After watching the first dress rehearsals for the first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, we now know where the countries’ postcards are based. We also know the postcard locations for Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. The locations range from the capital Amsterdam to the tiny village of Bourtange.
The postcard concept
In these postcards, we see a clear concept. A tiny glass house is placed somewhere in the Netherlands. All locations are landmarks or interesting cities in the country. All of the delegations have had the opportunity to fill their glass house with items relating to the singer. For Destiny from Malta, we see footage of her winning Junior Eurovision. Tusse on the other hand is showcasing his school books.
In the final shots, holograms of the artists appear. Sometimes we just see them standing there, like Hooverphonic. In other instances, they’re actually doing something. For instance, Russia’s entrant Manizha is shown doing some pottery in her glass house.
Rotterdam, Amsterdam and ‘s-Hertogenbosch feature twice
Two cities have already featured twice tonight. Obviously, the city of Rotterdam is a postcard location more than once. The opening act tonight, Lithuania, had a postcard located around Rotterdam Centraal, the central station of the city. At the same time, former football star Montaigne had her postcard in Het Kasteel, the football stadium used by Rotterdam club Sparta.
Another candidate to host Eurovision 2020, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, was also a location twice. First up, we saw Russia. Manizha’s glass house was placed inbetween the Bolwoningen, the spherical houses. The iconic neighbourhood in the city is one of the more quirky landmarks seen today. Cyprus also had their postcard in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The street art siloes around the Verkadefabriek, an old factory now used as cultural centre, give a nice industrial feel to Elena Tsagrinou in her postcard.
Beaches and villages
Other locations we see are beaches in Vlissingen for Malta and the Marker Wadden for Slovenia. Interestingly, of the automatic qualifiers, both Germany (the Pier in Scheveningen) and the Netherlands (the lighthouse in Ouddorp), also use a beach setting.
Furthermore, interesting locations include the Hunebedden in Eext for North Macedonia. The Hunebedden are a famous landmark as a prehistoric graveyard. Other villages we see are Giethoorn, the Venice of the country where the tiny canals are a popular tourist destination, which serves as postcard location for Azerbaijan and Bourtange in the north of Groningen for Belgium.
Below you can see the full list of postcard locations:
- Lithuania: Rotterdam Central Station
- Slovenia: Marker Wadden
- Russia: Bolwoningen in ‘s-Hertogenbosch
- Sweden: Museumplein in Amsterdam
- Australia: Sparta Stadium ‘Het Kasteel’ in Rotterdam
- North Macedonia: Hunebedden in Eext
- Ireland: Amsterdam canals
- Cyprus: Verkadefabriek in ‘s-Hertogenbosch
- Norway: Koppelpoort in Amersfoort
- Croatia: Broek op Langedijk
- Belgium: Bourtange
- Israel: Utrecht Central Station
- Romania: Leeuwarden
- Azerbaijan: Giethoorn
- Ukraine: Veluwezoom
- Malta: Vlissingen
- Italy: Waalbrug
- Germany: Pier in Scheveningen
- The Netherlands: Lighthouse in Ouddorp
In the video below, Head of Show Gerben Bakker takes us to the Veluwezoom and the Koppelpoort in Amersfoort, the postcard locations for Ukraine and Norway. Which postcard are you most looking forward to? Let us know!
