When Loreen won Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool one of the biggest cheers in the Swedish delegation came from Christer Björkman, the man who turned Melodifestivalen into an international juggernaut. Now, after producing the only version of American Song Contest, Christer is returning to the Eurovision circus here in Europe to be contest producer of next year’s Eurovision in Malmö.
According to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet Björkman couldn’t say no to the opportunity: “Eurovision is the mothership, you can’t say no to that”. He will team up with former “American Idol” producer Per Blankens, who will be TV producer for Eurovision and is currently producing “Idol” on Swedish TV4.
“Idol,” of course, is the competition that first brought names including Loreen, Måns Zelmerlöw and Cornelia Jakobs to the public eye back in the day.
Björkman and Blankens produced Melodifestivalen 2006 and 2007 together, and they are looking forward to collaborating again. Björkman will also continue his work developing a South American version of Eurovision, which is still in the planning stages.
Goal is to shorten the broadcast
The EBU is holding a workshop in Berlin this week about Eurovision 2024, and Björkman and Blankens will be presented to the heads of delegations. High on the agenda is to shorten the broadcast of the Eurovision final by up to an hour, without taking any of the competitive element out of the voting sequence.
Rumours about having a “second chance” contest in the style of Melodifestivalen is being laughed off by Björkman: “We have a format that’s very good, and the big changes happened in 2013 and 2016. I don’t think we need a lot of adjustments right now, we’ll just aim to make a tight show that’s not drawn too long into the night. That is our big goal”.
Björkman, who himself competed for Sweden at Eurovision in Malmö 1992, was also contest producer on the last two Swedish editions in 2013 and 2016, and also produced the contest in Kyiv 2017 before he turned to focus on Melfest for a few years and then headed off to lead the production of American Song Contest.
Are you happy that Christer Björkman is back as contest producer? What do you hope to see in Eurovision 2024? Let us know in the comments below.
