One of the biggest musical events in Europe, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2025, will be held in Basel at the St. Jakobshalle from May 12-17. This very special song contest, often known simply as Eurovision, has been held annually since 1956, with the exception of 2020, when it was cancelled due to the pandemic. It is the longest-running internationally music competition and is organized annually by the European Broadcasting Union. Each participating country submits an original song (only one per country) to be performed live and transmitted to national broadcasters via the Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries’ songs to determine a winner. This exciting event has become an important part of European culture and is traditionally held in the country that won the preceding year’s event, which in 2024 was Switzerland, with Swiss artist Nemo and his song, “The Code.” Following bids by the cities of Basel, Geneva, Zürich, and Berne/Biel to host the 2025 ESC, Basel was ultimately chosen as the host city of the 69th ESC!

Thousands of spectators attend the ESC each year, along with journalists who cover all aspects of the contest, including rehearsals in the venue, press conferences with the participating acts, in addition to other related events and performances in the host city. There will be two semi-finals (Tuesday, May 13, and Thursday, May 15) and the grand final on Saturday, May 17, that will be shown live on TV. For each of these shows there will also be an evening preview show on the night before as well as an afternoon preview show on the day itself, both of which are also full run-throughs of the live TV shows and for which you can get tickets.

Tickets for live TV and preview shows will go on sale January 29, and the demand is expected to be very high! In order to buy tickets, you will need to pre-register with Ticketcorner by 23:59 on January 10. A pre-registration does NOT guarantee you will get tickets (only the opportunity to participate in the online ticket sales), but without pre-registration, you will not get the chance at all. Pre-registration is to weed-out grey-market ticket resellers and to ensure that fans have fair access to tickets. To pre-register, go to https://www.ticketcorner.ch/en/artist/eurovision-song-contest/?affiliate=EOV and click on “Jetzt Vorregistrieren!”. Once you enter your email, they will send a confirmation email that you will need to click before you can solidify your pre-registration. Pre-registration is only possible once. Good luck!

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