With just one week until the grand final, day eight of Eurovision 2021 rehearsals is over.
Today, the six automatic qualifiers all took to the Rotterdam Ahoy stage for their second rehearsals. We got another look at how the Big Five acts — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom — staged their song contest entries. We also saw The Netherlands’ home team take to the stage for another run-through.
Måneskin went crimson with a costume change, Jendrik brought the energy and Barbara Pravi delivered another enchanting performance. But who was the best? Vote for your favourite second rehearsal in our poll!
Scroll down to vote in our poll.
Eurovision 2021 rehearsals: Day Eight (May 15)
Click on the below posts to read our reviews, watch our reactions and see snippets from each country’s second rehearsal.
- 🇮🇹 Italy: Måneskin — “Zitti E Buoni”
- 🇩🇪 Germany: Jendrik — “I Don’t Feel Hate”
- 🇳🇱 The Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy — “Birth of a New Age”
- 🇫🇷 France: Barbara Pravi — “Voilà”
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: James Newman — “Embers”
- 🇪🇸 Spain: Blas Cantó — “Voy a quedarme”
Poll: Who had the best second rehearsal on May 15?
As always, you can vote for as many songs as you like. But remember, you can only vote once — so make it count! This poll will close on May 16 with results publishing shortly after.
[polldaddy poll=10833174]Who did you vote for? Which automatic qualifier do you think will get the best result at Eurovision 2021? Let us know in the comments below.
Read more Eurovision 2021 rehearsal news here
PHOTOS: EBU / THOMAS HANNES / ANDRES PUTTING
Malta is going to win
My 3 favorite are SERBIA,FRANCE and CIPRUS
SERBIA IS PERFECT
Italia always surprises! Impressive performance and song!
between italy malta and france i would be very happy with malta or italy winning. france would be a horrible winner and the song is simply nothing special
I picked Italy and the Netherlands. Maybe there’s a little bias because they are my two favorite Automatic qualifiers, but I genuinely found them the most impressive today.
From Portugal I’ll vote for San Marino, Bulgaria and Switzerland in sf2. In the final it gets much more complicated, I’ll probably vote also for Lithuania, Slovenia, Belgium, Malta, Italy, France, Netherlands, Spain and 3 or 4 times for my favorite Ukraine. Crazy, I know, there’s maybe 15 songs I would be happy to see winning!
Italy have been stunning. A true surprise, and a deserved rock winner if it happens. France (Voilà) is still my personal favourite song of course. Is a Big 5 winner on the cards for the first time since 2010? (N.B. It was the Big 4 back then.)
I will be inmensively happy with either France, Italy or Russia, they are my three faves and I love what every single one of this entries represent: France is pure class and timeless elegance mixed with raw emotion. Italy is passion and fire, a great glam rock show Russia is innovative and transgresive she is risking a lot by challenging many cultural things about Mother Russia. I think all of them would be very worthy winners, it might depend on what Europe is feeling that night, or maybe I’m wrong and a country like Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iceland, Lithuania, Switzerland or… Read more »
Italy and Finland for sure. I have no idea who else, I will probably decide on the spot! Ukraine is surely a nice option.
From Ireland I’m going to vote:
Semi 1: Belgium, I love Ukraine and Russia more but I think their Qualification is safe, I’d like an underdog to get through, and as I can’t vote for Lesley, imma vote for Belgium, they definitely deserve to qualify over some of the plastic in semi 1.
Final: Bulgaria and Italy will get my votes.
Italy looking very strong. I don’t get the fuss about the French entry but it is very polished. And the UK? Well we have two giant polystyrene trumpets hanging there doing nothing for some reason. Very disappointing.
France’s rehearsal gave me goosebumps. People are still underestimating it compared to Italy. Why will Italy dominate the televote and France suffer in it? Both are genres that don’t appeal to everyone. To a lot of people, rock is just noise. Italy could suffer too.
Complete agree. I estimate both countries, out of the top3 of televoting.
I’ll be voting for Switzerland and Italy from Bulgaria.
We’re voting in Semi 2 so I’ll probably throw some votes to Finland, Iceland and Greece. Probably will do the same if they qualify, but most will go towards Italy. 😉
just realised I missed out Russia and Ukraine… oops!
Too many choices!
1) Italy
2) Italy
3) Italy
Hahahaha, I know I didn’t have them as my personal winner but after seeing the rehearsals I may have changed my mind. I’m ready for the country I’ve yearned to win again to bring the house down!
Honestly though, I like nearly all of the Big 5 rehearsals but I really think the host country’s going to do better than we expect. But we’ll never know til next week!
France is the real winner!
Off-topic: there’s a confirmed case of Covid in the Polish delegation.
How awful. Will wiwibloggs address it in a separate article?
Italy sold it to me. Just let them win.
I didn’t really like Måneskin’s costumes, so easy for Barbara this time.
Italy is our winner this year
All the things the spanish delegation promised since their national final and, in the end, they just copied what they did that day. What a terrible corporation RTVE is…
My top 5 is
France
Russia
Italy
Ukraina
Switzerland
Italy is winning this, mark my words.
Barbara is the Best
Good luck France
Paris 2022
Ok – I’m all for FRANCE this year, but I don’t get why SPAIN is being totally ignored everywhere. It’s wonderful! Song, voice, staging – what’s there not to like?
A lot
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the hype with Italy? I have always liked the Italian entries the past few year, but this isn’t just my cup of tea. Anyways I wish them good luck, but personally I don’t like it.
I am sorry but I cannot connect emotionally to Voilà. It is repetitive and boring
Damn, Italy!! Wig flew.
I guess this time they are really gonna get the trophy.
I love Italy! Amazing rehearsal! Hope it will win! Also, i can now understand why France is a favorite for the win! It is beautiful as well!
My god, you guys, this year will give me a heart attack. Anyone from France, Switzerland, Italy, Malta, Iceland, maybe even Bulgaria can win. Parhaps even a surprise winner. I’m sooo anxious ://
I am personally rooting for either France or Switzerland… with a soft spot for Iceland, but I can’t remember any other year being this strong. There’s at least 15 songs that can make the top 5.
The song and staging just aren’t competitive. I agree that James does have a sweet vibe and I’m hoping he opens the show because then he can chill with a few beers and just enjoy the rest of the night.
My country is in semi2, so I’m voting San Marino, Switzerland and Iceland, but if I had to vote one, I would go with San Marino…
In the final I feel like I will be voting San Marino, Italy and France and maayyyybe Ukraine and Belgium (if they qualify)
I don’t know who to vote this year. I’m mostly between Italy, France and Russia now, but it seems that I’ll vote as many times as I can the italian ones so that Cyprus doesn’t get again the 12 points from tele (not that Elena isn’t stunning, but I feel that we should make a break from exchaging 12 points, like if we give 10 points it will be a great difference)
About Semi 2, I will vote for sure Albania and I might support Iceland too, as the others I like seem very safe to me
Three countries take my vote every time, this time it was the two obvious (France and Italy) and another that I would never believe I would see soooo far up: Germany
So, overall, based on the rehearsals and not the song:
Italy is just … It’s just amazing. Really impressive. I am extremely happy for them.
France is also great, Barbara’s emotions are adorable.
The Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Germany also looked good. There are really a lot of good performances this year.
1st France
2nd Italy
3rd The Netherlands
4th Spain
5th United Kingdom
6th Germany
There’s always something with the BBC for god’s sakes. Why would they submit a song called embers and make the performance a damp squib with not even 10 seconds of pyro?!? And James sounded much worse today than he did yesterday.
From Sweden, my votes would probably be:
SF1: Lithuania (My favourite this year). I’m usually very stingy when it comes to voting, so I probably won’t vote for more. But other songs I kinda like are Belgium and Croatia.
Final: Lithuania and Portugal (if they make it).
Knowing my country though, I suspect we’ll give our televote 12pt to Malta in both the semifinal and the final, and maybe Iceland for the juries.
For the chance of qualification, yup. I really like the verses of the song
Switzerland to win final 2
My top 3 would be France, Ukraine and San Marino
I dislike both France and Italy, these two are too overrated, for me. UK is not bad, but it’s not great, either. Germany is a joke, and The Netherlands is even a bigger joke. So my vote goes to Spain, the only decent song among finalists.
You are just plain maf mad I guess.
I get it that you don’t like today’s rehearsals/songs (that’s your prerogative) – but are you sure that “joke” is the word that you’re lokking for? You can’t possibly say that e.g. the Netherlands is a joke – I’d say it’s a huge asset to the ESC (even though I have other favourites myself)!
Is that you Didi?
Honestly, if there’s one song I can’t get through….
I’m actually surprised that Spain got 3rd place in the press poll results.
Spanish delegation would have a great sense of humor if they had blood moon rising instead of a casual moon hehe
Actually Jendrik is there just to live his moment he dreamt of so much. He doesn’t actually even care if he will finish dead last with 0 points. But comparing to all the other performances from 2015 and then, he has the 2nd best performance, being behind only from Michael Schulte
Italy, and they’re first in the odds now!!!
That’s so true Vanilla. I even feel sad for James as UK will probably be in bottom 5 again…
Why is everyone so conviced France will flop with televote. Remember, not only jury have ears…
I like France but I am not sure it would be eurovision competitive for a victory, just like Merci. Like it or not Eurovision is not just a song contest but a show contest where it is important to leave a mark among a sea of 26 entries. Personally I am just afraid it won’t be the performance that will stand out the most for televoters, that doesn’t take away the quality or beauty of the song, but unfortunately this is how it usually goes.
“Merci” was weak and very ineptly staged….lacked all intimacy and connection. This is in a different league. And will give France its best finish since 1991 I think…(which does not mean “winner”, but close!)
The most similar French song to this was in 2017, and they got a top10 result from the audience. Audiences love French feeling songs. And one year earlier we had the French fairytale of Austria. And people got crazy about it.
No, the most similar French song to this was 2009 and that only came 17th in the televote.
I think because it is rather dreary and she is singing in French.
Wow every rehearsal today was iconic, especially the French and the Italian rank. About my ranking: 1) France and Italy (I can not rank those 2 as both were AMAZING in their way. Barbara was unique, magnifique and PURE and her performance touched me a lot. Måneskin on the other hand was extremely energetic that activated the bad-*ss myself. I actually think that Italy and France this year reform the Yin and Yang of Eurovision this year and that’s absoloutely MAJESTIC) 3) Netherlands (Jeangu seems that has improved very much and that rehearsal had better vocals even than the music… Read more »
Jamie-lee and Ann Sophie did not deserve the places they got. levina deserved worse