Eurovision 2016

Reference Group meeting in Vienna today have agreed the provisional dates for 2016

Preliminary dates for the 2016 #Eurovision Song Contest - 10, 12, 14th of May

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) March 16, 2015

onward we go .... but where in Sweden

I hope Petra Mede returns as host.

You wouldn't imagine they would go back to Malmo. Perhaps the Scandinavium in Gothenburg? Or maybe the concert setting at the Friends Arena in Solna (Stockholm) or Tele2 Arena in Stockholm? Sweden really do have an embarrassment of riches for hosting the Contest.

Looking forward to this. Sweden put on the best shows. Really hope Petra Mede returns as host. They need to pace it up a bit though - nearly 4 hours tonight.

Christer Bjorkman has confirmed that SVT will host, after a bidding process amongst several Swedish Cities.

If Petra does host it next year, will that be the first time a host has presented the actual (the special 60th retrospective one last month doesn't count) song contest twice?

Even RTE during the 90's run of winnings managed to find new hosts each time - although, I'm still curious as to why Lord Gay Byrne of Dunnybrook, Dublin 4, was never chosen as a host.

Nope, that honour went to Jacqueline Joubert in '59 and '61. Katie Boyle hosted the contest four times in '60, '63, '69, and '74.

I think some bombarding tweets / emails need to be done to get Petra back. She is perfect!

Is it just me that thinks Petra would be a bad choice (providing her presenting style was replicated again). I say this as there wasn't really any novelty acts this year which may have hinted towards a change in direction for the ESC towards potentially credible tracks.

Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed what she done when she hosted both the contest and the 60th thing with Graham Norton but if the same standard from this year is repeated then it might not work.

She added a human element to proceedings, something the three Austria n's were really lacking this year. Whether it would be in her interests to accept and whether it is the direction SVT wish to go remains to be seen. If she does return I wouldn't be surprised if she gets a co-host or three,

Petra should be involved at some point, but not host (she didn't really cope with the voting as well as she could have done, Alice and Mirjam did slightly better). Candidates for the hosting gig range from this year's winner Mans, to Gina Dinari and Sarah Dawn Finer.