King Charles and the Queen Consort Camilla visited M&S Bank Arena yesterday, 26 April, to unveil the set and stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.
The royals were joined by BBC director general Tim Davie for a tour and to meet staff, the creative team and apprentices getting the arena ready to host the event. They were also invited to light and animate the arena with the set designer, and sound and lighting directors.
Designed by Julio Himede across more than 450sqm of staging, the set brings together another 220sqm of independently moving and turning video screens, as well as more than 700 video tiles integrated into the floor and more than 1,500 metres of LED lights.
The royals also spoke to a selection of the Eurovision hosts including Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, actress Hannah Waddingham and BBC Radio 2 commentators Rylan and Scott Mills. They also met the UK’s entrant for the 2023 contest Mae Muller and music director of Eurovision 2023 Kojo Samuel.
The set has been designed on the theme of ‘togetherness, celebration and community’. It was unveiled to a soundtrack of the Eurovision theme composed by Ukrainian composer Michael Nekrasov.
Martin Green CBE, managing director, Eurovision, said: “We are thrilled His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort have unveiled this landmark moment for 2023 Eurovision. It has been a fantastic collaboration between all of our partners and the BBC to get to this point and now the stage is officially set to capture everyone’s imaginations and bring together audiences from across the world.”
Liverpool was selected to be the host city for the 67th Contest by the BBC and event organisers the European Broadcasting Union in October 2022.
