The Eurovision Song Contest’s organizers decided that the contest would instead be held in the UK in Ukraine’s place the following year since the winner could not host the event. The grand winner normally serves as the host, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the program, began coordinating with a news organization last month after assessing the situation in Ukraine. There are many places in the UK that have enough arenas, lodging, and access to international transportation; Manchester, London, and Sheffield have already expressed their intention to make a formal proposal. Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol, Belfast, Cardiff, and Nottingham are other candidates. The process of choosing the host city will start this coming week.

The UK has hosted Eurovision eight times, more than any other country, and has taken over hosting responsibilities for other nations four times. It hosted for the Netherlands, France, Monaco, and Luxembourg in 1960, 1963, 1972, and 1974, respectively. Ukraine will now join the Big Five—the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—as the champion automatically qualifies for the Grand Final due to their financial assistance with the competition. The competition’s Grand Final has not yet been scheduled, but it usually happens in May.