With only a few months to go, preparations for Eurovision 2021 are in full swing. Although the show has had to change slightly because of local coronavirus measures in the Netherlands, Eurovision 2021 Executive Producer Sietse Bakker thinks that the contest is going to be even better than what Eurovision 2020 was going to be.
Speaking to Algemeen Dagblad, Sietse said that plans for the show have improved despite all that is happening.
“If you can sit on something for another year, it is logically going to be better. Next to that, you start to doubt things that have been finalised already. That is all part of an interesting creative process, which only gets better.”
Starting up again was naturally a little bit tricky for the Dutch Eurovision team. After all, the city of Rotterdam and all the other stakeholders involved in the show had to be willing to invest another year in it. Sietse acknowledged that it was a hectic period, but noted that there was a feeling of togetherness.
“There’s immediately a feeling of ‘we won’t let this fall out of our hands forty years after we last organised it.'”
Sietse Bakker on Eurovision 2021 show changes
He goes on to say that producers have changed several elements of the show.
“We were modestly proud of what we already had on the table, but you start looking at what you can carry over [to next year]. After all, it hasn’t seen the light.
We live in a different world and everything around us is different. You have to reckon with that. A hundred dancers on stage? That’s impossible now. [The postcards] don’t fit the situation. Apart from the challenges of having to get the artist here.”
Earlier, Sietse spoke to NU.nl about the four scenarios and the prerecorded performances the EBU is requiring of all acts this year. He hopes the prerecorded performances will eventually become available to the public regardless of which scenario organisers decide upon. He said:
“We are in talks with the EBU to see whether there would be another possibility to show the tapes to the public. It would be a pity if they were to disappear into a filing cabinet in Geneva.”
What are you expecting from Eurovision 2021? Let us know in the comments down below!
Im sure they will deliver a fantastic show come May, but it wont feel as the good old contest without public (yes i expect it to have no or less public). Therefor i truly hope the Netherlands will win soon in the near future. For the Dutch fans, for the country that really came from far. Good luck Sietse and team !
Yes, they will all be lip-synching…
About postcards i would prefer more like Bio about artist (before their performance on stage) instaed of classical postcard showing the country at least cette année
I mean isn’t that what happens every year though? On your television screen you see the postcard usually featuring the artists and during the postcard commentators start telling the ins and outs of the artist and their entry in the language of the broadcaster channel you are watching on. You could do a close up of the artist like 2017 and put an informative text on the television screen but it’s not really a big change from what’s happening already.
Isn’t the commentators there to give information about acts? I want the postcards to be what they are; presenting the country and the acts doing stuff in the country. What is the point of having a host country if you can’t present it?
I’m sure some commentators are better than others when it comes to talking up the acts about to appear on stage.
Make the pre-recorded performances, if not used, as a bonus disc with the dvd/bluray release.
Sietse has a producers mind and I found that refreshing. He also said that he keeps every option open, even option A because a lot will happen between now and May. He also said he isnt assuming option D is the only possible option like many thinks because he sees it as limited and he would think he could done a better job.. Nice having someone who has a show opinion rather than TV opinion
I hope scenario B will happen, or eventually scenario C, but with all participants being able to perform in Rotterdam live. I hate scenario D as it’s not the same feeling when the show is pre-recorded and when it’s live + no audience
At this point at long as we have live/recorded performances from the artists and the competition aspect I’m pretty happy. Recorded isn’t preferred but JESC honestly turned out good in my opinion. I miss Eurovision so much and will be thankful for whatever format it’s in as long as we don’t end up with the 2020 situation.
Jesc was good but without beiing rude i feel like it was a karaoke/lip singing festival not all of them used live voice …
Without any solid form of evidence that shows the young artists that they are lip-synching their own songs, these are all mere speculations and insults toward the performers.
Sorry but in this age we have listened to live music and autotune for decades. I’m pretty certain we can hear the difference.. it’s a bad argument also since we could never prove anything this way. We will never get backstage access to the production so we could never get any ‘solid evidence’ even if we wanted to now could we?
If a singer’s live vocals are indeed great and even match the quality of their song’s respective studio version, it shouldn’t be much of an issue. But it’s very clear there is that has to do with fans and their unrealistic expectations. They hate it if a performance lets down a supposedly good studio cut of a track then proceed to hate another song if a song is too good that they would think it was all playback. It’s bad enough that ESC fan internet alone is toxic, what more with online forums focused on JESC? It’s no surprise that… Read more »
It was good but I thought it was painfully obvious that it was a TV-show. The live aspect was gone, and there wasn¨t much you could do with the performances. If they have to use option D I hope it will be more “live”
I expect nothing but I hope that all the artists and their teams get the 2 vaccine shots and are able to perform live on stage in Rotterdam. I don’t think that we see audience there in that venue but it would be good to have all the team crews there (as audience). To be honest, it could be a type C or D scenario in May.
I don’t like scenario D as it’s not the same feeling when the show is pre-recorded and when it’s live + no audience
Vaccination doesn’t exempt the patient from following restrictions because they can still spread the virus.
What really matters is overal vaccination status in NL. Once they protected their vulnerable population, rules can be relaxed.