Hosted by Graham Norton, the show gave the public the opportunity to vote on a shortlist made by experts and celebrity fans such as Scott Mills, Rylan Clark-Neal, Ken Bruce, Adele Roberts and Mel Giedroyc, as well as former UK acts SuRie and Nicki French.

The Swedish four piece won the competition in 1974 in Brighton, which kicked off their career: The song topped the UK charts and sold nearly 6 million copies. “Of course it’s ABBA”, Graham Norton said whilst announcing the winner, “it was always going to be.” ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus said he found it “hard to believe” that this is where it all had started for them years ago.

The special also showed what the UK’s entry for this year’s competition was supposed to be: My Last Breath by James Newman, to whom Norton spoke to via video call. Newman confessed he was “pretty gutted” and had to “have a few minutes by myself”, once he found out the contest had been cancelled. The singing competition attracts an audience of nearly 200 million people every year and was due to take place in Rotterdam after the Netherlands had won last year’s competition.

But there aren’t only bad news. ABBA member Benny Andersson said the iconic band is hoping to release some new music later this year. In a video shared by ABBA Talk, the musician was asked about the ABBA songs that fans have been promised for a long time. “They’re coming”, he answered in Swedish, “they’re coming this year. I’m guessing after the summer.”

In the statement, executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand sadly said that the cancellation was a “difficult decision”: “We are very proud of the Eurovision Song Contest, that for 64 years has united people all around Europe. And we are deeply disappointed about this situation.” He continued, “We regret this situation very much, but I can promise you: the Eurovision Song Contest will come back stronger than ever.”

An official statement from the European Broadcasting Union on the #Eurovision Song Contest 2020. pic.twitter.com/b3h7akxvpF

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) March 18, 2020

The decision came after the Dutch government had prohibited public gatherings in order to prevent the outbreak of the virus. The Eurovision team expressed concerned for every individual involved with this contest: “The health of artists, staff, fans and visitors, as well as the situation in the Netherlands, Europe and the world, is at the heart of this decision.”

Meanwhile, the future of Eurovision is very vague right now. The organisers told that, even though they were trying to come up with “many alternative options” in staging the contest, postponing or downsizing was not possible. Moreover, it is not clear whether all the contestants this year will come back for the competition next year.

Read the full statement from Eurovision’s official site here.

The UK’s entry this year is “My Last Breath”, a heartfelt ballad by James Newman, an emerging English singer/songwriter. The song is about perseverance through hard times, with the video featured Dutch cold water swimmer Wim Hof. Watch the video below.

Before the cancellation of Eurovision, it was reported that Glastonbury also suffered the same unfortunate fate because of the rising awareness of coronavirus. Read the story here.