Eurovision Song Contest: offshoot planned in Asia

As with the original ESC, the acts performing will be determined in national preliminary rounds. Semi-finals will not be necessary at Eurovision Asia due to the smaller field of participants. The regulations, including the mix of jury and audience voting, are essentially adopted from the parent competition.

Martin Green, Eurovision Song Contest Director, said: “It’s about evolving the Eurovision Song Contest together with Asia and creating something that reflects the voices, identities and ambitions of the region, while staying true to what has always made the competition special.”

The EBU is hoping for up to 600 million viewers from its offshoot. The ESC has so far reached over 160 million people worldwide.

There have been isolated attempts to expand the ESC to Asia since 2008, but all of them failed. Australia, where there is a particularly loyal fan base, has been taking part in the music competition, which was first held in 1956, since 2015. The country could now enter the race for both versions.

The new show will have the ESC motto “United by Music” and will be realized in cooperation with Voxovation, S2O Productions and the Thai broadcaster Channel 3. It can be watched worldwide on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.

The European ESC takes place in Vienna in May. This time 35 countries are taking part. In protest against Israel’s participation, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain are boycotting the competition this year. Sarah Engels competes for Germany with the song “Fire”.