The producers of the Swiss national broadcaster SRG SSR reveal expected changes for Eurovision 2025 to be held in Basel, Switzerland, in an attempt to create more interest among viewers during the semi-final stage.

The Swiss national broadcaster SRG SSR has been tasked with organizing the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 35 years, and its producers are determined to leave their mark on the competition. This week, Eurovision fans got their first glimpse of what awaits them in the May 2025 contest, with the unveiling of the competition logo, stage design, and details about ticket sales for the shows.

Proposed Changes to Semi-Final Results

Swiss producers Moritz Stadler and Reto Peritz discuss their intentions to change the semi-final results announcement in an interview. They state, “We are thinking of changes for the Semi-Finals, the voting is amazing in the Grand Final – there are a lot of emotions. For the Semi-Finals it’s not that exciting because you just say who’s in the Grand Final. So, we are thinking a lot about this with our creative team on how to make the voting and the final results for the Semi-Finals more exciting.”

The previous attempt to modify the format of announcing finalists was proposed by the British national broadcaster BBC for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. The idea was for artists in the semi-final to discover who advances to the final while standing on stage together, rather than sitting in the green room with their delegations as in previous years. Ultimately, this format was canceled after a rehearsal, just two hours before the show began.

Addressing Show Length

The duo also addressed the length of the final show, which lasted over four hours in last year’s competition. From SRG SSR’s perspective, this duration is far beyond what was planned. “There is a limit where it becomes too long. In 2025 we will not extend it, but we are looking at how to shorten it. What’s clear is that there are incompressible elements in the show that you cannot shorten. What you can play is the duration of interval acts, the duration at the end of the voting procedure. We are looking at this in a reasonable way, but we need to be conscious of the amount of things we need to fit into this show to bring the feeling across the screen. We will find the right compromises, but we will not divide the time by two – that’s impossible.”

Potential Swiss Artists and Interval Acts

When asked about potential big Swiss artists we might see on the Eurovision stage in Basel, they responded that the Head of the Show, Yves Schifferle, is currently working on the interval acts for all three shows, but there’s no date set for announcing special guests. They promised, “Something amazing is going to happen on stage, and you won’t be disappointed.”

Source: The Euro Trip Podcast

Eurovision 2025: This will be Switzerland’s 65th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Switzerland joined the competition in 1956, being one of the seven founding countries, and has won three times over the years. Its most recent victory was at the last Eurovision in 2025, with Nemo’s song “The Code.” This win follows Switzerland’s previous victory in 1988 with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi,” performed by international singer Céline Dion.