Luton Eurovision fans create their own contest to raise money for charities

Two Luton-based Eurovision fans used the cancellation of the 2020 contest as a chance to raise money for charity.

Josh and Ben Hodson organised their own version of the European singing contest, Coronavision, on Saturday, May 9, with all donations going to St Mary’s Luton Covid-19 appeal, the NHS and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

This year’s competition was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For Coronavision, friends and family submitted songs via video and the contest was streamed online, with viewers voting for their winner. They could also choose which charity they wanted to donate money to.

Josh said: “It went really well, we raised over £2,500 for the NHS, St Mary’s and WHO and we had between 2,500 and 3,000 viewers.

“We decided to do this because of a combination of reasons, firstly my wife is a massive Eurovision fan and was gutted when it was cancelled.

“One of our friends, their youngest child has an asthma problem and the mum works at the hospital. She had to leave the house during the shielding so it was difficult for them as a family.

"We wanted to do something to support the NHS, a local charity, the WHO, and have fun.

“Every year we all watch Eurovision together, so I said to Ben I’m going to give it a go and record it, I put the message out on Facebook and it was really popular so I decided to do it for charity. We had 31 people submit entries and I narrowed it down to 26 for the night.

“The winner was France and it was a great night. I think it’s important to try and do things like this during these difficult and uncertain times.

“Thanks to everyone that got involved with the competition and everyone that watched and donated.”

They have raised £2,322 of their £3,000 goal, to make a donation, click here.

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