Ran Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 It returns! Rotterdam was due to host it last year, but the pandemic got in the way and so is hosting it now. Lots and lots of precautions will be taken, of course. A great mass of songs have already been selected or revealed, and the quickest way to overview them is probably here. You can also see what the touts think will win at present here. Some performers who won their selections last year opted to return this year, while others didn't, or are left to compete (as The Mamas here in Sweden are doing) for the place. Sadly, Little Big from Russia opted to not return, and Russia has yet to reveal its selection. Sweden's Melodifestivalen final is taking place now, and for the first time an English language commentary is being provided (Sweden has made big strides in internationalizing Melodifestivalen, including English-language social media channels and a Discord. You can watch th English stream here. The favorite is Tusse's "Voices": Personally, I'm fondest of Clara Klingenström's "Behöver inte dig idag" ("Don't Need You Today"), which managed to win a place in the final from the "Second Chance" last week, and which : Bonus, English-language interview with Melodifestivalen (and former Eurovision competitor) Christer Björkman, who is retiring from producing the show after 20 years. He's a huge part of Sweden's success the last decade. He does note that if the BBC called him and asked him to help the UK out, he'd do it (though he wishes that it had happened a decade ago). He's also deeply involved in trying to launch the American Song Contest, a U.S version of Eurovision with competitors from all 50 states, and he comments on the status of that in the interview. Finally, my personal favorite Eurovision entry this year is France's, from Barbara Pravi: "Voilà" The staging and performance is what sells it, IMO. Should translate well to audiences. I don't expect it to win, but it should be top 10. I might as well share a Scandinavian oddball, while I'm at it. Meet Norway's TIX singing "Fallen Angel": Oh, and for Eurovision to come.. I've created a Eurovision 2021 channel on the Discord server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Right so I had to Google it but Iceland are coming back with the same band, but a different song. I’m pretty devastated, loved that song. Classic choreography here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 Yeah, Eurovision doesn't allow you to reuse submissions. Fair enough, but a shame (also for The Mamas, whose new song isn't as good as their previous). Daði was supposed to release his song today, not sure what's up with that. The lyrics are available, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 And as predicted, Tusse won with "Voices". Think it'll do pretty well with juries, and solidly with voters, but I don't expect this to be a winner for this year's Eurovision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 And after Melodifestivalen ended, Iceland's RUV aired a live performance of Daði and Gagnamagnið's song. It's very reminiscent of last year's entry, down to the costuming, but it's a lot more produced (over-produced?) : Though the backing band here won't be on stage for Eurovision, so the official audio may be closer to the final sound: So far none of last year's selectees who returned to compete this year have won their selection processes, and understandably -- hard to follow up a successful song with something as good or better. I don't think Iceland will win this year. (Ditto The Roop's entry.) It wouldn't be Eurovision without some politics. Armenia withdrew rather loudly recently, because of hurt feelings over having been on the losing end of the Nagorno-Karabakh war with eternal enemy Azerbaijan. And the EBU rejected Belarus's entry because it was overtly political -- the band is overtly pro-Lukashenko and the lyrics of the submitted song were fairly explicitly denigrating the protests against him and his government -- and there was talk of Belarus withdrawing. But I see now that there's reports they may submit an alternative. Not sure if that's real or not. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Meh, that really isn’t as good. I mean it’s a perfectly fine song, but I already can’t remember anything about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veltigar Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 I'd almost hand it to Iceland just because they were shafted last year. My personal favorite (of the admittedly very limited number of entries I already listened to) so far is the entry from Cyprus: It's godawful, but in the way a good Eurovision song should be. Plus the Cypriote Orthodox Church is apparently accusing the singer of promoting satanism so it's just funny as hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 @Veltigar Yeah, the church getting upet at "El Diablo" is hilarious. Latest spicy news from Eurovision: after a review of a second song submission, the EBU has booted Belarus from the competition due to having inappropriate (read: political) language. A translation I read basically suggests a very thinly veiled allegory of bunnies (protestors) running into the maw of a fox (opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya), egged on by pigs and chickens (human rights activists in Belarus and Europe in general), but a collar will keep the fox under control (presumably Lukashenko's crack downs). Gross stuff. In lighter news, a map of the national origins of the writers for the various songs. Swedes are involved in 6 of 39 titles, including Malta's entry which is the current front-runner (and Bulgaria's, too, which is currently at #4 according to the bookies). San Marino's song "Adrelina", has 10 credited songwriters, 7 of whom are Swedes: Greece is involved in 4, thanks to Dimitris Kontopoulos writing three of the four (the fourth is the Greek entry, which has several Greek writers). Presently the odds makers are pretty close on #1 and #2, although notably neither of them have presented their live versions, so far as I know, which really matters because staging and live vocals can matter so much. Malta's Destiny, singing "Je me casse", is currently #1 with a 16% chance to win. She was last year's entrant, returned for this: And like Destiny, Gjon's Tears for Switzerland is a returned entrant (in fact, before it was cancelled he was rated 3rd likeliest to win). His song is "Tout l'univers": At first, I didn't think I liked this as well as his effort last year, but it's grown on me -- it's a bit less repetitive than "Répondez-moi". Although he did present a live, stripped-down acoustic version for a Spanish TV program. I think it lacks a little something without the chorus at the end, and due to the program's nature (it had to do with the tumultous life of a Spanish celebrity ) he presents a fairly somber appearance: Barbra Pravi's entry for France, which I linked in my first post, is currently rated 3rd. Also the only one in the top three who has gone through a selection process, and who has done a proper, live stage performance which is what really sold me on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckwheat Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 I just remembered to search if this thread already existed. I haven't listened to any of the entries yet, but I am looking forward to this year's ESC board chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 A lot of movement in the odds now that rehearsals have begun. Big winner so far appears to be France, now taking the #1 spot in the odds-makers off the back of Malta revealing its staging and underwhelming the touts. You can see clips from the first couple of days of semi-final rehearsals (I believe the 5 big countries rehearse later still) at the ESC official channel: Apparently the press was very taken with Russia's performance and staging, according to the press poll from the first day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 11, 2021 Author Share Posted May 11, 2021 More odds movement as more rehearsals take place. Sweden has been in freefall and is now down at #10 according the aggregators (from a high of 5 of 6). Shame, he is performing just weeks after vocal cord surgery. He's really funny and charming in this interview: He currently stands at #3 in the odds. A rather unique and artful staging, which will help Gjon's Tears stand out. Oh, and for the Iceland fans, here's their rehearsal from yesterday: They're holding steady at #8 Tomorrow is a big day as the Big 5 perform, and Måneskin may be gaining momentum. A lot will rest on what their performance is like, if they do what they did at San Remo or change it up. The rehearsal schedule can be found here. ETA: Oh, one thing fans are noticing is a lot of neon pink and blue (very 80s colors) in a lot of the staging. There's a lot of similarity both in staging and also performance (a change to the rules, allowing pre-recording of backing vocals, has led to a lot of artists doing the singer and four dancers on stage) that may put a premium on standing out with something different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 Malta has stormed back to #1 in the odds, with some changes to the staging (the barre was added) and to costuming (Destiny's first costume was exactly like that of the her dancers, but suffice it to say that it didn't go over well, not least because she wasn't really dancing with them and so all the fringe was a waste; this one, which she first shared on social media by noting she was feeling much more comfortable, seems to be the ticket). Italy and France are doing their first rehearsals later today and that will shake up the odds further. Sweden, alas, has slipped to #11. I am pretty sure Tusse will qualify, but I'm less certain of a top 10 placement at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 Watched a few of the entries so far this year and they are mostly all completely forgettable. Except for Italy, which I shouldn’t like but do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 13, 2021 Author Share Posted May 13, 2021 And now with the Big Five rehearsing, big movement as predicted, France now sitting at the top with a 20% chance of winning according to the betting sites, the highest that any country has seen, IIRC, and right behind them is Italy. Malta drops to 3rd place. Here's the rehearsals from Barbara Pravi -- looks like pretty much the exact same staging as the national final, which was fantastic -- and Måneskin -- the big change for this rehearsal at least is that the lead singer Damiano is shirtless and has apparently made many people swoon. Both stand out in the crowd for the very different music and staging from most of the others. I'd be very happy with either of these winning, or Gjon's Tears... but my heart really wants Pravi and France to take it with "Voilà". Gives me goosebumps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 15, 2021 Author Share Posted May 15, 2021 Second rehearsals for the Big Five (plus the hosts), and the odds shift once more. Italy is now on top for the first time, but very close behind is France. The press poll after the rehearsals reversed that, with France edging out Italy. The big loser of late has been Switzerland, falling down to 7th in the odds when Gjon's choreography added some... I don't know what to call it, that sort of rhythmic bobbing some rappers do when performing that matches the bars they're spiting? In any case, most everyone seems to have felt it was very incongruous for the song. May be he'll drop it or try a different approach to getting more movement in his singing. Iceland has been sneaking up in the odds, and now stands in 4th, while Malta is at 3rd but tumbled quite far down from its highest odds. It really looks like it's a race between France and Italy right now, as far as people placing wagers indicate. Here's the second rehearsals (full dress) for Italy and France: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 16, 2021 Author Share Posted May 16, 2021 Turquoise Carpet opening ceremony event taking place now. Polish and Icelandic delegations not attending as members tested positive for COVID-19 and are isolating as the rest of the respective delegations test and take precautions. Ditto Romanian and Maltese, I think, because a case was found at the hotel they were staying in: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mladen Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Letting you all know that I am still alive... So, it seems that French girl is of Serbian descent so apparently people here are ready to claim her victory as "ours" given the song that is Serbian entry :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 18, 2021 Author Share Posted May 18, 2021 2 hours ago, Mladen said: Letting you all know that I am still alive... So, it seems that French girl is of Serbian descent so apparently people here are ready to claim her victory as "ours" given the song that is Serbian entry I did not know that! I hope this means Serbia's 12 is sewn up for Barbara! Tonight's first semi-final starts at 9 PM Central European Time, for those wondering (12 PM on the US west coast, 3 PM on the east coast). I'll be in the Discord's Eurovision 2021 channel for it, for my part, for anyone who'd like to watch and chat about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted May 18, 2021 Author Share Posted May 18, 2021 Not sure if it's geoblocked. If it is, try the English RUV stream out of Iceland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindwalker Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 That Chat thing didn't work for me last time. Just wanted to check in. I'm totally out of the loop, for this year and also last year. The good thing: I don't know how bad the German entry is. It'll be a complete shock. So, here's hoping for lots of wind machines! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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