Europe Song Festival 1

The Europe Song Festival 1 was the first edition of ESF. It took place on March 24th. It takes place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The contest is held at the Ziggo Dome and consisted of one single show. The contest was hosted by Martijn Krabbé and Sylvie Meis.

Location
Initially, the contest was set to be hosted in the United Kingdom, but due to a sudden withdrawal, multiple countries cast their bid for hosting. Paris, Tallinn, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Prague and Lisbon all bid to do so. After two were eliminated and 4 advanced to the next round, it was announced that Amsterdam was selected to host.

Visual Design
The slogan for the contest, Love is Forever, was unveiled on February 28th. Its visual design was revealed on March 14th.

Presenters
On March 1st, NPO announced Martijn Krabbé as the first co-host. Second co-host, Sylvie Meis, was announced to be so on March 6th. These were the final hosts for the contest.

Final Allocation Draw
A draw has been made where each country was allocated in which half of the show will they perform.

Participating Countries
The contest was consisted of one single show.

Spokespersons
The spokespersons announced the 12-point score from their respective country's national jury in the following order:
 * 1) Romania.png Romania - TBA
 * 2) Latvia.png Latvia - TBA
 * 3) France.png France - Emmy Liyana
 * 4) Lithuania.png Lithuania - The Riga Beaver
 * 5) Czech Repulic.png Czech Republic - TBA
 * 6) Germany.png Germany - TBA
 * 7) Portugal.png Portugal - TBA
 * 8) Turkey.png Turkey - TBA
 * 9) Italy.png Italy - TBA
 * 10) Estonia.png Estonia - Getter Jaani
 * 11) Sweden.png Sweden - David Dencik
 * 12) Russia.png Russia - TBA
 * 13) Poland.png Poland - TBA
 * 14) Netherlands.png The Netherlands - Emma Wortelboer

Active IBC members

 * es.png Spain - The Spanish broadcaster, ETV, have expressed their interest in participating in the contest but later confirmed they won't participate.
 * United Kingdom.png United Kingdom - Financial issues made the initial host withdraw. BBC was fined but still helped NPO with some aspects of the contest and will still broadcast the show.

Non-IBC members

 * ds.png Greece - ERT has wanted to participate in the contest but wasn't granted IBC membership due to the lack of funds.

British late withdrawal
On February 2nd, BBC announced their withdrawal from the contest one month from when it began. They were supposed to host this contest and also were supposed to have a national final that got cancelled. This forced IBU to start a bidding phase where in 1 week it was decided that Amsterdam would host the contest. The BBC has been fined 100,000£. On March 1st, it was revealed that BBC helped NPO on some parts of the contest to redeem themselves.