.
The ESC is returning to Switzerland for the first time in 36 years following Nemo's surprise victory last spring. In 1988, Céline Dion won the contest for Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" in the Irish capital Dublin, after which the event was held at the Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne the following year.
On May 24, 1956, the first "Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson" - as the contest was still called at the time - took place in the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano.
