A little while ago through the official social networks of the contest, it was announced that the draw of the semi-finals of this year’s contest will also apply to Eurovision 2021. Read more
A few moments ago, the EBU revealed the list of the participating countries at the upcoming contest of Eurovision 2021, on 18th, 20th and 22nd of May in Rotterdam the Netherlands. Actually they are the same 41 nations that were about to take part in the 2020 contest that was canceled due to the COVID19 pandemic.
EBU and the Dutch host broadcasters NPO, NOS and AVROTROS have already revealed the 4 scenarios which their are focused on, and they abide by the restrictions and the facts of the pandemic and according to which the Eurovision 2021 will take place. The scenario, which will be chosen, will be announced in due time.
Martin Österdahl, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, said:
“We are grateful for the commitment of the 41 participating broadcasters in helping us bring the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2021.”
“We have the exact same line up of countries that would have competed in 2020 and we are thrilled that they will all return next year. Together with our host broadcasters we are continuing to develop the 4 different scenarios and maintaining a dialogue with all participants. The team from NPO, NOS and AVROTROS are working hard on ensuring the Eurovision Song Contest will provide the excitement and innovation expected by over 180 million viewers, despite the challenging circumstances.”
Of the 41 nations taking part, 35 will compete in two Semi-Finals with 10 successful acts from each Semi-Final joining the Big 5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom) and hosts the Netherlands in the Grand Final.
Sietse Bakker, Executive Producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, said:
“It is fantastic that the same 41 countries that would have taken part this year still want to come to the Netherlands in May 2021. This demonstrates their confidence in our country still being able to organize a successful Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam next year, after the cancellation of the 2020 edition.”
“We have set the bar high to create 3 amazing live shows for an audience of 180 million people, even in these challenging times. To achieve this, we are working on an extensive protocol that guarantees the health of employees, participants, the press and visitors as much as possible.”
Participating broadcasters
The following countries (and EBU Member broadcasters) will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam:
Albania (RTSH)
Armenia (AMPTV)
Australia (SBS)*
Austria (ORF)
Azerbaijan (Ictimai TV)
Belarus (BTRC)
Belgium (VRT)
Bulgaria (BNT)
Croatia (HRT)
Cyprus (CyBC)
Czech Republic (CT)
Denmark (DR)
Estonia (ERR)
Finland (YLE)
France (FT)
Germany (ARD/NDR)
Georgia (GPB)
Greece (ERT)
Iceland (RUV)
Ireland (RTE)
Israel (KAN)
Italy (RAI)
Latvia (LTV)
Lithuania (LRT)
Malta (PBS)
Moldova (TRM)
The Netherlands (AVROTROS)
North Macedonia (MKRTV)
Norway (NRK)
Poland (TVP)
Portugal (RTP)
Romania (TVR)
Russia (Channel One)
San Marino (RTV)
Serbia (RTS)
Slovenia (RTVSLO)
Spain (TVE)
Sweden (SVT)
Switzerland (SRG SSR)
Ukraine (UA:PBC)
United Kingdom (BBC)
*EBU Associate
It is worth to be mentioned this is the first time since 1990 that we have the same amount of participating countries in two consecutive years.
Source: Eurovision.tv
Singer Anastasia Prikhodko complained on the air “4 channels”that she was hounded in Ukraine because of her participation in the international music contest “Eurovision” from Russia.
“I still hear a lot of unpleasant statements like the fact that I am from Russia, a tin can,” she said, adding that the persecution pursues her and she is “very offended for that”.
According to Prikhodko, at one time she left to work in Russia due to the fact that she was not appreciated in Ukraine. She noted that people do not understand that “the Ukrainians disqualified her under the power that was.” She took part in the Ukrainian national selection, before she submitted Mamo in Russia, but she eliminated in the semi final.
The artist said that the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko could not do anything, because it was a dishonest competition where bribes took place. She stated that she was “disqualified as an inconvenient participant” in Ukraine and then she went to Russia.
In February last year, Prikhodko announced that she was not proud of her participation in Eurovision from Russia. She stated that she “regrets that her story was connected with Russia.” The singer noted that after the annexation of Crimea, this country “ceased to exist” for her.
Anastasia Prikhodko gained fame after winning the Russian television project “Star Factory – 7” in 2007. In 2009, the singer represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Mamo” in Russian and Ukrainian and took 11th place.
The scene of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which began with the occupation of Crimea and its de facto integration into Russia in 2014, but also with the separatist uprisings in eastern Ukraine with the support of the Kremlin, has now reached Junior Eurovision.
Most of you will probably remember the Ukrainian national selection for Eurovision 2019 and the political dimensions that took place, with the final exclusion of Maruv. Now something similar happened in the pre-selection phase of the Ukrainian participation in Junior Eurovision 2020.
But let’s look at everything that happened from the beginning. Maksym Tkachuk was among the candidates to represent Ukraine in Junior Eurovision 2020. He applied with a performance of a Ukrainian rendition of the 1960s Giamaica song that was recorded. by a number of Italian artists.
Maksym previously participated in a festival called “Stars of the Albion”. His participation in this festival was the one that caused his exclusion from the national final for Junior Eurovision 2020. The reason for his exclusion was that he violated the rules of participation, and while the video with which he declared his participation had the most likes from their co-candidates, 12,000 before being removed from the official national default YouTube account.
The application form states that: the participant guarantees that he has not performed concert activities, performances, participation in public and / or private events organized by government agencies, institutions, economic entities, etc. of the country of the attacker or in the territory of the attacking country, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and / or in the occupied territory of Ukraine after 15.03.2014 and does not plan, will not announce the relevant appearances both during the period before and during national selection, and in the period after the Selection until the last date of the International Competition.
As the “Stars of the Albion” competition held from 28.02.2020 to 01.03.2020 was co-organized by the office of the “Russian Parliament / Russian Delegation in London” shows that this competition is subject to the executive power of the Russian Federation.
Zurab Alasania, a former managing director of Ukraine’s national broadcaster, also wrote about the case on Facebook, saying that Maksym’s legal guardian, his grandmother, had withheld the young artist’s involvement in the application forms. , at the “Stars of the Albion” festival. In addition, he states that the Russian Foreign Ministry is participating in the organization of the festival in question and therefore Maksym’s participation in the Ukrainian national final was no longer possible, after the announcement of the above. Mr Alasania also denounced the Russian media ‘s criticism of the decision, saying the rules were known and applied to all, and that he would not allow Ukrainian public television to launch a new case similar to the one. of Maruv in 2019, ending the non-participation of the country in the competition.
Maksym’s grandmother, who is also his legal guardian as he is an orphan, appeared disappointed saying that the Ukrainian television did not even bother to inform her by phone and everything was informed by the media. She believes that the reason for her grandson’s exclusion was that in “Stars of the Albion”, she sang “Smuglyanka”, a patriotic song of the Soviet era, the time when Russia and Ukraine were in the same state.
Opposition party Svoboda, meanwhile, has blamed Moscow for trying to use a 12-year-old orphan boy to propagandize pro-Russian positions in Ukraine as Russia seeks to oust Maksym. occupies Crimea and the eastern part of the country. Moreover, they do not consider that the choice of Maksym’s song in “Stars of the Albion” was accidental…
Here we will briefly state our point of view, because unfortunately the issue is very delicate and any attitude in favor of either side must be done very carefully, always respecting international law.
On the one hand, the cancellation of Maksym is completely legal and is based on the rules of the competition that were published from the beginning and were known to all participants. The fact that his legal guardian concealed Maksym’s participation in the festival shows that she knew it was a Russian-sponsored music competition, as she knew there would be reactions if her grandson’s participation was learned at this festival. The choice of the song, which also provoked reactions, was obviously not accidental, but it is something we will not comment on, as we do not know exactly what this song means for Ukraine.
The representative of Ukraine in the Junior Eurovision 2020 will be announced on September 12th.
EurovisionFun had the pleasure and the honor of hosting Go_A in an exclusive interview. Go_A is a Ukrainian electro-folk band and consists of Kateryna Pavlenko, Ihor Didenchuk, Taras Shevchenko και Ivan Hryhoriak. This year, after their victory in the national final Vidbir 2020, they were set to represent Ukraine in Eurovision with the song “Solovey“, while from very early, after the cancellation of the competition, it was announced that they will internally represent the country in 2021 in Rotterdam.
Info: The idea to form a band that will combine modern electronic music with ethnic motifs first came to Taras Shevchenko in 2011, but the first attempts to work with actual musicians were in 2012. At the end of that year, in December, the first song “Koliada” was released. The band’s name means “return to the roots” and was made by combining the English word “Go” with the Greek letter “Alpha“, which symbolizes the beginning of everything.
First of all, thank you for this interview. You won Vidbir 2020 and you would represent Ukraine in Eurovision 2020 with the song “Solovey”. How you felt after winnng your country’s national final this year?
Actually it was quite a surprise for us. We couldn’t believe that a band that had been staying in musical underground for 7 years without a manager or label support could win such contest. So our first impression was “Ok, what’s the catch?”. But then we felt a great responsibility, because we understood we were the first band in Eurovision history that would perform a song fully in Ukrainian. We find it very important. As one of our European fans said, not many people in Europe or the rest of the world know that Ukraine has its own language and culture – and we have a chance to show it.
How you felt after the heartbreaking announcement that this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled?
Taras: When Eurovision was cancelled everything happened so fast, there hadn’t any time for feelings. We were working in the studio when we received two messages on my phone. The first one – Eurovision was cancelled, the second one – UA:PBC (which is responsible for Eurovision in Ukraine) had decided that we would be the Ukraine’s entry for Eurovision 2021.
Could you tell us more about your team behind “Solovey”? Will be the same team for your next year’s entry?
The song was written by Taras & Kate so next year it will be the same way. As for the performance team – we are looking for professionals that will help us implement our ideas.
“Solovey” has a unique and traditional sound and it’s in Ukrainian language. What that, singing in your own language, means to you? Will you still use traditional sounds and Ukrainian in 2021?
Our aim is to show our cultural heritage to the whole world because we believe it should take its place in pop music the same way it has already happened with Indian, Arabian and Latin folk music. And of course it includes us singing in Ukrainian and using traditional Ukrainian sound techniques.
As I said before, your song was among the few traditional songs this year. Do you believe that in the future contests, the countries should prefer to use traditional sounds and their own language?
We think that depends on the artist. Every artist expresses his/her thoughts and emotions through the song’s lyrics. Some of them are great in writing songs in English, others prefer to do it in their own language. Our song Solovey wouldn’t sound like Solovey any more if it was translated in English but still there are a lot of great songs in English and I can’t imagine them being performed in a different language. Again, it’s all about the artist’s attitude.
In 2016, Jamala won Eurovision for Ukraine. How would you feel if you were the 3d act which will bring the contest in your country?
We would consider it to be a great honor and responsibility. But based on our experience of winning Ukraine’s national selection we understand it’s difficult to predict one’s feelings till the very moment.
The last years, Ukraine used to organize a national final. How did you feel when you noticed that you have internally selected for 2021?
We had very little time to feel anything. For us it was like “Ok, we need to write another song for the next year, so lets get started”.
As you already let us know, you will create five songs for your personal national final so people will choose the best one. Have you already some songs on hand? Have you started the preparation about that?
The idea first came up as a joke but then we realized it was a good way to show some respect to people who voted for us this year. We started to work in the studio right after Eurovision had been cancelled and so far we have several pieces of music. But you’d never know which song will be THE song or in our case – one of several songs. I mean, in the past we had situations when we did a song, put it on the shelf, then listened to it in several days and realized it wasn’t “us”, it didn’t feel like a Go_A song – so we just threw it away. Maybe we’ll treat our song we did for the last two months the same way. Maybe not. Time will tell.
This year, Greece would be represented by the 17 years old Stefania with the song “Supergirl”. Stefania also already confirmed for 2021. What do you think about her?
“SUPERG!RL” is incredibly powerful and yet very tender song, and so is Stefania herself. Can’t wait to hear her new song for Eurovision 2021.
*In closing, Go_A sent a message to EurovisionFun as well as to all Greeks who will be invited to vote for Ukraine at Eurovision 2021!*
We warmly thank Go_A for this interview and we wish them best of luck next year in Rotterdam!
The official public broadcaster of Ukraine, UA: PBC, has announced on its website that it will be represented at Eurovision 2021 by Go_A! Go_A were announced as Vidbir 2020 winners and were due to compete in the Netherlands with “Solovey”.
Thus, the Public Channel of Ukraine will not make any additional national choice regarding the election of its representatives. UA President: PBC said in a statement:
“If nothing changes in the life of Go_A in the coming months and they are ready to compete on the Eurovision stage, we will help! This applies to their preparation, song selection and other organizational issues.
In this decision all parties involved converge. So our intention is that Go_A will represent Ukraine at Eurovision 2021!”
https://youtu.be/zNetXPSld50
Source: UA:PBC
The announcement of the first judge for the Ukrainian Vidbir 2020 was made by the UA: PBC public broadcaster on the selection of participation in Eurovision 2020.
For another year, actror and singer Andrey Danilko, known to contestants as Verka Serduchka, will be in the judge’s chair, and along with other judges, will make up 50% of the national final vote.
“It is the 5th year in the jury panel, but my selection criteria have not changed: the main thing is that the country will be well represented and competitively represented in Eurovision. I hope this time, both the television audience and the jury will choose the most deserving representative from Ukraine. Otherwise, why is this all? ”
Andrey Danilko has been a judge of the Ukraine national final since 2016, the first year Vidbir has been held, while 2017 has been dominated by Jamala, the winner of Eurovision 2016, and since 2018 Yevhen Filatov, founding member of the “Onuka” band.
Although there have been rumors of Jamala’s withdrawal this year, there has been no official confirmation. As the channel reveals, we will soon know the rest of the judges who will frame Andrey Danilko.
Vidbir 2020 will be for another year with two semifinals on February 8 and 11, and a Grand Final on February 22. Sergey Pritula will be presenting for the fourth consecutive year.
In 2019, Maruv and “Siren Song” won the national final of the country and were due to travel to Tel Aviv. However, its participation violated the rules of the channel, which brought the two sides into disagreement, and ultimately the withdrawal of Ukraine from the competition, just days after the national final.
Source: stb.ua
Like every year, Ukraine will choose its representative at the Eurovision Song Contest through a national selection , the well-known Vidbir. Earlier today, the national broadcaster UA: PBC revealed the dates regarding the procedure and some new changes to the rules.
According to the channel’s announcement, all the interested artists and composers can submit their application starting today until December 25th via the link that can be found HERE.
Moreover, due to the country’s withdrawal from the previous contest in Tel Aviv, the UA: PBC has explicitly stated that: nominated artists, who may be singers or groups, should not have performed in Russia since 2014 , they should not have scheduled any future appearances in that country during the contest while artists who have stepped on Crimean territory are not allowed to apply at all.
As in previous years, Vidbir 2020 will be broadcasted by the private STB channel , the show will be produced by Ruslan Quinta and Natalia Franchuk and will. be hosted by Sergey Pritula while STB will be funding the winner and country’s representative.
Vidbir 2020 will have three live shows, two semifinals, on February 8th and 11th, and the Grand Final on February the 22nd.
Last year, we all remember MARUV winning the Vidbir 2019 with the song titled”Siren” but eventually failed to fly to Tel Aviv due to her entry’s conflict with UBC rules, which resulted in Ukraine’s withdrawal from Eurovision 2019.
The Ukrainian singer Maruv plans to support Sergey Lazarev at the Eurovision Song Contest, telling that they are connected by an “interesting common story”. Reports on NTV. Read more
A special press conference was held today by the chairman of the Ukrainian National Broadcaster, Zurab Alasania and Oleksandra Koltsova, Chief of Entertainment Department, on the country’s withdrawal from Eurovision 2019 as well as Ukraine’s short-term plans for the contest in general. Read more
