The 2021 edition of the Eurovision Choir contest has been cancelled. After two successful editions in 2017 and 2019, organisers Interkultur have confirmed that this year’s contest will not go ahead, with no plans yet for a future edition.
Speaking to the Italian Eurovision news site Eurofestival News, Interkultur project manager Ilda Memaj explained:
“Unfortunately the third edition of Eurovision Choir will no longer take place in 2021. As soon as we are able to announce more details on a future edition of the event, you will find information on our website and social media accounts.”
The Interkultur project manager did not elaborate on the reason behind the cancellation. It is likely that the Covid-19 pandemic played a part in the decision.
However, Interkultur’s 11th World Choir Games is still due to go ahead in Flanders, Belgium in October this year.
Prior to the postponement of the 2021 contest, no country had shown any sign of clear interest in taking part. Nor had there been a selected host city or broadcaster.
On the website of Interkultur, Eurovision Choir is currently not listed among the events to happen in coming years. The EBU’s website dedicated to Eurovision Choir has also not been updated since 2019.
In September 2020, Interkultur had confirmed to fansite Eurovision Ireland that, “there will most definitely be a Eurovision Choir 2021.” However, at that stage, organisers were unable to confirm any further information about the contest.
Eurovision Live Events affected by cancellations
Eurovision Choir is the third of the five Eurovision Live Events in less than two years to be postponed indefinitely.
The EBU cancelled Eurovision Young Dancers in 2018 after being unable to secure a host broadcaster for the 2019 contest.
Croatian broadcaster HRT was due to host the 2020 edition of Eurovision Young Musicians before it was cancelled due to the pandemic. There has not been an update on that contest since March 2020.
Eurovision Choir debuted in 2017 as Eurovision Choir of the Year. Choirs from nine countries competed in the first edition, held in Riga, Latvia. The second edition, held in 2019, had ten choirs competing in Gothenburg, Sweden.
However, unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the choral contest never struck as much media attention and remained a niche event.
The EBU’s focus remains on the Eurovision Song Contest and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Did you watch the last edition of Eurovision Choir in 2019? Are you sad that Eurovision Choir is cancelled? Let us know in the comments below!
I am very sad to hear that the Eurovision Choir event has ben cancelled. I Saw the tro prior events on TV and enjoyed it very much. I consider it to be a great event for European countries to come together
Eurovision Choir had huge potential to spread awareness and appreciation of choral music, had they promoted it more aggressively. Interkultur does a lot of other choral events, notably the European and World Choir Games (which are basically just what Eurovision Choir is), but pretty much all are in-person events and none of them are televised or even available online, which really sucks as it’s always incredible music. I was kind of expecting this cancellation, because unfortunately with COVID the logistics of having large choirs meeting in an international venue is basically impossible, but it still sucks to hear. Here’s hoping… Read more »
I hope one day the EBU brings the Eurovision Dance Contest back, it was one of the highest rated spin off events, and had the most potential of the various spin offs tried.
Shame Eurovision Choir won’t take place this year.
There is only one Eurovision. All these spinoffs can’t quite capture the cultural and historic aspects that have made Eurovision an event.
“Eurovision”, according to Wikipedia, refers to the entire media network of the EBU and is older than the song contest itself. 🙂
So does that mean that ‘Eurovision Young Dancers’ is also out of the question for EBU? Well, I never showed great interest to either of the shows as I found them pretty colourless compared to ESC and JESC but I’m sure they have their small fanbase still…
Also WHAT THE HECK I JUST LEARNED THAT ICELAND HAD A VIEWING FIGURE OF 99.9% DURING THE GRAND FINAL WHA-
Young Dancers was actually canceled previously, for which Eurovision Choir took its slot as a result.
However, unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the choral contest never struck as much media attention and remained a niche event. It is important to know that ESC took decades to be where it is now that no other Eurovision-branded event would be able to accomplish straight out of the gate. With that said, the smaller events have always been traditionally relegated to a national broadcaster’s secondary channel and I always get the impression that even despite them doing decent numbers that have allowed themselves to continue (even JESC), we’re only getting some semblance of synergy to allow all these events to… Read more »
I’ve never properly watched this, but I hope it will pick up again in the not too distant future, along with Young Musicians and Dancers. Hopefully won’t become a forgotten spin off, like the Dance contest of the late 2000s.
It was also something Wales has a pretty good rep in!
I didn’t know about Eurovision Choir.
Is it like a thing that it takes place every other year?
Anyway, it’s such a shame… I really liked this one, unlike young musicians/dancers which never got my attention
I hope they won’t cancel it forever!
But seriously, they should really try harder in making those work…
Can’t have contests with no updates for such a long time
Only whenever the European Choir Games take place, which is once every 2 years.
I hope it will be back soon alongside Young Musicians since these two are the best music contests organised by EBU.
Not a good omen for the American Song Contest.
it’s the american song contest not the american choir contest
It’s not like the American version is going to happen anyway.
girl, it’s already set and confirmed.