'It would be a fantastic thing' - People of Manchester back city's bid to host Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the UK next year, and cities across the country – including Manchester – have already started submitting their bids to host the competition.

The European Broadcast Union and the BBC announced on Monday that the UK will host the 2023 contest in place of Ukraine, this year’s winners. This is because of the ongoing war with Russia.

The M.E.N. spoke to people across the city about the possibility of the historic song contest coming to the North-West. And, it’s safe to say everyone’s feeling pretty excited.

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Hannah Gardner, 37, from Blackburn, said: “I do think it would be a fantastic thing for Manchester: it’s got so much musical heritage of its own that it’s kind of nice to have something like that brought here. It’s got a Hard Rock Cafe, which is awesome, it’s got the musical history there. And we were the kind of default winners, as great as it was for Ukraine.

“I think bringing it to England – and bringing it to the North, because we don’t get enough in the North, let it not be London – would be fantastic. Manchester has a brilliant community, especially after everything that happened. Ariana Grande did us a huge favour bringing the city together, let’s have that again – let’s have everyone smiling and out in the streets and celebrating, hopefully, a really good year.

“Alright, we don’t have the weather that everywhere else does, but Eurovision is nice and indoors, so that’s a bonus. It’d be a nice tourism boost that wouldn’t be related to football – wouldn’t that be a nice change for Manchester? Manchester’s got a lot of heart, it’s a great community, and it