Eurovision Song Contest Asia launches in Bangkok — SkimNews
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- Eurovision Song Contest Asia will launch in Bangkok next weekend with 11 entrants from Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam; India and China are absent, and Bulgaria’s Eurovision 2026 winner Dara will perform “Bangaranga” during the interval.
- Eurovision Song Contest Asia still had ample concert-hall tickets on sale at One Bangkok Forum a week before the final, while its Asian sister Instagram account had attracted about 65,000 accounts after promotion from the official account’s 2.3 million followers.
- Dean Vuletic, who taught the world’s first university course on Eurovision, said the nascent Asian show faces an uphill battle to capture local attention, citing Eurovision’s late-1950s emergence amid the rise of television and postwar European integration; the earlier American Song Contest drew poor viewing figures in 2022 against American Idol.
- European Broadcasting Union runs Eurovision without being location-specific: broadcasters from Israel and Australia already take part, next year’s contest will feature a Canadian act for the first time, and the Bangkok show retained the “Eurovision Song Contest Asia” title rather than “Asiavision,” causing some geographic confusion.
- Eurovision Song Contest Asia will let anyone worldwide watch and vote on YouTube, though those votes will not overrule national juries and public votes in participating countries; Eurovision onlookers have wondered whether political allegiances will affect the tallies, with Thailand and Cambodia having been at war last year.
- Eurovision remains under criticism over Israel’s inclusion during the war in Gaza, with critics calling it inconsistent to ban Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine; several broadcasters have also pulled out.
Why it matters: The immediate change is access: 11 Asian performers enter a Eurovision-linked competition, and anyone worldwide can vote on YouTube without overriding national juries or public votes. Early indicators point to modest uptake for the EBU: ample tickets remained on sale and the Asian sister account had about 65,000 followers; the main event attracts more than 100 million viewers annually.
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