Eurovision 2025 will be held in Basel, Switzerland, starting on 13 May.
The European Broadcasting Union and SRG SSR made the announcement on Friday morning, ending months of speculation as to where the next contest will take place. Basel bested the other finalist city, Geneva. To the surprise of many twice (this website included), the largest city in Switzerland, Zürich, was not a finalist, and then the Swiss broadcaster passed over the next biggest city.
2025’s first semifinal will occur on Tuesday, 13 May. The second semifinal is scheduled for Thursday, 15 May. The 2025 Eurovision grand final is on deck for Saturday, 17 May.
St. Jakobshalle is the specific venue. This is an arena that can host over 12,000 people for concerts. If you are not familiar with it, you soon will be.
This will be Switzerland’s first time hosting Eurovision since 1989, when Lausanne had the honors after Celine Dion’s win. It will also be the first time the contest has ever been held in Basel.
Eurovision 2025 Host City: A Bit of a Surprise
It would not have been shocking if Eurovision 2025 went to Geneva. The city is the headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union, so none of the big-wigs would have had to travel very far.
So, once again, after dropping Zürich out of the running, SRG SSR also dodged the next-most obvious choice and handed the contest to Basel. They are keeping us on our toes. The Swiss broadcaster chose the nation’s third-largest city, which happens to be very close to the borders with France and Germany, two other guaranteed finalists.
Ironically, the 2024 contest was just held in Malmö, which is also Sweden’s third-largest city.
What Else Do We Know About The Next Eurovision?
So far, 24 countries have announced their intentions to participate at Eurovision 2025. Montenegro will be among the entries, having been absent from the contest since 2022.
It is likely that in the coming months, more countries will announce they are returning for 2025. The last two contests have had 37 entries, and the last time Eurovision had fewer than 37 songs was in 2004.
Dutch participation at Eurovision is still very much up in the air after the Joost Klein incident and its related fallout.
