Fabrice Coffrini / AFP
Johannes Pietsch, known as the Pseudo JJ, after his victory in Basel in 2025.
Eurovision – No big surprise for the 2026 edition of the most followed telecrochet in the world. The Austrian public audiovisual group Orf, organizer of the next edition of Eurovision, has chosen Vienna to host the European song competition. She was preferred to Innsbruck, Tyrol, the only other city in the running.
The 70th edition of Eurovision is organized in the country after the victory of JJ and its song Wasted Love in Basel on May 17, 2025.
This is the third time that Austria has organized Eurovision: its capital had already been a city-host in 2015 after the victory of Conchita Wurst and in 1967 after that of Udö Jürgens. Eurovision will take place, as in 2015, in the Wiener Stadhalle, concert hall that can accommodate up to 16,000 people.
The city of 2 million inhabitants had again brought to the slogan “ Europe, shall we dance ? » (“Europe, do you want to dance?” »»). “The reputation of Vienna, considered one of the most important cities in the world in terms of music, and its situation in the heart of Europe make it the ideal host city”commented in a statement Martin Green, the director of Eurovision, after the announcement.
In the country, the organization of this event which offers great visibility to LGBT+ communities is not free from controversies. Winner last year of the legislative elections even if he failed to form a government, the far -right party FPö denounced “ A queer, leftist and woke show ”and pointed out “ irresponsibility ” of such an organization at a time when Austria, referred to in a European Commission procedure for excessive deficit, is crumbling under “ a historic mountain of debts ».
Despite this significant cost, the social democratic mayor Michael Ludwig said he was “ ready ” to take up the challenge, praising a capital “ Cosmopolitan ” accustomed to international events, to “ huge accommodation capacities » And extremely well linked to the rest of Europe by the plane and the train.
The European song competition is followed by more than 150 million viewers in 37 countries, and appeals to new generations on social networks.