Sietse Bakker: Cyprus did not ask to be first in the running order of the Grand Final!
In their most recent video William Lee Adams from Wiwibloggs stated that the Cyprus delegation asked the organizers to let Elena Tsagrinou open the night of the Grand Final with her song El Diablo. However, the producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 and one of the members of the Reference Group Mr. Sietse Bakker has denied these rumors.
The running order is made by the Host Broadcaster and then approved by the EBU. The Participating Broadcasters have no influence on it, even if they would ask. I was in the room when it was decided, any (if any) preference of any delegation did not play a role in that meeting.
— Sietse Bakker (@SietseBakker) July 21, 2021
When asked on Twitter about the alleged request by Cyprus, Sietse Bakker reminded the public that it is up to the public broadcaster who hosts Eurovision to make the running order. Furthermore, the running order requires the subsequent approval of the EBU. Thus the participating broadcasters do not suggest which place they would like to be sorted out. In addition Seitse Bakker mentions that he attended the sorting process of the running order for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. According to him, the opinion of the delegations did not play a role in this process.
After this public denial it seems that the information Wiwibloggs had was inaccurate. Nonetheless, William seemed absolutely sure that Cyprus had in fact made this request. This may be because many Cypriot fans have echoed the alleged petition by the Cyprus delegation to perform in first place for months. It is possible that the fans have get these fake news from the same source.
You can watch William mentioning this rumour in the embedded video, at 44.30:
