Eurovision 2021 is definitely happening, but not in the form that you’re accustomed to. On February 3, the EBU and Dutch broadcasters NPO/AVROTROS confirmed that Scenario A — the normal Eurovision with a massive audience — is unfortunately (and rather sensibly) off the cards. That leaves producers with Scenarios B, C and D.
Sietse Bakker, executive producer of the show, stressed option B remains the goal. That involves shows in the Ahoy arena with a socially distant audience and most participants in Rotterdam, along with “adapted” side events and 500 journalists on site (with a thousand more in a virtual press area).
“Our ambition is scenario B: a Eurovision Song Contest edition at one and a half meters, with sharp corona measures whereby all 41 artists can perform in Rotterdam Ahoy. Whether the public can attend the shows and activities in the host city of Rotterdam will be decided at a later time.”
Martin Österdahl, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, stressed that organisers will not rush their decision as they need to monitor the ongoing pandemic while also doing their best to create a safe setting for everyone involved.
“The Eurovision Song Contest will definitely make its welcome return this May despite the pandemic but, in the prevailing circumstances, it is regrettably impossible to hold the event in the way we are used to,” he said. “We’re grateful for the renewed commitment and backing from the City of Rotterdam and the ongoing support of all the participating broadcasters. We very much hope to be able to gather in Rotterdam in May and will do all we can in the coming weeks to achieve this. With an ever-changing situation we are taking our time to ensure that we can host the Eurovision Song Contest in the best and safest way possible.”
Eurovision 2021: The Three Remaining Scenarios
Scenario B: Socially distanced Eurovision Song Contest
“Everyone attending the Eurovision Song Contest at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena would need to practice social distancing.
Strict health and safety measures (including frequent COVID testing) would be in place at the venue. A protocol to protect artists, delegations, and crew on and off site would be adhered to.
If there are any delegations who cannot travel to Rotterdam, their artists will perform “live-on-tape” with a recorded performance being used.
Those who can travel to Rotterdam will perform their songs live on stage.
There would be 9 shows (6 dress rehearsals, 2 Semi-Finals and a Grand Final), either with no audience or a reduced audience to allow for social distancing. The final capacity would be dependent on local government guidelines.
There will be activities in the city of Rotterdam held in a safe and responsible way.”
Scenario C: A travel restricted Eurovision Song Contest
“A Eurovision Song Contest, from Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena but no delegations or artists will travel to Rotterdam.
Hosts and interval acts will still be live from the Ahoy.
The performances of ALL the participants will be “live-on-tape”.
Strict health and safety measures (including frequent COVID testing) would be in place at the venue.
A protocol to protect crew on and off site would be adhered to.
There would be 9 shows (6 dress rehearsals, 2 Semi-Finals and a Grand Final), either with no audience or a reduced audience to allow for social distancing. The final capacity would be dependent on local government guidelines.
There will be reduced activities in the city of Rotterdam held in a safe and responsible way.”
Scenario D: a lockdown Eurovision Song Contest
“A Eurovision Song Contest without an audience and virtual activities will be considered to explore the host city of Rotterdam.
The performances of all the participants will be “live-on-tape”.
There would be 9 shows (6 dress rehearsals, 2 Semi-Finals and a Grand Final), but no audience.”
#Eurovision ticket refunds: "As there will be less capacity for an audience in Scenarios B and C, organizers have decided to refund all current ticket holders this month and later give them the option to repurchase tickets for the same show(s)."
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) February 3, 2021
For more information about ticket refunds click here.
The chosen scenario does not have to be final
In an interview last month, Bakker revealed that the Dutch Eurovision team can still scale the contest up in the time between February and May. Looking back on his earlier press conferences, Sietse thinks that the announcement of the scenarios won’t be as vital as he first thought. He said:
“Last year, I saw a dramatic moment in which I, with a drum roll in the background, would announce the chosen scenario. I think that it won’t be that spectacular in the end. We will decide things in the first half of February. It will be realistic story. In April we will build the stage. The arrival of the artists will be in the second week of May. We will only do it when it’s responsible, and in collaboration with the municipality, the safety region and the responsible ministries.”
Which scenario do you think will eventually be chosen? What adjusted events in Rotterdam do you hope will still take place in some form? Let us know down below!
Yes. Last year was just bad. Proper voting was needed. And shine a light was not a good placeholder. Scenario C or D should have been possible even last year
Can someone explain the meaning of “live-on-tape”? If something is being played from a tape, it can’t be live and it can be edited. Also, we don’t use tapes anymore.
Actually it can’t be edited. It is all in one take, live. If you make a mistake you make it and it will be shown
A recorded performance but singing live
The same system used in Eurojunior that allowed that three perfomances were aired in playback and nothing happened
Live-on-tape means a recording of performance with no further postproduction or retakes. The production is the same as production of live show, meaning that all editing is done in real time during the performance, not afterwards.
I still wonder where are all those smart as*es who yelled that ESC 2020 should be in the summer ” it will all be over by the summer, why cancel?”. Is it over? Because the summer was pretty long time ago?
It was not over in summer but things were much better than now. I believe it could have been hosted in summer but the EBU had said that it would be troubling for the winning country because they would have had less time to organize the 2021 edition.
In any case this is pointless now, we should focus on the fact that at least we will get a Eurovision this year
Who sing in Rotterdam will be sing live, who sing in home country maybe sing live or playback (like we had in Junior Eurovision).
For those performing at home will be singing live on playback music the same way artists who are now on the grounds of the host country are performing live on playback music.
Three very good questions.
I think this is too soon to decide for certain, and will ultimately turn out to be a mistake. But, I hope I am wrong.
On another matter: A, B, C and D are also musical notes, as well as letters of some alphabets. P.S. Don’t tell me it’s obvious – there’s someone out there who didn’t spot that!
With a maypole and maybe it’s Maybelline, said Theresa May. (Sorry for my awful sense of word humour.)
Seems like some people on here creates issues over nothing instead of actually being happy we won¨t get option D. Travel restrictions, which travel restrictions? Majority of countries are in EU or associated with it. They have free movement between them. If they didn’t restrict that now they won’t restrict in May. Some people travel now even with pandemic and they don’t have any trouble getting in or out. Why should there be a problem in May? The few three countries or so who doesn’t have any associations with EU can travel and stay in quarantine upon arrival and return.… Read more »
Well I suppose people look at things negatively now to avoid possible disappointment further down the road? If you expect the worst you can either end up being right, or you get pleasantly surprised 🙂
Personally I’m just happy that we’re getting a contest this year at all!
yes, preach THIS. open up to OPTIMISM, close down to fear. fear is a great way to control people, so don’t surround yourselves with fear.
Big problem it is and travel restrictions relates to anyone anywhere these days. There is a pandemic and its getting worse. Stay at home and keep it virtual. People should avoid any travel full stop. I’m beginning to think some fans would prefer no Eurovision over no travel and no participation in the audience. This mind set is dangerous and it is usually those who are oblivious to the pandemic which results in them spreading it. My advice to EBU keep it like the Junior Eurovision keep it entirely remote, until things back to normal one day! The safety of… Read more »
Marty if it was that serious then we wouldn’t have the contest this year. Similarly, contestants can get infected while recording a live-on-tape performance or while preparing for the contest in their home country. Traveling abroad doesn’t make any difference. Thus, PCR tests are available, artists can isolate a fortnight before. People still travel nowadays and it’s possible. The gov said they will grant a permission to every contestant. Are you living in a shell?
I wish you well and stay safe, you still have much to learn. We are all living in lock down.
Well unfortunately for you EBU is aiming for scenario B with all 41 participants on stage and limited audience.But have fun staying all isolated!
Since the new B is almost like the old C, most of us got it right on the previous post. It seems they are being responsible without rushing a final decision (that will probably come with the entries’ deadline) and I believe it’s the right way to deal with it. I assume the press conference was mostly to inform about something we all already knew, that scenario A is not a possibility. Now they can refund tickets and probably adapt the Eurovision side events as online experiences. Though I would miss Wiwi’s reviews and interviews “from the ground” and an… Read more »
That’s a nice, balanced opinion, thank you. Sadly I do not share it. 😀
Assuming you don’t want the contest to be cancelled again, do you think they should go to scenario D right away then? Sadly, I’m not expecting things to change much in 40 days, but I don’t see why they should rush some decisions.
It’s too early to decide this now for sure, but based on the current travel restrictions and rates, yes I would argue for scenario D. That’s based on what we know now, not what we don’t know about the future.
The way I see it, the big question now is if they can come up with a good plan to create a bubble for the delegations. And this plan has to convince the Dutch authorities, the EBU executives and at least a vast majority of the other broadcasters (that, of course, will have to respect the local guidelines or at least negotiate for exceptions). It’s quite a challenge! But I think it’s one it’s worthy to fight for. If they fail on that, well, the difference between C and D won’t affect most of us. Maybe some local fans will… Read more »
Maybe it would be time to get rid of covid idiocy and start a normal life.
Considering what happened at JESC with the “live” on tape recordings of the “live” performances, I sure hope that if it’s option C or D there will be very strict guidelines about what is allowed or not. Doing it at JESC is one thing cause no one really cares and it’s just kids, but if there’s playback and lip-syncing at the real Eurovision (or god forbid, if the winner is accused of using playback) all hell will break loose.
I wrote a similar comment on the aftermath of JESC. I believe they’ll be more careful with it, but they’ll also need to be super transparent, because I’m sure people will use playback accusations to bash frontrunners even if the accusations make no sense at all.
A playback winner is not a valid winner. The EBU had better watch out from turning this event in a farce.
Nobody’s going to watch a 4 hour videoclip show.
They did last year a 3 hour video clip show, and it wasn’t even a competition.
This options should be last year. It means shows yes, but without audience or participants singing in national studios, postponed show in September etc. Not cancelling the show. It was very bad decision. Why JESC happened with different circumstances and ESC not? We could have new artists for Vilnius/Reykjavik/any city in Russia this year.
Uhhh as a fan it is easy to judge without knowing what needs professionally be done behind the scenes. First, JESC had months to prepare…from scratch. They only had to deal with nine countries, and since JESC is smaller in scale it was less complicated to work with those broadcasters. The adult ESC on the other hand had all plans ready to be executed… and then suddenly two months before everything had to be thrown away. It’s easy to say “they could’ve postponed until summer, or give us a real ESC”. Good luck to convince all 41 broadcasters to quickly… Read more »
Because the decision to cancel the contest was made as Europe was grappling with a fast-spreading virus they can’t contain, live events and film/television productions across the world have mostly shut down for the better part of the year. Coming up with these initial four scenarios didn’t come up magically within a few weeks of a time frame. These were formulated after months of coming up with safe and effective ways to continue a song contest that can adapt at any given time, with the guidance and cooperation of health authorities and local/national governments and of the various participating broadcasters.… Read more »
Option B, dream on , there is a pandemic for goodness sake , so it will be D in the end. At least there is a contest !
plan C has audience but not the participants? how’s that possible? unless they mean only locals in the audience but still odd.
Even if some/all the participants can’t perform live from the arena, the shows will still be hosted live from the arena by the presenters, so having some form of audience (even if it’s free tickets to local residents) makes sense.
Since it says there will be 500 journalists on-site in scenario B will the Wiwibloggs team be able to attend the contest in-person? I also enjoy watching the videos of the Wiwibloggs team discussing the rehearsals, results, etc. at the contest and I hope those can continue this year.
I would imagine Renske and correspondents based near The Netherlands, but the team themselves will probably determine that closer to the date?
Good question. Correspondents from outside would probably have to prove their travel was “essential.”
Exactly! I think we are heading for a B (which is a modified C as we knew it)
Well a lot of things are to be solved and you’re right about the deadlines, but personally I am happy that at least we are getting a Eurovision, and as it seems a B scenario
Or possibly a B-sharp scenario. Think music. 😛
I thought it was mid March.
They modified plan C and now it is stated that all acts will perform remotely, and they also modified plan B and now it states that if needed some countries will perform remotely and that the live shows may even not include any audience at all.
For me this is a B that we’re gonna get. B is the old C, and we thought that we were heading for a C, so apparently now it is a B! I really hope though that all acts will get to perform live on stage at the Rotterdam Ahoy, fingers crossed!
This is good news but travel restrictions are clearly gonna still be a thing in May. It’s already pretty certain that Australia will not be in attendance and I think there’ll be many more absentees. And if a significant number can’t attend then I feel the rest of the broadcasters would rather save the money and send in a tape from home.
Australia could grant her permission to travel though. And didnt Australia just permit a tennis tournament or something and allowing traveling for it?
Yes, I think that they grant permissions in cases of “national interest”. I am not an Australian and I do not know which these cases are, but I’ve read somewhere that they do it
You are correct, permission is granted in cases of national interest. Which is why athletes and the alike are allowed to travel overseas. The cricket team was due to travel to South Africa this week but they personally decided not to travel due to the situation there. In theory Montaigne would be allowed to travel to Rotterdam, she would simply have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival back in Australia. Only thing stopping her would be is SBS (Australian broadcaster) wished to keep her in Australia for financial reasons.
As an Australian, multiple places have no community transmission. There’s no reason for Montaigne not to go.
Yeah unless the situation in The Netherlands gets exponentially worse, she’ll be allowed to go, although I can imagine her quarantine upon coming back will be very strict.
No way will it be B clearly that’s ambitious but being realistic it’s likely to be scenario C.
Why are there 6 dress rehearsals for Scenario C and D when all the performances will be live on tape? What are they rehearsing, how to press play?
Am I missing something?
Also, presumably options C and D remove the need for a separate jury show since they are just looking at a video?
Conceptually speaking, if the juries are judging recordings and those have to be done by 26 March, why not just judge them some time between 26 March and May? I am not sure why you need to create a separate show?
Aren’t the juries supervised to review at a specific time and place? (Just trying to remember my ESC rules…) I think that’s correct. They have to do their jobs in a specific way otherwise their scores are voided.
I’m thinking we’ll end up with scenario C. With variant strains of the virus now beginning to develop, I think we’ll be seeing a new round of travel restrictions. It would be reasonable to expect that countries will have restrictions for any place with high case numbers of a variant virus. One would hope national delegations have plans in place to quarantine themselves starting in April to be able to travel to Rotterdam.
You also seem to forget that we have learned the virus is like other virus: slowing down during spring and summer so B could happen
You seem to ignore the hard data. One month after restrictions were relaxed last year after the initial surge, there was another spike. Nobody is gonna take a chance of a repeat. It’s only responsible to keep restrictions in place until some sort of herd immunity starts kicking in. And as of now, only Israel has anything close to the vaccination percentage needed for that.
Meh nothing new
That was expected but fingers crossed for B, I also think that the netherlands should be the host when a country that doesn’t want to host or can’t host wins or when a country that hosted one of the 10 most recent editions (2010 – 2019 right now) wins because they waited 44 years to get their next victory just for this mess to happen and no one knows when they’ll get the next one.
Is having a ” normal” ESC really that important to you?
Yes but ofc given the current circumstances it’s impossible and we have to adapt, but think about thr Dutch fans that waited a long time to have esc in their country just to have it stripped down. it’s not fair, right?
But not enough will be vaccinated to make scenario A possible for ESC 2021 in May, and we’re talking about a very unique situation when a country waited four decades to host eurovision and then can’t host it properly due to a situation beyond our control so exceptions should be made.
Yes.
I guess the one good thing about Covid impacted Eurovision is that The Netherlands will be keen to host again soon unlike some recent hosts, in order to enjoy having a typical Eurovision on their soil.
And to think all those negative nellys being so sure option D was the only choice..
As has been proven you can still have social distant events even during corona, I think ESC can be the start of a social distant but still alive event summer!
I feel like those are the same people who mispredicted before, and thought that covid would be gone in two months so that the contest could’ve been postponed to summer 😀 anyway I’m glad the responsible organisers have a more realistic look on the situation 🙂 at least we will have a contest in May!
It’s not about social distancing at the event. It’s about country to country travel restrictions. No government is going to relax their travel restrictions for ESC
They can’t risk even the smallest chance one of the new variants coming into their country.
But we have learned that rhe virus slows down during spring and summer so travel restrictions will most likely ease. If all that is needed is a Covid test than I am sure most will be there.
No way, corona is mutating like mad around the world, just yesterday a second UK variant was found. Even if it slows down in warmer months, borders will still be shut, no doubt about it. As much as I want Rotterdam to have the best hosting possible, people have to think logically and realise that that’s just not possible at the moment.
Oh I see you are one of those negative Nellys. You are not thinking forward as the producers do. Only thinking at the moment which isnt even accurate. Borders are not closed now, they wont be in May either. And EU commision is commited to keep them open
Borders are shut, here in UK they are shut for the foreseeable future, Australia until possibly 2022, not all of Europe is in the EU. Honestly, I’m not being negative, just realistic
you’re so wrong. Australia got hit with covd the hardest in the middle of summer. its the ignorance for me
It was our winter though…some people are being too optimistic but Australia being in the Southern Hemisphere has its winter in the middle of the year.
….we also had covid19 especially in the eastern states in nov-dec flaring up. I know what the seasons in my country are lmao
This is not true, Denis. The World Health Organization already warned more than 6 months ago that Summer weather doesn’t seem to affect the transmission of the virus: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1069111 Even if it happens to slow down the spreading a bit, it’s already proven that it wasn’t enough to contain the pandemic. The USA had a peak of cases during Summer. The most affected city in Brazil is one where the weather is always warm and humid.
I think we were all expecting scenario A to not be viable this year. I’m very confident we’ll have a normal pre-COVID contest next year. The main thing is that we’ll have a 2021 edition anyway
priority: ALL artists go to Rotterdam, singing LIVE, REAL-TIME from the venue.
even if there has to be no audience, it will still be 100% okay. but they actually can include some audience with heavy requirements (French national selection has proven it). you may disagree with my opinion because of different situation per country. still, 41 artists + delegations are still much smaller than, let’s say, 30% of the audience.
yeah but travel restrictions
What travel restrictions? The vast majority of countries competing are in the EU or its associates and they have free movement in place. Other countries can do a test before getting to Rotterdam and quarantine there. Why is it a big deal now? A lot of people travel nowadays even during the pandemic and the procedure is simple. Countries like Israel have vaccinated a looot of people. Eden will be able to go for sure. Some vaccines have been proven that are undermining the ability for the virus to spread. How are Olympics gonna be organised then?
C – Do I understand it right that people would buy tickets to sit in the arena and watch people performing on the big screen?
I think the artists are more important than the audience…
All artists should share the same stage , not from their homes. They should be all together , with a limited audience in Ahoy
Very thoughtful to provide full refund and a repurchase option.
Why did they change option C? Prior to this it was announced that for option C almost all artists will be present (except for some who can’t travel) but the public won’t. Now option C is vice versa. Why? What’s the point of having the public present in the arena but without artists? Lol and wtf at the same time.
Updated: I’ve just seen they changed option B as well to include that some artists can perform remotely, but still audience in Rotterdam without artists is nonsense.
They have to adjust the scenarios depending on the current situation.
Ok, but my point was that it’s not clever to have an audience without artists. Imagine you pay for a ticket and watch pre-recorded performances in Rotterdam on a big screen while artists are at home. It’s illogical to have let’s say 1000 people in the arena (audience) but delegations which are small and their count is 300-400 maximum are not permitted. I would prefer to watch artists over the audience. Dutch gov already said they are going to permit the delegations to enter the country
I believe Sietse Bakker mentioned in an interview with Jan Bors that a decision with regards to the audience would be made separately apart from when they’ll settle on realistic scenario.
Things can change between now and then so it makes sense to have the scenarios now be updated to allow for more flexibility depending on what can happen and what can and cannot be done by May.
Maybe because it is mainly a TV event? Live audience is better than no audience. And perhaps the prerecorded acts are easier to edit into the show.
This is unexpectedly awesome. All tickets are refunded automatically.
They’re clearly trying to do their best by all stakeholders/everyone involved. It’s very good.
the only thing I need is all artists at sight, I don’t really care for the audience.
The Netherlands, if you find yourself in a tricky situation, we are prepared
to trade you the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, 5 packets of Tim Tams and loan you
Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth for 12 months in exchange for hosting rights
to the contest. Love, Australia. kthanksbye.
There’s something for everyone in that deal, Oscar! Nice work.
Could you throw in Hendrix and Nicolette from Neighbours? Thanks
Sure, but instead of 5 packets of Tim Tams it’s 4 and we can 2 weed brownies in return?
Off course it’s great that they are aiming high. But maybe side events are a bit unrealistic? Maybe try out some online side events this year with some sort of artist livestream from Rotterdam.
I think online events should be used like an updated version of the home concerts called “euro lounge challenge” which is the same as the home concerts but acts aren’t allowed to choose a song from the same geographic region as them, or the same year. A euro-cribs like the section in semi final 2’s song celebration, and a general Euro-tv to replace the likely negligible promo season (I would expect Destiny, Samira and Vasil travelling to Israel, as most people there will be vaccinated by mid April, but nothing else, though a remote promo like the Spanish one last… Read more »
im glad they´re still giving us something to look forward to <3
Good news,at least with audience!
It’s NOT with audience at this time. All tickets will be refunded this month. There is still a small chance left…