After this year's shocking cancellation of the contest EBU has declared that the next edition of the contest will take place no matter what, developing a plan of 4 scenarios for the competition in Rotterdam next May.

The 41 countries should make a pre recorded live performance of their entries that they must submit by late March in order to guarantee their participation in case the delegation is unable to travel to Rotterdam due to restrictions or a quarantine in their countries. 

The official statement by EBU says: 

All the participating broadcasters have been asked to record a live performance of their act in their own country. This recording will be delivered prior to the event and will take place in a studio setting. The recording will take place in real time (as it would be at the Contest) without making any edits to the vocals or any part of the performance itself after the recording.

And regarding the guidlines for the recorded performances EBU adds: 

The Host Broadcaster’s creative concept for the live-on-tape backup recordings is OpenUp to variety. Rather than having a strict format, the Contest will fully embrace the artistic freedom, creativity, ambition and style of each of the 41 countries.

A set of production guidelines will ensure fairness and the integrity of the Song Contest. There will be no audience present at the live-on-tape performances. The recording should be unique and remain unpublished before the event in May.

Delegations are allowed to use similar technical possibilities and dimensions that would be available on-stage in Rotterdam, but are also free to opt for a more down-scaled production setup. The live-on-tape recordings should not contain any augmented or virtual reality, overlays, confetti, drone shots, water, use of chromakey or green screen.

On how will the process secure fair paly condtions for all the participating delegates the EBU stated: 

Normally at the Eurovision Song Contest all the artists would perform on the same stage under the same circumstances providing them all with the same opportunity to shine. For the live-on-tape recordings the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest has approved additional measures to guarantee the fairness of the competition.

Before the recording each participating broadcaster will meet with a co-ordinator from the Host Broadcasters and submit a recording session schedule, studio set up and camera plan.

The Head of Delegation must be onsite during the 60-minute recording session of the permitted three takes and, either alone or together with someone who has the appropriate mandate, make the final decision on which take is selected.

A live connection will be set up during the recording to allow the ESC Executive Supervisor and a representative from an independent voting observer (E&Y) and the Host Broadcaster to observe the recording session, to provide assistance and support, but also to ensure the integrity of the Contest.

No national final performances can be submitted but each country can record on the same set. The “live-on-tape” recordings have to be delivered by the end of March.

Hopefully, all or most artists will be able to travel to Rotterdam in May but having the live-on-tape recording ensures that their performance will be seen by millions of viewers come what may.

The next Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place on 18,20 and 22 May at Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 

Source: Eurovision.tv

The 8 song s that have been created for the X-factor Israel four finalists, Inbal Bibi, Michael Ben David, Eli Huli and Sapir Saban are out! 

After a number of auditions and shows and with the semi finals completed and the four finalists  determined on Channel 13, ahead of the X-factor Grand final, a second special show will take place in order to determine the songs the four finalists will perform in the X-factor final show.

During the show each of the four candidates will have to perform two songs selected out of the songs sent in during the submission period. In this parallel semifinal show one of the two candidate songs will be chosen for each of the four finalists. 

The singers and the competing songs are:

• Inabl Bibi – “ZaZa” & “Marionette“
• Sapir Saban – “Breaking my own walls” & “Head Up“
• Michael Ben David – “Don’t” & “I.M“
• Eli Huli – “Blinded Dreamers” & “Nostalgia“

Followng the release of the eight songs the online voting opened which will run up to the show during which the song for each finalist will be selected. 

The eight songs will be performed by the four finalists during HaShir Shelanu L’Eurovizion show on February 3, with one of the two song selected for each finalist.. The results of the show will be influenced 50% by public vote, 25% by the judges' voting and the rest 50% by a professional committee.

News Soruce: Euromix.co.il

Image: EuroMix.co.il/Photo: Ohad Kab

A week after the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam was completed crowining winners Italy's Maneskin and following last evening's first episode of 'Eurovision Song Celebration', the special show will hit again the screen on Youtube presenting us the Live On tape Videos of the ESC 2021 finalists. 

According to EBU's plans for this year's contest, the 39 countries had to make a pre recorded live on-tape performance of their entries that they had submit by late March before the contest, in order to guarantee their participation in case the delegation was unable to travel to Rotterdam due to covid-19 restrictions or a quarantine in their countries or if they didn't reach the stage to record a rehearsal before being tested positive. Eventually only Australia wasn't able to travel to Rotterdam and Montaigne competed with her back up peformance in the first semi final. 

Tonight the on tape videos of the Grand final contestants will be released and presented to the audience in a special show hosted by Krista Siegfrieds. The on tape performances that we'll see tonight will be of the following countries: 

1. Cyprus
2. Albania
3. Israel
4. Belgium
5. Russia
6. Malta
7. Portugal
8. Serbia
9. Greece
10. Switzerland
11. Iceland
12. Spain
13. Moldova
14. Germany
15. Finland
16. Bulgaria
17. Lithuania
18. Ukraine
19. France
20. Azerbaijan
21. Norway
22. Netherlands
23. Italy
24. Sweden
25. San Marino

Notably, the U.K decided not to release their on tape performance and let the audience with the first impression from their respective live performance on Rotterdam Ahoy's stage. 

How to Wacth

The second episode of  Eurovision Song Celebration will  be released at 21:00 CET  and you can watch it on The Eurovision Song Contest Official Youtube Channel.

News Source/Image: Eurovision.tv

A week after the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam was completed crowining winners Italy's Maneskin, what a better way to treat the so called post Eurovision depression with one more celebration of this year's Eurovision Songs. 

The special show "Eurovision Song Celebration" will hit the screen on Youtube presenting us the Live On tape Videos of the countries that didn't in their semifinals to the Grand final show. 

According to EBU's plans for this year's contest, the 39 countries had to make a pre recorded live on-tape performance of their entries that they had submit by late March before the contest, in order to guarantee their participation in case the delegation was unable to travel to Rotterdam due to covid-19 restrictions or a quarantine in their countries or if they didn't reach the stage to record a rehearsal before being tested positive. Eventually only Australia wasn't able to travel to Rotterdam and Montaigne competed with her back up peformance in the first semi final. 

Tonight the on tape video of the non qualifiers in the semifinals will be released and presented to the audience in a special show hosted by Krista Siegfrieds. The on tape performances that we'll tonight will be of the following countries: 

1. Slovenia
2. Australia
3. North Macedonia
4. Croatia
5. Romania
6. Estonia
7. Czech Republic
8. Austria
9. Poland
10. Georgia
11. Latvia
12. Denmark

Notably Ireland and the U.K opted for not to release their on tape performance and let the audience with their impression of their respective live performances. 

How to Wacth

The first episode of  Eurovision Song Celebration will  be released at 21:00 CET  and you can watch it on  The Eurovision Song Contest Official Youtube Channel.

While tonight the first episode will hot the screen, the second part will follow tomorrow Saturday the same time. 

News Source/Image: Eurovision.tv

A week after the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam was completed crowining winners Italy's Maneskin, the special show "Eurovision Song Celebration" hit the screen on Youtube presenting us the Live On tape Videos of the countries that didn't in their semifinals to the Grand final show. 

According to EBU's plans for this year's contest, the 39 countries had to make a pre recorded live on-tape performance of their entries that they had submit by late March before the contest, in order to guarantee their participation in case the delegation was unable to travel to Rotterdam due to covid-19 restrictions or a quarantine in their countries or if they didn't reach the stage to record a rehearsal before being tested positive. Eventually only Australia wasn't able to travel to Rotterdam and Montaigne competed with her back up peformance in the first semi final. 

Last evening the on tape videos of the non qualifiers in the semifinals were released and presented to the audience in a special show hosted by Krista Siegfrieds. The on tape performances that premiered last night were of the following countries: 

1. Slovenia
2. Australia
3. North Macedonia
4. Croatia
5. Romania
6. Estonia
7. Czech Republic
8. Austria
9. Poland
10. Georgia
11. Latvia
12. Denmark

Notably Ireland and the U.K decided not to release their on tape performance and let the audience with their impression of their respective live performances. 

In case you missed out last night show you can watch all of those Live on tape videos below: 

News Source/Image: Eurovision.tv

After this year's unprecedent cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest due to the covid-19 pandemic , the same number of countries re-confirmed their participation in next year's contest, making it more easy for EBU to adopt the same semi final allocation as determined in this year's draw. 

Precisely, the Reference Group has decided not to hold a new Allocation Draw next January, therefore all partcipating countries maintain their spot in the  Semi-final 1 or Semi-final depending on last January's draw. Notable that this solution serves the matter of tickect that arouse after this year's cancellations and gives the chances to the fans that have bought tickets to attend the respective events they purchased previously. 

Mr. Martin Osterdahl (EBU's Exeutinve Supervisor for Eurovision Song Contest ) says:

Under normal circumstances we would be looking forward to the Allocation Draw and Host Insignia Exchange Ceremony as an important milestone on the road to Rotterdam 2021. With the same participating countries as last year , the Reference Group decided that it made sense for both ticket holders and for participating broadcasters to keep the same Semi-Final draws as 2020. Even though we won’t have the traditional Ceremony in January we have plenty more planned to build excitement ahead of the return of the Eurovision Song Contest next year.

The ESC 2021 semi final line up

A total of 35 nations will compete in the two semi finals set to take place on May 18 and 20. In the first semi final 17 countries will battle for the ticket to the grand final while the second semi final will see 18 countries which will fight to join the Big-5 countires and host country in the Grand Final show. 

Thus the semi final will unfold according to the following allocation: 

First Semi Final

In the First Half will compete: 

• North Macedonia
• Belarus
• Lithuania
• Sweden
• Slovenia
• Australia
• Ireland
• Russia

In the Second Half will compete: 

• Norway
• Cyprus
• Croatia
• Azerbaijan
• Malta
• Israel
• Ukraine
• Romania
• Belgium

Second Semi final

In the First half will compete : 

• Austria
• Moldova
• Poland
• San Marino
• Serbia
• Iceland
• Czech Republic
• Greece
• Estonia

In the Second half will compete : 

• Denmark
• Bulgaria
• Switzerland
• Finland
• Armenia
• Latvia
• Georgia
• Portugal
• Albania

The Big-5 countries and the host nation Semi final voting

The host nation , The Netherlands , along with Germany and Italy and Germany will vote in the 1st semi final while Spain , the UK and France will cast their votes in the 2nd semi final. 

The final running order will be determined by the producers after the competing countries have completed their national selections and all entries are submitted. 

The 2021 Eurovision Song Contest will be held on 18, 20, 22 May at the Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Malta is joining the list of countries that will continue with the same act in Eurovision 2021 aftert this year's unprecedent cancellation. Destiny Chukunyere will defend the Maltese colors in Rotterdam at next year's edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. 

After the Eurovision 2020 cancellation and EBU’s decision not to allow this year’s entries to compete in the 2021 edition, the countries are progressively unveiling their intentions and plans regarding next year's contest and whether they will stick with their ESC 2020 hopefuls or select new ones. 

Once the Eurovision song contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic the question that arouse was what will happen with this year’s unlucky contestants that didn’t eventually were deprived the right to complete their Eurovision 2020 journey in Rotterdam. The EBU through a clear statement outruled the ESC 2020 songs ,by not allowing the  ESC 2020 entries to compete in 2021. Therefore the broadcasters were left to decide whether they will return with the same acts or not.

The x-factor Malta winner confirmed the good news herself on her instagram account expressing her gratittude for all the support and declaring her intention to do her best in order to make the country proud.

The 18 year old act won on February 9 the X-factor Malta talent show and earned the right to represent the country in the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Destiny’s entry “All Of My Love” is written by the Symphonix International team, Bernarda Brunovic, Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Dag Lundberg, Joacim Persson and Cesar Sampson. Cesar Sampson had represented Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 and finished third while  this is Borislav Milanov’s third entry at this year’s contest.

However, the young talented act saw her Eurovision 2020 journey interrupted by the covid- 19 pandemic as the contest was cancelled. Now she will have a second chance to complete that journey in next year's edition. 

A few words about Destiny

Destiny is a Maltese singer from Birkirkara, Malta. At Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, she brought the trophy home representing the country with the entry “Not My Soul”. In 2017, she took part in series 11 of Britain’s Got Talent and finished 6th in the Semi-Final and thus was eliminated. In 2019, Chukunyere appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 stage in Tel Aviv, Israel as Michela Pace’s backing vocalist for her song, “Chameleon”. The song qualified for the final, finishing in 14th place with 107 points. In February this year she won the X-factor Malta talent show as a contestant in the Girls category, mentored by Ira Losco. 

Malta in Eurovision 

Malta participated in Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1971 and has participated 31 times until now. Since 1991 it hasn't missed out any edtion of the competition. The mediterranean country has not been victorious until now but holds two second places in its record (2002 Ira Losco, Seventh Wonder) and (2005 Chiara Angel). Since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, it has failed to qualify six times.

In 2018 Christabelle, winner of MESC 2018, represented Malta with her entry Taboo. Despite her energetic performance she failed to reach the final finishing 13rd in the 2nd semi final in Lisbon last May. This year x-factor winner Michela Pace won the right to represent the country in Tel Aviv with her entry “Chameleon” which eventually came 14th in the grand final. 

The Eurovision 2021 winners, the Italian rock band, Måneskin, have broken the record of views for live performances on the Eurovision Youtube Channel as their live performance of  'Zitti e Buoni' has passed 49 million views.

The Italian entry, just 14 days after it triumped in Rotterdam Ahoy, has surpassed the impressive number of 49 million views, making it the most watched live performance on the official Eurovision YouTube channel. Here is how the top 5 most viewed live performances has developed over the last days after the competition in Rotterdam: 

1. Måneskin – “Zitti E Buoni”  (Italy 2021) – 49,02 million views
2. Loreen – “Euphoria” (Sweden 20212)  – 45.9 million views
3. Måns Zelmerlöw – “Heroes” (Sweden 2015)– 45.3 million views
4. Netta – “Toy” – (Israel 2018) - 44.4 million views
5. Lordi – “Hard Rock Hallelujah”  (Finland 2006) – 42.8 million views

Ongoing global success for Måneskin

Måneskin the rock band from Rome, consisting of members Damiano David (lead vocals), Victoria De Angelis (bass), Thomas Raggi (guitar), and Ethan Torchio (drums) is meeting ongoing success across the globe in local and global charts. Måneskin's song “Zitti e buoni”  debuted at number 26 on the Billboard Global Top 200 chart while recently the song with more than 3,9 million streams in the global spotify charts was placed 9th which is a record position for an Italian track.

In addition the song has reached the 12th spot in the UK charts marking the first Eurovision entry ever to debut in the top 50 in the British Top 200 Spotify chart. In Lithuania 7 additional songs of Maneskin feature the country's top 50. 

Meanwhile the Italian ESC winning entry has achieved remarkable placing in other countries too: 

• Austria #2
• Belgium #1
• Bulgaria  #1
• Czech Republic  #9
• Denmark #6
• Estonia #1 
• Germany  #2
• Greece  #1
• Hungary #21
• Israel  #5
• Iceland  #1 
• Ireland #16
• Italy #2
• Lithuania #1 
• Latvia  #1 
• Norway  #1
• Netherlands #1
• Portugal #3
• Poland  #4
• Russia #2
• Spain  #9
• Sweden  #1
• Switzerland #2 
• Ukraine #1

News Source: Eurovision Youtube channel/Spotify

Image:  EBU / THOMAS HANSES

With the Cypriot entry marking one success after another across the continent, Elena's record label, Panik records has announced that 'El Diablo' has been licensed to Sony Music in a global agreement. 

A few days after the Eurovision participation with "El Diablo", which became one of the super hits of the event and received excellent reviews, Panik Records and Sony Music signed a collaboration contract for the singer."El Diablo", written by the international acclaimed creators Thomas Stengaard, Jimmy "Joker" Thornfeldt, Laurell Barker and Oxa, once again crosses borders as it will be released and promoted by Sony Music worldwide.

From the first moment of its release, by Panik Records, "El Diablo" stood out throughout Europe. Among other things, in just five days, the music video exceeded 1 million YouTube views, remaining firmly in the first places of the trends in many countries, such as Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Malta, Norway, United Kingdom, Russia, Finland, The Netherlands, Croatia and Lithuania, while its official videos on YouTube (music video, appearances at Eurovision) have over 20 million views.

The song was also at the top of the digital charts, in countries such as Greece, Cyprus, Sweden, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as in the top 10 of Spotify's global list of most viral songs, and currently has more than 12 million streams.

Thus, Elena Tsagrinou joins the list of ESC participants that have met with their entries massive success in the chartsa and digital platforms and have signed similar deals with Sony Music. The same path for global distribution has imerged for entries performed by  Destiny from Malta and the Finnish band Blind Channel, who both have signed themselves similar deals with the giant record company.  

A few words about Elena Tsagrinou

Elena Tsagrinou was born in 1994 in Athens, Greece. The first time her name comes up publically is when she participated at the age of 14 in the talent show Greece’s Got Talent, where she reached the semi  finals. . In 2013, after auditions she joins the group OtherView, as their lead singer, meeting success with songs such as 'What you want' and 'O giros tou kosmou' (Around the world)

In 2018 she decides to leave OtherView and go solo and not long after she releases her first single titled Pame ap’ tin arhi (Let’s go from the start), written by Dimitris Kontopoulos and  Nikos Moraitis. The specific track was released had its Engish version with the title 'Summer Romance'. Just four months after she will release her second single, penned and composed by ARCADE, titled 'Paradeisos' (Heaven).

A year after she'll drop her fourth single titled 'Logia'( Words) written by Leonidas Sozou while in July 2020 she releases her new track 'Pare me agkalia' (Hug me) in collaboration with the Greek act Mike.

All this year's she has collaborated with the biggest names of the Greek Music Scene such as Konstantinos Argiros, Melisses, Tamta, DEMY singing on popular music stages. 

Back in November the Cypriot national broadcaster, CyBC, announced Elena as their ESC 2021 hopeful. Elena represented the Mediterranean island with her entry 'El Diablo' which competed in the first semi final in which it qualified to the Grand final. Eventually the song  finished 16th in the overall scoreboard. 

News Source: Panik Records

Image: EBU/THOMAS HANSES

Rotterdam made it happen and despite the ongoing difficult covid-19 circumstances achieved to bring back on our screens  the planet's most popular show  in a spectacular way, attracting circa 183 million viewers acrros the world from 36 markets. 

But let's take a look from different aspects of the viewing figures accomplished in this year's edition: 

The live shows and audience

First of all , the Grand Final live show of the 65th Contest saw, on average, a 4 percentage point increase of the TV audience share comparing to the last Contest in 2019 of 40.5% - more than double the average primetime viewing share for the same group of channels (19.4%).

They say the future lays on the younger generations, a group on which the competition can rely on for glorious future times as the Contest was a massive hit with young audiences. The viewing share of the Grand Final among 15–24-year-olds was up 7 percentage points comparing to the 2019 edition. 52.8% of that age group watching TV at that time tuned in, which is 4 times higher than the broadcast channels average (14.5%).

Massive numbers for the Online and social media audience

Online, during the Eurovision week  50.6 million unique viewers from 234 countries watched on the official YouTube channel the shows, which marks a 28% increase to the one of 2019. 18–34-year-olds made up 71% of those who viewed live content.

The same period the Contest’s official social media accounts generated 14 million engagement actions on posts (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok). The new TikTok channel also generated 4.3 million engagement actions.

Content on the official Facebook page reached 21 million people with a further 8 million people reached on Instagram where posts were seen 170 million times. Nearly 5 million tweets about the Contest were sent on the night of the Grand Final with almost 80 million total views on Twitter for videos related to Eurovision during the week of the event.

The countries 

In the winning country, Italy, the ESC delivered its largest audience for Rai since they re-joined the competition after a 13-year absence in 2011. An average of 4.3 million viewers watched the Grand Final, accounting for 24.4% of TV viewing in the country.

Host country the Netherlands saw their biggest audience for the Grand Final on record**, up +21% on 2019. 5.4 million viewers watched on NPO, who staged the event with NOS and AVROTROS. The huge audience made up 78.5% of TV viewing in the Netherlands.

France, who came 2nd in the Contest for the first time since 1991, delivered its best audience of the past decade, with 5.5 million viewers, up 15% on 2019.

7.4 million viewers watched in the United Kingdom – the highest number since 2014 and up 6% on 2019.

Germany continues to deliver the largest audience of all markets for the 11th consecutive year with 7.8 million viewers, up 3% on 2019.

4th placed Iceland once again had the largest viewing share of any market at 99.9%.

Finland made it to the Grand Final after a year’s absence in 2019 and delivered its best audience on record** with 1.4 million viewers, accounting for 81.4% of TV viewing in Finland. Almost 3 times the audience delivered in 2019.

You can also check out more viewing figures from the competing countries in our respective previous post on ESC 2021 TV viewing figures.

EBU's Executive Supervisor of the contest, Martin Osterdahl, expressed his excitement on the numbers saying: 

“We’re thrilled to see that audiences welcomed back the Eurovision Song Contest in such huge numbers and very proud to have brought millions together at a time when so many are still apart,”

And went on adding: 

“The overwhelmingly positive response to this year’s incredible shows from NPO, NOS and AVROTROS, and the huge success of Måneskin and so many of this year’s songs demonstrates that, even in its 65th year, the Eurovision Song Contest’s impact is bigger than ever.”

The Executive Producer – Event for this year’s contest, Sietse Bakker, outlines the proudness for the team that made it happen in Rotterdam by saying: 

“There were 1,624 people in the credits. They have worked very hard over the past weeks, months, two years to create these incredible shows in this bizarre and unreal time." He also emphasized the enormous commitment that all participating EBU Members made to ensure that all artists could actually be on stage in Rotterdam.

“Thanks to their trust in our organization, the Eurovision Song Contest is back again: with strong performances live on stage and ultimately a fantastic winner”.

The viewing numbers and the audiences confirm only one thing about the contest, that the show has even more glorious days to see in the future! Well done and a big thank  you to EBU, the Dutch broadcastest, the creative team and all of those volunteers that made it happen in Rotterdam! 

News Source: EBU/Eurovision.tv

As every year since 1997, one week after the Grand Final of the Eurovision, fans have a say on which contestant should the Barbara Dex prize be awarded to. While in the past years the fans voted for the worst outfit and which contestant received the most negative comments for his outfit, this year the award was about the most notable outfit. 

TIX might not have achieved to win the Eurovision 2021 trophy, but got all the attention back by winning the Barbara Dex Award 2021! The voting for fans opened on the day after the Grand Final and was run by songfestival.be, with all 39 participating countries competing. After a week of voting the Norwegian contestant, TIX, found himself in the first place, as his angel wings, white fur coat and some bling bling were enough to attract the fans’ votes for the most remarkable and outstanding Eurovision 2021 dress appearance.

This is the first time Norway wins the award. The artists of Romania and Croatia came in as 2nd and 3th, with only one vote between them. The top 5 came out as following: 

1. Norway – TIX

2. Romania– Roxen

3. Croatia – Albina

4. United Kingdom– James Newman

5. Israel – Eden Alene

Let's remember TIX's  Eurovision Grand final of "Fallen Angel', in which he finished 18th: 

About Barbara Dex Award

Barbara Dex Award was initially introduced in 1997 and was named after the Belgian entrant in 1993, Barbara Dex, whose dress had stirred negative reactions and had been considered as one of the worst stylistic choices of all times.

Here are all the winners of the palyful award so far: 

Year	Country	Artist	Song	Place	Photo
1997	Malta	Debbie Scerri	"Let Me Fly"	9
1998	Germany	Guildo Horn	"Guildo hat euch lieb!"	7
1999	Spain	Lydia	"No quiero escuchar"	23
2000	Belgium	Nathalie Sorce	"Envie de vivre"	24
2001	Poland	Piasek	"2 Long"	20
2002	Greece	Michalis Rakintzis	"S.A.G.A.P.O."	17
2003	Russia	t.A.T.u.	"Ne ver', ne boysia"	3
2004	Romania	Sanda Ladoși	"I Admit"	18
2005	Macedonia	Martin Vučić	"Make My Day"	17
2006	Portugal	Nonstop	"Coisas de nada"	19 SF
2007	Ukraine	Verka Serduchka	"Dancing Lasha Tumbai"	2
2008	Andorra	Gisela	"Casanova"	15 SF
2009	Hungary	Zoli Ádok	"Dance with Me"	15 SF
2010	Serbia	Milan Stanković	"Ovo je Balkan"	13
2011	Georgia	Eldrine	"One More Day"	9
2012	Albania	Rona Nishliu	"Suus"	5
2013	Serbia	Moje 3	"Ljubav je svuda"	11 SF
2014	Lithuania	Vilija Matačiūnaitė	"Attention"	11 SF
2015	Netherlands	Trijntje Oosterhuis	"Walk Along"	14 SF
2016	Croatia	Nina Kraljić	"Lighthouse"	23
2017	Montenegro	Slavko Kalezić	"Space"	16 SF
2018	Macedonia	Eye Cue	"Lost and Found"	18 SF
2019	Portugal	Conan Osíris	"Telemóveis"	15 SF
2020	Contest cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021	Norway	Tix	"Fallen Angel"	18

News Source: Songfestival.be

Images: Eurovision.tv

Local authorities and Mayors of cities across Italy are expressing their will to become the next Eurovosion host cities forming a list of at least 10 cities that have clearly confirmed their interest to host the 66th Eurovision Song Contest next year in Italy. 

Italian cities that declared their desire to host the next competiton, as soon as Maneskin were crowned winners in Rotterdam, are included the list of cities joining the race and confiremd their intention  to take part in the host city bid. 

So far the 10 cities that have confirmed their interest to take part in the Eurovision 2022 host city bid are: 

• Rome
• Turin
• Milan
• Bologna
• Pesaro
• Florence
• Rimini
• Reggio Emilia
• Verona
• San Remo

According to EBU, for hosting Eurovision  there are requirements to be met in order to aspire to host the event that brings an important induced in terms of number of tourists. In fact, not only the structure where Eurovision will be held must be evaluated , but also the accommodation capacity (to accommodate thousands of tourists) and above all the international connections.

Fundamental Requirements

Let's start immediately with the main and fundamental requirements by the EBU ( European Broadcasting Union) to be able to nominate a city and a specific structure.

• Arena or other closed structure (therefore no stadiums without coverage) with a capacity of at least 10,000 effective seats (calculating the presence of the stage) and a height of at least 18 meters.
• Convenient connections with one or more international airports.
• Adequate accommodation capacity (to accommodate tens of thousands of people, including tourists, journalists and delegations).

Previously we have posted which four cites already fulfill the conditions to host such a demanding event as the Eurovision Song Contest, with so many parameters to be covered in order for the competition to be held smoothly. Beside that it is totally understandable why after a tough year for tourism with the ongoing lockdowns many cities aim to revive their touristic performance and promote their locations through a contest that is watched by so many millions worldwide. 

In the past years when the contest was a hosted in Italy, it took place in Naples, in 1965, after the victory of Gigliola Cinquetti and in Rome in 1991, after the victory of Toto Cutugno.

The porcess for the host city will unfold over the next 2-3 months and is expected to reach to a final decision by the end of summer if we take into account the host city bid for the previous contest but an earlier date cannot be excluded. 

While every year is different in tv viewing numbers from country to country, the 2021 viewing figures were not the exception for this year's contest in Rotterdam. Some countries saw their Eurovision audience grow the night of the Grand final while in other nations the contest saw a low number of spectators.

With the national tv viewing figures still coming in day by day lets go and see the ones that have already been released: 

• France: 5,492,000 million viewers (31.4% share., the biggest sing 2009 when 5,706,000 viewers watched Patricia Kaas defending the French colors in Moscow.
• Germany : 7.74 million viewers, the lowest since 2017.
• Austria: 596,000 viewers the lowest sing 2013.
• United Kingdom: 7.4 million viewers the largest audience sing 2014 when 8.8 million watched the show.
• The Netherlands: Over 5.4 million people watched the show, best rating for the show in the 2000's.
• Finland: 1.4 million people tuned in, best rating since 2007 when they hosted the show.
• Italy: 4.5 million people tuned in across the country (25% share) new record for RAI. 
• Romania:  178,000 viewers the third overall lowest figure for the country.
• Spain: 4,071,000 viewers (29.4% share) the day's highest but the lowest of the decade (except 2017). 
• Portugal: 1.2 million viewers (26,9% share),  3,213,000 viewers over the course of broadcast the largest for this year.
• Sweden: 2.9 million viewers, 400.000 more than 2019, the most watched show of the day. 
• Serbia: 2.5 million viewers (43,1% of the viewing audience) the highest audience share since 2012.
• Greece: 2.035 million viewers (49,4% audience share) the biggest since the 2014 edition. 
• Australia:  288,000 viewers , a drop from the 412,000 viewers back in 2019. 
• Poland: 1.5 million viewers (16,3% share)
• Cyprus: 173,730 viewers (62.8% share) for RIK
• Norway: 1.4 million viewers ( 86% share) the highest ratings since 2015 while the share is the biggest since 2010.
• Denmark: 533,000 viewers a drop of 562,000 viewers compared to the 2019. 
• Estonia: 145,000 viewers  (45.3% share) the lowest in time for a Grand final show. 
• Lithuania: 897,600 viwers on LRT plus 100.000 online, the highest viewing audience to date.

With more countries to reveal their tv ratings the days to come, the overall impression remains the same: The Eurovision Song Contest remains the globe's biggest TV music contest show. Of course we see ups and downs that mostly relate to the country's act and potential to qualify to the final, achieve a high placing or even win the contest. 

With the qualifiaction factor influencing the people's interest from year to year and from country to county and taking in mind that the peak numbers are even higher from the average numbers of spectators, the contest's population is growing attracting the younger generations to follow the event.

News Source: Eurovoix.com/ national broadcasters 

Continuing their path of success the Eurovision entries since the day the were released and further on during the song contest in Rotterdam but after it also, are achieving remarkable placings in the charts across the globe.

The 2021 winning entry 'Zitti e Buoni' 

Starting with this year's entries is more than rightful to start with  the winning entry in Rotterdam and take a look at Maneskin's 'Zitti e Buoni' way to successs. 

Maneskin's song has hit high placings not only after they won the Eurovision Song Contest last Sunday, but since the day their song was released competing in the 71st Sanremo Festival, the track debuted 14th in the local charts and in one week reached the 2nd place while the song has sold over 140.000 copies in the country achieving a double platinum status. 

Currently the song with more than 3,9 million streams in the global spotify charts is placed 9th which is a record position for an Italian track. In addition the song has reached the 12th spot in the Uk charts marking the first Eurovision entry ever to debut in the top 50 in the British Top 200 Spotify chart. In Lithuania 7 additional songs of Maneskin feature the country's top 50. 

Meanwhile the Italian ESC winning entry has achieved remarkable placing in other countries too: 

• Austria #2
• Belgium #1
• Bulgaria  #1
• Czech Republic  #9
• Denmark #6
• Estonia #1 
• Germany  #2
• Greece  #1
• Hungary #21
• Israel  #5
• Iceland  #1 
• Ireland #16
• Italy #2
• Lithuania #1 
• Latvia  #1 
• Norway  #1
• Netherlands #1
• Portugal #3
• Poland  #4
• Russia #2
• Spain  #9
• Sweden  #1
• Switzerland #2 
• Ukraine #1

The other Eurovision entries

Basides the Eurovision winning entry, the other ESC 2021 entries have been meeting massive success across the European continent. It's remarkable that in some countries the top placed in the charts are almost covered by ESC 2021 entries. Namely, in Estonia and Latvia the entire top 5 is made up by Eurovision entries while in Iceland the entire top 10 is exclusively of Eurovision 2021 songs. 

Further on many entries have broke local records like the Roop in Lithuania and other have topped the charts in itunes and Amazon Music, like James Newman’s entry “Embers” which has reached number one in both Amazon and iTunes sales chart.

The Global Top 200

The ESC 2019 winning song “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence is still in the global top 50 and currently is at 37 with 1.7 Million streams, quite remarkable after two year's since the song won Eurovision in Tel Aviv. 

Here are the rest of the songs that have made in the top 200: 

#44: Voilà  by Barbara Pravi - 1.6 Million streams

#62 : Dark Side by Blind Channel - 1.2 Million streams

#69: SCUM  by Go_A - 1.1 Million streams ( the first Ukrainian entry to make it the top-200)

 #73: Tout l’univers by Gjon’s Tears – 1.1 Million streams.

#87: 10 Years by Daði Freyr – 1 Million streams.

#110: El Diablo by Elena Tsagrinou – 0.9 Million streams.

#125: Je me casse by Destiny – 0.85 Million streams.

#132: Discoteque by THE ROOP – 0.84 Million streams.

#153: Voices by Tusse – 0.78 Million streams.

#156: Mata Hari by Efendi – 0.77 Million streams.

Source: Spotify 

The head of the RTS Entertainment department, Olivera Kovačević confirmed yesterday during an interview on Nova S Serbia’s Eurovision 2022 participation and the return of a national selection to determine the nation's hopeful. 

Serbia will be using Beovizija as their national selection format, with more details on the process to be unveiled in mid-june. The submission period will open in June and end in mid-November while the national final is exprected to take place in February 2022. 

Serbia In Eurovision 

Serbia participated as an independent state in the contest in 2007, a year which the country was crowned winner with Marija Šerifović and her entry Molitva and remains the only country to win on its debut in the contest. (apart from Switzerland which won in the first edition of the contest back in 1956).

The nation has a total of 11 participations and one year of absence (2014) It has achieved to qualify 7 times in the Grand  final while 3 times it fiailed for only one place  (10th in 2009, 11th in 2013&  2017). Apart from its victory Serbia has achieveda top 10  placing three more times (6th in 2008, 3rd in 2012, 10th in 2015).

Serbia participated twice as part of the Serbia- Montenegrin Federation (2nd in 2004 and 7th in 2005), while since 1961 until 1992 participated as part of the united then Yugoslavia. Six of these Yugoslavian entries came from the Serbian region. Yugoslavia had won the contest once, in 1989.

In 2019 the country was represented by Nevena Božović with her song “Kruna” while in 2020  the female group  Hurricane was set to represent the country with their song ‘Hasta La Vista’  in the contest in Rotterdam which was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. 

Hurricane were internally confirmed for Rotterdam in this year's contest where they gave an energetic performance of their song "Loco Loco" which came 15th in the Grand final, placed 21st by the juries and 9th in the televoting. 

News Source: ESC Serbia / Eurovoix.com

Image: EBU/THOMAS HANSES

Rotterdam made it happen a brought back the biggest TV song contest with million viewers across the world!After two weeks of rehearsals, two semi final shows the night for the Grand Final show of the 65th Eurovision Song Contest took place this evening live from Rotterdam Ahoy in the Netherlands. 

A total of 26 countries competed in this evening's show. The 20 qualifiers from the 1st and 2nd  semi final shows along with the Big-5 countries and the host nation, the Netherlands that have pre-qualified. Hosts of the Grand Final were singer Edsilia Rombley, who represented the host nation twice in the past (1998 and 2007), actor and presenter Chantal Janzen, singer and television host Jan Smit along with  the popular YouTuber NikkieTutorials.

The opening startεδ with a recording of the reigning Eurovision winner, Duncan Laurence. Whilst he ςασ playing on a piano, video clips ςερε shown of people from different countries celebrating moments of life. Then the the flag parade will take place with the comepting acts called on stage having their nation's flag as a backdrop. 

The 26 competing delegates took the stage in the following running order decided by the producers (Dutch broadcasters AVROTROS, NOS and NPO): 

🇨🇾 Cyprus / Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo

🇦🇱 Albania / Anxhela Peristeri - Karma

🇮🇱 Israel / Eden Alene - Set Me Free

🇧🇪 Belgium / Hooverphonic - The Wrong Place

🇷🇺 Russia / Manizha - Russian Woman

🇲🇹 Malta / Destiny - Je Me Casse

🇵🇹 Portugal / The Black Mamba - Love Is On My Side

🇷🇸 Serbia / Hurricane - Loco Loco

🇬🇧 United Kingdom / James Newman - Embers

🇬🇷 Greece / Stefania - Last Dance

🇨🇭 Switzerland / Gjon's Tears - Tout l'Univers

🇮🇸 Iceland / Da∂i Freyr og Gagnamagni∂ - 10 Years

🇪🇸 Spain / Blas Cantó - Voy A Querdarme

🇲🇩 Moldova / Natalia Gordienko - SUGAR

🇩🇪 Germany / Jendrik - I Don't Feel Hate

🇫🇮 Finland / Blind Channel - Dark Side

🇧🇬 Bulgaria / Victoria - Growing Up is Getting Old

🇱🇹 Lithuania / The Roop - Discoteque

🇺🇦 Ukraine / Go_A - Shum

🇫🇷 France / Barbara Pravi - Voilà

🇦🇿 Azerbaijan / Efendi - Mata Hari

🇳🇴 Norway / TIX - Fallen Angel

🇳🇱 The Netherlands (Hosts) / Jeangu Macrooy - Birth of a New Age

🇮🇹 Italy / Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni

 🇸🇪 Sweden / Tusse - Voices

 🇸🇲 San Marino / Senhit - Adrenalina

Interval Acts

Music Binds Us

The segment began with a video clip of a boy declaring his love to a girl as they run away together the city during the night. The orchestra was featured in a spectacular way on a Eurovision branded tram. The orchestra moved onto the Rotterdam bridge with the kids running into  Afrojack who was behind his DJ deck and was joined by Wulf singing on the bridge. Next up was Glennis Grace singing (Netherlands 2005) "Titanium", a song orginally performed by David Guetta ft. Sia.

Next we saw the 3rd part of Nikkie's “Eurovision Tutorials”, giving tips on how react during the voting part of the contest, while Nikkie will go on with some backstage footage from the last two weeks in Rotterdam

In addition previous Eurovision Winners featured the show with video clips from Anne-Marie David (Luxembourg 1973), Izhar Cohen (Israel 1978), Ruslana (Ukraine 2004), and Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland 1993) talking about the past and the whole impact from their Eurovision experience. 

Rocking the Roof 

The most impressive part of the interval act was the Roof top performances! Six Eurovision winners performed their winning entries on top of Rotterdam’s most iconic buildings. Namely we saw the six acts sing on the roof tops of Maassilo, Hotel New York, and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot Museum):

• Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Sweden 2015)
  
• Teach-In – Ding-A-Dong (The Netherlands 1975)
  
• Sandra Kim – J'aime La Vie (Belgium 1986)
  
• Lenny Kuhr – De Troubadour  (Netherlands 1969)
  
• Helena Paparizou – My Number One  (Greece 2005)
  
• Lordi – Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland 2006)
  

Last but not least the act that brought with his victory the contest on home soil, the Eurovision 2019 winner, Duncan Laurence, appeared sitting behind the piano in a dark scenery and began performing "Arcade", his ESC 2019 winning song , followed by the debut of his new track "Stars".

THE RESULTS

First were announced the national jury results with the first set of 9 points coming up the screen while the 12 points were announced by national spokesperson from each of  39 nations that took part in this year's contest. 

Here is how the Jury voting turned out: 

Once the votes from the public were counted in the overall final scoreboard saw Italy topping the score with 524 and Maneskin winning the 65th Eurovision Song Contest. 

Congratulations to Italy's Maneskin for their outstanding performance and winning eventually this year's competition. You can watch below the last exciting minutes during which Italy was declared winner of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest: 

News source: Eurovision.tv

Image: EBU/ THOMAS HANSES

One of the side factors that attract the fans' attention just before the Grand final takes place is the specific order in which the Jury results will be revealed in the final show. Fans and bookies across the gloe speculate that the specific order gives an indication of which countries are leading, as the organisers want to keep the supsense all the way through. 

Although such estimation isn't always confrimed by the actual resutls it's worth checking out how the Jury results will unwind on our screen tonight. 

The first national juries to reveal their votes will be the following: 

1. Israel

2. Poland

3. San Marino

4. Albania

5. Malta

6. Estonia

7. North Macedonia

8. Azerbaijan

9. Norway

10. Spain

11. Austria

12. United Kingdom

13. Italy

14. Slovenia

15. Greece

16. Latvia

17. Ireland

18. Moldova

19. Serbia

20. Bulgaria

21. Cyprus

22. Belgium

The Belgic jury results will be followed by a commercial break, during which Edsilia will have a shirt chat with the acts who is in the second place of the juries and Nikkie to the one topping at that moment the jury score. After the break, the announcement of the national juries results will continue with Chantal and Jan. The jury results will continue as following: 

23. Germany

24. Australia

25. Finland

26. Portugal

27. Ukraine

28. Iceland

29. Romania

30. Croatia

31. Czech Republic

32. Georgia

33. Lithuania

34. Denmark

35. Russia

36. France

37. Sweden

38. Switzerland

39. The Netherlands

Once the Jury results are announced the hosts will continue with the points coming from the public voting that took place during this evening's live show in order to declare the final Eurovision 2021 winner. 

According to the current Eurovision format the results in each of the semi finals and the grand final is determined 50% by the proffesional national juries and 50% by public voting. The night before each live show takes part, the Jury Show takes place in which the comepting acts peforme exclusively before the national juries which cast their votes. The following day the live show is aired during which the public vote is counted in and that's how the final outcome is determined. 

Each national jury consists of five members that are usually experienced people from the music - artistic industry and experts which cast their ranking during the jury show night. 

The National Juries 

EBU has released the names of the members that made up this year's 39 national juries: 

In each contest once the new Eurovision winner is declared the organisers revealed the analytical results of the two semi final shows that had taken place previously in the week determined the 20 qualifying countries. 

In the following overall results you can see the points that the qualifiers were awarded with but also the points that the non-qualifiers got getting a full picture on how the voting process developed in the the shows that led to the Grand final line up. 

Here are the results of the two semi final shows: 

1st Semi final show

1. Malta 325

2. Ukraine 267

3. Russia 225

4. Lithuania 203

5. Israel 192

6. Cyprus 170

7. Sweden 142

8. Azerbaijan 138

9. Belgium 117

10. Norway 115

.......................................................................................................................................................................................

11. Croatia 110

12. Romania 85

13. Slovenia 44

14. Australia 28

15. Northern Macedonia 23

16. Ireland 20

Worth mentioning  in this semi final is how Croatia, one of the favorites to qualify, lost the qualification spot only for 5 points from Norway. The show was won clearly by Malta's Destiny with 325 points while Lesley Roy for Ireland came last with 20 points. 

You can alse take a look at the full overall scoreboard HERE

2nd Semi final Show

1. Switzerland 291

2. Iceland 288

3. Bulgaria 250

4. Portugal 239

5. Finland 234

6. Greece 184

7. Moldova 179

8. Serbia 124

9. San Marino 118

10. Albania 112

.......................................................................................................................................................................................

11. Denmark 89

12. Austria 66

13. Estonia 58

14. Poland 35

15. Czech Republic 23

16. Georgia 16

17. Latvia 14

In the second semi final show things wwere more clear for the 10 qualifiers, with Switzerland topping the score and with Albania winning the last qualifying spot with 112 points , a clear margin of 23 points more from Denmark in the 11th place. 

You can always take a look at the overall scoreboard of semi final 2 HERE.

News Source: Eurovision.tv/Eurovisionworld.com

The Marcel Bezençon Awards , which owe their title from the founder of the Eurovision Song Contest, were introduced by Christer Björkman (Sweden 1992 and current Swedish Head of Delegation) and Richard Herrey (member of the Swedish ESC 1984 winning group  The Herreys) and are given out to three acts just before the final show determines the winner of the contest.

Namely the three awards given out were :

1. The Press Award the winner of which is determined by the accredited press and was given this year to France's act Barbara Pravi performning  "Voilà"

2. The Artisiic Award which is presented to the best artist voted for by the commentators and was given this year to Barbara Pravi from France. 

3. The Composer Award handed out by a jury consisting of the participating composers who vote for the most original composition and which this year was won by the Swiss hopeful, Gjon's Tears, who himself along with Wouter Hardy, Nina Sampermans were behind the composition of his entry 'Tout L'Univers'

You can watch the special ceremony  with the winners' statements in the following video:

News source/Image : Eurovision.tv