Today ORF and the EBU have confirmed the dates for next years 60th Eurovision Song Contest. Semi Final 1 is Tuesday 19th May, Semi Final 2 is Thursday 21st with the Grand Final to be held on Saturday 23rd May.
These dates are one week later than the provisional dates initially suggested to be May 12th, 14th and 16th and it has been confirmed that in order to maintain the three current cities in the running to stage the contest (Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck) it has been necessary to move the dates to ensure the very best options are available to host broadcaster ORF in staging the diamond jubilee contest.
The confirmation of the dates comes as a surprise as the official line was that the provisional dates were all organisers could reveal up to now. However earlier this week in an interview with Austrian newspaper Vorarlberg news the Director General of host broadcaster ORF Alexander Wrabetz revealed that May 23rd was the preferred date of the grand final. This led to the presumption that Tuesday 19th and Thursday 21st would then be the Semi Final dates going by the tried and tested format we have seen year in year out. In order to avoid confusion the EBU has now confirmed that these are the offical dates for the 2015 contest.
It’s expected that within the next weeks we will finally find out which city is to host the contest: Vienna, Graz or Innsbruck.
Following Conchita Wurst‘s win at the Copenhagen contest in May, Austria are next year hosting their second Eurovision Song Contest and their first in 48 years. The last time they hosted the contest was in 1967 and that year it was staged in Vienna.
Stay with Eurovisionary for all the news as we gear up for the 2015 contest
