Eurovision

SBS have announced that Montaigne will return to represent Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. She was set to represent the country at the 2020 contest, before the contest was cancelled. Her return to the contest was announced on the SBS Eurovision Twitter account on Thursday morning in Australia. This announcement follows a tweet from Montaigne last week stating, she would “really really” like to return to the 2021 contest. “I’m very grateful” Speaking in a video on Twitter, Montaigne expresses her gratitude to SBS for choosing her to represent Australia at next year’s Eurovision. It's confirmed,@actualmontaigne will represent Australia in the Eurovision song contest 2021 #Eurovision #Eurovision2021 pic.twitter.com/dpgxdYofos— SBS Eurovision (@SBSEurovision) April 1, 2020 She also said that she is keen to produce her new entry for the contest, and urges people to “stay tuned”. I’m very keen to make new music, to produce a new song and figure out a new performance for next year. I’m sad I couldn’t do this year’s because I thought it was going to be really cool but really happy to get another chance at it… Stay tuned and watch this space because there’ll be stuff to come.– Montaigne Montaigne was set …

Last month, on the 18th March, the Eurovision fan community was rocked by the news of the cancellation of the 2020 contest. The rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic left organisers with little option but to cancel for the sake of public safety. However, a number of updates from 2020 artists, broadcasters and the EBU have already began to emerge regarding the 2021 contest. Although no one can predict what the global situation will be like by May 2021, the EBU is currently looking ahead to the organisation of the next contest. For the moment, one thing is certain – the 2020 entries will NOT be eligible for the next edition of the contest, whenever that is. At present, NPO and AVROTROS are likely to be the hosts of the next contest, having won the previous edition. Rotterdam is also likely to remain the host city. However, this may well change in the coming months. In the meantime, we know that the EBU will be broadcasting Europe Shine A Light as an alternative broadcast for the 16th of May. The show will not contain voting, but will feature the 2020 entries in some capacity. Many nations are yet to confirm their participation …

This afternoon, the European Broadcasting Union has announced the broadcast of a new show entitled “Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light” which will air in place of the Grand Final of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest at 9pm CET on Saturday 16 May. The Dutch are in charge! In order to honour the work put into the cancelled 2020 Eurovision Song Contest by Dutch broadcasters NPO, NOS and AVROTROS, “Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light” will be a collaborative production between these Dutch broadcasters and the EBU. In addition, the show will be hosted by Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit who has been selected to host the Eurovision Song Contest at the Rotterdam Ahoy next month. Honouring all 41 entries of 2020 According to eurovision.tv, the two-hour long show will primarily honour all 41 entries chosen for the 2020 contest. In addition, it intends to bring together all 41 artists from Eurovision 2020, from their home locations, in a performance of a past Eurovision hit with lyrics appropriate to the challenging situation the world is currently facing. We’re imagining something along the lines of the “Hallelujah” performance from 1999 with lots of added technology! The exact line-up of the show, …

Broadcaster LRT has invited The Roop back to the 2021 Lithuanian national selection Pabandom iš naujo! As well as confirming participation at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, the LRT Eurovision Working Group has announced that The Roop will be invited back and will receive a bye to the final. Earlier this month, the European Broadcasting Union stated that the rules of the contest will not be changed to allow the songs selected for 2020 to compete in the 2021 competition. The Roop, therefore, will have to enter next year’s national final with a brand new song that hasn’t been published before the usual 1st September cut off. As promised, the band will be receiving the €20.3k prize money from LRT for winning Pabandom iš naujo this year. LRT statement Gytis Oganauskas, Deputy Director General of LRT commented: We are all saddened by this situation – the song “On Fire” was considered one of the main contenders to win the competition. The band has received a lot of sympathy both in Lithuania and abroad, but unfortunately we will not be able to appear on the big Eurovision scene. Eurovision is first and foremost a song contest, which is gaining popularity every …

The Romanian broadcaster TVR has confirmed that Roxen will represent the country in 2021. She was selected to represent Romania in 2020 with the song “Alcohol You” but the contest was cancelled. The decision was made between TVR and their partner, the record label Global Records. TVR waited for the official confirmation from organisers regarding the possibility to support the artist already selected for this year’s competition, then discussed the current situation with Global Records and reached the decision to maintain Roxen as Romania’s representative at ESC2021. Under the current complicated circumstances, we will put to good use the resources invested for organising the 2020 National Selection and we will also honour the vote of confidence that Roxen has already received.Head of Delegation Liana Stanciu The head of Romanian delegation, Liana Stanciu, believes that Roxen can impress Europe with her attitude, vocal qualities and stage presence. She is certain that they can find another song that will be loved as much as “Alcohol You”. Roxen says she is excited to get to represent Romania in Eurovision Song Contest 2021, but also continues to promote “Alcohol You”. I received the good news with a lot of excitement and emotion and I …

For this week’s Slideback Sunday, we’re going back to 1983 for a song that feels very apt for the current situation in the world: Gry’s Kloden drejer! What does our team at ESCXTRA think of this entry? I’ll admit, I haven’t watched a lot of the pre-90’s Eurovisions. Eurovision was just a very different thing back then and unfortunately most of what was in there just wasn’t to my taste! This though – this is so catchy and enjoyable that I have to put this down for my slideback. It’s one of the few songs from pre-90’s Eurovision that I listen to regularly! The fact that this came 17th out of 20 is just wrong. Okay, her vocals may have been….shaky…and with the orchestra the song didn’t really……ok fine this kind of deserved 17th out of 20 with the live performance BUT the song itself is so much fun and you can’t help but dance along (and that dance is iconic)! Let’s instead listen to it through the preview video rather than the live Eurovision performance, much more pleasing to the ears! About the song ‘Kloden drejer’ was written by none other than Flemming Gernyx, Christian Jacobsen and Lars Christensen…(I …

Latvian broadcaster LTV have announced they will wait until after the Covid-19 outbreak passes to make a decision on their Eurovision 2021 participation. The broadcaster has confirmed that the decision needs to be “taken carefully, taking into account many factors”. Latvia was set to take part in the 2020 contest, until it was cancelled last week. Both of Latvia’s Baltic neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania, have confirmed they will be taking part in next year’s contest. A return for Samanta Tīna? LTV’s program director, Rita Ruduša, has explained today that a decision has not yet been made about whether Samanta Tīna will return next year. As well as no decision being made about Latvia’s artist selection for next year’s contest, they also have no plans yet as to whether they will be taking part in the contest, and the decision won’t be made until after the Covid-19 outbreak passes. The decision to participate in next year’s Eurovision has to be taken carefully, taking many factors into account, including the consequences of Covid-19. This is why we have decide to postpone a focused discussion on this topic until the acute situation is over.– Rita Ruduša, LTV program director (translated from Latvian) Samanta …

ORF have announced they have invited Vincent Bueno back to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. He was set to represent Austria at this year’s contest in Rotterdam, before the contest was cancelled. The Austrian broadcaster will also set to host their own replacement Eurovision show this May. Andi Knoll will present the show which will take place from 14th to 18th April on ORF1. The show will see a jury vote for their favourite songs from the entries planned to take part in 2020 contest. They are not the first country to announce their own replacement show. The UK’s BBC have also announced their own replacement show – “Eurovision: Come Together”. “I am incredibly happy” Talking about his selection for the 2021 contest, Vincent Bueno has said that: I am incredibly happy that I can be there next year and thank the ORF for its trust… ‘Alive’ was a strong number for me, and we set the bar very high. My goal is to surpass this for next year and we use the time to start with the best possible song for Austria in 2021.– Vincent Bueno (translated from German) ORF program director, Kathrin Zechner, shares her …

Today the broadcaster responsible for the Norwegian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest NRK has announced that long running National Final – Melodi Grand Prix will be their selection method for 2021. This however comes at a cost. The artist that would have represented them in 2020, Ulrikke, will play no part in proceedings. How will 2021 work? Next year Melodi Grand Prix will work similar to the process that took place in 2020. There will be a number of Semi-Finals and a Grand Final. Ulrikke was given the opportunity to compete as an automatic finalist. But whether there are going to be other automatic finalists is unknown at this point. What have NRK said? Christina Rezk Resar of NRK Underholdning had this to say about why NRK have decided to go in this path. MGP has always been an important platform for Norwegian music. Due to the situation were in at the moment, it is important now more than ever to maintain this tradition and to showcase the breadth of Norwegian artists and newly written songs. What Ulrikke had to say Ulrikke, who was due to represent Norway with the song “Attention” took to instagram to issue a statement. …

Yle has announced that Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021 will take place as planned, as open contest for all. That means Yle won’t internally choose Aksel Kankaanranta to represent the country in 2021. “Aksel can send in a new song” The search for new songs open on September 1st and everyone can send in their song to the competition. Professional jury will select the songs to compete in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu. The producer of UMK, Anssi Autio, says that the winner of UMK 2020, Aksel Kankaanranta, can send a new song in, but getting a spot in the final is not guaranteed for him. Aksel Kankaanranta won Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 with the song “Looking Back”. After the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was cancelled, he won’t get to represent Finland. EBU also decided that the songs selected for 2020 can’t be used in next year’s contest. Earlier Aksel said that he would like to represent Finland in 2021. This year six artists competed in the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu. For the previous two years, Yle selected their artist internally and let the public choose the song the artist will perform. Saara Aalto and Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman the two internal choices. Are you happy with Yle’s …