GENEVA, May 11 -- Swiss schoolchildren are drawing inspiration from Eurovision and creating their own songs, to be performed before an audience of thousands in the build-up to this year's extravaganza in Basel.

"It's exciting to see that we're all going to sing together" on stage on the sidelines of the Eurovision Song Contest, said Tessa Cajani, a pupil at a middle school in Vernier in the Geneva suburbs.

Like her, elementary and middle school students from 16 classes across Switzerland have been participating in music workshops, in partnership with Eurovision, coming up with their own tunes.

The songs will be performed at an outdoor concert on May 15 - two days before the Eurovision final-in Basel's central Barfusserplatz, redubbed E...