• A. The country that receives the most points from the jury
  • B. The country that won the festival the previous year
  • C. The host country is determined by a draw each year
  • D. The country with the largest population that year

💡 Need help?

Think about what the winner actually “wins” besides the trophy. There’s more to it than just a statuette.

✅ View the answer

The correct answer is B. The country that won the festival the previous year.

Winning means organising. The winning country gets to (and must) host the festival the following year, which is why the event takes place somewhere different every year.

📚 More background information

This rule has existed for almost as long as the festival itself. A fun consequence: nobody knows in advance where the next edition will be held.

But there are exceptions, and those are the most interesting part. The Netherlands won in 2019 and was therefore set to host in 2020, but that edition was cancelled. Nevertheless, the festival returned to Rotterdam in 2021, because the Netherlands remained the winner of the last held edition and simply retained that status. Technically, the basic rule still holds — the timeline just shifted.

Sometimes a winning country simply can’t manage it financially or logistically. In that case, another country steps in as organiser, but the winning country retains its right to compete from the start.

This is exactly the kind of quiz question where people confidently choose the wrong answer. The assumption that “the winner always organises it themselves” holds true in most cases, but not always. And that small caveat is what makes a quiz round interesting.