Eurovision Choir of the Year 2017 was the first Eurovision Choir competition for

choral A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

singers, which was organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) and Interkultur. It was held on 22 July 2017, at the

Arena Riga Arena Riga ( lv, Arēna Rīga) is an indoor arena in Riga, Latvia. It is primarily used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. Arena Riga holds a maximum of 14,500 and was opened on 15 February 2006. It was built to be used as one of the v ...

, in the

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n capital,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. The event was produced by Latvian host broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) and the Riga Tourism Development Bureau. Nine countries participated, including Wales, which marked the second time that the United Kingdom has not participated as a unified state in any of the Eurovision Network events, after 1994, when Wales participated lastly in '' Jeux Sans Frontières''. Carmen Manet of Slovenia won the contest, with Wales and hosts Latvia placing second and third respectively.

Location

Latvia hosted its first Eurovision network event since the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, which took place at Skonto Hall in Riga.

Venue

On 14 February 2017, it was confirmed that the inaugural contest would take place at the

, located in the

n capital. The arena is primarily used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. Riga Arena holds a maximum of 14,500 and was completed in 2006. It was built to be used as one of the venues for the

2006 IIHF World Championship The 2006 IIHF World Championship was held in between 5–21 May 2006 in Riga, Latvia. It was the 70th annual event, and was run by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). One of the requirements of the IIHF for Latvia to host the event ...

, the other being Skonto Arena. It has been home to the Kontinental Hockey League club

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of ...

since 2008. During the years the Arena has also hosted many well-known artists from all over the world. The arena hosted the 'D' group of Eurobasket 2015.

Format

Competing countries who are members of the

(EBU) are eligible to participate in Eurovision Choir. Nine countries participated at the inaugural event. Each competing country was represented by a professional choir, and each performed a

piece lasting no more than six minutes in length. Each piece may include singular or several musical works or of a free genre; but must contain national or regional influence from the participating country. Tickets for the event went on sale on 15 March 2017. The winning choir ( Slovenia) received the title of Eurovision Choir of the Year 2017 and prize money from Riga City Council. The event was opened with a performance of "Fly to Paradise" by host Whitacre, with over 500 singers on stage and Jolanta Strikaite in the arena and closed with Ēriks Ešenvalds’ "My Song", performed by all the choirs, with the Festival Stage Choir, Dāvis Jurka and the live audience.

Presenters

Announced on 27 February 2017, Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre and LTV culture presenter Eva Johansone, were the hosts for the inaugural contest that took place on 22 July 2017, in Riga, Latvia.

Participating countries

On 27 February 2017, the EBU confirmed that seven countries would be participating in the inaugural contest. Following the announcements of and joining the event, this increased to nine competing choirs.

Conductors

The conductors for each country are as follows: * – Alexander Koller * – Philippe Favette * – Ole Faurschou * – Aarne Saluveer * – Bertrand Gröger * – Lakner Tamás * – Līga Celma-Kursiete * – Primož Kerštanj * – Islwyn Evans

International broadcasts and voting

Commentators

Most countries sent commentators to Riga or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants.

Professional jury

The winner of the contest is decided upon the votes from a professional jury, which is made up of the following: * –

Elīna Garanča Elīna Garanča (born 16 September 1976) is a Latvian mezzo-soprano. She began to study singing in her hometown of Riga in 1996 and continued her studies in Vienna and in the United States. By 1999 she had won first place in a significant compet ...

(

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

) * – John Rutter (composer) * – Nicolas Fink (conductor)

Other countries

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in Eurovision Choir, it needs to be an active member of the

(EBU). It is currently unknown whether the EBU issue invitations of participation to all 56 active members like they do for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. * – On 5 September 2016, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK announced that they would not be making their debut at the 2017 contest due to their existing involvement in Let the Peoples Sing, another EBU competition. * – On 29 May 2017, Swedish national broadcaster SVT announced that they would not be making their debut at the 2017 contest.

References

External links

* {{Eurovision Choir 2017 in Latvia Eurovision Choir of the Year Events in Riga