Nearly a decade after its initial announcement, the Asian version of Eurovision appears ready to materialize, as a new website reveals plans for Bangkok 2026 and nine countries confirmed their participation.
After nearly a decade of delays and conflicting reports, the Eurovision Asia contest finally appears to be moving forward. A new website under the address EurovisionAsia.com briefly went live over the weekend before going offline overnight, revealing details that point to preparations for holding the competition in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 14th, 2026.
According to the information displayed on the site, the contest is expected to take place with the participation of nine countries that have already confirmed their involvement: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In some of these countries, national selections are expected to be held to choose their first representatives.
The production is led by Voxovation, which holds the rights to the Eurovision format internationally and previously produced the American Song Contest while also developing Eurovision Latin America. The contest is being produced under license from the EBU, in cooperation with local broadcasters across Asia.
It was also revealed that the contest will collaborate with Zoop, a new social media application that will serve as the official digital platform for the competition. Zoop is expected to offer live streaming, exclusive content, prediction games, and direct interaction with fans.
At the time of writing, neither the EBU nor Voxovation have commented on the published details.
The Long Road and Evolution of Eurovision Asia
The idea of Eurovision Asia was first announced in March 2016 as an official extension of the Eurovision format into the Asian region, initiated by the EBU in cooperation with the Australian national broadcaster SBS. From the outset, the vision presented was to create a large-scale contest for countries across the region, modeled after the European competition, and several Asian broadcasters reportedly expressed preliminary interest in joining.
During 2018, reports in the Australian press indicated that the city of Gold Coast was in discussions to host the inaugural edition of the contest, with provisional dates even marked for late 2019. According to those reports, approximately 16 countries were expected to participate in the first edition. However, the project encountered logistical, financial, and organizational challenges and ultimately did not materialize. In 2021, SBS announced it was withdrawing from the initiative, five years after the original announcement a move widely perceived as shelving the project.
Despite this setback, the rights to the format were retained and later transferred to Voxovation, which currently holds licenses to develop international versions of the Eurovision format. Now, nearly a decade after the original announcement, the format appears to be returning to the table and this time, it may finally come to fruition.
Eurovision 2026: The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Vienna, Austria, following the country’s third historic win with the song “Wasted Love” performed by JJ. This will be the third time the contest is hosted in Austria, after 1967 and 2015.
