We’re only a few days since JJ won the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, and already cities are thinking about hosting next year. The small town of Oberwart has voiced its desire to host.
Oberwart wishes to host
The Burgenland town of Oberwart has voiced it desire to host the 2026 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Speaking to ORF, the Mayor has voiced that he believes the town has what it takes to host the contest. Citing the town’s exhibition centre as a potential venue, he has conceded that the town would struggle to accommodate such a large number of tourists. Though has floated the prospect of other towns in the state helping with that.
Given the town’s extremely small size, it is unlikely that if such a bid were to proceed that it would advance at all.
The Journey to Eurovision 2026
The journey to the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest kicked off immediately following JJ’s win in Basel, when Austria’s ORF accepted the rights to host the 70th edition of the contest. At present the Alpine nation has not addressed its plans for how it intends to host, but cities have already begun discussing their thoughts on hosting or not.
The cities that have expressed wishes to host:
The cities that have ruled out hosting:
Austria’s Eurovision Journey
In 1957, Austria made their debut into the Eurovision Song Contest, where Bob Martin represented the landlocked nation with the song “Wohin, kleines Pony?”. At the close of voting, it managed to place 10th overall. Since their debut, Austria has participated 56 times (being in the final 49 times), and – before 2025 – had won the competition on two occasions in 1966 and 2014.
In 2025, Austria selected JJ internally to represent the nation in Basel with “Wasted Love”. Austria successfully qualified for the final, and went on to win the Contest with a total of 436 points. This gave Austria its third win in the Contest, eleven years after their previous victory.
What are your thoughts about Oberwart? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Eurovision 2026!
News Source: ORF
Photo Credit: Wikimedia / © C.Stadler/Bwag
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