The number of nations applying to become members of the European Broadcasting Union is increasing all the time. You’re all well aware of Kazakhstan’s ambition. And now the newest applicant is the tiny Faroe Islands, located between Iceland and Norway. Since 1948, the archipelago has been a self-ruling country within the Kingdom of Denmark. The Faroese national tv station — Kringvarp Foroyar — is already holding internal discussions to host their very own Melody Grand Prix, with the ultimate goal of becoming part of the ever-growing Eurovision family.
According to the Danish-language Greenlandic web site Sermitsiaq, Kringvarp Foroyar have applied to become members of the EBU before. They originally applied in 2010, but were denied on the grounds that only independent nations could be members. Today they say it is a whole different story. The broadcaster’s former director did some research and says the Faroe Islands are more than eligible to become a part of the EBU. According to the paper, and the broadcaster, “The Faroe Islands are not excluded by the definition that only independent nations can be a member.”
Look at Welsh broadcaster S4C. It’s a member. And the parliament of Catalonia recently passed a measure giving approval for a regional broadcaster there to push forward with applying for full membership to the EBU.
As part of its ambitions, the Faroe Islands wants to host their own national final for Eurovision. The nation has regularly applied to be a member ever since 2010 and wiwibloggs first reported almost five years ago that the country was more than serious about their membership. Speaking of the matter, their then cultural minister, Bjorn Kalsoy, said: “We want to show the EBU that the Faroe Islands are more than an equal match to other countries when it comes to competing in the Eurovision Song Contest”. Boom!
But there is so much more behind the islands’ application for the EBU.
“It’s not just about Eurovision,” says Johnny í Grótinum, the director of Kringvarp Foroyar.
“Granted, the membership is quite expensive, but the EBU also has so much to offer us in terms of service, news and other things that are useful to us.”
But what if they stage a national final, send their winner all the way to the big stage at Eurovision and, in the end, win the whole contest? What would happen? Would the Faroe Islands be able to host such a huge event?
Johnny is realistic.
“No, unfortunately the Faroe Islands could not welcome all the competing nations, although we definitely want to. We would have to seek help from another country and host the contest there”.
Although not an EBU member just yet, the Faroe Islands are no strangers to Eurovision. Many of the country’s most talented musicians have already tried their luck through other national finals in neighbouring countries, such as Melodifestivalen in Sweden, Söngvakeppni in Iceland and of course DMGP.
Their latest representatives were the Faroese sisters Laila, Barbara and Vanja Carlsen, who were among the ten finalists of DMGP 2018. And due to their close relationship to Iceland, there have been several Faroese singers competing in Söngvakeppni, such as Eivör Pálsdóttir, Jógvan Hansen and most recently Kristina Bærendtsen.
Team Wiwi always dares to dream a dream and there is a slight possibility that we foresee the future, for we even wrote a wish list about possible candidates for Eurovision. When and if the EBU accepts the Faroe Islands as permanent members, we might just have to update that list, for they might be small, but music-wise, the Faroe Islands are huge! We for one can’t wait to welcome them to the party.
What are your thoughts? Do you look forward to seeing the Faroe Islands on the Eurovision scoreboard in the future? Is their application dream only a dream or are they a force to be reckoned with? Please comment your thoughts below.
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I’d rather have Morocco back, please. Kinda tired of celtic countries like ireland and iceland, they dont bring anything fun to the contest anymore.
Faroe Islands are in football competitions and my country Romania can be beaten even by them, even though for them football is a part time job.
Faroe Islands are not a country. Bye
And the 12 points go to… Denmark!
No. There are too many countries in the contest. The Faroe Islands are already represented by the Danish entry. I have no problem with them joining the EBU, but as far as I’m concerned if they want to compete they will have to gain full independence first. It’s a bad precedent.
Faroe Islands status is totally different to Kosovo, their status is similiar to Wales and the UK, but with Denmark. I don’t see any politic problem there. So for me, the EBU should let them join. My only concern is the amount of points the Faroe Island would give to the Nordic block (Denmark, Iceland and Norway specially). The same as Kazakhistan with Russia. I see I’m not the only one worried about that. Should Andorra, Luxembourg and Monaco come back to balance it (France would almost win 30 points instantly hahaha).
PLEASE LET THEM JOIN!!!
Is it even a country? I dare EBU to let them in.
With the Viking-Block becoming even bigger, we would see Sweden winning every single year… so for me it’s NO
Welsh broadcaster S4C is EBU members. But i f UK want to participate in some EBU cintest, Wales in that case is not participant, because they are not independet country.
I am not against per se, but 24 automatic points to Denmark, 20 points to Iceland, 16 points to Norway every year…..
Bring it on! If Australia can compete, why not countries that are actually IN Europe??? Eivor Palsdottir was robbed, by the way – what a lovely voice and language!
I dont support Faroe Islands and Catalonia in ESC. Faroe Islands is to small and danish and Catalonia is spanish so hope they are denied.
I fully support Faroe Islands in Eurovision, but if there are obstacles they can at the very least compete in the Junior Eurovision and Eurovision Choir of the Year, similar to Wales and Scotland, to get the ball rolling
Ooo, how interesting. Faroe Islands (Pop: 49,290) has a slightly higher population than San Marino (Pop: 33,400), so it wouldn’t be the “smallest” ‘nation’ in the contest at present. I have always wanted to visit there; maybe one day. 🙂 This is one of those “grey areas” in what constitutes a “country”, I know. Good point from Kristin about S4C and Wales – that is indeed a good comparison. However, in principal, since I have always been against countries being represented in ESC in the first place, I don’t give a… (Ajax) P.S. If you want me to rant on… Read more »
I think I kinda understand your point about no countries (we’re all human, artificial borders etc.), but to me having just songs not attached to any country would be a totally different contest and take away much of what I love about the Eurovision Song Contest. How would you even work it in practice? It’s not feasible.
One song per broadcaster, same as the current arrangement.
Vote for the song title + artist.
No flags or politics allowed.
Don’t mention countries. At all. They don’t exist in music anyhow; that would be the point.
Sorted. 🙂
I know it’s idealistic, but it’s not impossible… one day. One can only hope.
One song from each broadcaster is essentially the very same, considering it is the national broadcaster that submits entries. I don’t support your idea, there’s nothing wrong with patriotic pride…there is a huge difference between patriotism and nationalism. Do you feel the same about sporting events like the Olympics or the World Cup?
In principal, yes I do feel the same. But sports have never personally been a part of my life, whereas music has been. So I care much less about sports. As a political ideology: One planet, one species, one home. It’s a simple ideological dream.
Eurovision goes on year after year about having “no politics”, but in principal: Country representation = politics. Remove national pride and you remove the politics. Or perhaps not. I would love to find out one day. 🙂
They aren’t a sovereign country so no
My personal requirements for a country to take part are:
– Be a fully independent sovereign state
– Have territory in Europe
Wich I think the EBU should follow.
Of they do are not doing this we will have all those fake countries in the competition, I mean whats next? Transnistria, Abchazia?
And let’s not forget that we have limited space at Eurovision, we don’t even have room for all 50 European countries let alone countries outside of Europe, some people may gorgelt that
We’ll never get all 50 countries to particate in one year though. That’s just impossible. I think using the map of the european broadcasting area is the simplest solution. I also don’t mind australia taking part. Maybe australlian succes could stimulate the Uk to send some better songs and create some rivalry.
Well, Cyprus isn’t geographically in Europe so your requirements list is already a fail!
Cyprus are in the Mediterranean, they are in the European Union. They use they € Euro currency. I think this makes them part of Europe more than some imaginary line makes them part of Asia.
They are represented by Denmark .. Same as England, Scotland wales and Northern Ireland by the United Kingdom and Catalonia by Spain
Not an independent country and EBU should stick to countries in the same way as olympics, not regions of countries ..
The Olympic Games do accept territories/autonomous regions, in fact, the Faroe Islands participate in the Paralympic Games. However, the IOC stopped accepting them in the 90’s.
But teams such as Bermuda, Hong Kong, Aruba, Puerto Rico, and Cook Islands are still in the games.
Exactly, it’s a very particular situation. But what I’ve read is that they were trying it even before the 90’s. I don’t know how much support they got from Denmark back then though, maybe this would explain why those countries were allowed to join IOC but not them.
I don’t get the Catalonia reference here. Catalonia is a region whithin Spain (there are 17 of them, Catalonia is just one of them); such as Bayern (Bavaria) in Germany, Normand in France or Sicily in Italy. If regions were allowed to participate in the contest, then we would have like 10 semifinals and 4 weeks of ESC, which would be great on the other hand 🙂
Imagine Catalonia participating in ESC. The fight with Spain will be real xd
Catalunya would probably get better results to be honest
Catalonia has no sense participating on their own. Catalonia is a Spanish region such as Andalusia, Basque Country or Balearic island. (Look for “Autonomous communities of Spain” in Wikipedia.)
Take Gibraltar (UK) as a better example. They already participate in other international competitions, i.e. Miss World, contest that they won back in 2009.
I can imagine catalonia giving their 12 points to another country and the spanish being angry about it, definitely.
I’m against it for now, the Faroe Islands should first be independent, then I fully support their participation
yes!! if Australia can compete, then Faroe Islands should be able to <3
They’re also trying to be part of the Olympics and they have full Danish support for that. But they’ve been trying it for decades already and nothing has changed. I hope they have better luck with the EBU.
I think that EBU should do its best to make whole Europe participate in Eurovision. It sucks how when it’s sports editions, all the countries join, but when it’s a music event some of them are looking for excuses.
I know for sure that Bosnia&Herzegovina and Andorra can’t participate because of financial issues, but they want to participate. Luxembourg, Slovakia, and Monaco’s broadcasters are lame though. They don’t have any problems, they are obviously too greedy to spend some cash on Eurovision. And Turkey doesn’t participate for some stupid reasons. Bulgaria’s new general director is another weirdo, he probably wants to buy himself a new car or sth, so he didn’t let Bulgarian delegation to spend money in ESC. There are some countries that EBU can make them return with negotiations I believe. But some others just need less… Read more »
so 60 countries? 3 semis? give me a break. NO WAY
I would love to see Faroe Islands in the competition.
“Almost everybody in the Faroe Islands is in a band”. Eivor said that, I believe.
I totally support them, they have a pretty solid music background, just like Iceland’s. The negative point: one more country in the Nordic block, even though it has been weakening over the past few years.
heidrik, sakaris, or byrta at eurovision… hmmm could be cool
If Wales can, and even countries outside the EBU broadcast area can (Australia, Kazakhstan), then yes, I fully support Faroe Islands participation in Eurovision.
I really can’t wait for a debuting country (from within the European broadcasting area and of course making a little concession for Kazakhstan). That’d be so refreshing and interesting, especially if the entries consider some of their respective cultures!
I have seen ideas, that were way more unrealistic than Faroe Islands in ESC.
I always think about organisations like UEFA that allow Countries like Faroe Islands, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland to be part of it, so why should EBU not be able to allow this? If they meet the requirements, they should be granted full membership
The more the merrier
NO! 20 in 2 semis is the limit. I your a small country with 30 countries in a semi. Its really stupid
Come in and bring Greenland with you!
Yes! The more Nordic power, the better. Just don’t give your 12 points to Denmark every year, unless they deserve it, of course.
New countries at Eurovision mean more languages, more diversity, the competition will get even more unpredictable.
No, they’ll just be like the other Nordic countries and sing in English all the time. Denmark and Sweden haven’t sang in their mother tongues since the language rule was dropped 20 years ago.
Yet when it’s Kazakhstan people complain. I do agree with you though.
i mean since s4c in wales is a member i don’t see why the faroe islands can’t be (as long as denmark is ok w it ig)
I mean, the complicated thing is that Wales and Scotland can both compete in the same events, but if the BBC shows an interest in those events, their desire to participate would overrule the participation of the individual republics. So I don’t know if a similar thing would mean that the Faroe Islands and Greenland couldn’t compete in an event like Eurovision if Denmark wants to or if it’d be a different kind of thing.
Scotland and Wales aren’t Republics.