EUROVISION: BBC ANNOUNCES COVERAGE PLANS, HOSTS AND PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

In its 69th year, Eurovision is heading home, as the world’s greatest singing competition returns to Switzerland, hosts of the very first contest back in 1956.

Eurovision will return to the land of cheese, chocolate and dramatic vistas as the Swiss once again welcome audiences from across the globe - and 37 competing countries - to the beautiful city of Basel to see who can follow in Nemo’s footsteps and be crowned the new Eurovision Song Contest 2025 champion.

Ahead of the Eurovision Grand Final (Saturday 17th May), where 26 countries will perform to be crowned the new Eurovision 2025 champion, there are two live Semi-Finals (Tuesday 13th May and Thursday 15th May) for Eurovision fans to review all 37 countries competing in the Eurovision Song Contest. The top ten countries from each Semi-Final will make it through to Saturday’s Grand Final.

Semi-Final 1: Tuesday 13th May

In the first Semi-Final, the first group of countries will compete for a place in Saturday’s Grand Final. The 15 countries competing are: Iceland, Poland, Slovenia, Estonia, Ukraine, Sweden, Portugal, Norway, Belgium, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Albania, Netherlands, Croatia and Cyprus. The ‘Big Five’ countries performing and voting during the first Semi-Final are: Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

Semi-Final 2: Thursday 15th May

The second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will feature 16 different acts taking to the stage in the hope of securing a place in Saturday’s Grand Final. The United Kingdom act, Remember Monday, will also perform their song ‘What The Hell Just Happened?’ in this Semi Final and viewers will see their spectacular performance on the Eurovision stage, ahead of the band doing it all over again during Saturday's Grand Final. Competing this evening are: Australia, Montenegro, Ireland, Latvia, Armenia, Austria, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Georgia, Denmark, Czechia, Luxembourg, Israel, Serbia and Finland.

Grand Final: Saturday 17 May

Guiding audiences through Europe’s biggest party night of the year providing the commentary during the Grand Final is seasoned Eurovision expert, Graham Norton. He will be sharing his unique insights on the 26 countries who will all be performing in the hopes of being crowned 2025’s winner.

Well-known Swiss faces, Hazel Brugger, Michelle Hunziker and Sandra Studer will be presenting the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 Grand Final when it comes to us from St. Jakobshalle, Basel. The Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR, say that the choice of the host trio for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 symbolises the values that define Switzerland: openness, diversity, multilingualism and a sense of togetherness.

BBC Radio 2 is the home of Eurovision 2025 on UK radio, and Eurovision obsessives Scott Mills, Rylan, Richie Anderson plus Sara Cox who is also joining the Radio 2 Eurovision family this year, will be in Basel all week as the excitement builds to Saturday night! Scott and Rylan return as the station’s presenters for this year’s Grand Final which will be broadcast live on the network.

The pair took up Radio 2 commentary duties for the Grand Final for the first time for Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool and again in Sweden in 2024, they will broadcasting live on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds from the centre of the action in Switzerland getting behind the UK act, Remember Monday, as well as cheering on all the other entries!

Radio 2 and BBC Sounds will once again be broadcasting the Eurovision Semi-Finals live, presented by Sara Cox - who returns to the Eurovision commentary box this year - alongside Richie Anderson. Scott and Rylan will be hosting the Semi-Finals on BBC TV and BBC iPlayer.

BBC Interim Director of Unscripted, Syeda Irtizaali, says: “The BBC is the home of Eurovision in the UK and 2025 is set to continue that trend as we celebrate the contest on all our platforms, from TV, radio and online. We have Scott Mills’ Radio 2 Breakfast show coming to audiences live every morning from the Eurovision host city, Basel, for a week..

"A show stopping exclusive performance from the UK’s act, Remember Monday, on The One Show; A Doctor Who x Eurovision crossover and a one off special on BBC One and iPlayer, When Graham Met Remember Monday. We really are pulling out all the stops this year to surprise and delight audiences with all things Eurovision. So, get in the party mood as the BBC’s Eurovision content offering this year is not to be missed this May!”

Eurovision takes place on Saturday 17th May from 8pm on BBC One.