A little while back, we reported on the first few nations to formally decline participation at next year’s Eurovision. As time progresses, we are learning more about the nations who will be participating, as well as certain nations who won’t be participating. Here are the next three nations we won’t be seeing at next year’s contest!
Turkey
The last time we saw the former Eurovision winner at the contest was back in 2012, and since then, year after year we hear the rumour mill perks up around this time, hoping that Turkey will return to the contest.
Although they are missed, it has been made fairly clear that we are unlikely to see Turkey in 2019. This week news has come out regarding the ‘conditions’ that Eurovision and the EBU would need to meet in order to accommodate Turkey – conditions which have been quite controversial within the Eurovision community.
Originally, the key reason for their withdrawal and continuous non-participation was quoted to be their displeasure with the Big 5 in the competition, whereby the five biggest financial contributors automatically qualify to the final. These five nations are France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK.
Now, it has been revealed by İbrahim Eren the General Manager of TRT, the Turkish broadcaster, that gender representations within Eurovision are an ‘issue.’ Specifically, Eren referred to the 2014 winner Conchita Wurst, saying ‘As a public broadcaster, we also cannot broadcast live at 9 p.m. –when children are still awake– someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt, do not believe in genders and says that he is both a man and a woman’
TRT are claiming that the EBU are deviating from their values by allowing these representations to screen during the broadcast, however we think Eurovision celebrates a wide range of members within the community and it has been a pleasure to see the contest evolve to be as inclusive as it is today.
Luxembourg
A few weeks back it was also confirmed that Luxembourg won’t be returning to the contest. This comes as no surprise as we last saw the nation back in 1993.
During their time at the contest, the nation was successful having won the contest a total of five times, however the Director of Programming at the Luxembourgish broadcaster did state that since the enlargement of Eurovision, the perceived chances of Luxembourg winning had they participated in recent years would be slim.
Additional to that, the costs associated with participating are also a big reason why we haven’t been seeing the nation at Eurovision recently, and we won’t be seeing them in 2019.
Liechtenstein
Another nation frequenting the rumour mill recently is Liechtenstein, who would certainly be one of the smallest nations to participate at Eurovision. That’s if they ever make it to the Eurovision stage…
Liechtenstein are not officially a member of the EBU which limits their ability to enter Eurovision. The national broadcaster had stated that there was a plan to debut at the 2019 contest, and that they were in the process of applying to the EBU to allow them to participate.
Unfortunately the plan has not come to fruition, as the EBU have confirmed that the broadcaster had not put in an application for EBU membership. Late July, it was further confirmed that Lichtenstein will not debut at Eurovision 2019.