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Featuring K-pop and Bangladeshi beatboxing (vocal percussion), Eurovision holds its first Asian edition this Saturday, bringing the European song contest’s distinctive blend of kitsch (flamboyant, over-the-top style) and geopolitics to the world’s most populous region.
From Laos to Mongolia and the Philippines, 11 countries are competing in the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia in Bangkok on Nov. 14.
It will be broadcast live on television in participating countries and on YouTube, but a question remains over whether anyone will be watching.
Eurovision is the world’s biggest televised live music event, drawing 131 million viewers in 2026, and over the past 70 years has launched the careers of artists such as ABBA and Celine Dion.
The Asia edition is its first multinational expansion, although a US version was held in 2022 and was not repeated. India, Japan and China are absent from the Bangkok event, while ticket sales have been sluggish.
“Eurovision is very big in Europe, and it’s very new in Asia,” acknowledged executive producer Assaf Blecher. But he said three years of preparations had fostered a public appetite for the show.
“It’s a window to other countries, to music, to people, to costumes,” he told AFP, the French news agency, adding that he hoped it would be the first of many.
The finalists have been chosen through national competitions, some of them established stars such as Vietnam’s Toc Tien, a favorite to win with her pop-dance track. South Korea will be represented by K-pop star Junhee, Bangladesh is sending an all-male a cappella beatbox collective, Beatmosphere, while Pratik Himal Rai is rocking it out for Nepal.
The Asia edition comes as Eurovision marks its 70th birthday under a cloud, with 2026 viewing figures down 35 million on the year after a boycott by five countries over Israel’s participation.
But the contest has always been marked by controversy, from protests in the 1960s over the participation of Franco-ruled Spain to Russia’s exclusion over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Votes are gathered by participating country, half from a jury and half from viewers, and no nation can vote for itself, meaning ballots are often cast based on national relationships.
In the Asia contest, this could see viewers from Cambodia and Thailand, who clashed over their border last year, voting against each other, Blecher noted.
But the entries to Eurovision Asia, which, unlike the original, is organized by commercial broadcasters, are mostly love songs, lamented Dean Vuletic, an author and expert on Eurovision.
The show is “lacking some provocation or some meaningful messaging that can resonate with international audiences”, Vuletic said.
The show has been hit by production issues, including a reported budget cut of one million dollars, forcing organizers to issue a statement last month insisting it was going ahead. “There are always issues with budgets,” Blecher insisted.
For Bhutan’s Nyendra, who is performing his folk-pop love song in traditional dress, the show offers a platform well beyond his country of 800,000 inhabitants.
Blecher says he already has 16 or 17 places interested in a 2027 edition, if all goes well this week. He cites China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan among those interested, a selection that would certainly put the contest on the geopolitical map.
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