U.S. Residents Will Be Able to Stream the Eurovision Song Contest Live on NBC’s Peacock

For the first 60 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, the most viable (and legal) way for U.S. residents to watch it live was to take a trip to a country that broadcast it. That changed in 2016, when Viacom aired the finals on its channel Logo.

Logo remained the U.S. home for Eurovision through 2018, and Netflix acquired the VOD rights to both the 2019 and 2020 competitions (though last year’s was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic). In short, Eurovision has been creeping further into the American media landscape—and also the public consciousness, thanks in part to Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams’s 2020 Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga—for some time now.

And this year, as Vulture reports, we’ll be able to watch more of its campy drama unfold in real time than ever before. NBC’s streaming service Peacock nabbed the rights to broadcast not only the Eurovision finals on May 22, but also the first and second semifinals, on May 18 and May 20. If subscribers can’t catch the programs live—all three air at 3 p.m. EST on their respective dates—they can stream them on demand.

Peacock is also set to stream the 2022 competition, though we’ll have to wait for this year’s results before we know where it’ll take place; the home country of the previous Eurovision winner always hosts the next competition. Dutch singer Duncan Laurence won in 2019, so the 2021 events are being held in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Even if you’re not familiar with many of the acts performing this year, you’d probably recognize some names of champions past. In 1974, ABBA took home the top prize for Sweden with “Waterloo.” And Celine Dion won for Switzerland in 1988 with “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi.” You can check out those performances below.

[h/t Vulture]