This year's edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, ESC, has been canceled. But that doesn't stop Eurovision fans from gathering around their favorite show. British freelance journalist Rob Holley, on his own initiative, launched an old ESC every Saturday via social media and asked people to vote for their favorites.
When it was canceled, I was devastated. But it made me think about what I really like about the competition: the small talk, the parties, the community. And part of it can be recreated without the competition itself, he tells Dagens Nyheter.
After Holley and some friends watched a selected edition of the contest and tweeted under the hashtag #EurovisionAgain, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) heard about it. Now they have dug into the archives and streams through their Youtube channel a program from the ESC story every Saturday at 21. At the weekend it was 1997 and British Katarina & The Waves won this time, just as it did.
During the Eurovision week in May, SVT will broadcast two special programs as well as the EBU's official compensation program.