Eurovision Song Contest announces live tour

The Eurovision Song Contest has announced a live tour to celebrate its 70th birthday, which will begin after this year's grand final.

The new show will feature some of the most memorable performers from the seven decades of the competition, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said.

It has not yet been confirmed which artists will be taking part, but the organisation confirmed the tour would also feature performances from 10 of this year's entrants.

The tour begins at London's O2 arena on 15 June, and will go on to play nine other cities around Europe.

The announcement comes during ongoing turmoil surrounding the contest, following a row about Israel's participation while the war in Gaza continues.

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland have all said they will not take part this year, after a majority of members voted in December for a series of reforms which would also allow Isreal to remain.

Earlier this week, Thomas Neuwirth, who won the contest in 2014 as his stage persona Conchita Wurst, stepped back from his association with Eurovision, saying he planned "to focus more on other professional projects and to let new things evolve".

Meanwhile, Polish artist Karolina Czarnecka, alongside her band Brutto Szkła, announced this week she was withdrawing from the competition to find Poland's 2026 entrant because she cannot "consent to the suffering of another human being".

Artists participating in the new tour will perform their own Eurovision entries, plus cover versions of their favourite songs from the contest's 70-year history, organisers said.

The contest's director Martin Green said organisers "wanted to do something truly unique and special" to mark the anniversary.

He said the format of the tour would "capture the evolution of the contest" and "celebrate our fantastic past whilst looking to the future".

"For the very first time we are bringing the magic of the Eurovision Song Contest live experience directly to fans and their friends and families all over Europe," he added.

The line-up of 2026 artists taking part in the tour will not be announced until after this year's contest has taken place, suggesting only the artists that do well in the contest or deliver a particularly memorable performance will be selected.

The EBU said the live tour gives fans who were not able to secure tickets to the contest itself "the chance to attend a show that would deliver the "scale, spectacle and spirit" of the contest.

The tour will play shows in Hamburg, Milan, Zürich, Antwerp, Cologne, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris and Stockholm.

The Eurovision Song Contest began in May 1956 in Switzerland, and has evolved to become one of the biggest events in the musical calendar - last year's contest was watched by 175 million people worldwide.

This year's contest takes place in Vienna on 16 May, following Austria's win in 2025.