Thirty-three acts sang in the Eurovision 2021 semi-finals, but only twenty could make it through. And of the 13 acts left behind, fans found plenty to love, from a woman walking on a treadmill (Ireland) to two songs called “Amen” (Austria and Slovenia).
Last week we asked you to let us know which of the Eurovision 2021 non-qualifiers you most wanted to see in the final. After counting a total of 10,007 votes we can now reveal that Croatia’s Albina has won the day with her song “Tick-Tock”. She earned an impressive 2,631 votes — or more than 26% of all those cast. It makes sense. She finished 11th in the very competitive Semi-Final 1, narrowly missing out on the grand final.
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Croatia’s Albina: Best non-qualifier of Eurovision 2021
The Split-born star did something daring: She never set foot on the main stage! Instead, Albina — dressed as some kind of futuristic space-age superhero — performed on a platform just in front of the stage alongside her male dance group.
One highlight of the performance came when she duplicated herself in hologram form, giving us five Albinas to feast our eyes on. At one point her dancers lifted her to the sky and she sang while elevated and parallel with the floor. That she was able to hold her voice suggests she has a very strong diaphragm.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Denmark’s Fyr og Flamme — who placed 11th in Semi-Final 2 — placed second here. They earned 1,327 votes, or around 13% of all those cast.
Favourite non-qualifiers of Eurovision 2021
- Croatia: Albina “Tick-Tock” 26.29% (2,631 votes)
- Denmark: Fyr & Flamme “Øve os på hinanden” 13.26% (1,327 votes)
- Romania: Roxen – “Amnesia” 13.01% (1,302 votes)
- Australia: Montaigne – “Technicolour” 10.01% (1,002 votes)
- Ireland: Lesley Roy – “Maps” 9.34% (935 votes)
- Austria: Vincent Bueno “Amen” 6.59% (659 votes)
- Latvia: Samanta Tīna “The Moon Is Rising” 4.86% (486 votes)
- Czech Republic: Benny Cristo “Omaga” 4.38% (438 votes)
- Slovenia: Ana Soklic – “Amen” 4.03% (403 votes)
- Estonia: Uku Suviste “The Lucky One” 3.24% (324 votes)
- North Macedonia: Vasil – “Here I Stand” 1.82% (182 votes)
- Poland: Rafał “The Ride” 1.81% (181 votes)
- Georgia: Tornike Kipiani “You” 1.37% (137 votes)
Total Votes: 10,007
Where did your favourite non-qualifier finish in our poll? And who do you want to see make a comeback so they can get to the grand final? Let us know in the comments box below!
Photo: EBU / Thomas Hanses
Roxen’s live performance was such a weird concept, the camera filmed a lot of that one man who looked like a angry vampire, dancing felt like it didn’t fit the song and then Roxen sounded like she’s out of breath while she was walking here and there.
Yes, that man looked like he should have been in a different performance. Was he meant to do all that gurning to the camera?
On occasion, ”expected” and ”hoped for” are not the same, but in this case, I honestly both expected and hoped for Croatia to qualify. It’s a strong package, and Albina delivered a great performance. Romania and Czech Republic were those I was really hoping for, but after their actual performances in their respective semis, wasn’t expecting that much. Denmark is right there around the 10th spot. Both to me, and in the actual results. I would’ve been okay with them making it, but I am not upset. With Denmark, Austria, and Czech Republic (in the ESC bubble, anyway) dancing around… Read more »
Denmark was my number one this year, and that unfortunate NQ has been such a letdown for me 🙁 However, I must admit, even in the semi the instrumental mix was a bit off. The guitar plays such a crucial part in this song, and for some reason it got buried underneath the vocals and synths so much that it became almost indiscernible.
Denmark had a fun style that I’m sure people liked, but I think it wasn’t the favorite of enough people. Romania definitely deserved to qualify, but songs of this general style have a long history of struggling to qualify.
Denmark qualified easily in televote, jury dragged them down
Interesting about the televote for Denmark. As for the juries, yeah, I guess it was to be expected that they wouldn’t rank this high.
Oh, boy I love Denmark’s song more now! I hated it when it was chosen to win national finals, but after the rehearsals I started to love it!
Agreed, when she didn’t qualify I thought “oh no, oh no, OH NO”
Tik-Tock starts out very engaging, but by the end it feels repetitive and kind of annoying.
Albina this year was much like Srbuk in 2019, both were robbed queens!!! Hope they will return to Eurovision in the future to qualify for the finals!
I used to hate it but now I love it!
As she should, QUEEN ????
Albina, I have to say.
Well its for the first time that what according to both juries would have qualified but failed to in the combined results
Officially, it’s the first time. But in 2017 Tijana from Serbia was 10th with both juries and televoting if you take out Sammarinese made up set of points, Serbia would still NQ, but would Q individually with each category, like Albina
Too many good songs were left in the semi finals this year while the countries that usually get through never mind what they send, whether it be good or bad advanced. However, this year was one of the strongest contests for song quality, but a few swaps and it would have been perfect!
Can’t decide which one is the best of the best for me, almost all contests are amazing!
Like Russia Greece and Sweden!
Wow North Macedonia got votes??
I don’t get why so many people thought she deserves a spot in the GF. For me it was a very boring song from the beginning, especially the “Oh no” part and the 90s elements.
Because other people have taste. Covid probably hit you hard so you’ve lost it.
I agree, the lyrics are horrible, the song is basic and her vocals were off.
I hope she comes back in future years. This song should have made it to the final.
For me there were 3 good NQs: Croatia, Denmark and Georgia. Here are my reasons: 1). Croatia. Yeah, it’s absolutely unauthentic , meaningless and generic song , I know, BUT it wasn’t plagiarism like Cyprus, was a way better than Malta to me and was absolutely better than Moldova. Actually, I think it’s the best bop of the year. It was produced better than the rest and the tune itself is catchy . 2). Denmark. It’s the most shocking NQ for me. Authentic, with cool 80s vibes, catchy and makes you wanna to shake bottom off. What people didn’t like?… Read more »
you rly contradicted yourself with your points about Denmark and Georgia huh
No contradiction. Denmark is authentic but it’s a dance-pop made for discos, TV shows and shaking your bottom still. I don’t know why people didn’t enjoy it. Portugal and Georgia usually bring another kind of music: slow, quite, authentic. It’s not music for TV shows, it’s music for earphones.
“Catchy and makes you wanna shake your bottom off. What people didn’t like? Mystery to me”
“The music you bring here have to be bright catchy from the first listening, fast-foodish to do well”
Also, I didn’t enjoy Denmark because I found it to be lazy, derivative, cheesy, cringey, and overall upsetting.
Well, in the sentences you brought there’s no contradiction at all. I pointed that to do well at ESC you have to be bright, catchy and enjoyable from the first listening. Denmark was that kind of entry to me. That’s why I’m surprised. I mentioned it in my original comment. I guess, you just didn’t get it. I’m not too good in explanations, sorry.
I know im going to get downloaded for this but I always saw this as a non qualifier. It was just too 2000 for me and didn’t elevate the trope enough compared to other entries.
Yep, thought so.
she qualified with both jury and televote but for some reason did she not qualify
georgia has actually really grown on me. i appreciate it now as a mellow, calm ballad and if you listen to it, tornike’s quiet voice is very pleasant to listen to. i like it, maybe not enough to be grand final material, but 12th or smthn like that
I think Tornike had some unresolved issues…and perhaps became resentful about the whole ESC experience since he wasn’t accepted very positively from the audience.
Part of it could be due to his more reserved and introverted nature…but the thing is, if you decide to participate in ESC you also need to show more engagement with the media and fans! Just to give you an example, his Looklab video with Nikkie was privated on youtube, for some reason.
ohhh right. i can see why someone would have that sort of reaction, after two years of mediocre to poor reviews, but at the same time i also agree that you should show engagement
Expected result though it’s not my cup of tea. Looking at my tops of the semifinals, I wanted Slovenia, Romania and Denmark in the final, though Romania’s performance was lacklustre.
I would’ve swapped them with Azerbaijan, Sweden and Finland, who by the way are all in my top 26 or very near so it’s not that they weren’t final worthy. It’s just that I can’t swap the automatic qualifiers.
I am sad about Croatia’s defeat, but it hurt the most when the head of the Croatian delegation, Urszula, cried after the defeat
in the room of the Croatian delegation, and Albina comforted her additionally, Urszula took notes from the Eurovision Song Contest, she wants to use them during Dora. She also asked composers in the country not to create songs exclusively for Eurovision, as it does not bring positive results and says she is not giving up
And that’s how a Head of Delegation should be. A love of the contest, knowing what’s needed and always seeing where to improve.
Take note Michael Kealy.
very true but i think we just need him to go at this point
Croatia is the most unlucky NQ ever! (so far at least). Top 10 with the televoters (9th), top 10 with the juries (10th) but 11th overall. Hopefully no one else ever should experience this
True, Macedonia have also been unlucky in the past, in one instance kicked out to let Sweden in. I wonder if there should be some sort of rule change going forward to avoid a repeat of Croatia situation?
I am not sure that anything is gonna happen. It is somewhat sad what happened to Croatia but I think the system currently in use is a fair one and it should be kept
Ofc it is not fair as we just saw on Croatia’s example. Both juries and televote agreed that Croatia should qualify but then juries push belgium and televote pushes azerbaijan or whoever. If you qualify with both of them you should be granted to perform in the final.
I dissgree, there is not a perfect way to create a good voting system, but you have to consider that 1) With similar jury scores, a song A that gets 90 points with the public is a more deserved qualifier than a song B who gets 50 and qualifies, also thanks to 24 points from the Ex-Yugoslavian Bloc (which none of you can’t deny, it’s much stronger than other voting blocs). Even if A does not qualify with juries and B does, many people enjoyed and voted for A much more, so it wouldn’t be fair to choose B over… Read more »
Thanks for all that detail, I hadn’t realised about Tijana. I still think there must be a fairer way of doing it. When you look at say diving and ice skating, don’t they take out the best and worst scores to reach a true average (or something like that!). And huge discrepancies between Jury and Public need to be reviewed, for example, Denmark this year and Norway 2019. As you say nothing is perfect.
Croatia and Denmark are great choices. Both came 11th in their semis and both were televote qualifiers. It’s a shame poor Albina didn’t make it when she was actually a qualifier with both the televote and juries.
OMG, I used to despise Denmark’s song but since days ago, I have started to like it more and gave me 80’s vibes!!! I hope Albina will return to Eurovision in the future! 2021 was such a strong year, really, it should be chosen 2020’s #bestofthedecade award on Eurovision’s Instagram!
How do you know 2021 will be the best edition of the decade?
We literally have 8 more editions ahead of us
It’s my current prediction, lol, don’t worry, but 2021 is very likely to be!
Yes, I am such in a rush! There might be 8 contests ahead in 2020’s and this is my current prediction so far