What to expect from this year’s Grand Final?
It’s a year to celebrate, the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which has been invented in 1956 to bring the European nations closer together after the terrible World War II. More and more countries from East and West have joined this lively event, which has become the world’s biggest live music show. Even Australia is part of the event since 2015, but this year they did not qualify for tonight.
And there is also another thing to celebrate, it’s the first time since after long months of lockdowns everywhere that a big music show is having a live audience again. The fact that last year’s ESC has been cancelled was a bitter year as well. Hence even more it’s a good sign that it’s possible to celebrate the ESC again.
Every bright side also has a dark side, despite of all the health regulations, two singers from the Icelandic group have been tested positive and cannot sing live tonight. Also the last ESC winner Duncan Laurence has a positive corona test and will not be able to appear live on stage presenting his new song and handing over the winning trophy.
We will see the new Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, the Swede Martin Österdahl for the first time, as Jon Ola Sand has resigned.
This year’s motto “Open Up” can be taken literally and reflects the spirit of our times, open up to others, to different opinions and music, as the contest is alive again, after the first cancellation last year due to corona. As long as we are connected by music, there are no boundaries.
Interesting to see is the logo of this year’s ESC, it has a round shape like the last three ESC’s: Amsterdam 1970, The Hague 1976 and The Hague 1980. Altogether the Netherlands could win the ESC four times and also host it four times, but in 1979 Israel has won with “Hallelujah” and did not want to host it in 1980 and the Netherlands jumped in. The logo symbolizes two colours of each country’s flag all coming together in Rotterdam. The opening will show the flag parade and the DJ Pieter Gabriel will put the sound on. The four hosts Edsilia Rombley, Chantal Janzen, Nikkie Tutorials and Jan Smit are welcoming the 180 million TV viewers and the 3.500 people in the Ahoy Arena.
Technically there will be 25 cameras, 4.2 km speaker cables, 1782 automated lamps, 887 m² LED and 298 loudspeakers, just to mention a few facts. It’s a masterpiece of the latest technology, all EBU member can profit from.
The postcards are lovely made and showing atmospheric locations in the Netherlands. The Dutch are so proud, this is the first time since 1980 that the Netherlands can host the ESC.
There will be several interval acts, like the famous DJ Afrojack, together with a classic orchestra and Glennis Grace on the Erasmus Bridge with “Titanium” and the “Rock the Roof” part, here former Eurovision winners were singing on different roof locations and bringing back some Eurovision memories: Måns Zelmerlow from Sweden (2015), Teach-In from the Netherlands in original cast (1975), Sandra Kim from Belgium (1986), Lenny Kuhr from the Netherlands (1969), Helena Paparizou from Greece (2005) and Lordi from Finland (2006).
Duncan Laurence will also be singing his winning entry “Arcade” from 2019 and presenting his new song “Stars”, but this is only a recording.
The voting procedure will be like every year, first the juries from the 39 participating countries (this includes the countries, which did not qualify in the semi-finals), when the jury spokesmen will only announce the 12 points, the rest will be inserted automatically when the jury is being called. But this is only half of the votes.
The other 50% comes from the televoters. So it will be exact the same number of points given in percentage to each country. To rise the excitement the country last on the scoreboard will be announced and then it’s getting higher country by country. So it can happen that a country with a few points from the juries get the majority of the televotes or vice versa.
Nevertheless, it’s going to be an exciting show with a lot of surprises and great moments and good music. The class of 2021 is quite a strong one.
