Eurovision 2021

She hinted on it already, but today Irish broadcaster RTE confirmed it: Lesley Roy will represent Ireland in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. In order to find a good song, she went to Stockholm to find the people who could help her for the right song. And she found it! According to RTE, more details about the song will be known in the new year. Lesley herself posted a message on her Instagram about the contest. Last year, Lesley was chosen internally for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. She was supposed to sing the song “Story of my life”. You can read more about Lesley here.  

Today, Serbian broadcaster RTS confirmed it: Hurricane is the group to represent the country in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. It was not a surprise: the group already hinted on a participation a month ago. Last year, Hurricane won the national final and was thus supposed to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest. The song “Hasta la vista” was quite popular among a large group of fans. Read more about Hurricane here.

Of course the logo of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest caused a lot of reactions, positive as well as negative. Sietse Bakker, executive producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, responded on those comments on his facebook page: “When we started thinking about our artwork we quickly realised we didn’t want to abandon the style, while has great potential for TV. But we did want to ingest new energy into it, and encourage those who love the Eurovision Song Contest to look forward with hope and anticipation. The renewed logo symbolises the connecting power of the Contest and it shows that we are open to everything these 41 countries have to offer.” He also looks forward to how the contest will be organized. And yes, he ís optimistic: “The story will continue next year, no matter what and we hope to welcome the participants, press and fans to Rotterdam in May; physical if possible, virtual if necessary. Thanks to developments regarding vaccines and reliable rapid tests, we are now cautiously optimistic about what can be done responsibly in May. And all of Europe is now watching us. With creativity and decisiveness, inspired by that typical Rotterdam resilience, we are going to make something very special out of it, I am convinced of that!”  

Today, the logo of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest has been presented. It is based on the same idea as the 2020 logo: the flags of all the participating countries. However, the 2020 logo had the following order in which countries debuted in the contest. This time, it’s inspired on the world map with Rotterdam as the center. “The logo connects Rotterdam with the capitals of the participating countries and symbolises coming together, regardless of the form,” says Sietse Bakker, the Executive Producer of the event. Just as last year, the logo has been developed by agency Clever ° Franke. The slogan remains the same: “Open up”!

The Melodifestivalen line up is complete, and there are some interesting names on it. This is the full list: Danny Saucedo, “Dandi dansa” Lovad, “Allting är precis likkadant” Kadiatou, “One touch” Mustasch, “Contagious” Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos, “Rena rama dingdong” Emil Assergård, “Om allting skiter sig” Tess Merkel, “Good life” Paul Rey, “The missing piece” Arvingarna, “Tänker inte alls gå hem” Dotter, “Little tot” Elisa, “Den du är” Lillasyster, “Pretender” Frida Green, “The silence” Charlotte Perrelli, “Still young” Patrik Jean, “Tears run dry” WAHL feat. Sami, “90-talet” Nathalie Brydolf, “Fingerprints” Anton Ewald, “New religion” The Mama’s, “In the middle” Jessica Andersson, “Horizon” Sannex, “All inclusive” Clara Klingenström, “Behöve inte dig idag” Anton Efraïm, “New religion” Tusse, “Voices” Julia Alfrida, “Rich” Alvaro Estrella, “Baila baila” Eric Saade, “Every minute” Arvingarna, Charlotte Perrelli and Eric Saade all have Eurovision experience, miss Perrelli even won the contest. The Mama’s were chosen to represent Sweden this year, but we all know how thát ended. Maybe they will get their second chance this year.  

This week, there has been news about the allocation draw for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest: it’ll be the same as this year. However,  there was no news about the place of hostcountry The Netherlands in the contest.  Today, there was: it will remain the same, the 23rd place. Avrotros already decided that Jeangu Macrooy, this years contestant, will also be the one in charge next year. There is no news yet about the song.

A short while ago, there was a rumour going on that Little Big had been confirmed to be the 2021 Russian participants in the Eurovision Song Contest. The rumour was, as it is with rumours, unconfirmed. A few days ago, members of Little Big stated something about Eurovision on a Russian radio station: “We still haven’t written the song for 2021. We may write some and send them over to Channel One (the Russian channel that takes part in Eurovision, EU). If it goes well – we’re going. If it doesn’t – we’re not going. People think that we’re automatically in for 2021, but we’re not. It’s about the song.” Little Big was supposed to represent Russia in the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Uno”. Let’s wait and see if they will write a song that they want to send to Eurovision…. Thanks to Katja Maria Lund for the translation of the interview.