More details have been shared about the 2025 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, with updates on the stage, the look, and the ticket sales being confirmed.
Next year’s instalment of the annual event will be held at Basel, Switzerland – following the victory of Nemo at this year’s event with their track ‘The Code’. It marked the nation’s first win since 1988, as well as the first-ever non-binary winner of Eurovision.
Taking place in May, the 2025 edition will be the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, and now the organisers have begun to share more details about how it is taking shape.
Speaking at a press conference in the city yesterday (December 16), the Project Team presented the visual concept for 2025 and launched the registration process for tickets.
According to their statements, the visual and audio brand identity is developed by Art Director Artur Deyneuve, who looked to “create a design that made people feel heard and valued”. It is reportedly inspired by the Swiss tradition of direct democracy – which revolves around listening and communicating – and will be called ‘Unity Shapes Love’.
It will also be shared visually through Eurovision’s heart symbol, and pay homage to the unifying power of music.
As for the audio, it will blend traditional and modern aspects, and is “based on a powerful beat, sprinkled with some traditional elements of Swiss music” yodelling, the distinctive sound of a Basel drum corps, and the unmistakable music of the Hackbrett and alphorns.”
The stage for the 69th edition of the event has been designed by Florian Wieder, a Production Designer with Swiss roots, who is overseeing the design for the eighth time. The visual layout of the stage is said to be inspired by the country’s mountains and diversity.
“Our goal was to create a revolutionary stage concept – a holistic experience that we’ve never seen before at Eurovision,” Wieder said. “Thanks to the immersive stage layout, the audience will get to be part of Eurovision like never before.”
As for how fans can watch the 2025 edition, Eurovision has confirmed that the Grand Final is happening at the St. Jakobshalle and there will be an ‘Arena Plus’ public viewing area taking place on May 17.
The city’s St. Jakob Park stadium will play host to the event – screening the Grand Final and providing an extensive programme of entertainment. More details about this are set to be announced in due course.
Finally, for tickets, it has been announced that the Swiss ticketing platform TicketCorner will be the official ticketing partner for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.
Registration is required to buy tickets, and this has been laid out in a bid to combat tickets being resold. Pre-registration has already started – sign up here – and it ends at midnight on January 10. The first ticket sale starts on January 29, a day after the semi-final draw.
In other Eurovision news, back in October it was announced by the BBC that Sam Ryder’s manager has been recruited to help find the contestant that will represent the UK at Eurovision 2025. This comes as Ryder pulled the most impressive results in recent memory for the UK back in 2022 – coming in second place, just behind Ukraine.
Eurovision 2024 broke global viewing figures despite protests over the inclusion of Israel at this year’s event amid the war in Gaza. According to figures from the EBU, 163 million viewers tuned into the three live events including the Grand Final.
Israel’s inclusion prompted boycott calls from the LGBT+ community towards UK representative Olly Alexander, and over 1,000 Swedish artists also called for Israel to be banned – including Robyn, Fever Ray, and First Aid Kit – and more. Over 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals signed a petition to ban the country from taking part in the contest as well.
Israel was ultimately allowed to compete, and due to a political neutrality clause, the EBU announced they reserved the right to remove Palestinian flags and symbols. They would later go on to censor Irish contestant Bambie Thug for wearing the words ‘ceasefire’ and ‘freedom for Palestine’ as a hidden message on their costume.
Olly Alexander performed the song ‘Dizzy’ at the competition and finished 18th out of 25 countries. He earned just 46 points from the jury, but none from the voting public.