Over the last month, we’ve seen a flood of confirmations come in. There are now 37 38 countries who have provisionally said yes to Eurovision 2019. But what about the ones who haven’t publicly confirmed yet?
Based on the 43 countries who participated in Lisbon, there are still six five countries left to make their intentions known. It’s not necessarily a bad sign — some of them are notoriously late to confirm every year. And as the application deadline has passed, all of these countries will have privately made their intentions known to the EBU. But let’s take a look at these remaining countries still to publicly confirm for Eurovision 2019.
Armenia
There’s been no news yet from AMPTV, though they may currently be focusing on their entry for Junior Eurovision 2018. Last year Armenia didn’t confirm until late October, so this isn’t out of the ordinary for them.
It’s likely that Armenia will be back for 2019, but it’s less certain how they will select their act. Last year Armenia used the national final Depi Evratesil, which sadly resulted in a rare non-qualification at Eurovision. AMPTV may wish to use a revamped selection method for 2019.
Update: Armenia has confirmed! Broadcaster AMPTV has told fan media that Armenia will participate in Eurovision 2019. There’s no word on how they will select their act for Tel Aviv.
Australia
Australia has been competing at Eurovision since 2015, but they still haven’t earned a permanent place on the roster. The EBU’s Eurovision Reference Group will again need to approve a guest invitation for Australia to compete in Tel Aviv.
While broadcaster SBS has not said anything, strong rumours suggest that Australia will indeed be competing in Tel Aviv. Not only that, but SBS’s CEO has reportedly hinted that the Australian public will be more involved in the selection of the act. This suggests that Australia will introduce some form of national final.
Update: Australia has confirmed! SBS will be back, but this time they want to get the public involved in the song selection process.
Italy
Planning for Italy’s national song contest is well underway. The Sanremo Music Festival will start with the new Newcomers competition before Christmas, and then the five big nights of Sanremo will take place in early February.
But broadcaster RAI still hasn’t confirmed if Italy will be competing at Eurovision 2019, let alone if Sanremo will be used as the national selection. In recent years, Italy has confirmed in mid-September — but that period has come and gone, leaving Italy the only Big Five country still to confirm.
Update: Italy has confirmed! But broadcaster RAI still hasn’t said if Sanremo will be used as Italy’s national selection. But it seems likely.
Moldova
In recent years, TRM has confirmed their participation in late October/early November, so they are still on track.
After two years with top ten results, there’s nothing to suggest that Moldova won’t participate in Tel Aviv. In recent years, Moldova has used different versions of their national final O melodi pentru Europa.
Russia
Russia typically doesn’t make a big announcement about their Eurovision participation (though they did in 2016). It’s very likely that the first official confirmation we’ll get for Russia is when the EBU releases the full list of competing countries later in the year.
But that hasn’t stopped rumours emerging. Eurovision maestro Philipp Kirkorov has assembled his “dream team”, strongly hinting that they are working on a Eurovision entry. It’s not a given that the “dream team” will be working on Russia’s entry, but it is a very likely option this year.
San Marino
If there’s any country with a big question mark dangling over it, it’s San Marino. In the past, SMRTV has been unhappy with the faux “televote” generated on behalf of San Marino, with Serhat being denied holograms, and earlier this year they were unhappy with irreverent comments from the Italian commentary team.
In past years, San Marino’s participation in Eurovision has been made possible due to collaborations with partners such as the iconic songwriter Ralph Siegel, the Turkish crooner Serhat and the producers of the 1 In 360 song contest
However, it’s been reported that the 1 In 360 team has been in talks with broadcasters from other countries, which suggests that SMRTV has not renewed their relationship with the national final format. It’s not known if San Marino has another partnership lined up for 2019, or indeed if they will participate in Tel Aviv.
Other countries
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, who last competed in 2016, are currently unable to compete, as the EBU has sanctioned BHRT due to ongoing financial issues.
- Regular non-competitors Andorra, Luxembourg, Monaco, Slovakia and Turkey have all confirmed they will not return. Morocco hasn’t said anything, but it is extremely unlikely they would make a Eurovision comeback in Israel.
- Despite having received a guest invitation to Junior Eurovision 2018, Kazakhstan is not on the guest list for Eurovision 2019. ESC and JESC are overseen by separate reference groups and the EBU has stated it has no plans to invite Kazakhstan to the Eurovision Song Contest.
- Kosovo‘s broadcaster RTK isn’t currently a member (or associate member) of the EBU and so can’t compete. However, the broadcaster’s membership application will be voted on in December, which may open the door to future Eurovision participation.
- Liechtenstein‘s broadcaster 1 FL TV is not a member of the EBU. While the station’s former director was keen on entering Eurovision, the station is not currently pursuing EBU membership.
Read more Eurovision 2019 news here
Commenting has currently been paused on this article.
What a skinny article, loving this concept! I believe they’ll all participate in the end, my guess is some (Moldova) did confirm but no one reported it, others (Armenia) are still shook by the embarrassing flop, and others (Italy) are just trying to create suspense.
Italy in the next week not only give the name of his Jesc delegate, but announce a big plan for 2019, maybe this time they want win…. Rai want brodcast all the two semifinal in the channel number 1 in rai 1 and during all the esc week brodcast in all the channels programm esc related.
Sources! Cite your sources! You and the Finnish guy can’t talk a big game like that without proof (and man, Italy’s so close to winning already that the extra push might do it. As long as their hosting isn’t as bad as 1991 I’m set).
Their 1991 hosting wasn’t ‘THAAAAAAT’ bad. Toto Cutugno was his usual obnoxious self, of course, and the orchestra killed the Greek song, but apart from that it was a delightful edition. The real scam was that piece of garbage from Sweden winning over much better songs from France & Israel.
I’ll say the songs were tight (and Israel was better than either of the tied songs) but the voting sequence was the most tedious thing ever and the stage looked like garbage.
Tomorrow we may have “North Macedonia” and no more of that “Former Yug…Macedonia” thing.
aaaaaand fyrom remains
-.-
Maybe Italy won’t use Sanremo like in 2014.
Nah, they won’t repeat the same mistake. A newcomer might be selected though, which is not a bad thing.
What is unusual is that by October we still don’t have any confirmed participants. Not one country yet announced their internally chosen artist. Last year, if my memory is right, we had about 5-6 of them. Well, at least majority of countries has confirmed, and that’s the most important part.
By the beginning of November only Sennek had been announced, Saara being the second confirmed artist in November 8.
I am almost sure that after all the controversy with Israel’s hosting EBU will do anything to get an unexpected participating country to make fans happy. I sense that it’ll either be Kazakhstan or Slovakia.
The EBU has said that there is no plans for Kazakhstan to debut, and Slovakia already said that they are not returning for next year
It doesn’t mean anything yet. In 2015 Czech Republic announced that they would not return to the contest, but later they did. What matters is the final list given by EBU.
I think the EBU is looking at JESC to see how Kazahkstan does. If they do well I think their will be a surprise announcement much like Austrailia and Czechia being announced in December in 2015
I think JESC is the limit for kazahstan….
Just hope Italy will be in the contest. They are by far my favourite Eurovision country and I would be totally depressed if they withdrew!
I would love to see Italy, San Marino, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein being the last six countries to confirm their participations. I don’t really care about Russia, Armenia and especially Australia tbh..
Slovakia, Bosnia, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein have all put our statements saying they’re not participating so don’t delude yourself.
So Macedonia is in for good? That is great news. I love Macedonia. For one, they are so consistent. Screwing up non-stop since 2013. But they usually provide great studio versions and have some amazing singers which did not go to Eurovision yet. Also, next year might be the first time the “FYR” gets dropped for the new name, whatever it will be.
North Macedonia from tomorrow on
And there goes the chance of getting points from greece and cyprus…
Cyprus is a different country please. We don’t have any problems with FYR Macedonia.
they will all confirm
While I’m nervous about San Marino, I’ll also say that if the non-qualifications bothered them so much they’d have probably left a long time ago. I think in general they’re probably just happy that San Marino, a not-huge country, gets a moment in the limelight on such a huge stage every year. Plus, Montenegro and Macedonia are in, and they’re not known for qualifying either. I don’t see any of the countries here withdrawing, certainly not on the grounds of performing in Israel (in fact, they all gave Israel high marks, including a 12 from both San Marino’s jury and… Read more »
There’s especially no reason for Italy to withdraw. They’re a Big 5 member and they finished fifth.
Do a vote to see if people want Kazakhstan to participate.
No withdrawal this time.
EBU has not confirmed there will be a vote about RTK membership. In July, EBU said that RTK currently does not meet the criteria to become an EBU member. They did not mention a vote, only RTK reported about it. Considering all the fake news provided by them in the last years, we can say that this is another lie.
Check this re Italy:
https://www.google.it/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/italian-right-lines-up-pro-russia-journalist-marcello-foa-for-top-broadcast-job-rai
I’m actually itching for Italy to confirm, they’re always a Top 5 for me and I want to they’re in.
I believe Italy, Russia, Australia & Moldova are sure to compete at ESC2019 even id no public statement is made.
regarding San Marino, i think they would withdraw s they fail to make it to the grand final every year, mostly because they send horrible songs, and what is worst they can’t even find a good formula to select their entry. are there no San Marinese singers who can represent the country? if not, they sould’nt be at ESC.
They have Valentina Monetta. They should send her again.
Every year?
San Marino has no obligation to participate with Sammarinese singers only. Being such a small country it’s totally understandable if they participate with singers from other countries. Just like Monaco & Luxemburg did in the past. Stop bring up this topic all the time! In my opinion, though, they should search for Italian singers & Italian language songs a bit more than they have so far.
Almost certain that these countries will inform about the participation I am satisfied with the decision on the participation of Croatia in Tel Aviv
Was there a doubt?
With Croatia people might have worried bc of their two years out and then failing to qualify with a big name like Franka this year, but they said pretty shortly afterwards that they were committed to Eurovision (and that World Cup success may not have hurt the competitive spirit either).
The only country I see withdrawing is San Marino, I want them to use another kind of selection maybe pick a runner up from San Remo(know it’s not gonna happen, but an idea). Then I want Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Turkey back, not sure why Slovakia isn’t participating since they are way richer than Moldova, Albania, Georgia etc…, and I think Kazakhstan will participate this year, even though the reference group said that. Kosovo not sure, and even if they do? Will they ever qualify? I mean Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Serbia, Belarus, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Israel and Ukraine… Read more »
How did Russia announce their participation in 2016? xD
Thanks for the information Robyn <3
I hope we at least get the 43 from last year as well!
By the way, is Greenland considered Europe or North America? Just suggesting some more countries xD
Depends if you look at politics and culture – Europe or Asia even, if you look at where it is located N. America
Greenland is, like the Faroe Islands, a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, so they cannot compete on their own.
Oh ok, thanks :3
It isn’t about nationhood, it’s whether or not they have a broadcaster who is a member of the EBU. Hence Wales in JESC this year. Theoretically Faroes an Greenland could comprte.
But in football Faroe Islands compete, just like Wales in JESC.
And now he released a new song.. ?