Decision made

The 2025 Song Contest will take place in Basel

(Bild: APA Pool/Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) will take place very close to the German border in Basel in 2025. Switzerland's third-largest city has won the race against Geneva, as announced by the host, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The final will take place on May 17.

The German border region also wants to benefit from the ESC on the border, for example the small town of Lörrach, less than ten kilometers from Basel. The non-party mayor Jörg Lutz made a strong case for the ESC on the town's doorstep in the town's bid video. "With the Eurovision Song Contest, we are turning the border triangle into the 40-country corner," he said. Many guests could stay overnight in Lörrach, for example. In Basel, hotel prices had already skyrocketed to several hundred euros per night even for simple accommodation before the announcement.

Space for 12,000 people
The spectacle is to take place in the St. Jakobshalle, which is known for its tennis tournaments and other sporting events. It has space for 12,000 people. The show will also be broadcast to the nearby St. Jakob-Park soccer stadium. There is room for 20,000 people. The city is expecting costs of around 30 to 35 million francs (37 million euros).

Motto: "Overcoming borders"
The motto is: "Overcoming boundaries". Basel has been demonstrating how to do this for decades: The city itself borders directly on Germany and France, and the municipalities in the border triangle work so closely together that residents barely notice the borders. "The ESC unites and inspires, across all borders", the city wrote in its application and recommended itself with its "cosmopolitan scene".

The motto is also fitting for the ESC, where political tensions have recently been increasingly reflected, for example in connection with the Russian war against Ukraine or Israel's war against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Siegerland hosts contest
It had been clear that Switzerland would host the contest since Nemo won the 68th ESC in Malmö this year. In the music competition, public media organizations, mainly from Europe, which are members of the EBU, compete for the highest honours with a song. The winning country usually hosts the next ESC.

Nemo won with the song "The Code". The non-binary person, who defines herself as neither a man nor a woman, addressed her own career. Nemo came first in the overall ranking based on the votes of the juries in the member countries and the public, ahead of Croatia. The German singer Isaak came in 12th place.

Basel will host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025.

(Bild: APA Pool/AFP/Fabrice COFFRINI)

World cultural heritage
Basel, home to pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Novartis, is culturally renowned for its legendary carnival with roots dating back to the 14th century, among other things. It is a World Heritage Site. The Fondation Beyeler museum for modern and contemporary art in Riehen near Basel is also internationally renowned.

This is Switzerland's third ESC: it hosted the first competition in Lugano in 1956 and also won with Lys Assia. However, the next host was Frankfurt. Canadian Céline Dion won a second time for Switzerland in 1988, launching her international career. The following year, the competition was held in Lausanne.