Dan Shipton will stage the entries for three countries at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. 

Black Skull Creative, the company Shipton owns with his husband Ross Nicholson and other professional partners Jay Revell and Paul Gardner, will lead the staging concepts for Austria, Germany and Cyprus. 

Click to read this story at a glance…

• Dan Shipton, along with his company Black Skull Creative, will stage the entries for Austria, Germany and Cyprus at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest
• Shipton, who has extensive experience as a Creative Director in Eurovision, deliberately scaled back involvement due to the expected arrival of a baby with his husband in May
• Fellow Eurovision Creative Director Marvin Dietmann will collaborate with Black Skull Creative on their projects for Malmö
• Shipton praises the songs and performers he’s working with, highlighting Austria’s entry as a standout with a different vibe from the average Eurovision song

Speaking exclusively to The Euro Trip, Shipton said: “We’ve got Austria, Germany and Cyprus. 

“We’re really excited about them and we are really close with those teams. 

“We turned a lot of other countries down to be able to focus on our family time, but we can’t not have some involvement in Eurovision because it’s our passion.” 

Shipton has been the Creative Director for a number of Eurovision performances over the last decade, and was the Lead Creative Director for the whole show in Liverpool last year. 

In 2022, Shipton was Creative Director for four countries’ performances, and in 2021 he worked with seven countries. 

Shipton and Nicholson deliberately scaled back their Eurovision involvement this year as they’re expecting a baby together just four days after the Grand Final. 

Fellow Eurovision Creative Director Marvin Dietmann will work with Black Skull Creative on the company’s three projects for Malmö. 

Kaleen, Austria’s Eurovision representative this year, is married to Dietmann, and is someone Shipton knows well. 

“We’ve known Kaleen for years as friends. 

“The song is an absolute banger and it’s got really good ingredients; she’s amazing, her vocals are outstanding, her choreography is amazing, and the song is a belter. 

“It feels different to what you would expect of the average Eurovision song. What we’ve got planned is really exciting.” 

17-year-old Silia Kapsis will represent Cyprus, and has already been working with Shipton and his team to get the performance of her song, Liar, ready for Malmö. 

“The song is fantastic. When the team sent it to me, I played it, played it again, played it a third time, and I was so into it. 

“As a performer, she’s amazing. Vocally, she’s incredible. The choreography is great. It’s got standout potential.” 

The Eurovision stage in Malmö has been created by German designer Florian Wieder. He has designed seven Eurovision stages since 2011, including last year’s Eurovision stage in Liverpool. 

“Anything Florian designs is amazing,” Shipton said. 

“Having the audience all around is great. The cross will force people down potentially a very similar route with the staging. 

“It’s up to us as creatives that are coming in to work out how to make sure it feels different and second guess what the normal might be so we can do something different. It has loads of potential.”