The stage is arguably one of the most crucial, if not the most crucial element of any Eurovision year. It gives each contest its identity and determines how well artists are able to bring their songs to life. Over the years, there have been big and small, extravagant and humble, innovative and classic, working and broken.
Now that the new calendar year has caught up with the new Eurovision year, what can we expect from this year’s Eurovision stage in Liverpool?
Eurovision 2023 stage design
This year’s Eurovision stage will be designed by Julio Himede and his design studio, Yellow Studio based in New York and Sydney.
Notably, the stage will once again not be designed by Florian Weider, who has designed every song contest stage since 2011 with the exception of 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2022.
YellowStudio are highly experienced in designing stages for international TV events. Their work has included the Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, MTV EMAs, and whilst they have yet to design for Eurovision, they are no stranger to the world of Eurovision having designed the stage for the first edition of NBC’s American Song Contest.
If their recent work is anything to go by, the Eurovision 2023 stage will not hold back on glitz, glam and power, taking viewers on a stunning visual journey through the contest.
Cost of Eurovision stage
That is of course all depending on one thing: the budget. Eurovision budgets vary year by year and that is often, but not always, reflected in stage size and features.
Cost is always a controversial element of any Eurovision given that the contest is a competition between public service broadcasters above all else. We know that the BBC are expected to spend anywhere from £8m and £17m hosting the event, which is typical for any Eurovision year, but also not up in space, man.
More expensive hosting of Eurovision past has often come with additional challenges, such as Düsseldorf converting their stadium, Baku building a brand new arena and Copenhagen converting an old shipyard. Liverpool Arena on the other hand is ready and waiting for Eurovision 2023.
Designers usually work with their client, in this case the BBC and EBU, to maximise value based on their budget, sometimes in innovative and unexpected ways. Let’s hope that 2023 has some surprises up its sleeve.
What will the Eurovision 2023 stage look like?
To LED or not to LED, that is… no longer the question? It is very rare in this era of the contest to see a Eurovision stage without an array of LED walls and floors – but the BBC could still surprise us with a more modest stage design, such as Malmö 2013 or Lisbon 2018.
Over the years we’ve seen many innovations in stage design – from Copenhagen’s magic film to Rotterdam’s holograms, and the less-successful malfunctioning sun in Turin. The stage has also increasingly become a part of the contest’s visual identity and presentation, with the stage incorporated into on screen graphics and resembling theme art.
The Eurovision 2023 stage design and theme art is expected to be revealed within the coming months.
What do you think? What would you like to see from this year’s stage? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
I fear we’re going to get a load of augmented reality, like on Strictly Come Dancing. Because they can do it, they will do it.
Yes, they’ve said there will AR. But surely a good thing?
I just hope they don’t realise the last moment that what they imagined, doesn’t work and ruin everyone performance.
Thanks very much for nothing Italy.
Belgium had a really good stage for that time in 1987
Arnt Liverpool a little slow off the mark??? Don’t we usually have a logo by now – or catch phrase – a sketch of the stage by the end of the month?
BBC started later, but have got things done quicker than Rai did. Logo and slogan will be revealed in Allocation Draw. Stage design will probably come shortly thereafter, as indeed, it did last year.
Thanks Blue Zone – I’m so impatient!!!
As long as RAI is not involved and noone comes up with a revolving moon, it will be amazing
Envy!
I know this arena has hosted the BBC Sports Personality award twice, in 2008 and 2017. Usually different concepts, but a good measure and indication of what it may look like. It also had the NTV Europe award 08 (which I think still looks good today). I remember Shiri Maimom performed at that (as she won best Israeli act), was that in the main auditorium or does the building have a smaller hall? I’ve never been there, but on TV sometimes it looks kinda small and modest, other times it looks huge, like for an old C4 production, Famous and… Read more »
see that the 2022 edition had the most elaborate stage ever seen, with a phenomenal lighting system, just watch the videos. the fault was with the ebu who didn’t want to use the kinetic sun because of a few more seconds!
The black hole is just for those like you who just panick when they don’t have their large beloved huge ledwall to project the fancy graphics you love so much. Youtube generation? In Lisbon there wasn’t a ledwall. Did you complain? The so called (by you) black hole had a first semicircular part with RGB led set and a powerful white LED in the middle to simulate the sun. Then other concentric arches equipped with 2 different sets of light fixtures who helped creating one of the best lighting setups seen in any Eurovision until now. A total or 3000… Read more »
Great article of nothing
I’m not a fan of speculating.
Just give us a calendar of key dates when we can expect official announcements please, wiwi.
120 days to the final!
I would like some unique stage which does not have just straight LED screen and some generic elements. Something like 2016 stage. Eurovision 2016 looked like Worldvision.
Because the camera work was great. If it was the same stage, but filmed like those from 2017 and 2022 would still be not good
I don’t mind even complex stage because I believe BBC would make it all work properly. RAI was uninterested in Eurovision all the time.
see that the 2022 edition had the most elaborate stage ever seen, with a phenomenal lighting system, just watch the videos. the fault was with the ebu who didn’t want to use the kinetic sun because of a few more seconds!
eurovision cant last 6 hours like san remo. Next.
26 song x 10seconds additional = 260 seconds = 4minutes and 20 seconds
Next please
Stop with stupid arguments
The excuses of an incompetent broadcaster are stupid. And the camerawork as well
because you would definitely have done better.. oh please. the show was great and other than this bubble created here in wiwibloggs (where NO interview with any organizer about that was put) made so much drama. pathetic.
ItaloV, but here the drama is what helps this website being so successful. That’s why you cannot edit comments. Is to create more drama, more flames, more views, etc. Anyway, Turin was perfect. It has been organized with the Italian audience in mind, of course. But that’s acceptable. No other broadcaster has ever invited any italian winner in a revival moments. We always get the same every time. Mans Zermelow, Conchita Wurst, Verka Serducka. It was a time for a change. Gigliola Cinquetti, one of the oldest Eurovision winners alive had her time on the stage. She finally was awarded… Read more »
The camerawork was bad in the final because they had the u-shaped railcam on the ceiling thaf was broken and stuck in position. So all the takes that camera was supposed to do, for example the aerial moving shot during the song presentation, or the moving shots of the audience from the ceiling couldn’t be done. And it was impossible, being the failure happening 15 minutes into the show, after the flag parade, edit the cue pilot for the 4 remaining hours of the show. In Rotterdam they were luckier. The second camera on the front dolly before the main… Read more »
Let’s be honest! The idea was good, but the result (caused also by the sun not moving) wasn’t the best. We need to realise many Eurovision fans are also interested in the visual aspect of it, while RAI or Italians are more interested in the quality of the songs! So, it is not a surprise that the only Eurovision song to win a Grammy is Italian and it didn’t even win Eurovision!
The sun was moving indeed. But not as fast as EBU wanted. Because it’s clear that having only 40 minutes time to unload props, do changes to the sun, load props with additional 10 seconds for the song presentation, makes it impossible to do anything. Unfortunately it was too advanced and complex for the changeover time. Of course EBU could have paid hommage to San Remo, from which the Eurovision Song contest is derived, by allowing the hosts to actually present the song “Sanremo’s style”. But that was jeopardizing the control EBU has on the format, and lead to request… Read more »
After Turin, anything will be an improvement lol
We have seen better stages for the contest, another reason why I don’t think the show in Liverpool won’t be as good as people predict.
We haven’t seen this year’s yet, so we don’t know if it’s better or worse. The one in the picture is 2019.
The stage in the picture is the MTV VMA 2019 stage, not a eurovision stage.
His stages for the 2019 and 2021 MTV Awards were brilliant. I hope he surprises us like those vs bringing something that is a bit expected. Would love to see more of that style than the American Song Contest which looked a bit X Factor-sequel. I’m actually shocked they went with an American house vs a British one— leaves me to believe his concept was too good to pass up.
well to think that the armenian broadcaster spent 13 million forjesc it would be embarrassing for bbc to spend only 8m
You would be right if it were true, however: 1. 13m what? £, €, $, or local currency? 2. £8m is just a minimum, nor would it be the total budget. It was previously reported that Liverpool Council and the wider city region are putting in £4m (they themselves have confirmed that), and the BBC/EBU/UK Government are expected to contribute around £10m. Then there’s the participation fees which come to around £5m. 3. BBC already have a lot of the experience and infrastructure that Armenia did not. For example, the arena in Yerevan was renovated, and they got experts in… Read more »
I am so happy that they did not give the job again to Weider who got the job so many years and when things went wrong in Italy he took it as a chance to say “my designs don’t have such issues”. Hate when people use other peoples failures to promote themselves. On another note, super excited to see what BBC and YellowStudio are preparing!
Weider is a safe choice, proven success, and has improved every year. 2021 is definitely my favorite stage and Eurovision year overall.
I respect ur opiniong but i disagree
2021 is just a screen nothing else
thats exactly the problem. A led and a circular stage are hard to go wrong. No creativity, no innovation. Nothing.
2022 will be rembered also for the first working waterfall on stage and the “green” green room. No other srt designed had even thought of something like this in the last. Everybody is able to build a flat stage below a huge ledwall. Just put some triangled, round or squared surface, with a second stage connected in some way to the main. Border them with ledstrips, pyros, CO2 jets etc. That’s a stage. Francesca Montinaro’s stage has a complex concept behind her idea. The italian peninsula. The italian “piazza”. The sun that gives Italy it’s beauty, together with italian gardens.… Read more »
I just hope the stage design and planning will be properly planned in a way that ticket sales don’t start at a ludicrously late time. The fact it was in April last year was absolute bullcrap and a serious pain in the butt for people to plan in only a single month.
Tickets in Turin were also sold late because of covid restrictions. There was the queue of the last pandemic wave in italy in winter early spring 2022, so they wanted to check what were the latest conditions in terms of social distancing etc.
What a beautiful stage! I’m starting to imagine Noa Kirel on that stage with dancers, fireworks and the crowd cheering, wow I’m excited!!!
What stage? We still need to see it
Hahaha I get it now.. this is not the real stage… my bad…
The fact that the BBC chose Julio over any British designers could indicate that he has something truly spectacular up his sleeve.