King Charles III will officially turn the lights on to reveal what the Eurovision Song Contest stage will look like, Buckingham Palace has announced. Liverpool is hosting the competition on behalf of war-torn Ukraine next month. The King – along with Camilla, the Queen Consort – will tour the M&S Bank Arena on Wednesday ahead of its hosting the event next month. As well as revealing the stage set-up they will meet show presenters and Mae Muller, who is representing the UK.
The stage design is intended to give the impression of the contest “opening its arms to Ukraine”, organizers have previously said. The Royal couple will meet the creatives behind the event, along with the show’s Ukrainian host Julia Sanina, UK host – and Ted Lasso star – Hannah Waddingham, and BBC Radio 2’s Eurovision presenters Scott Mills and Rylan Clark.
They are also due to meet Blue Peter presenters Joel Mawhinney, Abby Cook and Mwaksy Mudenda, accompanied by some Blue Peter viewers. As part of their visit to the city the King and Queen Consort will also visit Liverpool Central Library to officially mark its twinning with Ukraine’s first public library, the Regional Scientific Library in Odesa. They will meet people involved in both a two-week cultural festival running alongside the contest and Eurolearn – a Eurovision-inspired education programme for primary and secondary pupils.
The grand final of the song contest will be broadcast live on TV to millions of viewers around the world, on big screens in cities across the UK and for the first time in cinemas. Liverpool will host the final on 13 May, following two semi-finals earlier in the week. In-person tickets for the grand final sold out in less than 40 minutes.
The contest is being held in Liverpool after last year’s UK entrant Sam Ryder finished runner-up to Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prevented the winning country from hosting the 2023 contest, organisers instead said the UK would stage the show on their behalf.
