Ever since news of plans for the Eurovision Asia Song Contest were confirmed back in 2016, fans have eagerly awaited details of the inaugural show. Recent chat on social media has suggested that it may be sooner than expected, with speculation of a December 2019 date. However, wiwibloggs has confirmed that there is “no further update at this stage.”
Wiwibloggs has contacted a spokesperson for SBS, the broadcaster for Eurovision in Australia and the broadcaster responsible for the Eurovision Asia Song Contest. In an exclusive statement, they have confirmed that “Eurovision Asia is still in development. There is no further update at this stage”.
The rumour appears to have sparked off from a Google search result, that confidently declares that Eurovision Asia 2019 will begin on 30 November and end on 7 December.
The dates have their origin in a proposal document, intended for sponsors of the event if it was hosted in the Gold Coast, Australia. However, these dates have never been confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union nor Eurovision Asia producers Blink TV or Australian broadcaster SBS.
The event is also said to be taking place at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre — the same venue that hosted Australia’s national final last February. However, the GCCEC has one event listed for 7 December 2019 — Christmas Rhapsody, a Queen tribute band and Christmas dinner show.
In any event, it would be a tight turnaround if the contest was to debut in December, with no confirmation of the contest as of yet. With artists still to select and broadcasters still not confirmed, it’s unlikely it will air before the end of the year.
That’s not to say it will never happen — in fact, there is still strong interest in the Asia region for the contest to happen. In December, wiwibloggs caught up with Eurovision Asia producer Paul Clarke. He confirmed that discussions were still taking place and investors were interested in the Eurovision Asia debut:
“There’s a lot discussions and a lot of potential investors in Asia… So we’ll just go one step at a time and I’m really happy where our national final is, and we’ll see where our next steps are.”
With positive fan response to Eurovision: Australia Decides — dubbed by some as the “Melodifestivalen of the south” — there is still expectation that if Eurovision Asia gets the go-ahead, the Australian team will be more than capable of putting on a show for the eventual debut of the contest.
Once details of the inaugural Eurovision Asia are confirmed, we expect they will be officially launched by the EBU.
The one new event that we do know more about is a Eurovision-style show for the United States. The project was launched in May, with producers aiming to hold the first show in 2021.
I find it funny that this contest functions like the Asian intergovernmental organizations – by doing nothing at all.
Just cancel this show already. I’d prefer to see Australia joining Eurovision permanently.
This is not going to work. I’m saying this as an Indonesian.
It would make no sense, cause BTS would win every year 😉
Korea and Japan have more music variety than just boy and girl bands….
What about the rumored “ABU Song Contest” (said to be held in Qingdao)? Also fake news?
It was planned for October 2019, but they moved it to April 2020. Currently, there are only 5 countries who have more or less officially confirmed their participation so far (China, Brunei, Indonesia, Vanuatu and Vietnam). I hope it’s really going to happen :c
It would be more feasible to revive Festival OTI (the Eurovision of the Americas, which faded out in 2000), through a joint venture between EBU and OTI. Nostalgia dares to dream. (Spain and Portugal used to take part, and there were editions were even Canada, Equatorial Guinea -Spanish spoken there- and the former Netherlands Antilles joined).
From what I know, Dave Benton performed there for Netherlands Antilles at one point in the 1980s (under his real name)
AYE!! I could have sworn I saw a festival of this scale at the Wikipedia pages. Marcel Bezençon created THIS contest as well.
Anyone at the top echelons of the hierarchy, who worked at the OTI Festival, who is still alive, ought to have a conversation with the producers of the Caribbean Song Festival, to either merge them both or create a production team to relaunch this festival as an all-encompassing Song Contest of the Americas.
dare to dream
Can Eurovision just make a third semi-final consisting of Asian countries. I think that would be more likely.
That’s funny, tell another one!
Thanks for the update, Robyn. 🙂
Why on earth would they call it EUROvision Asia? Why not just call it Asiavision? It doesn’t have the same ring to it exactly but that’s only because we’re so used to hearing “Eurovision”. People would soon get used to it.
Because the name Asiavision was already used before Eurovision Asia was even announced.
Asiavision isn’t a thing. Eurovision is the name of the broadcast network which included a lot more than just the song contest. If you look at sports events like European athletics you will often see the Eurovision logo at the venue along the track, or even the Pope’s Easter address. It’s a recognized actual organization that would be due rightful credit in the event of an Asia song contest…not just a made-up word like Asiavision.
Some countries would never participate that’s a fact(Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran…) But quite a number of them would and are developed and not religious freaks, such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Israel, a lot of island nations and so on
It is obvious that both Eurovision Asia and America will either be big flops or not happen at all
They should be cancell
Björkman’s ego is fueling his super-sized U.S. version of MelFest.
No go. At some point, something is going to escalate into total acrimony unless the rest of the Americas are allowed to participate, with the U.S. as a single entity among 3 or 4 dozen others.
Eurovision Asia Song Contest will be held on 16th and 18th of April 2020 and not this year! According to the Wikipedia page:’ABU Song Contest 2020′ and Eurovoix-world.com’!
The Eurovision Asia Song Contest is different to the ABU Song Contest… However, they are similar in that both don’t seem close to happening any time soon, if at all! *cue Wiwibloggs shade music* lol
So they aren’t similar?
There are similarities, but as far as I understand in the ABU Song Contest, participants are allowed to sing original or popular songs (which I assume means there is no deadline when the song had to be released, unlike in Eurovision). The voting is also a bit different in that 50% of the votes comes from an international professional jury and 50% comes from an audience made up of 100 people from each country participating. Those are the only differences, as far as I know… Really speaking, it doesn’t make sense why there are two of these similar contests proposed… Read more »
But why all these dislikes?
People can be mean for no reason. Please don’t take it to heart xo.
ABU Song Contest =/= Eurovision Asia Song Contest
I’m going to choose to be optimistic and hope that this means that i’ll eventually get TWO asian song contests to watch
If one goes under, I’ll hopefully at least have the other to tune into
As someone whose half korean i’ve been wanting this for a while
I still have no idea why the European Broadcasting Union would organize a contest in Asia…how does this fit their remit or serve their members?
To paraphrase Regina George: “Stop trying to make Eurovision Asia happen! It’s not going to happen!”
This is what happens when egos get in the way of a start-up. Michael Lang thought Woodstock 50 was a sure thing because of the 50th anniversary of the original. Unfortunately, the way the 3rd edition (1999, the 30th anniversary) ended discouraged so many New York towns from even considering hosting the event, that Lang and his team went so far as to move the event to Maryland! By that time, performers left and right were dropping out of the project. It was doomed from the start. And here now, for 2 years (or is it 3?), the EBU has… Read more »
I don’t think is happening on a short term (<5 years or so). It was a good idea on paper (KPOP! Billy wood! …) but if we're fully honest, difficult to make a reality as the countries on Asia are way more disunited as the Europeans are, even counting the ones we all already know. And also they have too different cultural habits to accommodate on a single place (eg. MARUV's antics for most of us Europeans are barely a gimmick, for countries like Saudi Arabia it would be something unimaginable to broadcast on TV.)
This show will never happen lmao. Such a pity actually, cause an Asian Song Contest would have been very interesting and fun to watch.
Probably why the EBU announced that Australia will still be participating in the main event for 4 more years. They must have known that the SBS event wasn’t close to being realized. I could see the EBU waiting a few more years, and if nothing pans out on with the Asian event, that their AU invitation will become permanent.
If they bring as amazing acts as Kate Miller Heidke I can just only hope to see Australia in Eurovision as long as possible.
Is anyone surprised? If you go announce something and string it along for so long, the air is already out before it even began.
It’s not happening.
Maybe SBS and Australia can focus on Eurovision, a competition they’ve been desperate to join, so their next entries don’t have to pay or fund their own performances themselves if they want to be competitive when they arrive at Eurovision