There are no barriers to the BBC hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024 if the UK wins in 2023. 

The BBC is hosting Eurovision in the UK next year after the 2022 contest winner, Ukraine, was stripped of the right to host Eurovision due to the ongoing war with Russia. 

Andrew Cartmell, Executive Producer of Eurovision 2023, said: “Myself and Lee [Smithurst, Head of Show] are now producing the three live shows so we’re not in our delegation roles. 

“The most important thing – irrespective of the final result – is the quality of the act and the song that we put forward. We just have to maintain that credibility. 

“Of course we would love to do well. It would be amazing to do top 10 again, top five, why not win it? That is what we should be doing every year. We should be going in wanting to win. 

“There’s nobody saying: ‘Don’t win it, you can’t host it twice’. On a personal level, the British act next year has to maintain the same standard and quality.” 

No country has hosted successive editions of Eurovision since Ireland took responsibility three years in a row from 1993 to 1995. 

Cartmell was speaking exclusively to The Euro Trip in what was his first interview since taking up his role in October. 

Asked about how much pressure there is in his job, he said: “It has its moments. 

“We decided early on that we’d split responsibilities [with Lee Smithurst] but actually we come together all the time and we discuss every aspect of what we’re doing. 

“Of course it’s stressful, it’s a massive production that’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done before, but we’ve been to a lot of Eurovisions in our time and we’ve seen how it works on the ground and we’ve listened to a lot of people. 

“Once it first started we spoke to our colleagues from the Netherlands, from Sweden and from Israel; we absorbed their knowledge and expertise because there were a lot of things we didn’t know. 

“It’s really important that you listen to people who have done it before. Then you bring in a world class team. One of my roles as Executive Producer has been bringing on board the senior production and senior crew. If you get the right people around you, that’s half the job done really.”

Featured image – Image – EBU / Corinne Cumming