Italy’s Sanremo 2021 kicks off on Tuesday. Ahead of the Festival’s commencement, RAI held a press conference on Monday morning. During the session, one topic arose which will be of interest to international Eurovision fans — the possibility for Diodato and other non-returning 2020 acts to perform as part of an interval act at Eurovision 2021.
RAI’s proposal for non-returning 2020 acts to perform during the interval turned down by Eurovision 2021 organisers
Eddy Anselmi, a regular member of both Italy’s and San Marino’s Eurovision delegations, was amongst those in attendance at the conference. Writing on Twitter, he shared the comments of Claudio Fasulo, Sanremo’s Executive Supervisor. “We asked EBU to have Diodato and the other 2020 artists who will not return to be invited to Rotterdam as part of an interval act”, says Fasulo. “EBU and the host broadcaster just said no”.
#Sanremo2021. #Eurovision2021 Claudio Fasulo, Sanremo Executive Supervisor: «We asked EBU to have Diodato and the other 2020 artists who will not return to be invited to Rotterdam as part of an interval act. EBU and the host broadcaster just said no».
— Eddy Anselmi (@eddyanselmi) March 1, 2021
A lot of Eurovision 2020 acts were reselected for Eurovision 2021 following the cancellation of last year’s contest. However, several acts won’t return. Some made the decisions themselves, others were passed over by broadcasters, while more were unsuccessful in their new national final attempts.
So far, the following acts will not be returning in 2021: Belarus’ VAL, Croatia’s Damir Kedžo, Cyprus’ Sandro, Norway’s Ulrikke, Denmark’s Ben & Tan, Albania’s Arilena Ara, Finland’s Aksel, Portugal’s Elisa, France’s Tom Leeb, Germany’s Ben Dolic and Italy’s Diodato. Sweden’s The Mamas and Estonia’s Uku Suviste are still competing in national finals. The exact status of Russia’s Little Big, Poland’s Alicja and Armenia’s Athena Manoukian remains unknown at the time of writing.
What do you think of RAI’s proposal? Would you have liked to see the non-returning acts appear in 2021? Let us know in the comments.
Noooooo, my last, tiny chance of seeing Diodato perform ”Fai Rumore” live, thrown out the window D:
Or the hypotical chance that Mamas wins again for Sweden. Would they perform twice then? ould that confuse viewers.
I see why it was turned down! Wasnt that what the Shine a Light show was for? Problem is also that most artists have also moved on from ESC. Also why is Italy suddenly playing morality police and trying to give others guilty conscience?
I think it’s a good thing that RAI wants to showcase their ideas, you can’t keep Eurovision fresh and updated if you won’t even try to give new views.
There is no “morality police” on RAI’s part, it’s just an idea and I think you’re just blaming them for nothing.
The moment Italy wins they are free to showcase their fresh ideas as much as they want.
Every broadcaster is allowed to showcase and give ideas all year round, that’s how EBU works. If only the last winning country would be able to pitch new things to the contest it would only evolve around certain countries when others would be neclected.
We are talking about an interval act, not about the rules of the contest. Only the organizing broadcaster decides about things like flag parade, guest performances, interval acts, etc. Like I said, RAI can show us their ideal show after they won.
It’s just an idea they pitched, RAI didn’t stomp their feet on the ground and made it happen no matter what. I’m sure every broadcaster wants to make the best show and all ideas are welcome, but it’s up to the host broadcaster to decide what they want to showcase.
Diodato is one of the best artists that have ever come out of Eurovision, even if he didn’t get to perform on that stage. Even if he didn’t get to actually hold the trophy, he won it. Or perhaps he won something even better. His career has rocketed like no other over the last year. Fai Rumore is an authentic “capolavoro”. Had it not been for the pandemic, we’d all be partying in Italy this May, but after all, all roads lead to Rome… and Italy will soon have their very well deserved victory.
There’s 41 participants from last year, some are back this year so they clearly can’t do that and then it seems a bit dull to showcase like 13 people from previous year while others compete. This is why Europe Shine A Light was made, or so I thought.
Hoping all the best and they’re all welcomd back, but maybe it’s time to move on
The EBU did their thing by airing “Europe Shine a Light” last year. That’s all they have to do. Everyone except Hooverphonic took part. If the organizers want to show continuity then they can just air the 4 min song that was recorded with Katrina as part of the opening ceremony. Other than that the Dutch can do their own showcase.
Hooverphonic did take part. They recorded a message for after their song, like everybody else.
There would be no valid reason to keep anybody out, and no valid reason to force somebody to do it if they didn’t want to.
I’ll say it here but there is a propability that Belarus might not take part this year. And about Armenia still things are not very clear, they still try to overcome the war
Words have cut me to the bone
And my heart is sinking like a stone
But I don’t let it show.. ?
Also why is RAI having a moral compass all of a sudden when they didn’t select Antonio? It’s especially galling because unlike other selections, Sanremo predates Eurovision and so doesn’t even need to be used as a selection show for 2021. Diodato could’ve been internally selected and Sanremo could go on unrelated to ESC this year like it was in the 2000s.
I know, that’s so true… that’s what I was hoping they would do for Diodato, but they didn’t. It is pretty disgraceful what some counties have done to their artists, and Italy especially has little to no excuse. The worse thing is that Diodato could have won it all for them!
I would’ve hated that, it would just mean losing out on another Sanremo winner – with Arisa’s luck, probably her.
Are you joying? It wouldn’t be fair for the winner of this year. Galling? Sanremo Predates Eurovision? Darling, you are completely out of mind!
If only there had been a way to internally select Diodato. But no, let’s passive aggressive try to put the blame on someone else.
It would be great but I guess it’s better when they are try again to compete. Also I don’t think it’s in the power of the EBU but the task of the local broadcaster to bring them back again. As for some countries (yes Denmark, it’s you) I’m disappointed how it went, when selected artists tried again to compete. But I’m especially sorry for those artists who’s been internally selected with a broadcaster’s faith in the artist in 2020 and than didn’t get selected again. That’s a significant difference to those who won a national final.
That seems reasonable to me. It’s the EBU which (rightfully due to safety concern) cancelled the contest, not AVROTROS or the Dutch side (it only costed them extra money, without getting the expected revenue from ticket sales up to revenue/tax from restaurants, hotels and bars in the city). I don’t know why they get the pressure now to welcome those artists while some countries could’ve/should’ve made agreements with the artists so that they could go in 2021. Even if they want to execute that plan, it would form problems: you have to transport not only the artists and delegations of… Read more »
My boy Sandro… he was too fresh for this outdated contest
He changed his stage name…. now goes by Sammy Clay . I preferred Sandro.
Yeah he was so fresh… more like stale, bland, uninspired and been there done that.
Tbh i’d love for all artists to get their moment but if certain broadcasters really feel that way they should have internally selected them.
Also what would such an interval look like? Would all 11-16 artists sing a tiny snippet from last year’s respective songs? Because that almost doesn’t seem worth the trip and we already had that in last years remembrance show.
Wow that would be so nice I mean they deserve that!
I would love if all those artists had the chance to compete in 2021 as intended for 2020. But I don’t think an interval act performance would replace the whole Eurovision experience, so I prefer if they compete in the next few years. Especially Diodato (who I’m sure will be back to Sanremo in several occasions) and Ukrikke (who I believe will try her chances again very soon), since they are the ones I’ll miss the most.
Wow, that’s rude
It’s a shame we will not hear some of the artists in 2021 but (in most cases) it’s their broadcasters’ fault for not selecting them. The Netherlands should not be deprived of their right to choose interval acts (hopefully showcasing their culture).
I don’t see why they shouldn’t, all of them deserve a chance to perform a ESC, doesn’t matter what you thought of them last year they earned it and to not get the chance is really sad for them, I wish this happened
It’s time for the Dutch to showcase their talents , every country could of just reselected their 2020 participants
So I don’t think they need to be brought back as a interval act
This is how I think too. They are already artists of 2020. If they will be back in another year, doesn’t change that they belong to 2020.
All I can say is Norway should have internally chosen Ulrikke with falling apart. I know she was given the opportunity to take part in mgp but I’m glad she said no for the following reasons
either way falling apart would be amazing for Eurovision and much better suited than boring fallen angel
Oh I agree, fully. The song is boring and the staging is appalling.
It’s not just boring that song is an abomination. Ulrikke should have had that invite to just go automatically.
It’s a noble thought but in a time of Covid managing all these extra performers from all corners of the continent would be a logistical nightmare. Also BRTC would boycott if VAL performed, and you’d have to exclude them, which is unfair, so no one can join.
Interval act is expensive, remember Switch Song (2019), or 5 winners in Azerbajan 2012.
Why would it be unfair to “exclude” BRTC in that case? No one was forcing them to fire VAL. They’ve only done it because VAL have supported the anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus and that’s a horrible reason to fire somebody. If BRTC can’t deal with that, then that’s not “our” problem.
Morally, I’m on VAL’s side but you can’t deny it would be awkward as hell for all parties concerned. Would VAL want to represent Belarus in this capacity following the protests in the first place?
Also, AVRATROS selected Jeangu quite quickly for 2021. They shouldn’t face a backlash for the actions of other broadcasters.
I’m proud of my country for having such an idea. This shows the Eurovision has grown a lot in terms of consideration and love here in Italy. Sorry that this idea won’t become reality though
The fact that nine of the eleven acts that didn’t get reselected I liked but all acts that I couldn’t stand got reselected ey.
Feel you 100%
I’m going to hazard a guess and say Tom and Sandro are the two of the eleven you didn’t like.
Im glad the EBU refused, it’s time to move on… we already had Europe Shine a Light last year. Plus the random viewer would have been really confused.
Yeah, we’ve already had a show to pay tribute to the acts who didn’t make it and bringing it up again is just boring. We are watching esc to forget about Covid and have a good time, not to remember all of its consequences
Shine a light was not a show worthy the artists of 2020. I find the idea about some of them entering the 2021 stage really appealing. I’d prefer this
What is worthy?
EBU must put Memories moment in final in future ( Memories on pass away singers, composers, lyricist, conductors…who pass away between 2 ESC contest ) like we had in Oscar ceremonies for actors,actress, director, producer…
Sympathetic idea but the Dutch organisers must already have arranged the acts for the intervals. So it’s too late for that I guess.
they should just do it anyways. EBU has no backbone and wont do much of anything if a country breaks the rules… ukraine and armenia know that pretty well
this is a rule that must be broken!
You expect all former acts to individually book flight tickets and perform a stage storm? Neat thinking
I think it’s a well-intentioned idea, for sure, but then it leads to all kinds of drama considering how many 2020 acts ARE back and possible tensions with the delegations (it feels pretty much guaranteed BTRC wouldn’t be happy with VAL being there, for instance). Also, it borderline closes the door on them potentially coming back NEXT year (Ulrikke, for instance, seems to be hinting at an MGP return for 2022).
So what? They belong to 2020 and they have the right to be returning artists in 2022 or in 2028 if they want to.
Not saying they COULDN’T. Just saying, they would be more likely to be passed over with the justification of, “Well, technically, now they HAVE done Eurovision, so we don’t owe them anything.”
But is not that easy, because we live unique times.