Will Kazakhstan debut in Eurovision 2023? Khabar Agency has not given up their aspiration of bringing the country onto the stage of Europe’s most-watched TV show. Following recent comments from the TV producer, Zhan Mukanov, there is speculation that we may see the nation reach the Eurovision stage.
At a press conference organised by Khabar Agency and ORTCOM, the Kazakh broadcaster revealed the name of their Junior Eurovision 2022 artist: David Charlin. This reveal was announced alongside comments from Zhan Mukanov about Kazakhstan’s intentions on joining the rest of Europe in Liverpool next year:
Since the Khabar Agency is an officially accredited member of the European Broadcasting Union, there is every chance to enter the adult Eurovision next year. I really hope, we hope that everything works out.
Kazakhstan has been trying to join the Eurovision family for many years and dedicated fans believed that their plans would be carried out after acceptance into the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2018.
There is one main problem for Kazakhstan: they are an “associate member” of the EBU, meaning that they need to be invited to join the contest. Furthermore, one difference between Eurovision and Junior Eurovision is that the public vote in Junior Eurovision is an online vote. In Eurovision, it is a televote and this is where the issue lies with Kazakhstan because the nation shares a telephone dialling code with their neighbours to the north: Russia. However, the Ministry of Digital Development has promised to begin the process of changing their dialling code in January 2023 to differ from Russia’s. Could this lead to a potential Eurovision debut?
Kazakhstan have taken their spot in Junior Eurovision very seriously ever since their debut. A lot of success has been gained from the four Kazakh entries that have been sent to the children’s competition, with two consecutive entries reaching a high of second place in 2019 and 2020.
If Kazakhstan had the opportunity to join adult Eurovision, do you think their success would be repeated? What’s your opinion? Would you like to see Kazakhstan debut in Eurovision in the near future?
