18/05/2021 – David Watt
Better late than never!
Things are getting busy with Eurovision season and the contest (and this update) are finally here after a delay. Here is your update on some of the things that happened this week in the world of Eurovision and what we have to look forward to this week!
This past week all 39 of our participating delegations took to the stage of the Ahoy arena to undergo rehearsals for the contest. Rehearsal snippets have since been uploaded to the official Eurovision YouTube channel, where you can watch what the delegations have planned, although I’m sure they are keeping plenty surprises. If you are a betting person, or want to experience Eurovision early – then I recommend you check them out for sure!
The Free European Song Contest – Germany’s pandemic answer to ESC occurred this past weekend as well and you can read my thoughts to all the participating songs here. Will this become an annual tradition that grows into a staple of German TV?
Yesterday, the participants of the first Semi Final performed in the jury show (a non-televised run through of the semis). Feedback from the varying accredited press teams suggested that most countries had upped their performances from the previous rehearsals but this is obviously subjective. As that makes up 50% of the semi-finals results however, could it imply that the jury voting is tight and that tonight’s televotes will have a significant swing on the outcome?
Tonight’s televotes of course will come from the first live show of Eurovision 2021, Semi Final 1 happens tonight at 21:00 CEST and 16 countries will be vying for just 10 spots in the Eurovision Grand Final. The remaining 17 semi-finalists will compete on Thursday for 10 more spots. The successful qualifiers from these shows will join the ‘Big 5’ (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom) and host country the Netherlands on Saturday for a big grand finale! Saturday’s winner will succeed 2019’s winner Duncan Laurence as the next champion of the Eurovision Song Contest.
After that the full split results of the shows and full placings of the semi-finals should be revealed at some point. This varies from year to year but we will keep you up-dated when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) do choose to release them. Then there is of course all the fun of number-crunching to be had as we all recover from the highs and lows of the 2021 experience.
This is the busy week folks! And for those of you lucky enough to be in Rotterdam, ESC Essence wishes you the time of your lives. History will be made this week, favourites will be rise and fall but we will all enjoy following this musical escapade together! Happy Eurovision week, it is way overdue!
Who do you want to win ESC 2021? Do you have any qualifiers predictions? Let us know! The comments section here is open and our social media pages are all but a click away, here!