Fans divided as Malmö to host Eurovision 2013
Published: 9 Jul 12 09:36 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/41910/20120709/
The 2013 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the southern Swedish city of Malmö organizers confirmed Sunday, with the news angering some fans who were set for a Stockholm final.
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Now organizers have confirmed that the Malmö Arena will hold the event between May 14th and 18th.
Click here for the gallery of Stockholmers’ responses to the decision
“The fact that we chose Malmö was thanks to the really good infrastructure and that we have had good experiences with the Melodifestivalen and even the Eurovision Song Contest in the city,” said Martin Österdahl, executive producer for the event, to the TT news agency.
However, not everyone is beaming about the news, with some eager fans disappointed that Stockholm was not selected as the hosting city.
Walter Lourenço, a 23-year-old die-hard Eurovision fan, had already booked his flights to Stockholm including hotel rooms.
“But why have they chosen Malmö? It’s completely crazy,” he told the Aftonbladet newspaper, adding that his tickets couldn’t be refunded and he would have to seek alternate travel plans from Stockholm to Malmö.
According to organizers, Malmö was also chosen as the stadium itself suits the format of the show better than the second option, the new Friends Arena in Solna, north of Stockholm.
On top of this, Stockholm’s Globen Arena is booked at the time of the concerts with the men's ice hockey world championships.
However, not all Eurovision fans are upset with the news.
“I think the most important is that it’s one hell of a party,” Loreen told the Sydsvenskan newspaper, adding that her only advice was to “have fun”.
Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu was in high spirits too.
“We now begin working towards creating a fantastic event for the biggest music festival in Europe. We are of course extraordinarily happy and proud today,” he told Sydsvenskan.
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I suspect someone at SVT got a bribe from someone in Copenhagen.
Malmo you rock.
And in regards to the Denmark claims, if Denmark is so great why do so many choose to stay in hotels in Malmö ? .... Truth is Denmark is over priced.
Malmö has its issues, true ..... Hopefully this event will highlight the racial hatred and make Sweden take action is solving the issue.
1975 Stockhomsmässan, Stockholm
1985 Scandinavium, Göteborg
1992 Malmö isstadion, Malmö
2000 Globen, Stockholm
2013 Malmö arena, Malmö
See the pattern? This time Göteborg passed and it ended up in Malmö. Hardly a surprise.
The Friends Arena in Stockholm would have been better because of capacity. More people coming to Sweden would be in Sweden's interested since it would equal more money they'd spend. Additionally, there's that big shopping centre going up ("Mall of Scandinavia") next to Friends Arena which would surely have added to money being spent.
Less people are going to come to Malmö because of fewer tickets. Furthermore, people are going to stay next door in Copenhagen because hotels in Malmö are going to be fully booked. SVT has been whining about Sweden not winning for a decade now and they blew it once they got an opportunity.
As for the silly primary school-level mentality town rivalry between Stockholm, Malmö and Göteborg, it's painful to see. Give it a rest, please.
Overall, a bad decision for Sweden and a good one for Denmark.
People don't seem to understand some of the reasons why certain cities might be chosen - logistics and pre-booked venues just for starters. What a wonderful opportuity to show the world that these claims that Malmö is, and I quote someone further up there, 'dead and dangerous' are just unfounded and ridiculous.
And to the person who booked flights and a hotel in Stockholm before the results were announced, could someone please contact them and inform them that the original line-up of The Beatles are playing IN MY HOUSE and Elvis Presley is supporting. It is going to be AWESOME and tickets are only $10,000.
Malmö has been unfortunately cast by Sweden's tabloids as dangerous and without anything of interest to do or see. The arrogance to think that Malmö has nothing to offer and you must flee to Copenhagen to avoid the horror of this town is ridiculous. For those of you who wouldn't dare to stay here, I look forward to the whinging about the train price between countries, and the higher cost for food and accommodation.
I work for Eurovision fan website 12points.tv and we suspected, like Willy above, that Malmö would host in 2013. Going with svensk logik, it would be unfair if Stockholm hosted for a third time.
You are all welcome here, and even Walter Lourenço can come, if he can get a refund. Poor guy.
Jews are persecuted, immigrants are the dangerous thugs, asylum seekers and passport holders from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Eritrea are the cheaters and have worst quality and productivity than people from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines !
Baku still sounds safe and quality more than Swedish towns !
Come now, that just proved there is an international audience already representative in Malmö. ;)
To all of that are slagging off Malmo have you actually spent any time here or are you just reading the news.
I live in the centre of malmo and have never had any trouble with theft, violence etc. Yes it has its problems but I'm sure if you look at Stockholm it to has it's problems but these are often white Swedish thugs so aren't in the news as it's not quite as newsworthy.
Theres several really nice hotels in malmo so there will be loads of places to stay and since I have had family and friends stay in them I have never heard a bad thing about them.
And, I'm sorry, this is the Eurovision, not the World Cup.... It's pretty much just a one-day concert, so the tourist money is not that substantial. The big upside is the free publicity the Vist Sweden folks are going to get....
A fellow Malmö resident.
This is how it works in situations where there is some kind of grouping things together, siblings, towns etc: Number two is very envious of number one, who couldn't care less about number two. In the meantine number three is out on his own race totally disregarding numbers one and two.
Orebro is the capital of Iraq
Gothenburg is the province of Iran
Malmo is the village of Palestine kind of gazza. phew!
no, thanks I'd rather stay in Copenhagen to watch native Danish music on tv.
You forgot about Landskrona, the Capital of Swedish Albania :)
But seriously, many Danes in Copenhagen won't even have to buy tickets! So Malmö's a good choice for them!
Not everyone has a Swedish keyboard that they can write ö ...
Fair enough.
Alt + u followed by o will do it.
...and WELL DONE Malmö !!!