Eurovision refuses to move contest out of Ukraine despite ‘challenges’

Whenever a country wins the Eurovision Song Contest, they’re traditionally given the honour of hosting the competition the following year.

Ukraine’s Jamala won the 2016 competition meaning the country will be hosting the contest in 2017. However, there has been speculation that the contest would be moving to Russia over some “challenges.”

Planning for next year is believed to be several months behind as the competition has so far struggled to find a suitable venue and is currently facing several legislation issues.

There have also been fears that Kyiv and Ukrainian broadcaster NTU are struggling to meet costs associated with the contest.

Executives from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) met on Thursday (December 8) to decide whether they should move the competition out of Ukraine.

According to Eurovision.tv, Jon Ola Sand, the EBU chief, said: “Over the two weeks a lot has been done from the Ukrainian side both from the authorities and from NTU.”

“We are fully satisfied with what we have seen and what they presented to us in the meeting yesterday. I know there has been a lot debate about this and a lot of speculations around this.”

“We have had a firm and good dialogue, an open dialogue with NTU all the way. What they presented now was expected and we’re very happy to tick that off and make sure we have the progression we need.”

Then, addressing the speculation that the conest could move to Russia, he added, “We always have a plan B in place, this is normal.”

It’s unclear what will be happening however the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 is scheduled to take place on May 9 and 11.