Eurovision Song Contest 2022
The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May and a final on 14 May 2022, held at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy, and presented by Alessandro Cattelan, Laura Pausini and Mika. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana, which staged the event after winning the for with the song "Zitti e buoni" by Måneskin.
Broadcasters from forty countries participated in the contest, with and returning after their absence from the previous edition. had originally planned to participate, but was excluded due to its invasion of Ukraine.
The winner was with the song "Stefania", performed by Kalush Orchestra and written by the group's members Ihor Didenchuk, Oleh Psiuk, Tymofii Muzychuk and Vitalii Duzhyk, along with Ivan Klymenko. The finished in second place for a record-extending sixteenth time, also achieving its best result since., and rounded out the top five, with Spain achieving its best result since. Ukraine won the televote with 439 points, the most received in the contest's history to date, and came fourth in the jury vote behind the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain. "Stefania" is the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian and the first song with hip-hop elements to win the contest.
The EBU reported that the contest had a television audience of 161 million viewers in 34 European markets, a decrease of 22 million viewers from the previous edition, however, it is noted that this is due to the exclusion of Russia and the lack of audience figures from Ukraine, with the overall figures up by 7 million viewers in a comparable market from 2021. An increase of three per cent in the 15–24 year old age range was also reported. A total of 18 million viewers watched the contest online on YouTube and TikTok.
Location
Bidding phase
Between 23 and 28 May 2021, many cities across Italy expressed interest in hosting the contest. Representatives from the cities of Bologna, Milan, Pesaro, Naples and Turin voiced their interest, as well as the Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Luca Vecchi, who hoped to host the contest in the new, the largest open-air arena in Europe with a capacity of 100,000 spectators. The mayors of Rome, Rimini and Florence soon after also expressed interest in hosting the contest and were joined by Sanremo, Verona and Bari., member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, also suggested that if Rimini were to host the contest, it should be a co-production with San Marino RTV.Host broadcaster RAI launched the bidding process on 7 July 2021. In the first phase of this process, any interested cities were to present their bid through certified email by 12 July, after which RAI and the EBU would proceed to send all of them a bid book with more detailed requirements for the cities to submit their plans for review.
On 9 July 2021, the city of Turin officially announced its bid. On the same day, the city of Pesaro did the same, proposing the Vitrifrigo Arena as a possible venue to host the event. They were followed by Bologna and Jesolo on 12 July, and Rimini and Bertinoro on 13 July. On 13 July, RAI announced that 17 cities had submitted their bid for hosting the contest and would be provided the following day with the bid books. They had until 4 August to draft and submit their detailed plans, which 11 cities did. On 24 August, it was reported that Bologna, Milan, Pesaro, Rimini and Turin would be the cities left in the running to host the contest.
The choice among them was meant to be announced by the end of August; however, this did not materialise, and in mid-September, director of Rai 1, stated that the selection was behind time to ensure "transparency and precision". On 8 October 2021, the EBU and RAI announced Turin as the host city, with the PalaOlimpico as the chosen venue for the contest.
Key:
Host venue
Shortlisted
Presented the bid book
Participants
Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the Eurovision network and broadcasting it live nationwide. The EBU issued an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members. Associate member did not need an invitation for the 2022 contest, as it had previously been granted permission to participate at least until 2023.On 20 October 2021, the EBU initially announced that 41 countries would participate in the 2022 contest. The list included all countries that participated in the 2021 contest, along with and, both of which had last taken part in . On 25 February 2022, the EBU announced that was excluded from the contest due to its invasion of Ukraine, thereby reducing the number of participating countries to 40.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter |
| RTSH | Ronela Hajati | "Sekret" | Albanian, English | Ronela Hajati | |
| AMPTV | Rosa Linn | "Snap" | English | ||
| SBS | Sheldon Riley | "Not the Same" | English | ||
| ORF | Lumix Pia Maria | "Halo" | English | ||
| İTV | Nadir Rustamli | "Fade to Black" | English | ||
| RTBF | Jérémie Makiese | "Miss You" | English | ||
| BNT | Intelligent Music Project | "Intention" | English | ||
| HRT | Mia Dimšić | "Guilty Pleasure" | English, Croatian | ||
| CyBC | Andromache | "Ela " | English, Greek | ||
| ČT | We Are Domi | "Lights Off" | English | ||
| DR | Reddi | "The Show" | English | ||
| ERR | Stefan | "Hope" | English | ||
| Yle | The Rasmus | "Jezebel" | English | ||
| France Télévisions | Alvan and Ahez | "Fulenn" | Breton | ||
| GPB | Circus Mircus | "Lock Me In" | English | Circus Mircus | |
| NDR | Malik Harris | "Rockstars" | English | ||
| ERT | Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord | "Die Together" | English | ||
| RÚV | Systur | "Með hækkandi sól" | Icelandic | Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir | |
| RTÉ | Brooke | "That's Rich" | English | ||
| IPBC | Michael Ben David | "I.M" | English | ||
| RAI | Mahmood and Blanco | "Brividi" | Italian | ||
| LTV | Citi Zēni | "Eat Your Salad" | English | ||
| LRT | Monika Liu | "Sentimentai" | Lithuanian | Monika Liubinaitė | |
| PBS | Emma Muscat | "I Am What I Am" | English | ||
| TRM | Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers | "Trenulețul" | Romanian, English | ||
| RTCG | Vladana | "Breathe" | English, Italian | ||
| AVROTROS | S10 | "De diepte" | Dutch | ||
| MRT | Andrea | "Circles" | English | ||
| NRK | Subwoolfer | "Give That Wolf a Banana" | English | ||
| TVP | Ochman | "River" | English | ||
| RTP | Maro | "Saudade, saudade" | English, Portuguese | ||
| TVR | Wrs | "Llámame " | English, Spanish | ||
| SMRTV | Achille Lauro | "Stripper" | Italian, English | ||
| RTS | Konstrakta | "In corpore sano" | Serbian, Latin | ||
| RTVSLO | LPS | "Disko " | Slovene | ||
| RTVE | Chanel | "SloMo" | Spanish, English | ||
| SVT | Cornelia Jakobs | "Hold Me Closer" | English | ||
| SRG SSR | Marius Bear | "Boys Do Cry" | English | ||
| UA:PBC | Kalush Orchestra | "Stefania" | Ukrainian | ||
| BBC | Sam Ryder | "Space Man" | English |
Returning artists
The contest featured five representatives who also previously performed as lead artists for the same country. Nika Kocharov, the guitarist of Circus Mircus, had previously represented alongside Young Georgian Lolitaz; Stoyan Yankoulov, a member of Intelligent Music Project, had represented and alongside Elitsa Todorova; Zdob și Zdub had represented and ; Mahmood had represented ; and Ihor Didenchuk, a member of Kalush Orchestra, had previously represented as a member of Go_A. In addition, Ihan Haydar, who had previously represented as a member of Soluna Samay's backup band, returned as a member of Reddi.Other countries
Active EBU members
Active EBU member broadcasters in,,, and confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU. national broadcaster TRT had been in talks with the EBU about a potential return to the contest in 2022, but the country ultimately did not appear on the final list of participants.