This was confirmed during the traditional drawing of starting places in the Swedish host city. The red-white-red candidate Kaleen has to prevail once morest 15 countries in order to get one of ten final tickets, which then entitles her to take part in the big ESC final, which is scheduled for May 11th in the Malmö Arena.
A total of 37 nations are competing for the European singing crown this year. Six countries do not have to go through the semi-final process: the Big Five, i.e. the largest payers, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain. In addition, there is host Sweden, who is also set for May 11th.
Picture gallery: Austria’s song contest hope 2024: This is Kaleen
Kaleen (Photo: ORF/Rankin) Bild 1/7
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The other countries have to go through the semifinals on May 7th and May 9th in the 300,000-inhabitant city of Malmö, which was the host city in 2013 and 1992. The motto of the major musical event is “United by Music” – a tagline that will now be used permanently at every ESC instead of the previously changing mottos.
As in 2013, presenter Pernilla Månsson Colt led the draw evening, this time flanked by professional colleague Farah Abadi. In addition to the drawing, the festive setting is also traditionally a must at such an event. And so Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram, representing last year’s host, handed over the Eurovision insignia to his Malmö counterpart Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh. The change from one ESC host city to another has now officially been completed.
Israel was also among the participants
The 68th ESC is taking place in Sweden once more this year following singer Loreen won last year’s competition in Liverpool with the song “Tattoo” for the Scandinavian country. Israel is also among the 37 participating countries in 2024, which is criticized by some other participating countries due to the Middle East conflict.
In Finland and Sweden, for example, hundreds of musicians and other representatives of the music industry issued statements calling for pressure to be exerted on the responsible European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU had announced: “This is a competition for broadcasters – not for governments.”
