''Europe's Biggest Dance Show'' is an annual multinational

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

hosted by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with several European radio stations, all of which are owned by

public broadcasters Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

which are members of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

. The show reaches several millions of listeners all over Europe.

Background and history

The

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

(BBC) announced on 27 September 2019 that it would join radio stations from seven other countries, and a potential audience of 18 million listeners, in hosting a one-off dance music simulcast on 11 October. The first simulcast began at 19:00 BST and ended at 02:00 BST on 12 October, with

Annie Mac Annie Macmanus (born 18 July 1978), known professionally as Annie Mac, is an Irish DJ, broadcaster and writer. She hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1, including BBC Switch and ''Future Sounds''. She also DJed in various locations, includ ...

introducing for BBC Radio 1 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Seven radio stations across Europe joined the simulcast:

1LIVE 1LIVE is a radio station operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk public broadcasting corporation in Germany. It broadcasts a CHR format specialised in popular music. Aimed at the 14–39 age demographic, the average age of its listeners is 34. ...

, ,

Mouv' ''Mouv '' () (formerly ''Le Mouv'') is a French youth-oriented radio station which began broadcasting on 17 June 1997. As part of Radio France, it is a public radio station. The station primarily plays youth-oriented music, centered on urban mu ...

NPO 3FM NPO 3FM is a Dutch rhythmic CHR radio station controlled by public broadcaster NPO. The vast majority of the songs played on-air are rock, alternative, indie and pop, though dance and Mega Top 30 tracks may also air at times. History As ...

RTÉ 2FM RTÉ 2fm, or 2FM as it is more commonly referred to, is an Irish radio station operated by RTÉ. The station specialises in current popular music and chart hits and is the second national radio station in Ireland. History The station commenc ...

SR P3 Sveriges Radio P3 (P3) is a semi-mainstream CHR/CHR Alternative-formatted station operated by Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcasting organization Sveriges Radio. The P in P3 originally stood for Program (''Programme'') but today has ...

and

Studio Brussel Studio Brussel is a Dutch-speaking radio station in Belgium, owned by the VRT. The music played is considered more alternative than the other big radio stations, and is aimed mainly at a youth audience. The channel is an initiative of the Fle ...

. Each radio station contributed an hour of dance music from their respective countries, except in the case of 1LIVE and Fritz, who contributed 30 minutes each from

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

respectively. Some stations chose to feature at least one live

DJ set A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together by a DJ to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as turntables, CD players, digital audio ...

as part of their contribution. Each radio station sent their feeds to

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

in London, where they were mixed by BBC senior technical producer Dan Morris before being sent back to the radio stations for broadcast. Despite the simulcast being billed as a one-off event, two subsequent editions of the simulcast were presented in May and October 2020 respectively, before it became an annual event, with new editions presented in the following years and more radio stations joining the simulcast. Since the 2021 edition, each participating radio station, including 1LIVE and Fritz, has contributed 30 minutes of dance music from their respective countries instead of an hour. In March 2024, BBC Radio 1 launched a spin-off event called ''Europe's Biggest Soundsystem Party'' alongside partner stations 1LIVE and Mouv'; this was followed in February 2025 by ''Europe’s Biggest Gig'', with contributions from RTÉ 2FM, Studio Brussel, 1LIVE and, for the first time,

Rás 2 Rás 2 (''Channel 2'') is an Icelandic radio station belonging to the National Icelandic Broadcasting Service, RÚV. Launched on 1 December 1983, it is currently the highest-rated radio station in Iceland, with a schedule composed chiefly of news ...

Participating broadcasters

The following table lists the countries, broadcasters and radio stations that have participated in ''Europe's Biggest Dance Show'' as of 2023.

Editions

The following table lists the editions of ''Europe's Biggest Dance Show''. Countries in bold are countries that made their debut in the simulcast in their respective years.

Notes

References

External links

* {{European Broadcasting Union Europe's Biggest Dance Show Eurovision events Simulcasts BBC Radio 1 programmes British music radio programmes RTÉ 2fm programmes Sveriges Radio programmes 2019 radio programme debuts