Italy 2022: Eurovision Host City race nears conclusion...

The United Kingdom (UK) holds the record for the most number of different Host Cities, having staged the Eurovision Song Contest on 8 occasions, in 8 different venues across 5 locations.

London is the UK Host City of choice, holding the Contest 4 times: Royal Festival Hall (1960), BBC Television Centre (1963), Royal Albert Hall (1968) and Wembley Conference Centre (1977).

Watch: How to Eurovision – United Kingdom

Edinburgh (1972), Birmingham (1998) and Brighton (1974 – home of ABBA’s victory) have also been United Kingdom host cities, as well the spa town of Harrogate (1982) – three times holder of Britain’s 'happiest place to live’ title.

Despite the title sequence of the 1982 Contest sharing multiple translations of ‘Where is Harrogate?’ popping up in the languages of the participating countries, the North Yorkshire town isn’t the most obscure location for the world’s biggest music event.

Watch: Eurovision Milestones – 1993 and 1994

That honour belongs to Millstreet, Ireland – a town of just 1,555 residents. The small Irish settlement in County Cork hosted the 1993 Contest in the Green Glens Arena; a state of the art equestrian events centre that could accommodate an audience of 3,500.

Though Ireland has won the Contest a record 7 times, 1993 remains the only time RTÉ opted to host the Contest outside of the capital city. In fact, Dublin has hosted on 6 occasions, more than any other city.

Six (Eurovision Song Contests)

• 🇮🇪 Dublin (1971, 1981, 1988, 1994, 1995 and 1997)

Four

• 🇬🇧 London (1960, 1963, 1968, 1977)
• 🇱🇺 Luxembourg City (1962, 1966, 1973, 1984)

Three

• 🇩🇰 Copenhagen (1964, 2001, 2014)
• 🇸🇪 Stockholm (1975, 2000, 2016)

Two

• 🇫🇷 Cannes (1959, 1961)
• 🇺🇦 Kyiv (2005, 2017)
• 🇮🇱 Jerusalem (1979, 1999)
• 🇸🇪 Malmö (1992, 2013)
• 🇳🇴 Oslo (1966, 2010)
• 🇳🇱 The Hague (1976, 1980)
• 🇦🇹 Vienna (1967, 2015)
• 🇳🇱 …and technically Rotterdam (if we’re counting the cancelled 2020 Contest alongside 2021)

Like the United Kingdom, the Dutch have favoured moving the Contest around the country, taking in Hilversum (1958), Amsterdam (1970), The Hague (1976, 1980) and Rotterdam (the cancelled 2020 Contest and 2021). Surely it’s only a matter of time before Maastricht joins the party and the Dutch match the Brits for number of different Host Cities?

Of all the countries to have won the Eurovision Song Contest, there are only three countries that haven’t hosted the show from their capital city… we’ve yet to visit Ankara (Turkey), party in Berlin (Germany) or feel the Bern (Switzerland).

Saint Petersburg (Russia) is currently the largest European city by population to have not been selected as a Eurovision Host City …yet.

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Italy has already hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on two previous occasions: Naples (1965) and Rome (1991). With the initial 17 Candidate Cities for 2022 being whittled down based on their bids and suitability, we’ll shortly learn the destination of their third Contest…

Where do you want the Italians to take us? Let us know via the official Eurovision Song Contest Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook channels.