Eurovision 2022: Which countries will participate in the 66th edition of the contest

Eurovision 2022: Which countries will participate in the 66th edition of the contest
Wednesday, 13 October 2021

  • With Turin announced as  the next host city along with the dates on which the next contest will unfold , national broadcasters across the continent are progressively revealing their plans for the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.

    The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 is set to be the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest will take place in Turin, following the country's victory at the 2021 contest with the song "Zitti e buoni" by Måneskin. It will be the third time that Italy hosts the contest, having previously done so for the 1965 and 1991 contests, held in Naples and Rome respectively.

    The three live shows ( 2 semifinals and the grand final) will take place on May 10, 12 and 14, 2021 respectively in the Pala Alpitour arena. 

     

    31 countries confirmed so far 

    Up to date a total of 31 nations have officially confirmed their participation in Eurovision 2022 through statements of broadcasters' officials. Already before the 2021 contest Germany and Israel announced that they were kicking off preparations for 2022 while San Marino followed confirming a national final for next year's contest. Finland (UMK 2022), France, Norway (Melodi Grand Prix) and Sweden (Melodifestivalen) have launched their national selection preparations. Denmark will be using Dansk Melodi Grand Prix and Albania will take part using Festivali i Kenges as the country's national seletion format. 

    Lithuania has also joined the list of participating countries and will be selecting their hopeful via a national selection. Change of direction for Spain's RTVE which is switching to a national selection for Eurovsion 2022, while Belgium has confirmed its 63rd participation in the contest. Estonia will also be present selecting its hopeful via Eesti Laul 2022.

    Iceland will be present in Italy with Söngvakeppnin being the national selection format once again.  Ireland, confirmed thor presence next year with a posibble return of a national selection on the table while  Greece with ERT has makde an open call for songs. Portugal's RTP is joning the list of competing countries by annnouncing Festival Da Cancao as the country's national selection format. 

    From the Balkan region, Croatia's HRT have announced 'Dora' as the country's national selection format for ESC 2022 while Serbia has opened the submission window for the next contest confirming officially its presence in Italy next May. Slovenia will be joning the party in Italy and has confimred EMA as the country's national selection format once again. 

    Georgia with GPB confirmed their presence at the forthcoming contest, the Land of fire Azerbaijan will join the party in Turin as IVT confirmed participation in the 66th edition of the contest and Poland will be there with TVP opening the song submission window. 

    Our latest confirmation comes from Montenegro which will be returning to the contest after two years of absence. 

     

    The confirmed countries

    1. Germany
    2. Israel
    3. Switzerland 
    4. San Marino
    5. Italy (Host Country)
    6. Finland 
    7. France
    8. The Netherlands
    9. Norway 
    10. Australia
    11. Sweden 
    12. Ukraine
    13. Albania
    14. Denmark 
    15. Spain
    16. Lithuania
    17. Belgium
    18. Czech Republic
    19. Latvia
    20. Estonia
    21. Iceland
    22. Ireland
    23. Greece
    24. Portugal
    25. Croatia
    26. Serbia
    27. Slovenia
    28. Georgia
    29. Azerbaijan 
    30. Poland
    31. Montenegro

     

    Countries without official confirmation yet

    1. Austria
    2. Bulgaria
    3. Cyprus
    4. Moldova
    5. Malta
    6. North Macedonia
    7. Romania
    8. Russia
    9. United Kingdom

     

     

    Non-returning countries 

    A total of  7 countries have already confirmed their intention not to return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022, most of them sticking with their decision of the recent years.

     

    The case of Belarus

    In addtion to this main group of non returning countries we must outline seperately the case of Belarus.  In addtion to the list of non-returning countries is included Belarus which following their Eurovision 2021 disqualification as their song did not comply with the EBU rules, don't have anymore the right to participate in the contest as BTRC's EBU membership has been suspended. Non EBU members are not eligible to take part in the contest. 

     

     

    THE ABSENT COUNTRIES 

    Meanwhile a number of countries that have participated in the past but have been absent for several or the recent years haven’t yet confirmed a possible return or not. In this group we must outline Armenia who withdraw only in 2021 due to the conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) zone and is closer to a potential return to the competition in 2022. The same case stands for Turkey as in June 2021, it has been confirmed by both the EBU and Ibrahim Eren, the Director-General of Turkish national broadcaster  (TRT), that they were in talks about the country potentially returning to the contest in 2022. 

    • Armenia 
    • Turkey
    • Morocco

     

    The deadline for countries to apply for participation for Eurovision 2022 concluded in mid September, whilst the countries had a period until mid October to withdraw their application without a penalty.

    Therefore, we will have to wait for a few more weeks in order to find out which countries will eventually join the party in Italy. As the national selection period and the deadlines are getting closer, the rest countries will be revealing their plans regarding the Eurovision Song Contest and the puzzle of the confirmed countries will start to picture the number and which national we will see in Italy next year. 

    Making an overall review of the number of competing countries expected to compete in Turin, around 40 countries seem to be heading to Turin for  the competition in Italy next May.