Eurovision Song Contest (2021)

The 65th Eurovision Contest was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands with the grand final taking place on Saturday 22 May 2021, after semi-finals on 18 and 20 May. A total of 39 countries participated in the competition, with 26 reaching the final (10 from each semi-final plus the six founder members).

It was the first ESC to be held in the COVID-19 era, after the 2020 edition had been cancelled due to the pandemic. In early April 2021 it was announced that an audience of 3,500 people would be allowed at each of the shows, with the Dutch government giving its approval on 29 April. All audience members had to have tested negative for COVID-19.

There were several incidents related to the COVID-19 outbreak however, such as the group representing Iceland not being allowed to take part in the live shows since a group member had been tested positive. A video of their performance in rehearsals was shown instead. Australia had also refrained from travelling to Europe in order to participate although the country took part in the the first semi-final retained its voting power.

Presenters
The presenters were Chantal Janzen, Jan Smit, both singers Edsilia Rombley, who represented the Netherlands in the 1998 and 2007 contests, and beauty vlogger Nikkie de Jager.

Semi-finals

 * Semi-final 1, countries eliminated: Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Australia, North Macedonia, Ireland
 * Semi-final 2, countries eliminated: Denmark, Austria, Estonia, Poland, Czech republic, Georgia, Latvia.

Final
Participating countries (in order of appearance): Cyprus, Albania, Israel, Belgium, Russia, Malta, Portugal, Serbia, UK, Greece, Switzerland, Iceland, Spain, Moldova, Germany, Finalnd, Bulgaria, Lithania, Ukraine, France, Azerbaijan, Norway, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, San Marino.

Placings

 * Top 5:
 * 1) Italy:  Måneskin - Zitti e buoni (524)
 * 2) France: Barbara Pravi - Voilà (499)
 * 3) Switzerland: Gjon's Tears - Tout l'univers (432)
 * 4) Iceland: Daði og Gagnamagnið - 10 Years (378)
 * 5) Ukraine: Go_A - Shum (364)

24th Spain: Blas Cantò - Voy a quedarme (6)
 * Bottom 3

25th Germany: Jendrik - I Don't Feel Hate (3)

26th United Kingdom - James Newman - Embers (0)

Trivia

 * Måneskin's victory is the third overall for Italy (after 1964 and 1990)
 * They are also the first band to win the contest since Lordi (Finland) in 2006.
 * The top 3 songs (and the 5th placed) were all performed in languages other than English.
 * Four countries received zero points from the televote (including the host nation Netherlands, plus Germany, Spain and the UK)
 * The winning song Zitti e buoni in its original version contains profanities in the lyrics. These were excluded from the first performance although were included in the victory performance. The song won the Eurostory Best Lyrics award.
 * Måneskin's lead singer Damiano David was accused of being caught on camera taking drugs during the live voting session, and France demanded the group be disqualified. The accusation was firmly denied by the singer and the group and later endorsed by ESC authorities.