Following Ukraine’s epic win this year in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest (and our almost unbelievable second-place ranking), organisers have announced that while it would usually be the custom, Ukraine has been ruled out as the host for next year’s event due to the war, leaving it open for the UK to take on the honour. And naturally, where there’s potential, there’s Manchester – primed and ready to make sure the ‘second city’ gets a shot at first place.
Putting in a fresh bid to host the competition here in Manchester, councillors are hard at work to secure Manchester as the host for the event, with Pat Kerney, Bev Craig and Sacha Lord leading the campaign.
https://twitter.com/patkarney/status/1538049533157974016
Confirming Manchester’s submission to the BBC, Pat Karney said: “We are working on the submission to bring Eurovision to Manchester.” Adding that the city has the “most engaged Eurovision fans” than any other city, and that the event “should definitely not be [in] London as usual”.
Leader of the Manchester City Council Bev Craig said: “Hello @bbceurovision this is Manchester calling Not the circumstances that anyone would want given the war in Ukraine. But if it’s to be a UK city- I can’t think of anywhere better, a great music city and fittingly home to a large Ukrainian community.”
Bringing @Eurovision @bbceurovision to Greater Manchester 2023, would be huge for our city region.
We're globally known for our music and I'm confident the right people would give it the full support, to make this happen.#Eurovision2023
— Sacha Lord (@Sacha_Lord) June 17, 2022
Nighttime Economy Advisor and founder of the Warehouse Project and Parklife showed his support online, praising Manchester as the city known for its music.
https://twitter.com/bevcraig/status/1537755113506361344
While many will expect that London will win the UK’s bid to host the contest, it makes complete sense for Manchester to take on the honour, not only because of our rich musical history and the biggest arena in the UK (currently AO Arena), but also due to the fact that the BBC (which has the airing rights to Eurovision here) has a lively base here in MediaCityUK, which was used as the backdrop for the UK’s live correspondence during this year’s contest.
Leeds and Liverpool have also bid to host the competition, however, it’s currently not known how long we’ll have to wait to find out which city (or country) will become host.