WATCH: China And Japan Among New Countries Set To Participate In Eurovision 2018
You’d think that the Eurovision would be restricted to Europe because of something stupid like, you know, its actual name. You’d be wrong. Countries like Russia, Israel and Australia (Australia, for fuck’s sake) have already participated in the song contest before to annual controversies. Now, however, the behemoth competition is set to crop up in an entirely different continent altogether; Asia.
If you’re confused, don’t worry; you’re not alone.
Having first been announced back in 2016 after a deal was struck between the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), the Eurovision Asia Song Contest (what a name) has been in the pipeline for a while. Now, it seems like that dream is about to become a reality in 2018.
This year’s debut will consist of only one show, and the date is yet to be announced. What we do know, however, is that 11 countries have already confirmed their participation.
Eurovision Asia Song Contest 2018’s provisional list of participants is as follows:
- China
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- Maldives
- New Zealand
- Papua New Guinea
- Singapore
- Solomon Islands
- South Korea
- Vanuatu
- Australia
That’s right; already-notorious Australia, who have confirmed their 2018 entry for the Eurovision with Australian Idol runner-up Jessica Mauboy, are also listed down as a participant in the Eurovision Asia Song Contest. Australia was even meant to host the inaugural contest last year, but those plans eventually fell through.
A venue for the contest is also yet to be confirmed, but Singapore, Hong Kong and two Australian cities (Sydney and New South Wales) have already said they’d commit millions of dollars towards hosting.
Blink TV, the production team behind the show, has already confirmed that it wants to involve other countries from beyond the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union region, so we might be eventually looking at another extended contest. Blogs around the world have already started speculating on potential entries, including Tahiti, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.
Only time will tell who will end up actually participating in the Eurovision Asia Song Contest and whether it will end up overshadowing its European counterpart, but with the internet-takeover of South Korea’s K-Pop in recent years, we can see why so many people think this move makes absolute sense.