Eurovision Song Contest 2021

LordBasil

Thread to discuss the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest which will be hosted in Rotterdam a year later than planned of course as ESC 2020 was cancelled due to COVID - 19 Pandemic.

Contest Dates;

Semi Final 1: Tuesday 18 May 2021
Semi Final 2: Thursday 20 May 2021
Final: Saturday 22 May 2021

Following yesterday's announcement that Lesley Roy will represent Ireland but with a different song, I thought it would be a suitable time to start the ESC 2021 thread.

https://eurovision.tv/story/lesley-roys-story-continues-for-ireland

Many other countries will be also be sending their 2020 artists with different songs. There are several contingency plans in place to ensure the contest go ahead one way or another. Hopefully with the vaccine being rolled out in January across Europe that all Artists, Delegations and Production Crew can be vaccinated before May and there can be an audience in Rotterdam.

Seamai

I'm not over the moon that the song chosen for ESC 2021 is a collaboration between Lesley Roy and a bunch of Swedes, this has been a thing for quite a while now and has lead to a sameness in many of the songs. More than half the Irish songs entered over the last 15 years were written by groups like this and let's be honest our record over that time has been far from glittering. Call me old fashioned but I lament the old days when there was much more variety and you couldn't mistake say a Scandinavian song for a Balkan one.

Deeper Blue

I'm going to stick my neck out here and predict the following:

-Our song and stage performance will be forgettable

-We'll finish between 12th and 14th in our semi final

-Marty will be up in arms and say we did very well,, the crowd loved it and we should've gone through

-We'll do the exact same thing in 2022

JP Liz V1

I thought we would be sending Paul Mescal

LordBasil

Mr.S wrote: »

Why aren't they allowed use the entries from 2020 if the show never went ahead?

Iceland must be raging.

The rules do not allow it. It's for the best as by May 2021 the songs would sound too stale and it would have forced broadcasters not to have National Finals eg. Melodifestivalen, DMGP in 2021 which would have made for a very dull January and February.

Yeah poor Iceland although they are sending Dadi Freyr again. Will he be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat in 2021?

LordBasil

A few ESC 2021 Updates;

We have our first selected 2021 entry from Albania;

Likely to receive the annual Albanian Revamp/Butchering. I wish Albania would move away from screechy power ballads.

ESC 2019 Televote winners KEiiNO are returning to Norway's MGP which kicks off on Saturday. They are one of 6 songs already qualified for the final but they will premiere their song on Saturday.

France's national Final will take place later this month. 12 Songs have been released. It'll just be one show, now semi-finals. A mixed bag of entries. The 2 who have had the most impact with the fans/Youtube are;

and my personal favourite

Israel have revealed Eden Alene's 3 Songs she will perform in the National Final this month;

ESC organisers are still deciding which of the scenarios to use.

I personally think it is between B & C with C likely. Once we have an ESC this year is all that matters.

johnire

I love the Eurovision but there's not a hope that the vaccine will be rolled out enough by that stage. I've read that the Netherlands are lagging really far behind as regards rolling out the vaccine programme through their health service. Without an audience the whole thing is pointless.

LordBasil wrote: »

Thread to discuss the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest which will be hosted in Rotterdam a year later than planned of course as ESC 2020 was cancelled due to COVID - 19 Pandemic.

Contest Dates;

Semi Final 1: Tuesday 18 May 2021
Semi Final 2: Thursday 20 May 2021
Final: Saturday 22 May 2021

Following yesterday's announcement that Lesley Roy will represent Ireland but with a different song, I thought it would be a suitable time to start the ESC 2021 thread.

https://eurovision.tv/story/lesley-roys-story-continues-for-ireland

Many other countries will be also be sending their 2020 artists with different songs. There are several contingency plans in place to ensure the contest go ahead one way or another. Hopefully with the vaccine being rolled out in January across Europe that all Artists, Delegations and Production Crew can be vaccinated before May and there can be an audience in Rotterdam.

LordBasil

I think there will be an audience but it is likely to be socially distanced and made up of mostly locals rather than international.

I think maybe ESC could have been held around August so an international crowd could attend but I've no doubt it will go ahead in some form in May, as not to have ESC 2 years in a row would be extremely damaging to the contest.

yerwanthere123

Eurovision thread has been open for over a month and I didn't know :eek::eek::eek:
Should've bumped the old thread!

gmisk

Just saw the lineup for melodifestivalen.
Pretty impressive!
Eric Saade
The Mamas
Charlotte Perrelli
Dotter

Lots of other interesting ones as well like Patrik Jean.

yerwanthere123

The four scenarios for Eurovision this year. Right now I'm thinking it'll be C or D, but I'd really love if all countries could actually perform in the arena itself. Hopefully we'll have some bit of a crowd too. Iceland are the early favourites, not surprising after the success of Think About Things last year.

Don't mind that Lesley Roy is back for us next year, I actually liked Story Of My Life, even if no one else did She's promised it's "even bigger" than SOML, although not sure how to interpret that after it was supposed to be "up there with Euphoria".

Haven't actually listened to the Albanian song yet, although I'm guessing it's the usual 'might qualify for the final and avoid the bottom five' fare.

Lots of returning artists as we already know. Bit of fan hype for KEiiNO and their song Monument, but tbh it isn't a patch on Spirit In The Sky. The Roop have a bye to the Lithuanian final with the newly-released Discotheque, I think it's quite good actually.

Israeli song will be selected on Monday, France to follow on Saturday the 30th.

LordBasil

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

The four scenarios for Eurovision this year. Right now I'm thinking it'll be C or D, but I'd really love if all countries could actually perform in the arena itself. Hopefully we'll have some bit of a crowd too. Iceland are the early favourites, not surprising after the success of Think About Things last year.

Don't mind that Lesley Roy is back for us next year, I actually liked Story Of My Life, even if no one else did She's promised it's "even bigger" than SOML, although not sure how to interpret that after it was supposed to be "up there with Euphoria".

Haven't actually listened to the Albanian song yet, although I'm guessing it's the usual 'might qualify for the final and avoid the bottom five' fare.

Lots of returning artists as we already know. Bit of fan hype for KEiiNO and their song Monument, but tbh it isn't a patch on Spirit In The Sky. The Roop have a bye to the Lithuanian final with the newly-released Discotheque, I think it's quite good actually.

Israeli song will be selected on Monday, France to follow on Saturday the 30th.

In fairness to Lesley Roy, it wasn't her who made the infamous 'Euphoria' comparison, it was her (former?) stage director Philly McMahon and even he didn't say SOML was as good/better than 'Euphoria', he just said he could imagine SOML still be listened/danced to years after ESC 2020 like 'Euphoria' still is after ESC 2012. 'Euphoria' was probably just the first song that popped into his head.

I'm looking forward to hearing Lesley's song this year. It has interesting songwriters and I've a feeling it could be surprisingly good and be a radical departure from SOML.

Yeah, KEiiNO's song isn't a patch on SITS and the staging will need to be improved if they go to ESC.

The Roop will likely get the Lithuanian ticket if the live performance is good and they have another viral dance move.

Israel's songs are a bit disappointing. Looking forward to France next week.

gmisk

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

The four scenarios for Eurovision this year. Right now I'm thinking it'll be C or D, but I'd really love if all countries could actually perform in the arena itself. Hopefully we'll have some bit of a crowd too. Iceland are the early favourites, not surprising after the success of Think About Things last year.

Don't mind that Lesley Roy is back for us next year, I actually liked Story Of My Life, even if no one else did She's promised it's "even bigger" than SOML, although not sure how to interpret that after it was supposed to be "up there with Euphoria".

Haven't actually listened to the Albanian song yet, although I'm guessing it's the usual 'might qualify for the final and avoid the bottom five' fare.

Lots of returning artists as we already know. Bit of fan hype for KEiiNO and their song Monument, but tbh it isn't a patch on Spirit In The Sky. The Roop have a bye to the Lithuanian final with the newly-released Discotheque, I think it's quite good actually.

Israeli song will be selected on Monday, France to follow on Saturday the 30th.

That song from The Roop is such an earworm...definitely can see that being a fan favourite!

yerwanthere123

gmisk wrote: »

That song from The Roop is such an earworm...definitely can see that being a fan favourite!

Yeah, it's very good. I like that they didn't try to simply rehash On Fire, which I think likely would've gotten top 5 last year.

jmlad2020

Poor Lesley Roy might have to wait another year considering the way things are going.

Zhane

jmlad2020 wrote: »

Poor Lesley Roy might have to wait another year considering the way things are going.

I’ll say it’ll go ahead in some capacity. I would imagine they are coming up with a lot of contingency plans.

Smacruairi

The junior Eurovision worked really well. No reason they can't do that style. I presume every nation was told to build the exact same style studio?

yerwanthere123

Israel

France

Three entries selected so far, but I haven't actually listened to either one yet.

Lithuania will choose on Saturday, which I imagine will simply be a coronation for The Roop?

LordBasil

EBU has ruled out Scenario A, not a great surprise, Scenario B is the aim but subject to change;

https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2021-determined-yet-realistic-plans-for-may

Once ESC goes ahead is all that metters.

I'd rather have all artists in Rotterdam and no audience than have artists perform remotely as this could open accusations of cheating, such as what happened to the winner of the Junior Eurovision.

yerwanthere123

Ok so fully up to speed now with the selected entries so far.

Albania is their usual wailing-woman affair. Can't see much support for this outside of the juries, although could sneak a final berth and finish in the bottom five as I alluded to above. She's got a good rack though, which might get her a few votes from the four to five straight men that would watch Eurovision annually.

I quite like Israel! Simple, bouncy pop song that's much better than last year's effort. I can't see it doing that much though, maybe will qualify for the final but that's about it.

France is just your standard French Eurovision ballad, although I do like the tempo change in the last minute. I can see this doing very well with the juries a la Paricia Kaas, but I can't see the public getting behind it in any meaningful way.

LordBasil wrote: »

EBU has ruled out Scenario A, not a great surprise, Scenario B is the aim but subject to change;

https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2021-determined-yet-realistic-plans-for-may

Once ESC goes ahead is all that metters.

I'd rather have all artists in Rotterdam and no audience than have artists perform remotely as this could open accusations of cheating, such as what happened to the winner of the Junior Eurovision.

I feel the same, I want them all to perform under the same conditions. Would be very hard to properly enforce the performance rules otherwise.

It's good that they're aiming for option B, personally I think they'll be able to make it happen with a very small crowd in attendance.

johnire

I'm a huge fan of Eurovision but I honestly don't see the point of staging it within these restrictions. The artists need an audience and the Eurovision needs the audience. It's what gives it it's energy. I know I've been to a Eurovision and it's the audience that makes it. Also the other angle is the economic side of things. To stage the contest costs a fortune but what takes the sting out of those costs is the massive amount of money injected into the host city through all the contestants and all of their entourages not to mention the thousands of fans. Without all of these people travelling I can't imagine Dutch TV or the city of Rotterdam are going to be best pleased at loosing out on all that lost revenue.

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Ok so fully up to speed now with the selected entries so far.

Albania is their usual wailing-woman affair. Can't see much support for this outside of the juries, although could sneak a final berth and finish in the bottom five as I alluded to above. She's got a good rack though, which might get her a few votes from the four to five straight men that would watch Eurovision annually.

I quite like Israel! Simple, bouncy pop song that's much better than last year's effort. I can't see it doing that much though, maybe will qualify for the final but that's about it.

France is just your standard French Eurovision ballad, although I do like the tempo change in the last minute. I can see this doing very well with the juries a la Paricia Kaas, but I can't see the public getting behind it in any meaningful way.



I feel the same, I want them all to perform under the same conditions. Would be very hard to properly enforce the performance rules otherwise.

It's good that they're aiming for option B, personally I think they'll be able to make it happen with a very small crowd in attendance.

afatbollix

Come on, They have to pump in fake crowd noise for the Russians. Why not for 2021?


I could do with a week of over the top Eurovision.

johnire

Fake being the key word there. Therein lies the problem.

afatbollix wrote: »

Come on, They have to pump in fake crowd noise for the Russians. Why not for 2021?


I could do with a week of over the top Eurovision.

yerwanthere123

Ukraine

We have a fourth song! Go_A are back for Ukraine. It's a dancey, shouty, Ukrainian mess, but could be kinda fun on the Eurovision stage? Video is over four minutes long so they'll have to trim it significantly.

Galwayguy35

If the 6 Nations is going ahead theres no reason why the Eurovision can't.

yerwanthere123

Lithuania

Coronation complete, it's The Roop for Lithuania. Should do well, but not a fan of the dance routine at all.

LordBasil

Croatia;

A Bop! Great to see Croatia send a banger. This is in our semi, so makes life more difficult for Ireland to qualify.

Speaking of Ireland, rumours that Lesley's entry is called 'Maps';

https://www.escunited.com/will-lesley-roy-sing-maps-for-ireland/

ACitizenErased

Been watching a lot of the National Finals. Was very disappointed Nina didn't win for Croatia. Tick-tock is very generic.
The song I see winning the whole thing at the moment (if picked) is Dotter - Little Tot from Sweden.
Not a fan of The Roop this year. I think On Fire is 100x better.

LordBasil

Too early to call a winner. So many songs to be unveiled, ones to keep an eye on;

Italy: Apparently the favourite to win Sanremo, Francesca Michielin & Fedez, song is meant to be brilliant. Italy have been consistently strong since their return in 2011 so are due a win.

Russia; No word as of yet if Little Big are returning, but if they do and have a more Jury friendly song, they could be contenders.

Iceland: Dadi went viral last year and if his song this year is any good, he will be one to watch

Bulgaria; VICTORIA has that Billie Eilish vibe so can not be underestimated.

Malta; Destiny's song last year was a bit 'meh' so she'll want to come out fighting this year.

Switzerland; Gjon's Tears is a very capable performer/songwriter.

Germany; I have a feeling that Jendrik Sigwart's song will go either way - a viral Tik-Tok smash that comes top 5 or a woeful misfire that comes dead last.

There'll be a few surprises I'm sure along the way, maybe one or two of the returning artists from last year who had average songs might come back with something spectacular. Maybe Lesley Roy could have an ace up her sleeve......

yerwanthere123

Agree that the Croatian song is very generic, but at the very least it's a step in the right direction after some of the shíte they've sent in recent years.

Not really a fan of Dotter's song either, 'underwhelming' comes to mind. The Roop still the ones to beat at this extremely early stage.

Norway and Finland to come on Saturday!

ACitizenErased

I think the Roop's song this year is completely overrated to be honest.

Hope Blind Channel win in Finland. Dark Side is a banger.

I assume Keiino will walk Norway.

LordBasil

Czech Republic

OK I suppose. He might lift it live. His entry last year was better.

LordBasil

James Newman confirmed for the UK;

https://eurovision.tv/story/james-newman-flying-the-flag-for-the-united-kingdom

Fairly expected tbh. Apparently song will be more up-tempo and will be revealed next month.

Strazdas

Irish entry is called "Maps" and will be released next Friday (Feb 26th), as per Lesley Roy's Twitter.

gmisk

LordBasil wrote: »

Czech Republic

OK I suppose. He might lift it live. His entry last year was better.

That is decent.
They spent some dough on that video as well, it is fairly racking up the views!

gmisk

LordBasil wrote: »

James Newman confirmed for the UK;

https://eurovision.tv/story/james-newman-flying-the-flag-for-the-united-kingdom

Fairly expected tbh. Apparently song will be more up-tempo and will be revealed next month.

I think I am one of the few people who loved his song last year.
Really interested to see what song he has this year.

Strazdas

gmisk wrote: »

That is decent.
They spent some dough on that video as well, it is fairly racking up the views!

It's a cracking good pop song, could do really well this year.....very upbeat and positive vibes.

Welsh Megaman

Lesley Roy performing the song on next week’s Late Late Show.

gmisk

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Lesley Roy performing the song on next week’s Late Late Show.

Let's hope it's better than her performance the last time....

ACitizenErased

Blind Channel will represent Finland with the song 'Dark Side'.

gmisk

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Blind Channel will represent Finland with the song 'Dark Side'.

That's pretty catchy, should do quite well.
I am guessing linkin park were popular in Finland?

ACitizenErased

gmisk wrote: »

That's pretty catchy, should do quite well.
I am guessing linkin park were popular in Finland?

It won by 400 points so yes

ACitizenErased

A big shock in Norway - Keiino did not win.

Tix will represent Norway with the song 'Fallen Angel'.

gmisk

ACitizenErased wrote: »

A big shock in Norway - Keiino did not win.

Tix will represent Norway with the song 'Fallen Angel'.

Wow now that is a shock!
monument doesn't have that instant Eurovision appeal, but surely a better shot than that one!

gmisk

I see Charlotte perelli is through to the final of melodifestivalen!
Dotter looks to be favourite I would guess from what I have listened to.
But semi 4 has the mamas and Eric saade!

yerwanthere123

Ah come on, ye can't post the Norwegian song and not post the live performance

:pac:

Seriously laughing that Monument lost to this! It's very early 2000's boyband. Think it might qualify for the final for the novelty factor. Not that Monument would've done a whole deal better, was always wildly overrated by the fandom.

gmisk

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Ah come on, ye can't post the Norwegian song and not post the live performance

:pac:

Seriously laughing that Monument lost to this! It's very early 2000's boyband. Think it might qualify for the final for the novelty factor. Not that Monument would've done a whole deal better, was always wildly overrated by the fandom.

Christ...without that weird staging it is literally a Westlife song.

yerwanthere123

Spain

Should be another bottom 5 finish.

LordBasil

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Spain

Should be another bottom 5 finish.

Definitely Bottom 5 as while it is not a terrible song I just can't see what reason anyone will have to vote for it over 25 other songs in the final. Such a shame as Blas is a very capable performer and deserves a stronger song.

Although going by the snippet of Germany's song that leaked yesterday, Spain may avoid last place...

Catching up on everything picked thus far.

Albania: Not particularly exciting, likely to be staying in the semis.

Croatia: Catchy, liked this one more than I thought I would. Could actually do quite well but she needs to work on that big note before the first chorus.

Czech Republic: It's pleasant enough. Not a Eurovision winner but decent enough to qualify for the final.

Finland: Very Linkin Park. Not really my thing but will appeal to a not-insignificant portion of the audience. Probably enough to get out of the semis but unlikely to be the next Lordi.

France: Old fashioned, but in a good way; if you told me this was a song from the 60's I'd probably believe you! Has a very timeless and.....well, very French quality to it. Doubt it's a winner but should finish respectably.

Israel: Meh, fairly average. Borderline as to whether it makes the final or not.

Lithuania: Very happy to see The Roop back. They manage to keep the difficult balance between "crowd pleasing novelty act" and "actual proper music act". Whether or not they win, they should easily get Lithuania's best finish for a long time.

Norway: Seems very dated, like some kind of 00's boyband song. No idea why they chose this (although I listened to Monument and didn't think much of that either), wouldn't be surprised if this stayed in the semis tbh.

Spain: The a capella at the start is nice but otherwise this is quite forgettable, and the backing vocals are atrocious. I thought his other song Memoria was better.

Ukraine: I loved Solovey, don't know if this one is as good but it certainly didn't disappoint. They've a very interesting sound which definitely would not be everyone's cup of tea but I'd really like to see this do well.

Cyprus has been released

Music Video Sponsors: Head & Shoulders, Bluesky, which explains the blatant product placement! :pac:

It's a decent enough electropop song, chorus is very "Bad Romance". Nothing groundbreaking but could do well if staging is good.