The and are coming together for a major partnership ahead of the 2022 competition.
Massive Europe-and-beyond competition Eurovision and music-focused video-sharing platform TikTok are making big plans ahead of the big day on May 14.
To mark the 66th competition, Eurovision is aiming to get the fans more involved than ever as it announced TikTok as its official entertainment partner.
The social media platform will feature special programming, music playlists and behind the scenes content throughout the week-long event in Turin, Italy.
Both the semi-final shows and the grand final will be streamed on the official Eurovision TikTok account, and will combine the official broadcast with backstage clips.
TikTok users will also have access to backstage content from all the participating international performers’ first rehearsals, including that of .
Playlists featuring the entrants will feature on TikTok’s Sound Pages, which users can use to create and share their own videos on the platform using the #Eurovision tag.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which produces the contest, said TikTok would celebrate ‘the music, the artists, the countries, the history and the event itself’.
Since last year, there have been more than 1.4 billion video views on the hashtag #Eurovision2021, and a total of 3.7 billion views of #Eurovision videos.
Rich Waterworth, EU general manager for TikTok, said: ‘We’re excited to bring the magic and music of Eurovision to our community this year.
‘TikTok is the home of entertainment and creativity and I know our creators and users across Europe and beyond will embrace this much-loved celebration of music and culture.
‘We’ll be bringing fans exclusive content, taking them behind the scenes and placing them at the heart of the show itself.
‘We can’t wait to see how our community will be inspired by Eurovision this year.’
Martin Osterdahl, executive supervisor of Eurovision for the EBU, said: ‘We’re delighted to be making TikTok the official entertainment partner of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, working closely to create even more exclusive and engaging content.
‘The TikTok community really embraced the Eurovision Song Contest last year and now we’re looking forward to giving them unprecedented access to the world’s largest live music event and inspiring a whole new generation of fans.’
This year’s Eurovision is set to be one of the biggest yet, as fans from across Europe and beyond get behind their favourite act for the first full-scale Eurovision since 2019.
The UK’s entry, Sam, interestingly has a major following on TikTok, so if nothing else the UK should do pretty well on the #Eurovision tag.
Elsewhere, are for the first time since the early 2000’s – and Ukraine’s entry are taking a break from to perform for all of Europe.
The Eurovision grand final will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer and on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds from 8pm on May 14.
