Eurovision in Ukraine, Kiev. May 2017

In two weeks the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, which previously hosted the competition in 2005. The right to host the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest came after Ukrainian artist Jamala won the 2016 edition in Stockholm with her song “1944”. The contest will consist of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017.

In the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will compete 42 countries including Romania and Portugal who stood back from the competition last year. The 2017 contest will be special this time for Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom which are celebrating the 60th anniversary of their first participation in 1957. Kyiv was announced as Host City in September 2016 following a competitive city bid process.

The International Exhibition Centre, the venue for the contest, has capacity for up to 11,000 spectators. The Kyiv International Exhibition Center is an internationally recognized venue and prides itself as the biggest expo center in Ukraine, which consists of a congress hall, 14 conference halls, restaurants, cafes, negotiation rooms, parking facilities, checkrooms, and many more places. The center offers a lot of services, for example internet facilities, banking services, office accommodation facilities and much more. The halls are flexible and can be used for several purposes.

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place at Column Hall on 31 January 2017. Drawing from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called neighbourly voting and increases suspense in the Semi-Finals.