Eurovision Song Contest report shows impact on and off screen

The report reveals that the Eurovision Song Contest is now the most familiar non-sporting global event, with only the Olympics and FIFA World Cup surpassing the brand. 

It’s a story and revenue creator too, with €795 Million of ad-value generated through 152,196 online articles (up on the 119,000 written in 2022), and record levels of digital engagement.

All eyes on Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool reached 162M people, accounting for 291M hours watched, with an average viewing duration of 1hr 48m.

During the Grand Final 53.5% of TV viewers aged 15-24 were watching the show live. This is 4 times higher than the group of broadcast channel average in primetime, and this over performance has remained consistent over time and the Eurovision Song Contest continues to bring young viewers to public service channels across Europe and beyond.

As well as capturing the elusive youth market, the Eurovision Song Contest continues to be popular across all age groups, with its balanced audience profile demonstrating that it remains relevant to all generations.

Figures now available from last year show that the 2022 Contest was ranked in the Top 10 TV shows of 2022 across 15 different markets - that’s the most since 2010 - and this trend looks set to continue.

And, of course, the Eurovision Song Contest is fully celebrated online, across all our digital platforms which saw record levels of engagement. 

Hit-makers

The 37 participating songs have been streamed 808 million times with 5 hitting the US Billboard Global (Exc. US) Charts (12 - 18 May); Loreen (Sweden - #7, 36M streams), Käärijä (Finland - #13, 30M streams), Alessandra (Norway – #29, 22M streams), Noa Kirel (Israel - #153, 10M streams), Marco Mengoni (Italy - #174, 10M streams).

A total of 25% of all Eurovision Song Contest 2023 streams took place in this chart week, accounting for 200M streams. 

The most globally streamed entries across all platforms (from 30 December 2022 – 25 May 2023) are:

• Loreen - Tattoo (Sweden, Champion) - 144M
• Marco Mengoni - Due Vite (Italy, placed 4th)  139M
• Alessandra - Queen of Kings (Norway, placed 5th) 114M
• Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha (Finland, runner-up) 79M
• Blanka - Solo (Poland, placed 19th) 46M
• Noa Kirel - Unicorn (Israel, placed 3rd) 31M
• Mae Muller - I Wrote A Song (United Kingdom, placed 25th) 24M
• La Zarra - Evidemment (France, placed 16th) 24M

The official Eurovision Song Contest playlist was the most streamed Spotify playlist globally on Sunday 14 May, the day after the Grand Final - but the popularity of the songs continues long after the show leaves town.

There have been 21.9 billion global streams of Eurovision Song Contest songs across all platforms since the 2019 Contest in Tel Aviv up until May 25 this year - and 90% of these streams are generated outside of event weeks.

Liverpool and cultural impact

• 5,330 people working on or around the production
• 802 people from 37 delegations, including 161 stage performers 
• 1,472 onsite (63%) and online media (37%) 

Estimates at the end of May 2023 put visitors to Liverpool over the two-week Eurovision Song Contest period at 500,000 people - far exceeding the pre-event estimate of 100,000.

64% of people that visited the Liverpool Arena also visited Liverpool One shopping complex, making it their busiest week of the year so far. Visitors to Liverpool One were up 32% year on year, with visitors accounting for an extra £20M revenue and a 78% leap in restaurant sales. 

Culturally, the 2023 Contest was also significant due to the unique nature of the United Kingdom hosting on behalf of Ukraine. A 2-week cultural festival featuring collaborations between Ukrainian and UK artists took place throughout the city, including:

• The Soloveiko Songbird Trail - a walking trail to find 12 giant national birds of Ukraine, representing regions of Ukraine and decorated with traditional designs, with visitors ‘invited to listen as they share the stories and songs of their homeland’
• Protect The Beats - 2,500 sandbags ‘protected’ the Nelson Monument to reflect how statues in Ukraine are being protected from bombardment, while a short film  illustrated how music remains at the beating heart of Ukrainian culture.
• With Fire And Rage - audio walking trail around the Liverpool, in which Ukrainian artists recount their experiences; from music concerts in metro stations during air raids, to smuggling artworks out of cities as rockets fall, to creating subversive street art under Russian occupation’
• The People’s Flag - 1000 volunteers came together in Liverpool to dance and create The People’s Flag, a brand new, mass participation film. Mass Movement Director Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE and local choreographers Lisi Perry and Grace Goulding invited the public to be part of this exciting film project, designed to create a unique, warm welcome to all Eurovision-comers. 

The Eurovision Song Contest continues to be a platform for diversity and inclusion, with the resurgence in participant languages continuing as 46% of entries featured a language other than English, with 18 languages being performed in total.

And while the music industry as a whole is still clearly male-dominated, the Eurovision Song Contest has historically promoted more female and non-binary artists; the gender ratio of 2023 participants was 41% all-female acts, 51% all-male acts, and 8% mixed acts.

This is compared to a gender ratio of 70:30 (male/female) of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts 2022, and Spotify’s worldwide streams for June 2023 where 22% attributed to female or mixed gender artists.