The 2021 national final season presented us with 14 selections of varying size and ambition. This is less than normal, with several countries resting their annual shows after reselecting their 2020 entrants for 2021. However, France and Russia returned to national selections after a one and nine year break respectively.
But which Eurovision 2021 entry chosen in a national final is your favourite?
Eurovision 2021: The national selection season
Albania kicked off the season back in December with three nights of Festivali i Këngës. Two and a half months later, Sweden‘s Melodifestivalen brought the period to an end with Tusse’s victory.
France unveiled their new contest “C’est vous qui décidez” with a star-filled jury which featured the reigning Eurovison champion, Duncan Laurence.
To everyone’s surprise, Russia put together a national selection in less than a week. Manizha won the ticket to Rotterdam with “Russian Woman” on International Women’s Day.
Finland and Sweden held Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu and Melodifestivalen as usual, and their 2020 entrants also took part. However, neither Aksel nor The Mamas were successful.
The Roop and Uku Suviste were luckier in Lithuania and Estonia, as they repeated their 2020 feat, winning Pabandom is Naujo and Eesti Laul.
Croatia, Norway, Denmark, Italy and Portugal held their usual national selections, without their 2020 entrants. Meanwhile, Israel and Spain held one-off shows to select songs fror Eden Alene and Blas Cantó.
Eurovision 2021 acts chosen through a national selection
The national selection winning entries are listed below in chronological order.
- Albania: Anxhela Peristeri “Karma”
- Israel: Eden Alene “Set Me Free”
- France: Barbara Pravi “Voilà”
- Lithuania: The Roop “Discoteque”
- Croatia: Albina “Tick Tock”
- Finland: Blind Channel “Dark Side”
- Norway: TIX “Fallen Angel”
- Spain: Blas Cantó “Voy a quedarme”
- Denmark: Fyr & Flamme “Øve os på hinanden”
- Estonia: Uku Suviste “The lucky one”
- Italy: Måneskin “Zitti e buoni”
- Portugal: The Black Mamba “Love is on my side”
- Russia: Manizha “Russian Woman”
- Sweden: Tusse “Voices”
Which one is your favourites among these entries? You can vote for as many songs as you want, but you can only vote once.
[polldaddy poll=10781783]Which country made the best choice? Is the Eurovision 2021 winner in this group? Would have it been a better choice to go internal?
My favorites from this one are (in no particular order) Lithuania, Italy, and Russia. Lithuania’s is fun and groovy, I love how hard-hitting Italy’s is (and I think they pull off the attitude factor just a little better than Finland’s, which isn’t too bad either, but not at the top of my list), and Russia’s absolutely slaps. I like the live version of “Russian Woman” better than the studio version, though. There’s a bit of attitude that Manizha projects in the national final performance that’s missing from the studio version. I hope she’s able to bring that sassiness back to… Read more »
where is Malta ‘s entry? Please include it before you start with a vote.
It was internally selected by the broadcaster, people did not vote for it to represent Malta.
Lithuania, Croatia, Norway, Finland and Albania. The rest are not my cup of tea
Croatia best song of 2021
Zitti e buoni!!! I also love Voilà and I like Finland, Lithuania and kinda Norway
The best are Croatia and France!
The worst by far Sweden, Norway and Portugal
Croatia and France.
ITALY!
Croatia. But Israel grew on me a lot this week
France, Italy, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia and Sweden.
How many useless polls can we have….
how many useless comments can we have…
All of them won televote in their home countries but Black Mamba in Portugal
For me it’s Croatia. Let’s go Albina!
Portugal will not score less than 100 points in semi final 2, mark my words! if that will be enough to qualify is the question…
From all NF, as always for me San Remo has a special place…is just amazing, previous to eurovision, still with an orchestra, so Maneskin gets the throphy in my opinion.
Honarable mention to France and Norway, amazing songs and production there.
Sure. When they get 19 I’ll come back here and mock yah
Ahahah ok! It’s seems fun…
But we have to make the rules crystall clear.
So if Portugal has less than 50 points it’s a win for you, from 51-89 it’s a draw, more than 90 a win for me…
Do you agree?
In May, I feel that Italy and Malta will fight for the 1st place at ESC (if you want me to predict your future, please contact me, my tariffs are very affordable)
Italy is one of my favorites, but realistically Maneskin has no chance of winning. The fight for the win will be between Switzerland, Bulgaria, France and Malta.
Why not ? Rock already won in the past and italian language is a really a big advantage.
Plus the bodysuit like Fuego.
If Eurovision was televote only, then Italy probably would’ve had a chance to win, but juries destroy rock songs. So, Italy doesn’t stand a chance no matter what someone’s opinion is. I personally rate Zitti e Buoni a 10/10, but anyone who isn’t biased and is realistic knows they won’t win. The bodysuit comparison you made doesn’t make sense btw.
“Italian language is a big advantage.” Just like in 2014 and 2016?
France, Italy and Croatia BY FAR for me.
It feels like the national selection season was pretty weak this year to me. I don’t think there’s a single melo song that I find myself wanting to revisit, with Tusse being probably the best one of the bunch but still nothing that interesting.
What if I hate both Tix AND monument? There were better options then either honestly, such a lackluster end to such a strong selection :///
I don’t actually hate monument… it’s perfectly fine. I do very strongly dislike Tix, though. Song, persona and everything. If you’re going to do camp (and you should, if your vocals sound like Tix’), then make it fun. But this whole teen angsty “earnest” shtick… it’s a no for me. Sure, it’s well produced, but that’s the only thing it has going for it. I’m still not convinced it will qualify. I do think they really missed a trick by not selecting Imerica and her “I can’t escape”. That is such a beautiful song to me. Best of the entire… Read more »
Russia by far, followed by Lithuania, Finland and France
Unpopular opinion:
Love the fact Portugal chose The Black Mamba. Great mixture of being non-Portuguese language (sorry Carolina) and non-cliched (sorry NEEV). It’s a good trade-off; at the same time it stands out among basic ballads and generic pop songs of different quality.
you say Portugal’s basic but you like Norway? hmm
I don’t know if Neev was cliche. What I know is that he had the emotional factor with his song and performance. That’s how he won televote without having a name in Portugal
France and Spain picked my favorite song. Lithuania picked my close second. Italy picked my third. I voted for these four. 😉 Russia also picked my favorite, but I had no time to get attached to that NF. Still, a good selection. I am really happy with the Croatian pick too. My 2nd in Dora! Norway has a good song (in my top 10 of MGP) and it’s growing on me. Finland picked my 6th out of 7, but I still think that it’s a good song. Only the selection was immensely strong and most other songs spoke to me… Read more »
THE ROOP!
I am going Nordic this year. I am really enjoying the choices made by Norway, Finland and Denmark.
With Italy thrown in for good measure.
In my list , Voila is the higher one from a national finale so , voted for Voila!
Also i really do like Russian Woman
My initial reaction to Russian Woman was positive when I saw the live version. I was instrigued. Now that I’ve heard the studio cut I’m not so sure. Not sure why that is yet.