We’re only a few days since JJ won the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, and already cities are thinking about hosting next year. The cities of Wels and Linz are planning a joint bid.
Wels and Linz joint bid
The cities of Wels and Linz are planning to make a joint bid for next year’s contest. The city of Wels Im Ringen is constructing a new venue which is set to be opened in March of 2026. The last time there was such a close timeframe between construction of a venue and the contest was in 2012. The city of Baku built the Crystal Hall to host the contest. Linz is citing its status as a major transport and tourism hub for the region as strong positives for the prospect of it assisting in hosting the contest.
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.
Would you like to see a joint bid for Eurovision 2026 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 / Eweht
Thomas James 