The connection between EuroBasket and Eurovision

We explore the connections between EuroBasket and the Eurovision Song Contest, with a few other basketball connections thrown in.

Ahh... basketball and Eurovision: two of my favourite things. Both bring an incredible atmosphere, lots of action and plenty of slam dunks, whether its on the court or in a powerhouse performance on the stage.

And as it turns out, there's actually some interesting links between European basketball and the world's biggest song contest.

With the major EuroBasket tournament on right now, here's your guide to the connections between Europe's biggest basketball championship and Eurovision.

They've been in the same iconic stadiums

Big contests call for big venues - so it's unsurprising that a collection of arenas across Europe have hosted EuroBasket and Eurovision in different years. These include:

• Athens, Greece: Telekom Center Athens (EuroBasket 1995, Eurovision 2006)

• Istanbul, Turkey: Abdi İpekçi Arena (EuroBasket 2001, Eurovision 2004)

• Stockholm, Sweden: Avicii Arena (EuroBasket 2003, Eurovision 2000 and 2016)

• Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro: Belgrade Arena (EuroBasket 2005, Eurovision 2008)

• Helsinki, Finland: Veikkaus Arena (EuroBasket 2017, Eurovision 2007).

Eurobasket used to be held every two years, but these days it takes place every four years. The 2025 contest is being held across four countries - Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Poland - with the finals to be held in Riga, Latvia, later this month.

They're both broadcast by the EBU

The European Broadcasting Union doesn't just runs Eurovision - it has a sports arm as well. Eurovision Sport has a partnership with the world's basketball governing body FIBA, which allows free-to-air access to premium men’s and women’s national team events.

This allows broadcasters who are members of the EBU to televise games in their respective countries to their audiences.

2005: What a time for Greece

If being fresh off hosting the Olympics and winning the Euro 2004 soccer tournament a year earlier wasn't enough, Greece were the kings of both EuroBasket and Eurovision back in 2005.

Their national team won the Gold at the 2005 tournament, beating Germany 78-62 in the final in Belgrade. And a few months earlier, Helena Paparizou scored Greece's first ever Eurovision crown, winning the contest in Kyiv, Ukraine with her song My Number One.

Lithuania loves Eurovision and ballin' anthems

A surprising amount of past Eurovision contestants from Lithuania have links with basketball and the Eurobasket tournament.

Marijonas Mikutavičius - a member of the country's 2006 entry LT United - has released two major anthems for the sport in Lithuania.

The first was Trys milijonai (Three Million), released in 2000, which is widely regarded as the country's main sport anthem, and its been sung at EuroBasket games and celebrations. He then teamed up with Mantas Jankavičius and Mia (known as 'The Three M's') to release the official song for the 2011 Eurobasket tournament, Celebrate Basketball.

Lithuania took it to the next level in 2018 when an actual basketball star went on stage. Ieva Zasimauskaitė competed with When We're Old and her then husband and basketball coach Marius Kiltinavičius, came on stage during the performance.

Damiano David was a star junior basketballer

Although he's a Eurovision champion (and now successful solo artist), Damiano David could have gone down a very different career path if he didn't choose rock n' roll.

The Måneskin frontman was a talented basketballer in his youth, and played at the "highest level possible" in Italy until he was about 16 years old. Check out this video where he discusses his junior basketball career with Zack Sang.

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