Inform the sequin manufacturers: Eurovision has officially been canceled.
Yes, the world’s biggest singing competition—also, not coincidentally, one of its single biggest consumers of jumpsuits, flair, and a very Swedish brand of “attitude”—has announced that it’ll be joining most other major events for the unforseeable future by canceling its 2020 installment. Eurovision’s semi-finals were set to take place in Rotterdam on May 12-14, with the final competition to determine musical supremacy to take place on May 16.
Originally introduced in 1956 as a way for the countries of the world to air out their regional differences without being forced to resort to war or sports, Eurovision has been an institution for nearly 7 decades, with this year’s competition being the first it’s missed in that entire time. The competition has a rabid fanbase on Twitter, with critiques of increasingly out-there performances and stage set-ups raucously celebrated by everybody, even us poor, deprived Americans who don’t get to field an entry every year.
That being said: You don’t have to entirely deprive yourself of some of the weirdest set designs and dance choices in modern music. The Eurovision YouTube channel has plenty of videos of finalists/semi-finalists and their performance, including the magnifying-glass-based dance moves of Lithuania’s The Roop, and the legitimately kind of nifty, “Kids Incorporated”-esque look sported by Iceland’s Daði & Gagnamagnið. (Iceland also fielded last year’s “S&M torture dungeon” band Hatari; Iceland gives good Eurovision.)