Eurovision 2015 may have just wrapped up, but attention is already turning to next year’s edition. And it looks like there’ll be a new face joining the 2016 party – Kosovo. On 23 May, Petrit Selimi, a senior Kosovan politician tweeted the following:
Just so we are clear: I actually KNOW #Kosovo will participate in next years @Eurovision #ESC2016 event. I can’t tell you how yet though 😉
— Petrit Selimi (@Petrit) May 23, 2015
And there is substance to his tweet, as the Kosovans sent a delegation to observe the contest in Vienna. Colour us excited!
Kosovo and Eurovision
The legal position on Kosovo’s statehood remains unclear, which complicates its potential entry to the contest. One of the requirements to become an EBU member is UN membership, which the country doesn’t have. That said, the EBU did make an exception once: Kosovo participated in the 2011 Eurovision Young Dancers contest.
The Kosovarian broadcaster RTK and EBU signed an agreement in 2013, which gave Kosovo the status of observer. Kosovo doesn’t lack possible entries, seeing that there are videos which carry titles like ‘Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Kosovo‘ on Youtube. The Eurovision fanbase in Kosovo is significant and the call for membership from fans could motivate RKT to keep working on its membership.
Of course, with Australia’s recent appearance, lack of full EBU membership may no longer prove a barrier to participation.
Kosovans have competed in the competition before, albeit for other countries. Recent examples include Rona Nishliu for Albania in 2012 and Nevena Bozovic as part of Moje 3 for Serbia in 2013.
Pristina 2017
@Julian that’s irrelevant. You even said it yourself: Kosovo is recognized by 33 European countries, whereas those regions you mentioned (Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno Karabakh) are only recognized by each other. And no, the reason why some countries still don’t recognize Kosovo isn’t because they fear other ‘regions’ becoming countries. If you take a look at Russia, for example, the reason they won’t recognize Kosova is because they are long time allies with Serbia. Other countries like Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan also won’t recognize Kosova because of the fact that they themselves have ‘regions’ that want to become… Read more »
Like we’re not already struggling enough with the Balkan’s bloc voting… Yugoslavia was never successful in Eurovision (except for one win with a very mediocre song in 1989), until they split in 6-7 different countries and started voting for each other. So UK, France, Spain, you know what you have to do: split your countries into 10 little pieces, and exchange your 12 points. 😉
If its ok for Kosovo, then I guess its also ok for Republic of Serbska, Donetsk – Lugansk republic, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Walonia, Flandria, Corse, Kurdistan etc. Why not?
12 points…Albania…10 points..TURKEY >_<
Better Kosovo than armenia, belarus and russia !
@bavarson: That’s actually a really interesting idea. Unfortunately it would immediately result in a lot of other countries choosing to split their delegations, too, so I’m not sure how practical of an idea it is. But it would be nice to see UK having an easier time of things in the contest.
First; Kosovo isn t province or part of Serbia. So Kosovo must to participate in EBU , havn’t other choice, is difficult to accept thia for some slavs( serbs , russians etc).
Second : KOSOVO recegonized from 109 countries of UN .
If they let Kosovo to participate the whole system is starting to colapse. I don’t want them to participate, if they are not a independent country. This could make the rules a bit too wode scale and then The nordic block will go big
Faroe Islands, Greenland, Aland so like ???? NO
NO NO NO NO HELL NO
Stop hating so much on Kosovo. We are an independent state since 17th of february 2008 and Serbia just gotta chill with that fact lol. KOSOVO IS A COUNTRY bye
About the arguments… So, as long as a constitution “says so”, no matter how much people try in a territory they cannot get recognition for the art produces. Kosovo participating is similar or triggers China’s participation and people prefer African countries participating in European Song Contest. although Kosovo is part of Europe. EBU doesn’t recognise countries yet every EBu member is a public broadcaster in an European Country, thus RTk is a member of EBU and deduct yourself… There have been Serbian and Kosovan teams playing against each other in handball competitions of EHF, people of music and art should… Read more »
Well, Kosovo isn’t full member in UN and this is my first argument why Kosovo mustn’t take a part in Contest next year. Secondly, if Kosovo performs, Serbia will withdraw. We should build bridges with states, but no with provinces. We should build bridges with Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Andorra, Qatar, Tunisia, Algeria and with other countries which performed in Contest long time ago; and with China (just next year, like with Australia in this year edition), but with provincies no! If Kosovo performs it will be like ‘Türkvizyon’ sooner or later.
First Kosovo and Metohija need to be member of UN wich is not …then member of EBU wich is…NOT (what a big SURPRISE?!?!) and finally need to be independent country WICH IS NOT as long SERBIA dont recognized that (that will be never…maybe not even then).In this moment Kosovo was ocupated Serbian province by Albanians.I dont hate anyone but that is fact.When you call Serbs willians and terrorists remember that albanians terorist cleaned allmost all Serbs from Kosovo and then with help of the bigest world terorist country (USA) anounced that fake independency. But rules are make to will be… Read more »
Kosovo is recognized by more than 100 member countries of the United Nations and is a member of many organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. Should Serbia choose not to participate in the ESC (due to any inclusion of Kosovo) is their decision and should be irrelevant to the discussion.
After the case of Australia, we all should realise that there are no barriers. The EBU can change every rule. Sooner or later Kosovo will debut at Eurovision. I have nothing against. In the future maybe Catalonia, Scotland as well. It might be just a matter of time. Of course there could be some tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. But let’s not forget that Greece have problem with FYROM and Armenia with Azerbaijan. It is politics. And as so many fans here always say – it is Eurovision SONG Contest.
I don’t agree with this …… Basically we have enough countries taking part and some of those haven’t even gotten a chance thanks to block voting and stuff ……. I am not for them taking part which means that Serbia would just quit and I prefer to see Serbia then Kosovo in the contest.
Is Mr Selimi a spokesperson from the EBU? No. So I’m waiting for an official statement from the EBU. And I don’t think Kosovo will participate. Australia participated without a Memberahip too, but they are a member of the United Nations and they are recognised. Kosovo isn’t. And I prefer a participation of Serbia rather than Kosovo because if they participate,
Serbia will go away.
@Robert Kosova is a country. Deal with it, please.
Another potential victim of Azerbaijan’s vote buying. If they announce their votes by the time the contest determines who will be the winner, expect Azerbaijan to receive any high points from them.
It won’t happen unless Serbia and Russia don’t participate. Kosovo isn’t a country so that would the door open for regional entries as well, i seriously doubt it will happen
I think that UK could be divided just like in football into England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They then would have a better chance, because then they could support each other.
You better let a country like Kazakhstan compete.
Yay
I am fine with it as long as they don’t send the overrated screaming woman
What’s next? The Vatican? No, really? Will the Pope choose a Eurovision participant? EBU sent them an invitation. No lie.
http://qz.com/410650/the-vatican-was-asked-to-participate-in-the-eurovision-song-contest-it-declined-again/
But they turned it down. Bummer. They could’ve sent the nun that won Voice of Italy 2014 (Not Elhadi Dani)
But, I’d love to see them send someone. Maybe Albania wont miss the final next year and Serbia might win. #disporsavoting
This would be pretty exciting – the more the merrier <3
And by “pretty clear” I mean by past voting trends. I mean, just look at who gave the most points to FYR Macedonia this year…
@Axie: No, I don’t know that for sure, but neither do you know for sure that Liechtenstein would do such a thing. My point with mentioning Austria and Germany both getting 0 points was to put forth a small shred of evidence that what you’re suggesting is unlikely. Meanwhile, it’s pretty clear that the Balkan nations have a tendency to vote for each other. (I actually have no problem with this trend, by the way. It makes it possible for quality Balkan acts like Kaliopi to make it through.)
Kosovo and Liechtenstein should debut next year, and Slovakia, Andorra and Luxembourg should return. Definitely dot want Kazakhstan to debut though, I dont think I can bare another 12 points for Russia or Azerbaijan, regardless of song.
I’m all for Kosovo’s participation but I think it will cause more harm than do good. Not only would it encourage China’s participation (God forbid it please), but Serbia will boycott the contest, along with a few countries that don’t recognise it.
They can enter after Lindita Halimi has sung for Albania, Lindita for ESC 2016 xD
But Kosovo is not a country?? Surely the EBU won’t keep on breaking their own rules?
If they do participate, consider Serbia gone.
Axie has a point you know. The only countries that gave Ann Sophie televoting points are Albania (4) and Poland (1). So likely, using your logic of singling out Germany and Austria, this will only help them.
If Kosovo participate Albania wili be suffer from this like Cyprus , because 70 % points from albanian dispora wili be go to Kosovo, and 30 % for Albania,.
Composer of albanian song in 2015 is also from Kosovo.
Rita Ora is Kosovan. I wonder ?
@Alex: You don’t know that for sure and you’re only assuming that because Kosovo is Eastern.
Surprised if this were to be allowed.
if you’re going to say hello to Kosovo, then you’ll also have to bid your goodbyes to Serbia
adding Kosovo would be too much of a political firestorm for the EBU to handle
it’s more likely we’ll see Morocco/Turkey/Ukraine returning or (god forbid) Kazakhstan/China debuting
I hope Liechtenstein will enter the contest next year though. They’re not just a nation recognized by all countries but they already have a state broadcaster (they attempted to join back in 1974; they had a song and an entrant but unfortunately no state broadcaster so they couldn’t join then)
would love for Kosovo to participate
Since Kosovo is not a (fully?) recognized and independent state it MUST NOT participate. End of story. The ”it’s about music and not politics” arguements are annoying…Next is to see the pseudo-state of ”Northern Cyprus” wanting to take part.Grose.
@Axie: Notice how Austria and Germany both got 0 points this year… it’s far more likely for Kosovo to give an automatic 12 points to some Balkan nation than for Liechtenstein to do the same for one of its neighbors.
kosovo is GreAtY
But probably they won’t really participate, cause they said they couldn’t say how. With other words not really participating. :() But I wish they could. Without Serbia hating.
Honestly, I’m not a fan of the idea of voting cartels getting even more powerfull. I guess they are intitled to participate though.
It may only be rumours but I would love it to be true, even if only for one year like Australia or as an interval act. Can we please remember the Eurovision is meant to be about music and not politics.
not gonna happen. Do u forget that there are countries participating in ESC that have not recognized Kosovo? Plus, Serbia will object to that.
I say no. We need Luxembourg back.
AAAHHH woo! Happiness.
I really like that.
why are people already whining about albania getting 12s? do you people hate eastern europe so much that one more country sending potentially great entries is not worth the possible points for albania?
if this was about liechtenstein i bet nobody would be as aprehensive about germany, switzerland and austria getting points.
good, 12 points more for Albania every year