Basel to host Eurovision Song Contest 2025 🇨🇭 The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will take place in St. Jakobshalle, Basel, on Saturday 17 May with Semi-Finals on Tuesday 13 and Thursday 15 May, after it was selected by Host Broadcaster SRG SSR and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to host the 69th edition of the Contest. Read all about the exciting choice of Basel here → Back to the birthplace of Eurovision 🇨🇭 Switzerland hosted and won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano, back in 1956. It remains the only Contest where competitors were invited to perform two songs instead of one. Lys Assia triumphed with the French language song Refrain but it is unknown how her second song, the German language Das alte Karussell, performed with jurors as the points were never revealed. A second Swiss win happened in Dublin 1988 when a relatively unknown Canadian took the crown in a nail-biting voting sequence; Céline Dion pipped the United Kingdom’s Scott Fitzgerald to victory by a single point with her ballad Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi. It would take another 36 years for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) to find their third champion; Nemo won Malmö 2024 with their song The Code, which tells the story of coming to terms with their non-binary identity. Here's everything you need to know about Switzerland → Meet Nemo's co-writers in Malta 🇲🇹 To celebrate the news of our new Host City, we’ve got a bonus episode of the official Eurovision Song Contest podcast for you to enjoy! Steve Holden heads to Malta to visit a songwriting camp featuring Teya (of Austria’s Teya & Salena fame), Maltese representatives Destiny (2021), The Busker (2023), Sarah Bonnici (2024) and Christabelle (2018), and the winning Swiss entry’s co-writers Linda Dale and Benji Alasu.  Listen to the official Eurovision Song Contest podcast →