Andorra last competed at Eurovision in 2009, but has since stayed away due to financial difficulties. And while broadcaster RTVA has confirmed they have no intention of returning to the song contest, a former Eurovision star has other ideas.
The Spanish Eurovision news site Eurofestivales recently reported that RTVA has confirmed they won’t return to Eurovision 2021. The broadcaster told Eurofestivales in a statement:
“Ràdio i Televisió d’Andorra will not participate in the next Eurovision Song Contest, following the decision made a few years ago by the company. The decision is not the responsibility of the Director-General of RTVA, although that is who assumes it, but is the Andorran Government is responsible.”
The announcement came as a surprise to many fans. As recently as November, the Andorran government expressed a willingness to give the broadcaster the budget needed to return to Eurovision.
But while the Andorran government might not be keen, a former Andorran Eurovision star has her sights set on a Eurovision comeback.
Susanne Georgi — who was the last act to represent Andorra, at Eurovision 2009 — is ready to fight. Under the mottos #MyFight and #WeCanDoThisAndorra, Susanne claims she has secured funding to bring Andorra back to Eurovision. And we say YAS!
Susanne road to Eurovision 2021
Speaking to the Euromovidas podcast, Susanne revealed that last October, she had presented her offering to the Andorran president Xavier Espot and RTVA director Xavier Mujal and she is now awaiting a response. “They tell me that for now, they can’t give me either a yes or a no.”
Her new Eurovision attempt might become true if the odds are in her favour. As she also explains to ARA Andorra, the unnamed sponsor is still interested in financing microstate’s return to the contest.
Susanne won’t name her mystery sponsor but says if an agreement is reached, then it will be up to the broadcaster or the government to name the company. Susanne notes that the company is not Spanish or Danish, but “it’s from a big and important country in Europe.”
The singer says that her Eurovision 2009 participation fee was around 150,000 euros. She also cites San Marino as an example of a microstate who enters Eurovision by partnering with foreign sponsors.
Susanne is not alone
Just like Susanne, past Andorran Eurovision entrants are also quite enthusiastic about the idea. Nick Gain — the leader of Eurovision 2007 punk-pop band Anonymous — suggests that today’s semi-final system of jury and televoting and 20 countries qualifying would increase Andorra’s chances of qualifying.
In 2007, Anonymous placed 12th in the single semi-final where 28 acts competed for just ten places in the grand final. Under the current system of two semi-finals and only six automatic qualifiers, Anonymous may have had more of a chance to qualify.
The Pyrenees microstate still remains the only country to have never made it to the Eurovision final.
Will we ever see Andorra at Eurovision soon? What do you think about Susanne’s fight for Andorra’s comeback? And how much would you like to see the microstate back to the contest? Let us know in the comment section below!
Read more Andorra Eurovision news here
I don’t blame them actually for not coming back. Their entries in 2007, 2008 and 2009 were all worthy of being in the final and it’s one of the many scandals of that bleak bloc voting televote only period in the 00’s that they didn’t qualify. The unfortunate thing being the 50/50 jury televote split came to the grand final in 2009, but not the semis until later.
Mmmeehhh. I’ll give you 2007, a song that was absolutely robbed of its deserved spot in the final, but the other two don’t do much for me. Andorra just debuted at the worst possible time, an absolute can’t-win era for a lot of countries but especially those without neighbors or diaspora (save for mutual admirer Spain – in spite of being right near them and voting for them a lot, Portugal and France gave Andorra virtually nothing). All those countries were just desperate for any kind of attention and Andorra’s acts reeked especially of trying to grab people’s attention versus… Read more »
What about Monaco or Luxembourg ? They also left before semis were introduced
I’m not sure how more participants can make better contests.
1. Where’s the point of a big quantity of contestants if there isn’t any musical variety? I ask this because users are here panning the 2016 Contest.
2. For the host countries, it can mean bigger budgets. And in the case the contests don’t bring profit, then you’ll see countries doing little efforts to win which means bad songs and that’ll lead to bad contests.
1) Bring back the language rules and ochestra one more if you want really musical variety.
2) Its a no sense, every winner country are free to say no for becoming the host country if they didnt want. Who was the host country if 1957, 1960, 1963, 1972, 1974 and 1980 ?
Would really love this to be true!
Would love to hit 44 participants one year.
Andorra, Montenegro Hungary
Hungary are never coming back but Kazakhstan may happen after their JESC successes
I’m trying not to be quite as doom-and-gloom about Hungary since their recent tourism reputation has been pretty solid (at least two summers ago it seemed all my friends went to Budapest at some point) and I’d be wary of turning down a promotional goldmine like Eurovision, but also I don’t run a country that’s quickly turning into a totalitarian nightmare so I don’t know what they want.
Montenegro, though, I do think they’ll be back. It sounded like they weren’t planning to leave for more than a year anyway, they just needed a breather.
I was honestly really surprised that Kazakhstan didn’t get an invite after they won the jury vote at JESC. It was also the second year in a row that an associate EBU member won the JESC jury vote (Australia took it the year before – who knows what’ll happen this year? We on our way to Cardiff 2021?)
You should really check out her Instagram (she also confirmed the news there), she seems so positive and happy person. I lover her and what she is doing for her country is great, because she said she did not want to represent Andorra but what she wants is Andorra to come back. Nice for her!
If Andorra comes back thanks to Susanne, I’m spending all my phone credit to vote for her whatever the entry. Yes I’m biased and I want to see Andorra not only back but ALSO in the final, sue me.
Thank you Susanne!!!
I almost hate to say it, but is Ralph Siegel behind this? Now that San Marino doesn’t want him anymore.
God, I hope not. It’s the catch-22 of getting some countries in/back into Eurovision: you can come back, but Ralph’s writing the song. It happened a year ago with Bosnia and Herzegovina too: Ralph volunteered to foot the bill if they picked an artist he recommended that he’d presumably write the song for, but they said no.
2016 was indeed very generic. I prefer other years that you feel more diversity, language, fun, culture, originality. Nothing was really surprising. 2016 was missing so many things I love about Eurovision.
Are u for real, u want countries like Turkey and Kazakhstan(which I do too both!) and Slovakia not, because of human rights – u need a reality check up.
This was answer to a comment saying wanting Turkey and Kazakhstan, both of which I want too, but not wanting Slovakia for not respecting other religions or sth.. Pure nonsense
The Iceland Jury and Phone vote both gave points to Netta. Then they complained about Israel winning.
you have to appluad her efforts
I love the uncertainty in this news. And the cryptic not Spain, nor Denmark-thing. So the company is french? German? Of course this shows us that money speaks in Eurovision. Everything from music production, staging, music video etc. makes it really tricky to manage for a small state so of course also for a micro state. So is this actually a Eurovision who-puts-most-money-into-this contest? There is a possibility to break though really hard after a victory. Of course there are a lot of interests. How can we help small states to take part on more equal terms? A lot of… Read more »
Erik – I can only speak for myself but I have no problem if companies support small countries like Andorra or San Marino to help them to do good in the contest. That would be a win-win situation. The artist, the microstate, the sponsor and the fans will benefit from this.
Well 2016 was one of the best years quality wise!
Completely disagree. 2016 and 2015 were some of the strongest Eurovision years EVER.
I mean that’s factually completely wrong. We had various different genres including rock (Georgia and Montenegro), modern ballads (i.e. Australia), ethnic contemporary indie (Ukraine), cheesy pop (Russia), disco (San Marino), country (Netherlands and Slovenia), avant-garde pop (Armenia), pop rock (Poland), and funk (Belgium). So even if you don’t like them, firstly, most people love 2016, and secondly, there are many distinct genres that sound nothing alike. You can’t sit there and tell me that 1944 is indistinguishable from What’s The Pressure, because that’s just so factually wrong.
In your opinion.
In your opinion.
Someone has some VPNs, Vivi! It must be hard sitting there and refreshing just to dislike mine and Erasmus’ comments over and over again.
Because 2014 to 2017 was the worst darkest period in the story of the ESC for the quality, ethnicity, national identity and diversity of the songs. Things changed since 2018 because the consecutive result of Salvador (2017), Jamala (2016) and Il Volo (Televote in 2015).
Btw, 2016-2017 victories was the first time since three decades for twince new consecutive language-song winner (crimean tatar and portuguese) after 1984-1985 (swedish and norwegian).
And every years jury members get lyrics and texts of every songs with translation, so all of them understand the message of every songs.
2020 was a weak year, 2016, 2018 and 2019 were good years, 2017 and 2020 were a bit below them based on song quality, in my opinion
Wouldn’t call Ireland, Armenia, Denmark “good” they were all non-qualifiers, out of all 41 songs I only still listen to Azerbaijan, Israel and Sweden and nothing else
For me 2020 has about 8 songs that I would still listen to and 2016 has about 20 that I do, it’s just my personal opinion but for me 2016, 2018 and 2019 were good years and 2017 and 2020 were weaker
Denmark is for sure a qualifier when talking about 2020.
For me borderline, 9-12 place
It was the year of jamala with 1944 which is the opposite of how you describe the year.
Imo 2015 was without doubt the weakest year last decade, I had like 3-5 songs that I cared for. But 2016 was pretty good.
Replying to Ana’s comment.
I don’t want to spread negativity but I also dislike so much 2011’s offerings (meaning the vast majority). And yeah such a shame because the production was fantastic.
My personal feelings, may be completely wrong.
Anonymous really deserved to qualify in 2007. So uplifting, catchy and delivering an important message. But that SF was a big mess, too many countries. Also their live could have been better. Anyway, this music style doesn’t require perfect vocals but attitude. Produce so much nostalgia listening to it now. Hope Andorra’s comeback is real, I really want to see our little neighbours back on stage. Spain or France won’t benefit from it as microstates voting is a composite made from all the votes of the participating countries (which is not fair at all tbh). I’m against blockvoting so I… Read more »
As far as I know Andorra used televoting in the past, so there wouldn’t be a fake televoting result as for San Marino.
Oh, then I hope so!
That’s true, Andorra is big enough (surprisingly) for its own televote and has its own phone network. All it would mean is automatic 12 to Portugal or Spain but I think we can all live with that
If Andorra had televote, in 2015 they would have given 12 to Italy over Spain (like Portugal did)
I think they would have given 12 to Austria in 2014 over Spain as well but not that sure here.
There were two years where they had to use a backup jury (one year it was no different from the usual and Spain got 12, the other notably saw them fail to award Spain a single point in favor of Verka Serduchka)
2005 and 2007 to be exact.
I think one year (2007 the 12 went to Ukraine) Andorra used a jury. Only 8 countries picked up telephone votes and most were for Spain.
It’s 44 according to the EBU’s rules, though the rules have been changed so many times that I don’t see why EBU shouldn’t increase that number if necessary. Still, there has to be some sort of limit, ’cause we certainly don’t want a repeat of ESC 2007’s semi-final.
We’ll I think we could do 20 countries in a semi, because what is a difference between 19 or 20. It will be harder to qualify, but that means a more quality final. + JESC limit was 18, and in 2019 there were 20 countries, so I don’t think there is an actual limit as long it is not above 50. + If there were more countries that would’ve wanted to participate, Australia would have to go.
But then keep in mind that 20 countries in a semi means more favourites losing; imagine Iceland 2016 but for 5 countries each semi. People would get mad and salty af.
Anonymous would probably have qualified under two semis system and honestly, they should have anyway.
Thank you, Susanne, for giving an effort! I think we all want to see Andorra back in the contest. Having Susanne or Nick coming back and going face to face with Senhit would be a microstate epic musical event. 🙂
Hello!
Esta es la fuente original de la información, gracias!
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https://t.co/KkmlQRbJJd?amp=1
Well, I’m not saying it’s ture, but it is possible. + Sussane has represented Andorra in 2009, so she has something to do with the country. I’m sceptical but again it can be true.
No I think it’s possible that they got the financing for it, + can we trust Eurofestivales? (not familiar with them, no shade). Oh I thought you were referring to her not the company. Maybe the government didn’t offer funding and Sussane stepped in with her project (if it’s true), maybe will they both pay for it partly.
well true, I mean I do not know what is true. We’ll have to see.
As long as it’s part of Europe, bring them on.
No shade towards Australia, I’ve come to accept them in the concert now 🙂
*EBU
I’d love to see a lot of comebacks from Morocco, Turkey etc. That have stayed out for too long
periodt andorra is my favorite country at esc, pls return <3
5 years since a new country debuted (Australia) or a country returned after a long absence.
Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, have recently left and come back the following year, so they don’t count.
Would love to see Andorra back at ESC.
If Susanne Georgi can persuade the broadcaster to return, I don’t see why not. It won’t cost them anything.
If many Andorran’s tune into the broadcast, which I’m sure they will, then it could be a good way back for them having a permanent return.
It is also important how they finish in the contest. If they dont qualify the broadcaster can simply say “we tried and we didnt get a big audience” or something like that.
It depends on how badly they NQ
11-13th in the semi final would be okay for them.
Last place and they probably won’t come back. It’s worked for San Marino.
I think the public would get behind Andorra in very much the same way that they have gotten behind San Marino (who have gone on to qualify twice now).
It would be great to hear the Catalan language back on the ESC stage.
Heck, this strategy works for bigger countries than just Andorra or San Marino: it’s exactly what Bulgaria’s doing. So fingers crossed – would love to see the number go up to 43 again.
It’s actually not Milanov who secures it, but a company ICard Bulgaria and also a couple of other companies as well
Even when Eleni Foureira competed for Cyprus they had to seek sponsorships to fund the performance (remember the pineapples in the music video?)
I hope Andorra comes back. The more countries the better tbh