After a year off, Eurovision is back! Thirty-nine acts will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, but there can only be one winner. To help you make an informed decision about where to cast your vote, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has previewed and reviewed each of this year’s acts. It’s hard work being honest, but somebody has to do it.
Our jury consists of 22 jurors who hail from Australia, Colombia, Germany, Iceland, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, the United States and Venezuela. We are truly international, y’all!
Each juror assesses each song independently and then awards each song a score from 0 to 10. The highest and lowest scores are then dropped to determine the Wiwi Jury average.
Reviews were made in March 2021 and are based on available versions of the songs at that time. As always, Wiwi Jury reviews will not be changed to reflect new information from pre-party performances or the Eurovision rehearsals.
Eurovision 2021 reviews and rankings
- Switzerland: Gjon’s Tears – “Tout l’univers” (8.77)
- France: Barbara Pravi – “Voilà” (8.73)
- Malta: Destiny – “Je me casse” (8.39)
- San Marino: Senhit – “Adrenalina” (8.2)
- Lithuania: The Roop – “Discoteque” (7.89)
- Italy: Måneskin – “Zitti e buoni” (7.7) *
- Ireland: Lesley Roy – “Maps” (7.7)
- Cyprus: Elena Tsagrinou – “El diablo” (7.45)
- Iceland: Daði og Gagnamagnið – “10 Years” (7.39)
- Finland: Blind Channel – “Dark Side” (7.34)
- Ukraine: Go_A – “SHUM” (7.32)
- Russia: Manizha – “Russian Woman” (7.18)
- Sweden: Tusse – “Voices” (7.14)
- Bulgaria: Victoria – “Growing Up Is Getting Old” (7.09)
- Romania: Roxen – “Amnesia” (6.95)
- Moldova: Natalia Gordienko – “Sugar” (6.93)
- Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy – “Birth of a New Age” (6.86)
- Australia: Montaigne – “Technicolour” (6.84)
- Greece: Stefania – “Last Dance” (6.82) *
- United Kingdom: James Newman – “Embers” (6.82)
- Croatia: Albina – “Tick-Tock” (6.75)
- Azerbaijan: Efendi – “Mata Hari” (6.57)
- Israel: Eden Alene – “Set Me Free” (6.45)
- Latvia: Samanta Tīna – “The Moon Is Rising” (6.34)
- Czech Republic: Benny Cristo – “Omaga” (6.16) *
- Belgium: Hooverphonic – “The Wrong Place” (6.16)
- Serbia: Hurricane – “Loco Loco” (6.09)
- Albania: Anxhela Peristeri – “Karma” (5.89) *
- Norway: Tix – “Fallen Angel” (5.89)
- Spain: Blas Cantó – “Voy a quedarme” (5.34)
- Germany: Jendrik – “I Don’t Feel Hate” (5.14)
- Estonia: Uku Suviste – “The Lucky One” (5.07)
- Austria: Vincent Bueno – “Amen” (4.89)
- Slovenia: Ana Soklič – “Amen” (4.84) *
- Denmark: Fyr & Flamme – “Øve os på hinanden” (4.84)
- Poland: Rafał – “The Ride” (4.5)
- Portugal: The Black Mamba – “Love Is on My Side” (4.32)
- North Macedonia: Vasil – “Here I Stand” (4.05)
- Georgia: Tornike Kipiani – “You” (3.82)
Tiebreak winners are indicated with an asterisk (*)
So here’s my (late) post-Eurovision 2021 review. I’ll follow Tibor’s lead and separate the entries in groups. Starting it with my winners. In early March, I had a clear top 6, that eventually became a top 6 + an honorable mention (I was still fighting to connect with “Tout l’Univers” while “Russian Woman” skyrocketed to my heart) and right now, almost 3 weeks after the contest, I see a group as my clear personal top 9: Ukraine, Italy, France, Russia, Lithuania, Iceland, Switzerland, Romania and the Netherlands. For the 2nd year in a row, countries that got my highest grade during… Read more »
From now on, I’ll (do my best to) keep things short(er). My 2nd group has the entries I also really like: Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland and Australia. Special kudos to Belgium, that played all the right cards and satisfied in every single aspect with their performance. Bulgaria also did a brilliant job with staging and the song has undeniable quality, though it still hasn’t nearly touched me as “Tears Getting Sober” still does. Both countries have been bringing quality to Eurovision and I love their “dark” approach. To be fair, Lesley’s performance was probably my biggest disappointment in 2021. The staging… Read more »
As a final note, I’ll address Malta‘s strange situation. I haven’t mentioned it as an entry I’ll remember with joy, even if I would still place it higher than some that got that distinction. Destiny’s vocals were great as expected, the track is pretty enjoyable (I never jumped to the next one while listening to it) and the whole thing actually looked nice on TV (even if it wasn’t an inspirated work by SJB). But with all that nonsensical pre-contest hype, I can’t help but feeling underwhelmed. For now, this entry leaves a “stepmom trying too hard to buy my… Read more »
I read it all, and enjoyed your thoughts, Sabrina.
I agree about Malta. It’s objectively a good song, but I guess the excessive effort makes it less impactful. It’s a paradox. 😉 Same song, with the same performer, even with the same lyrics, would’ve been more impactful if they loosened it up just a bit. In the right context, this could’ve felt really playful. Imagine it playing in a feminist musical film. 🙂
May this be a lesson for Malta or any other country that decide to try the hype game. Being the frontrunner already comes with some overexposure. Sure, Duncan and Netta became automatic favorites to win, but I don’t remember they trying too hard to remind us over and over about it. And I’m not even getting into the biggest issue, the possibility that they became a frontrunner by manipulating the odds. Destiny will have another chance, and this time I hope her delegation just trust her talent and let she have a more spontaneous experience.
My strong top nine are:
I was already expecting “Loco Loco” to grow on me, because it’s that kind of entry that needs an specific party mood, but I’m also surprised about how satisfying it was. I guess we both felt like that because the Eurovision typical bops are getting more and more slick and calculated, sacrificing energy and charisma during the process (Elena being the recent exception, since “Fuego” was probably my “Loco Loco” from 2018). And yes, Maneskin winning was the triumph of Sanremo. And also a sign that Amadeus’ efforts on bringing more youth to the contest would pay off. I imagine… Read more »
I was asking myself if we would do the same post-contest review this year and it seems I missed a memo. I’m having a boring night and I guess I’ll contribute with mine, even risking the fact nobody will end up reading it this late on the process. 😀
I apologize for being a few days late, as I was really busy, and am happy that Tibor broke the ice, and that Darren continued. I read your reviews with care, and I really appreciate reading your honest opinions. 🙂 I am looking forward to more people hopefully joining in. It is always hard for me to sort out my ratings, especially in the middle. This is why re-tweaks happen every now and then. This was quite a strong year, with only a few weak songs (much less than 2020). In fact, most of them deserve *some* credit, whether in… Read more »
For some reason, it double-pasted my first three paragraphs, so when you are done reading part 1-3, skip all the way down to see part 4. If I had noticed it before the time for re-editing expired, I would’ve fixed it.
Also, I am still re-tweaking my *ratings* (4-5 songs I am still assessing), but I hope to post it in a couple of days as well. Take care, everyone! 🙂
It’s not only the way they performed (although I liked it better at the semi than I did at FdC), but the way it connected with me. In the end, like Vanja from Montenegro said back in 2018, the music is a feeling, and you either feel it or you don’t. You can be objectively aware of how technically perfect or faulty something is, but it’s your gut that has the final say when it comes to your musical taste. Before, I just couldn’t connect. Now, I kinda can, and I appreciate it more. I still have the issue with… Read more »
Besides the benefits that great staging brought to it (I thought it was especially effective how they gave it a 2nd act, so the visuals would stop people from noticing the song wasn’t going anyhwere new), I believe the environment in Eurovision ironically helped The Black Mamba. In FdC, they were just one more act doing classy sub-dued music. Even the fact they were singing in English was neutralized, since all eyes were on NEEV. In Eurovision, they became “the cool uncles” without all their cool nephews and nieces around.
I’ll go next then: Before Eurovision, my top 10 was: 1. Bulgaria 2. Switzerland 3. San Marino 4. Ukraine 5. Ireland 6. Iceland 7. Australia 8. Cyprus 9. Sweden 10. France With honourable mentions to Italy, Russia and Czech Republic. So, the contest came and went. Ireland finished last, which was totally undeserved in my opinion. While we where probably heading for an NQ, I think last place was incredibly harsh when you see what don’t better in that semi. But I’m not surprised really judging by the comments in the Ireland live on tape article. There was many good… Read more »
So amongst the Wiwi favourites only Ireland and Romania are precariously placed .
I also think France will win tbh
Greece is tooo low
Greece so so so so underrated in this year’s wiwijury, this is sad actually!
Wow, Greece is SO SO underrated
Just wondering, how do you resolve the tiebreakers?
Robin would you mind sharing the average score of all songs for this year? And last 5 years?
Update the top please:(
I am excited for the Wiwi Jury!!!!!