The Eurovision 2021 semi-final 2 qualifiers have had their first press conference moments after discovering they will perform again in Saturday’s grand final.
The ten qualifying acts from Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Portugal, Iceland, San Marino, Switzerland, Greece and Finland also drew which half of the grand final they will perform in.
Eurovision 2021: Semi-Final 2 Press Conference
Albania: Anxhela Peristeri — “Karma”
The first of tonight’s qualifiers jumps into the room enthusiastically. The “Karma”songstress cracks a joke about always being a good person and being rewarded for good deeds.
“My karma is good”, she smiles.
“Albania is a small country but we have many great artists”, she reminds the audience. She’s proud to be putting Albania through to the final for a third consecutive year (sans 2020).
Grand final draw: First Half
Serbia: Hurricane — “Loco Loco”
They blew us all away and now the “Loco Loco” girls of Hurricane are heading to the final. One member of the international press asks Sanja, Ksenija and Ivana about who else they would have liked to go through from tonight’s semi-final.
“For me, the eleventh chosen ones for the final would have been the Czech Republic”, Sanja says.
“Yeah, Benny’s our favourite!”, Ksenija echoes.
The group are planning to add some extra polish to their performance on Saturday. “We know our mistakes now so now we’re gonna be much better at the finals”, Ivana says.
Grand final draw: First Half
Bulgaria: VICTORIA — “Growing Up Is Getting Old”
Tearjerker. The “Growing Up Is Getting Old”songstress enters the press room holding the picture of herself and her father from the stage.
Wiwibloggs’ Cinan asks her how she felt singing with that photo. “I got so emotional, I cried during my last words — ‘all you’ve got’. It’s so emotional”, VICTORIA says from the heart. “I didn’t feel that way yesterday during the dress rehearsal but today was really emotional.”
“I wrote in my diary that my dream was to go to Eurovision so when they chose me it was like… what?!”, she reveals. “It feels amazing to be here”, the Bulgarian icon says joyously.
Grand final draw: Second Half
Moldova: Natalia Gordienko — “Sugar”
Time for some “Sugar”! Natalia enters the press centre accompanied by the one and only Philipp Kirkorov.
“I managed the longest note we’ve done tonight!” She reveals the last note was 17 seconds long, supposedly breaking a Eurovision record. “I want to thank Europe because I was feeling all this energy, I want to thank my international Dream Team”, she says as she lists her collaborators, Philipp Kirkorov and Dimitris Kontopoulos included.
Kirkorov echoes her sentiment. “For me, it’s one of my happiest days because I love this girl.”
Grand final draw: Second Half
Portugal: The Black Mamba — “Love Is On My Side”
Love is on the side of the “Love Is On My Side” singers. They’ll sing another day in the final.
A member of the international press working for an LGBT+ charity in Lisbon asks The Black Mamba how sex work could be made safer in Portugal.
“I guess there’s only one human race, that’s the human race. Everybody’s equal, everybody’s the same for us. The story about this song is about the prostitute”, Tatanka reiterates. “There’s only bad people good people, thats what we believe in.”
Then, the group are asked about how it feels to be the first Portuguese act singing fully in English.
“We like to be honest with ourselves first and then it passes to people. It doesn’t matter which language, I guess. Music is a universal language”, Tatanka says. “We are proud to be the ones representing the change in Portugal after 55 years of sending only Portuguese songs.”
Grand final draw: First Half
Iceland: Daði og Gagnamagnið — “10 Years”
They couldn’t make it to the Rotterdam Ahoy arena tonight, but against all odds the “10 Years” singers are through. Daði and his pals join the press centre via video link from their hotel.
Mixed emotions from Gagnamagnið tonight. “I think we’re making the best out of the situation we can”, the band’s frontman says. “We made it to the finals, and that’s pretty crazy.”
“We’ve seen this performance before so it doesn’t really feel like we’re competing in Eurovision, it feels like we’re sitting in a hotel and watching Eurovision and then the people that are competing for Iceland is us”, Daði says still slightly perplexed by the whole situation. “It’s weird.”
The group also confirmed they will not perform on stage in Saturday’s final.
Grand final draw: First Half
San Marino: Senhit — “Adrenalina” (feat. Flo Rida)
The Freaky Queen and her new King are here. It’s time to bring some “Adrenalina” to the press centre.
She’s quizzed about the outfit change. “We decided to change it because we wanted to give the opportunity to show the beautiful faces that my dancers have. And to make everything more happy, more party”, she says with a smile. “I’m still the Freaky Queen, with a new crown.”
Flo Rida is asked about the possibility of participating in the American Song Contest, again alongside Senhit.
“I would love to, that would be a dream come true”, the Floridian rap sensation says. “To go over to America, that would be amazing.”
Grand final draw: Second Half
Switzerland: Gjon’s Tears — “Tout l’univers”
The whole universe was wowed by his performance of “Tout l’univers”.
He’s ecstatic to finally have the chance to perform at Eurovision. “To see all those people, to imagine my family at home, my grandfather who made me start singing, I’m so happy that I could have the chance to be here to finally do that.”
Gjon is asked about the Sacha Jean Baptiste-choreographed avant garde dance moves. “I tried to challenge myself”, the singer says. “I will not say that I danced because I’m not a dancer but I just wanted to move and try to express myself the way I wanted.”
Grand final draw: First Half
Greece: Stefania — “Last Dance”
Stefania will dance one more “Last Dance” in Saturday’s grand final.
Upon hearing of her qualification, Stefania says she was “screaming, laughing, crying because of happiness”.
“I represent Greece the country and I just really want to make them happy and proud, and I hope I did and I hope I will also in the final”, she says enthusiastically.
The Greek-Dutch singer also shared that part of her pre-show warmup involves thinking of “Cleopatra”, which amps her up ready to perform.
Grand final draw: First Half
Finland: Blind Channel — “Dark Side”
Tonights final qualifiers are living that life on the “Dark Side”.
“Eurovision has been such an amazing experience so far and now we’re going to the finals and we get to play another show”, Niko says. “When there was only one spot left, we were waiting what would happen and then the audience starting chanting — Finland, Finland, Finland.”
They’re asked if they think more rock acts will take up Eurovision after seeing big rock performances from themselves and from Italy’s Måneskin.
“Its gonna be rock mayhem from the start to the end”, Joel says. “I really hope there’s gonna be a lot of young people starting out heavier bands. I really want the new rock generation to start.”
Grand final draw: Second Half
Semi-Final 2 Non-Qualifiers
Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to seven acts tonight. They are:
- Estonia: Uku Suviste — “The Lucky One”
- Czech Republic: Benny Cristo — “omaga”
- Austria: Vincent Bueno — “Amen”
- Poland: Rafal — “The Ride”
- Georgia: Tornike Kipiani — “You”
- Latvia: Samanta Tina — “The Moon Is Rising”
- Denmark: Fyr og Flamme – “Øve os på hinanden”
Did your favourite make it through? Are you happy with the grand final draws? Let us know in the comments below.
This is Karma producers, this is karma.
Anxhela will surprise everybody even with that hell of a 2nd slot.
But this is becoming ridiculous, I feel like Albania should start complaining for the treatment they receive with running orders.
Sweden, Italy and Ukraine always favoured in the running order. Come on Italy though!
They put Sweden late again, what a surprise…
OMG, I have expected all 10 finalists this time! Iceland was in the difficult situation, they sure they did their best! Well done!
Malta didn’t win SF1, I guess Ukraine got it.
It won the Jury vote , surely ?
Perhaps it tied with Russia since Manizha also had a lot of buzz leading up to SF1 which is why they’ll be performing before and after one another at grand-finals
Russia then Malta in 5 and 6, with Switzerland then Iceland in 11 and 12, and Ukraine then France in 19 and 20 seem surprising choices, pitching strong entries against each other.
Bulgaria-Lithuania-Ukraine-France. I hope there’s a break somewhere here.
Oh I hope so! I might need to install a second bladder.
OMG… Sweden is soooo dead!
Sweden perfoming again after the 20th place, what a joke, nothing can save them from 21 televotes
Wow, Cyprus will perform 1st
Official: Cyprus opens, San Marino closes
NO WAY
Spoilers from the official site live blog: Cyprus opens, San Marino closes the final.
(they’re teasing us this year)
14 Moldova
15 Germany
16 Finland
17 Bulgaria
18 Lithuania
19 Ukraine
20 France
21 Azerbaijan
is 7th good?
14) Moldova
15) Germany
16) Finland
17) Bulgaria
18) Lithuania
19) Ukraine
20) France
21) Azerbaijan
22) Norway
23) The Netherlands
24) Italy
25) Sweden
26) San Marino
Lmao Efendi and Tix are inseparable
Victoria and Blind Channel too!
Lithuania is in quite favourable position
If there’s a break right between them and Ukraine, I think so. Otherwise, I think it’s a dangerous one.
For fun, running order predix:
1. UK
2. Spain
3. Serbia
4. Portugal
5. Albania
6. Iceland
7. Greece
8. Russia
9. Cyprus
10. Belgium
11. Israel
12. Switzerland
13. Malta
————————
14. Germany
15. Finland
16. Bulgaria
17. Lithuania
18. Azerbaijan
19. Norway
20. Moldova
21. Sweden
22. Italy
23. Netherlands
24. San Marino
25. France
26. Ukraine
I found the below interesting video of Greece’s performance. It shows what is happening on stage. Respect to the dancers. They have to do so much and they literaly have seconds to get ready. Also look how happy they all are at the end. Regardless of the final’s outcome congrats for their work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5unhj6QsDjs
Albania … Serbia … LOL
Everyone: Israel? meh.. she will not even reach the final..
Eden: Hold my whistles!
HAHAHAHA Iconic! screw you haters! U mad?!? thank you.. NEXT!
Lots of people here hate Israel, but Eden is Perfection no matter what they say 🙂
Not only she’s in the final, she also made history! I CAN’T!!!
And.. to all the haters.. #bye felicia!
Eden should be happy that she made it to the final cause that spot belonged to Croatia
Thats your opinion, for my opinion and i guess also most people think like me Eden is far better than the stupid tik tok song sorry.
That stupid tik tok song has more views than Set me Free but ok..
all the views from Croatians…
So what? Israel is a small country, Croatia has the all Balkan states..any way the voters liked Eden more than they like Albina..sorry for you!
Go to the Eurovision Instagram and see how many likes Eden gets and how many Albina lollllllllll and than you will understand why Eden qualify 🙂
btw SMF is almost 1,900,000 views.. Tik Tok 1,400,000 views..
Israel qualified because of jewish diaspora in Europe.
Maybe or Maybe not… She just gave a good performance.
They did well to drag such a weak song into the final which has had more enhancements and revamps than Carol Vorderman. I would not be surprised if it morphs into a ballad by tomorrow night.
Bla bla bla keep envy of the amazing performance made by Israel! Other countries revamped their song also , you just only hate Israel! Take your hate somewhere else please!
Isreal earned her spot … Belgium are the ones who took Croatias spot .. most boring 3 minuets of this Eurovision and that’s saying something after we watched the Georgian song
Bulgaria was awsome! Switzerland can win!
Prediction for Running Order:
the opening whistles hahaha
Dont think Israel will open the show, i think they will be in 10 place or close to that.
That moment when even Portugal has more views than Bulgaria…
Portugal even has more views than San Marino.
so now we know you’re just a hater who only likes fast food music. anyways, bulgaria is probably winning. would advice you to not go mental after that.
Winning what?
I think bulgaria was maybe 7th or 8th place in the SF.
To be fair, the only thing that matters this year is Eden’s whistles tones..
Sooo ICONIC! I can’t! She made history.. I can’t be more proud of her!
Eden gave perfect show!
I think it’s between France and Malta. I think Italy will score well with the televotes, the juries will hurt them. I think U.K. will open.
I hope San Marino close out the show..
I have a feeling Sweden will close it.
Portugal’s Love is On My Side is selling well on iTunes!
I like both France and Italy. If the winner is between these two songs, then I’ll support Italy. Voila is a nice song but a little gloomy and depressing, and frankly after the year we’ve all been through that’s not the mood I want. I want to put Zitty e Buoni at maximum volume, dance, scream and blow the roof away! Also Italy has been sending nothing but their A game to Eurovision for the last 10 years, they deserve to finally get the trophy.
I also love both Italy and France but i would root for France cause they’ve been waiting longer for a victory. But i wouldn’t mind italy winning.
Dadi and the crew are holding up magnificently in this interview—they’re obviously gutted and it’s a frustrating situation for them.
Indeed. They’re so awesome and I hope they’ll get a very nice spot on the left side of the score board on Saturday.
I hope so too, they’ve been such a big part of Eurovision 2020 and 2021–I had quite hoped there would be a way for this year’s team in Rotterdam to maybe have the 5 on stage plus Johann virtually from his room. Alas, I guess that’s just not possible now with no more time for rehearsals.
I think Stefania was 5th-8th tonight but I’m guessing the Dutch organizers would like to help her on Saturday. Maybe she’ll open the show?
if she opens the show that wont really be helpful…
Well I can’t think of a better spot for her with Switzerland, Malta, Iceland, Cyprus, Russia and Serbia all in this half.
“And next up Iceland” is like a mantra at this point
Gosh the lead singer is down and depressed isn’t he? That’s really sad to see. Not their fault.
Yeah, my heart’s really with them. It’s such a shame—and not at all how it should have been for Daði og Gagnamagnið.
Finland’s band member dropping the F bomb in the interview. Ah. 🙂
By the way—when Victoria has a wide shot on her cliff, did the shimmering copper-like water remind you at all of DS9’s finale when Odo returns to his people?
Also—I absolutely adored Bulgaria tonight. Perfect performance.
Aha, I did think of that! You sound so much like my cousin that I’m getting suspicious now. Ahaha. The Great Link!
Ah I thought you would have done—I actually thought of you and made a mental note to mention it as I watched it 🙂
The Great Link, yes exactly! 😀 had forgotten the word. In a way it fits nicely with Victoria’s meanings.
Her drop becomes the ocean.
for those ones saying some songs will cancel other songs for being on the same half and being the same genre:
remember the top 2 of 2018, both upbeat songs, the top 2 of 2014, both ballads, 2013 both mid-tempo songs, 2012 both upbeat…
i’m betting on it right now, albania is going to be 3rd in the running order…sadly but cmon guys, albania cant get in the second half of the running order for crap! and it’s so freaking annoying 🙁
When do we find out the finale running order?
Based on previous years, I would expect it in about an hour.
Let’s be honest, vocally, Eden slay everyone there. No one can do whistles like her. The song itself is mediocre, the song will enter the top 10 (thanks to the whistles and the judges). And Malta? Going to win! Congratulation to Malta!
To me the point is not that she can do whistles, the point is that there’s no reason for her to start screaming like that in the middle of that song. It’s a dance-y uptempo pop song, there’s no need to start blasting these high notes for no other reason than to show she can do it. It’s tacky, and frankly looks almost comical.
She do the whistles in the end of the song.. and she do that to maximize the idea of her feeling free, she whistles like a bird (that’s what she said in the interview) reveling the true her, even the dress.. it looks like she is almost naked but the dress made by her hair soo it’s look soo iconic! perfect!
***BTW the song is about the lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 situation.
Congrats to all the countries who qualified. They are lucky to not have crazy and toxic journalists like us in Greece, where they hype every year the Greek entry only to massively flop and blame the others after that. ERT needs to do a national final and cut off these people who get views by articles like ” this was never been done before, europe will be shocked”.
For every triggered Greek journalist, sorry not sorry. Stop taking advantage of the love of Greeks for eurovision just for views.
You should see the Bulgarian ones… and commentators instead of saying “Vote for your favorite song” say “If you’re Bulgarian and live in another country, vote for Bulgaria”. That’s why I watched on youtube instead of on TV.
i get your point but in Greece things are not under control really, they build a huge hype in exchange of information directly by ERT, some of them are read by no more than 100 people but they have exclusive news on eurovision. I wonder how…..
Anyone else wondering why obvious plagiarism isn’t being challenged or investigated? Aa many have said, the Cyprus entry is clearly a rip off of Bad Romance and the French entry is very like Padam Padam by Edith Piaf – almost note for note in places.
.
Roxen was WAY MORE BETTER than the 80 percent of tonight’s qualifier. I will be rooting for Amnesia for my entire life…#selfloveamnesia #youarenotalone #dedicatedtowhoscreamswentunheard
I think UK might open, and Ukraine, Italy and San Marino as the three last songs!
Here is my guess:
1 Greece 2 Israel 3 UK 4 Albania 5 Spain 6 Russia 7 Belgium 8 Iceland 9 Serbia 10 Switzerland 11 Cyprus 12 Portugal 13 Malta 14 Sweden 15 Germany 16 Azerbaijan 17 Norway 18 Moldova 19 Finland 20 France 21 San Marino 22 Bulgaria 23 Netherlands 24 Ukraine 25 Italy 26 Lithuania
ukraine could be closing the show. i think they usually go for something fast and powerful to end it with a bang.
That country has done closure before
Iceland will probably be put in front of someone with busy staging like Greece or UK, opener probably Russia, Iceland or Serbia, closing Italy
Russia is anything but an opener.
They usually go with a very safe entry to open.
But Russia is visually interesting with a good message
@roxelana name your favourites to win.
I think it will be Loco Loco Opening.
Gjon looks so so happy and delighted to be through—he’s never looked so cute 🙂
He also said he knew he wasn’t perfect (wow), but it doesn’t matter because he wanted to show he was human too. He sounds like the perfect musician. I adore him. But it’s sad he’s in the first half.
He didn’t sound flawed at all. It was my favorite performance of the night.
Yeah, I like that he’s keeping his feet on the ground and he seems to have a very genuine kind-heartedness 🙂
And yes—the first half is heavy!!
Duncan + 1 so boring
Exchange UK for Albania. But otherwise true
Possible openers: Cyprus, Greece, Israel, UK (I haven’t added Serbia because I think they’ll prefer to open with a song in English)
Haunted by the dreadful number 2: Albania (but it would be the 2nd time in a row), Belgium, Portugal and Spain (though I think Blas will sing after the 1st break, because of his moon)
Possible closers: Italy, Lithuania, San Marino and Ukraine (all of those would be perfect for the task)
Frontrunners: Malta, Iceland and Switzerland will get the best spots in the 1st half. Curious to see what they’ll do with France, italy and Ukraine.
I think Ukraine will close, with France not much before it (about 22-25). Italy will go a bit earlier at about 19-22. UK will open for sure. Or I get everything wrong, I have no idea.
The problem with putting Italy a little earlier is that they need to save some space between them and Finland.
That’s true – but the second half is only so long, they’re going to be pretty close anyway. It’s true that Italy could close, but then Ukraine couldn’t be near the end as both are so high energy – and I just can’t imagine them putting something so impactful as Ukraine earlier than one the very last spots. That might be the Ukraine fan speaking in me though.
I literally have so many countries in my top 5 right now… this truly is one of the best years ever, even with the whole pandemic going on. I’m hoping for a France or Italy victory though, but San Marino would also be fun lmao.
Roxen was WAY MORE BETTER than the 80 percent of tonight’s qualifier. I will be rooting for Amnesia for my entire life…#selfloveamnesia #youarenotalone #dedicatedtowhoscreamswentunheard
My running order:
1. Greece
2. Spain
3. United Kingdom
4. Israel
5. Belgien
6. Serbia
7. Iceland
8. Cyprus
9. Switzerland
10. Russland
11. Albania
12. Malta
13. Portugal
14. San Marino
15. Norway
16. Azerbaijan
17. Italy
18. Sweden
19. Lithuania
20. France
21. Finland
22. Moldova
23. The Netherlands
24. Bulgaria
25. Ukraine
26. Germany
Switch UK and Albania; Germany and Finland and you have it spot on.
11 is a prize slot to a SF winner or second …no way that those countries deserve an 11
Let’s make it before the swedes controlled ….. please do a fair draw
Well… Senhit is showing them off in that outfit. 🙂 She’s stunning. One of my favourite stars this year.
I adore her! She’s like the ideal crazy auntie, so positive and always bringing good energy. She’s always got something up her sleeve, she’s certainly the Freaky Queen.
Spot on.
I don’t think they’d want to close the show with a rock song
it worked quite well with Eldrine in 2011.
Let’s all watch the Wiwiblogg team despedately push the Maltese girl, as they have done from the start.
Or just change the channel and move on? 🙂
Or delete all your comments and make it all about you, I don’t know
Caution Jimmy. I don’t want you to become the next disappearing one (like Mr. Vanilla Bean). We all love Eurovision and we all have opinions on the media, respectfully.
As articulate and respectful as always
Despedately! But seriously if you don’t like Wiwibloggs rooting for Destiny—just watch another stream, surely? Are they not allowed to have favourites? They’re a fan blog, they get to stan their favourites too.
Of course they can but there are other acts. She isn’t exactly.Beyonce is she
And thank you, I’ll take it 🙂
i’m THRILLED with the results. i maybe would’ve traded out albania for denmark or austria, but honestly all of the qualifiers were deserved. everyone did amazingly well and this semi was the semi of VOCALS. i mean literally everyone delivered today and no one should be disappointed in themselves. i thoroughly enjoyed every performance tonight, well done
yep, i totally agree. it’s not like all my favourites went through, but those who qualified will give us the perfect blend of everything we love about eurovision and a highly entertaining ride from start to finish. plus: the unpredictability and the insanely high number of potential winners should make up for one of the most exciting editions in a long, long time.
i only would have swapped sweden for croatia, else i’m perfectly satisfied.
My running order prediction:
will be interesting to see how they decide the running order, as there’s some pretty big stage shows this year so will need to make sure they can set up the stage for each act in time. Going to be a great final though.
you and other people predicting portugal to be 2nd in the running order is just a reflection of your poor musical taste
I like Portugal actually. But going off what they normally put to perform 2nd, Portugal is the best bet. Hopefully I’m wrong though and they’ll perform later.
I don’t think they’ll put Belgium after UK, but I do think they should close the first half with Malta but idk if they would do it