Overview
- The European Broadcasting Union, which announced Tuesday the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia for November 14 in Bangkok, said ten countries have already committed.
- The show will be produced with Voxovation, S2O and Thailand’s Channel 3 and will mirror core ESC rules with national selections, original songs, live lead vocals and a combined jury and televote.
- The European flagship contest marks its 70th anniversary in Vienna on May 16 with 35 countries, as Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain sit out over Israel’s participation.
- Organizers project a potential audience of up to about 600 million viewers in participating markets, with a global YouTube stream planned for the Asia final.
- Early fan polling on eurovisionworld.com places Germany’s Sarah Engels near the bottom of 35 entries with only a few hundred votes, a snapshot many outlets note is informal but closely watched by fans.