Turin to host Eurovision 2022

The premier European song contest is set to return to Italy after 31 years

16 Italian cities competed for the honour to host the 66^th Eurovision Song Contest and with such a variety of urban venues and cultural spots we don’t envy the jury. But now, the choice has been made and it is the city of Turin that will welcome the next edition of musical pageantry on the continent.

Eurovision 2022 will take place in two parts, as usual. First, there will be semi-finals (10-12 May) with the culmination, of what has become a global cultural event, on 14 May. The shows will take place at the PalaOlimpico.

This is the third time that Eurovision goes to Italy

The capital of Piedmont will be the third Italian city to host the event after Naples (1965) and Rome (1991), thanks to Måneskin’s magnificent victory in Rotterdam the previous year. The win of that band (with the song Zitti e buoni) was also something of a triumphant return of rock music to the mostly pop-oriented format.

Turin’s outgoing mayor Chiara Appendino was fast and happy to announce the good news on her Facebook page, writing: “Months of work, endless calls, hundreds of documents, piles of regulations, inspections, evaluations but, in the end, we made it this time: we brought the most popular musical event in the world to Turin!”

The song contest will draw all eyes on the subalpine city giving the chance for its authorities to promote its scenery, cultural landscape and hammer out a message they would like to transmit to the world. This year, for example, 183 million people tuned in to watch one of the semi-finals or the final. The record, however, was set in 2016 when 204 million viewers watched the show.

Now the organizers can start preparing the overall agenda that accompanies such a grand performance, such as side events and so on. As for you, mark your calendars with a big X on the 14-May slot.