How Liverpool Put on a Song Contest for Ukraine

When Ukraine gained final yr’s Eurovision Song Contest, it gained the suitable to carry this yr’s occasion. And regardless of Russia’s invasion, it insisted it might do it.

Ukraine’s public broadcaster issued plans to host the spectacle within the west of the nation, out of attain of Russian missiles, whereas politicians, together with President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated the nation would make it work.

Even some international leaders backed its trigger. Last summer season, Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister on the time, advised reporters that Ukraine gained Eurovision “fair and square,” so it ought to host, whatever the struggle.

“It’s a year away,” Johnson stated. “It’s going to be fine.”

But Ukraine’s dream of staging this yr’s Eurovision has didn’t materialize. On Saturday night time, the ultimate of the glitzy contest — which is predicted to attract a tv viewers of round 160 million — will happen 1,600 miles from Kyiv, in Liverpool, England.

Last summer season, after months of discussions, the European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the competition, agreed with Ukrainian authorities to the change of location. With Britain ending second in final yr’s contest, it was an apparent alternative. Its public broadcaster, the BBC, agreed to arrange the occasion.

This is Britain’s ninth time internet hosting the competition because it started in 1956, however the BBC workforce knew this yr can be completely different. Broadcasters that host Eurovision usually use the competition to promote their nation and its tradition to a worldwide tv viewers. This time, Britain would want to take a again seat.

Martin Osterdahl, the manager supervisor for Eurovision on the European Broadcasting Union, stated in an interview that this yr’s occasion can be “Ukraine’s party.” Britain simply occurred to be internet hosting it, he added, echoing a sentiment made by a British pop act.

Shortly after the swap was introduced, the BBC launched a contest to pick out a metropolis to stage the finals, finally selecting Liverpool over six different contenders. In October, the BBC employed Martin Green, an occasion producer who oversaw the opening and shutting ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, to supervise the occasion.

In a latest video interview, Green, 51, stated he flew instantly to Warsaw and met with Ukrainian broadcasting officers.

Those officers stated they needed a Eurovision that was an enormous “celebration of great Ukrainian culture — past, present and future,” Green recalled. They additionally needed the fact of Russia’s invasion proven onscreen — one thing with the potential to strike a downbeat tone for the historically campy, showy spectacle. But they insisted the competition ought to nonetheless be enjoyable, Green stated.

“It was really important to have that blessing — that permission — about the nature and style of the show,” Green stated.

Back in Britain, Green had simply eight months to rearrange the competition. He assembled a workforce — together with outdoors businesses — to work on the occasion. (Over 1,000 folks have contributed, he stated.) Every week, his employees had video calls with Ukrainian colleagues to debate and agree on facets of the competitors. Those included this version’s slogan, “United by Music”; its stage design; and the particular performances that happen onstage throughout breaks from the competitors.

Sometimes, Green stated, the Ukrainian facet needed to delay scheduled calls on the final minute “because an air raid siren had gone off,” or cancel conferences totally due to energy cuts.

“Those were incredibly sobering moments,” Green stated. “Ukrainians have such a sheer force of will to carry on, that sometimes you could easily forget.”

German Nenov, a inventive director with Ukraine’s public broadcaster, was an important sounding board for the British workforce, Green stated. In a latest interview, Nenov stated it was generally “surreal” to be discussing sparkly outfits and dance performances as Russian bombs fell on Ukraine. “These past six months have probably been the most emotional of my life,” he stated. “But thanks to Eurovision, I was able to stay strong. It gave me the ability to go on.”

Nenov, 33, is overseeing a number of particular performances by Ukrainian musicians that can play throughout competitors breaks. With these, he stated, he needed to vary viewers’ perceptions of his nation. When Ukraine hosted Eurovision in 2005 and 2017, he added, these broadcasts featured clichés of conventional life, together with embroidered outfits and dancing ladies with flowers of their hair. “That’s not Ukraine,” Nenov stated; this time, he would present a extra trendy imaginative and prescient of the nation.

Both Nenov and Green declined to offer particulars of Saturday’s grand closing, insisting it ought to come as a shock for tv viewers, however each stated the present included Ukrainian and British pop stars. The struggle can be talked about, Green stated, however in a chic vogue that was acceptable for “a great big singing competition.”

Osterdahl, the European Broadcasting Union official, stated that this yr’s collaboration between two international locations to host Eurovision was “unprecedented.” But if Ukraine wins once more on Saturday, he would want one other nation to step as much as host Ukraine’s subsequent get together. One day, he stated, he hoped the struggle would finish, and Ukraine might host for itself.