The expansion of the Eurovision brand just won’t quit. Following the American Song Contest, which had its first edition earlier this year, and Eurovision Canada, which will premiere next year, the EBU has confirmed the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest Latin America.
In a press release, which we’re re-printing in full below, the EBU said that large numbers of people in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico watched the YouTube stream of Eurovision 2022, suggesting there’s an interest and opportunity in the region.
Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl says he’s thrilled about “bringing the excitement and magic of the Eurovision Song Contest to Latin America”. And he’s also probably thrilled to bring more coins into the EBU purse through licensing rights.
The EBU is working with a company called “Voxovation”, formerly ASC, Inc., which hopes to bring the Eurovision brand to “untapped markets” and to explore “new revenue streams, including digital platforms.”
This continues a trend, as we saw with the corporate partnership between the EBU and TikTok during Eurovision 2022.
Eurovision Song Contest Latin America confirmed (PRESS RELEASE)
The EBU is excited to announce plans to expand the Eurovision Song Contest brand into Latin America.
Eurovision Song Contest Latin America will be produced by Voxovation’s Christer Björkman, Anders Lenhoff, Ola Melzig, Peter Settman and Greg Lipstone, the producers of American Song Contest and Eurovision Song Contest Canada.
The 2022 Eurovision Song Contest generated more than 75 million unique viewers on YouTube across all ESC content in 232 territories worldwide, with Latin American countries among the top-performing markets for non-participating nations. Among those countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico saw the highest content views.
Producers will now begin the search for a host city for Eurovision Song Contest Latin America among the top-performing Latin American markets in the coming months.
Eurovision Song Contest Latin America marks the latest development in the global expansion of the Eurovision Song Contest as it simultaneously elevates the legacy of the brand while maintaining local cultural representation.
NBC’s American Song Contest, which concluded its eight-week run on 9 May, saw an increase in viewers for the Grand Final, during which K-pop star AleXa was crowned the Season One winner. Eurovision Song Contest Canada, co-produced with partner Insight Productions (a Boat Rocker company), is set to debut in 2023.
Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl said: “Following on from the launch of the American Song Contest, and with plans underway for Eurovision Song Contest Canada next year, the European Broadcasting Union is thrilled to be now working with Voxovation on bringing the excitement and magic of the Eurovision Song Contest to Latin America. The unique Eurovision format finds new fans across the globe every year and we can’t wait to expand the brand in this hugely diverse part of the world.”
Peter Settman and Greg Lipstone, on behalf of the Voxovation producing team, said: “Fans across Latin America have consistently shown up and showed out for the Eurovision Song Contest brand, and Eurovision Song Contest Latin America is the embodiment of that fervent passion, as well as a continuation of the broad vision we, the producing team, have for Eurovision as a global brand.”
The Eurovision Song Contest, organized by the EBU, is the world’s largest live music event d, with over 180 million people tuning in across linear and digital channels in 2022.
During the Grand Final, audience shares in 40 markets routinely double primetime viewership on participating networks, and among 15 to 34-year-old audiences, the viewership is quadrupled.
The Contest has launched the global careers of a wide variety of artists, including most recently Italian winners Måneskin as well as Celine Dion, ABBA, Julio Iglesias and numerous others.
ABOUT VOXOVATION
Voxovation, formerly ASC, Inc., represents the expansion of the Eurovision Song Contest franchise into untapped markets by identifying new production and broadcast partners, as well as the exploration of new revenue streams, including digital platforms. Led by CEO Peter Settman and Greg Lipstone, President and COO, Voxovation brings together some of the top global minds in entertainment, music and television, including Christer Bjorkman, who famously performed on the Eurovision Song Contest and later became one of its longest-running contest producers; Anders Lenhoff, one of Europe’s top creative producers; and renowned television and mega-event producer, Ola Melzig. With operations based in Los Angeles, Voxovation simultaneously elevates the legacy of the Eurovision brand while maintaining local cultural representation with the same entrepreneurial integrity established by the principals.
Latam adores to support their representatives EVERYWHERE (sports, miss universe-like competitions, etc) and our LATAM Eurovision groups are HUGE and PASSIONATE. So, I think this can work very well if they don’t ruin some things (for example, doing a looong competition like ASC and not a week long contest like ESC) and each country is able to deliver something diverse and not just “more pop” or “more ballads”. There are plenty of good musicians here and I believe it has future in the correct hands.
And it will make thousands of LATAM Eurovision fans happy!!!!!
How about promoting the OG Eurovision in these markets.
American Song Contest was just Melodifestivalen transformed into the US market and it just didn’t work with most of the songs being okay – not bad but not great either.
Hoping to see how this works out, but so far Eurovision is such a long tradition for us Europeans that it’s hard to sell a different version of it – many people would just appreciate seeing the original one.
I have seen the OTI festival all my childhood. Many people remember that “Latin American Eurovision” and would be glad that it would come back. BUT it is not Eurovision nor Melodifestivalen, it is OTI and the people in charge of bringing back a Song Contest to Latin America should keep its essence if they want to success.
We kind of had something like this previously. It was called “OTI” and it was fairly popular among Latin American countries. I remember an interview made by a Honduran channel in which Shakira said she wished to represent Colombia at this festival like 3 or 4 years before she became famous but was too young at the time. Also many famous singers who are now big names in Mexico and Latin America took part at this festival like Camilo Sesto, Christian Castro, Yuri, Lupita D’Alessio and many more, so there is already a precedent. So this might work even better.… Read more »
You beat me to it. Eurovision Latin America has OTI as a playbook to build from.
Can’t see it working to be honest. A lot of the songs will sound the same, unless many countries co spider native languages etc. I can see Brazil dominating it completely though. They should drop the Eurovision name though, just have like Latinovision or something I dunno. I really couldn’t get into the American Song Contest no matter how much I tried it just felt like yet another reality singing contest. There was no national (or state) identity at all. Eurovision South America could end up being the same. Realistically, I can only see the Eurovision concept working in continents… Read more »
consider not co spider lol wish we could edit our comments again.
Imagine being this ignorant and not knowing anything about Latin American culture and heritae lmfao. Typical white person
Imagine being so ignorant as to bring race into a discussion for no reason just because you have nothing worthwhile. Take your racist @ss away you complete scümbag! Thanks x
Tell me you have no idea about our culture without saying you have no idea.
I mean regarding music choice!
Let’s not pretend that 99% of the songs will be reggaeton.
Love to see y’all jumping the gun here and pretending to make this a race issue.
My partner is from Brazil and I have been to many different parts of SA.
Tell me y’all are ignorant without saying y’all are ignorant.
I want Chanel to represent her home country Cuba and win the whole thing. She deserved it last May.
Spanish fans will insulte you for this. They cannot stand the fact that she was born in our continent.
I only wish it doesn’t turn into a 20something trap/reggaeton (or telenovela-like ballads) tracks’ collection competing. I wish Chile (for instance) sends a very pop entry. They are (musically speaking) the SouthAmerican Sweden (Javiera Mena, from Benidorm Fest, is Chilean). I guess we won’t see big names on it as the original. Maybe it will be a “La Voz winners” meeting. Anyways, I’m so excited about this! Hope it doesn’t take 10 years or something as it took to the ASC to come to light
Chile is far from being the South American Sweden musically-wise
What? Biggest music markets here are Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina. Chile doesn’t have big star names that have success in all Latam (which doesn’t mean they don’t have good music per se. There are very talented people there).
I’m NOT saying Chile has SUCCESSFUL/FAMOUS names in pop all over the continent, I’m saying they produce very good pop artists (as Sweden does, with or without international success), that, in the other hand, got little/null success even in their own country. Yes, there are VERY FEW cases of Chilean artists that could cross their borders to show their music (I’m thinking about La Ley, Kudai, Javiera Mena, MAYBE can mention Denise Rosenthal, Cami or Francisca Valenzuela right now… I could mention Mon Laferte as well but she had to leave Chile and move to Mexico to make it big).… Read more »
Hope it works better than the America’s one…
This will work… if EBU has a symbolic presence. RTVE and the televisions from the involved latin american countries don’t need their guidance. They have experience creating big events and they know their needs way better than anyone else.
Many trustworthy rumours says that Lionel Messi will represent Argentina.
Let’s see how it turns out.
You wish
I do think it could work. It is more managable than the American Song Contest and should be easier to organize. I choose to stay positive and look forward to what Chile will bring..
They can do whatever they want, as long as they don’t participate in normal Eurovision.
They don’t need your permission to do anything.
If they are associate members they can do whatever they want. They dont need permission.
Talks are taking place between the EBU and RTVE about merging the two concepts so I don’t think we’ll have a problem with the two overlapping.
That aside, I’m kinda excited for this to happen once it means more music and PED will be a bit non-existent. I’m just kinda hoping now that Season 2 of American Song Contest is in the work (don’t @ me), we’ll get at least a Southeast Asian Eurovision soon, and possibly revive AfriMusic Song Contest too with a new format.
Something is not fitting here. There’s is already a big telecommunications organization in the Americas called OTI. How would Eurovision manage this if most TV companies are associated with OTI? Or would they revive the OTI Song Contest, rebranding it as ESC Latin America? By the way, at the moment many LatAm countries are undergoing serious political-economical issues, would they really be able to host such an huge event? From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s the OTI Festival was a big event and in some editions it had nothing to envy from Eurovision! But today’s reality is a different… Read more »
“If in the past OTI was a tsunami of ballads, ESCLA would be a tsunami of reggaeton and trap, that’s for sure!”
Yesssssss… AAAND? How is that a problem? ? That is what most people prefer these days.
Many Latin American countries were under a dictatorship during the 1970s and 1980s (including mine) yet they all still managed to participate. Everything will be fine
Viewership for the American song contest was so low that the performances aren’t even on NBC’s Youtube page anymore. They’ve all been deleted since it appears they want us to forget that ASC ever happened. I don’t think the ASC artists and their songs and performances were too bad, but a terrible jury and a messy format and lack of promotion doomed the show in year one. I do not have high hopes for the upcoming Eurovision Canada. Maybe a Latin America contest could be a little better off as it’s more than one country, but we’ll see. They need… Read more »
It wouldn’t be that hard for Latin America. The region already had OTI Festival before, but I agree that there’s mistakes that have to be learned from
TBH, I’ve already lost track of all those Eurovision spin-offs.
This one at least appears to capture the essence of Eurovision. Eurovision Canada is nothing but a joke.
TBH they should do a revival of El Festival de OTI. For those who don’t know, it was a competition similar to Eurovision that was held from 1972 to 2000. All Spanish speaking countries plus Canada, USA, Brazil, Portugal, Philippines and Equatorial Guinea, all took part. If they were to revive it, I hope they could modify the rules to allow English and Native American languages in the competition along with Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
I’d rather that to happen, it’d be lovely and would also bring more engagement
as if the american song contest wasn’t an embarresment
In the end Eurovision has always been a TV show. Get over it
Wait! Latest news! According to RTVE official Eurovision Twitter account, there is a meeting this Thursday where EBU and RTVE representatives will talk about collaboration in Latin America. Are we seeing a merge between Hispavision and Latin American Somg Contest?
I like the idea! Though Hispavision has already been confirmed as other users have mentioned. I’m ready to start supporting Peru XD
Ngl, I’d like to see Peru being represented by Faraón Love Shady XDD
Please no XD
Wendy Sulca better!!! She has aged very well, musically speaking. A pop with folk ellements track would be great!
this is much more interesting than the usa and canadian counterparts i must say, and much more doable than eurovision asia organization wise. i’m not a big fan of the music coming from that part of the world these times but i’ll stay perched for it.
I like the concept of creating regional contests and this one feels right because it’s actually international. But Björkman & Co again? Wasn’t one failure enough? I absolutely think that ESC format can work elsewhere. Melodifestivalen format not so much.
I pray this ends up in the trash like Eurovision Asia.
The concept of Eurovision in a different continent makes zero sense, surely they should just rebrand it like the American Song Contest. Imagine if Eurovision was created in Asia and we had ‘Asiavision Europe’, it simply looks and sounds ridiculous.
Also, a pan-American contest consisting of North America, South America and the Caribbean makes much more sense since there would be 57 countries in total.
It is the LATIN American Song Contest, so, with the exception of Republica Dominicana, Cuba and maybe Puerto Rico, I don’t think the Caribbean countries would take part, as well as Belize and the Guayanas. I guess it is targeted to the SPANISH speaking countries (and perhaps Brazil). So it would be a 20 countries competition as too many
I only mentioned the Caribbean for a pan-American song contest!
It wouldn’t make sense to have the anglophone and the francophone Caribbean countries in a Latinoamerican song contest.
But wait, is TVE still going ahead with Hispavision? There could be a concerning overlap in there…
Still, working out better than Eurovision Asia is a low bar to clear, so let’s at the very least hope for that. Since it’s seemingly the same team as the ASC and that one turned out… not great, I can’t get my hopes much higher, though.
Talks of Merging HispaVision with Eurovision Latin America are already happening.
LOL Everything that needed to be said was actually said.
Another flop incoming, the same way American Song Contest flopped.
So they’re admitting that they’re only doing this for a profit? Feels like the same reason for American Song Contest and we saw how that went…
I am excited about this one!
No matter where they take it it will never be like our contest. From the moment they change the format to fit the wold place it takes place it’s just not the same.
That’s what I believe that Hispavision would work better: OTI already existed and RTVE worked on that until the 90s. Plus the cultural links between Spain and Latin America shold make it work better. Lots of Spanish TV shows have been taken there either in the original format or being adapted to different countries.
1. wow, and they seem to forget the region/continent which should have had it far earlier: Asia. the issue of an Asian Eurovision, lat time, is that the EBU chose the seemingly wrong partner. why SBS instead of ABU? that doesn’t really make sense. 2. the expansion seems to be by a private production company instead of going to a broadcasting union similar to EBU in that continent. remember, in every continent, there is something like EBU (ABU for Asia-Pacific, AUB for Africa etc.). plus, for a potential Worldvision, there is WBU (World Broadcasting Unions), in which EBU is also… Read more »
I don’t know, Hispavisión is already confirmed and they will start in 2023 in Colombia, following the path of the old OTI festival, with Spain (RTVE) also taking part.
Will ESC be able to introduce another Song Contest in Latin America just while there is a new one already on track, with the advantage of the experience of OTI, and with more countries taking part on it? I seriously doubt it.