It’s a regular fixture on the Eurovision off-season calendar — the OGAE Second Chance Contest. Various OGAE fan clubs around Europe (and the rest of the world) decide their top favourite of the national final acts who didn’t win the ticket to Eurovision. Let’s check out the candidates for the 2021 edition of the contest.
OGAE Second Chance Contest 2021
This year’s edition of the “visual event” is hosted by OGAE Sweden, after Anna Bergendahl won the 2020 vote with “Kingdom Come”. The OGAE clubs whose broadcaster selected their Eurovision entry using a national final were eligible to nominate one non-winning song as their entry for the Second Chance Contest.
Some OGAE clubs automatically select their second-placed national final act, while others vote for their favourite from all the competing entries in their national final.
The 2021 edition brings obvious choices and surprises alike. We have many national final runner-ups such as Norway’s KEiiNO with “Monument” and Sweden’s Eric Saade with “Every Minute”. There are also several fan favourites who finished a little lower down the scoreboard like Croatia’s Bernarda with “Colors” and Albania’s Era Rusi with “Zjarri Im”.
While they were internally selected to go to Eurovision, Spain’s Blas Cantó and Israel’s Eden Alene are in the mix with their alternate national final songs “Memoria” and “Ue La La” respectively.
The songs will be awarded points by the competing OGAE clubs, with non-competing clubs voting as the jury. The 14 competing acts have been presented in a randomly drawn running order.
OGAE Sweden will announce the contest results later this year.
OGAE Second Chance Contest 2021
- Albania: Era Rusi – “Zjarri im”
- Israel: Eden Alene – “Ue La La”
- Portugal: NEEV – “Dancing In The Stars”
- France: Pony X – “Amour fou”
- Sweden: Eric Saade – “Every Minute”
- Russia: Therr Maitz – “Future Is Bright”
- Spain: Blas Cantó – “Memoria”
- Denmark: Chief 1 og Thomas Buttenschøn – “Højt over skyerne”
- Italy: Irama – “La genesi del tuo colore”
- Estonia: Jüri Pootsmann – “Magus melanhoolia”
- Lithuania: Gebrasy – “Where’d You Wanna Go?”
- Croatia: BERNARDA – “Colors”
- Norway: KEiiNO – “Monument”
- Finland: Ilta – “Kelle mä soitan”
Poll: Who should win the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2021?
OGAE members have until 8 August to vote for their favourites, but who do you think should win the 2021 Second Chance Contest Listen to all the songs in the playlist and then vote for your favourites in our poll. You can vote for as many acts as you like, but you can only vote once. So, make it count!
[crowdsignal poll=10875034]Are you surprised by any of the clubs’ choices? Which songs would you have submitted? And which song do you think deserves to win? Let us know in the comments.
First: Norway
Second: Italy
Third:Lithuania
Third place: Lithuania
Second place: Sweden
First place: Norway
All of these would have been worthy winners but I am not arguing with who these countries sent. The Roop, Tusse and TIX are amazing in their own right. I just think that these songs could have done better at the actual contest than the songs they ended up choosing. They are all very strong.
I would have submitted We Could Have Been Beautiful by Koit Toome instead of Magus Melanhoolia by Juri Pootsman for Estonia. It is prettier lyrically and musically and not as polarizing. It also is more of my taste.
I also do not get why Rijeka was not listed here, it is way better than Colours. It is amazingly artistic and it is so up my street. It is beautiful and to top it all off it is in Croatian.
Of course. I totally agree.
Norway!
Italy is in a unique position where they won and their second chance song could have won…but I have to think about it in a Eurovision context. I’m giving this to Keiino. Third place is Gebrasy
I didn’t quite get the hype around KEiiNO’s entry tbf, I prefer Irama, Gebrasy and Ilta this year.
The choices here are really bad.
If Italy had sent La genesi del tuo colore instead of Zitti e buoni, I would 100 percent have rooted for the country to win along with Switzerland as the song is so beautiful and I still listen to it on a regular basis! I also loved Neev, Ilta, and Gebrasy’s entries; surprised Rijeka, Pendesë, or La La Love aren’t listed
Wow, I just heard Irama’s song for the first time and it’s amazing! So I’m voting for Irama and Gebrasy. “Where’d You Wanna Go” is so beautiful, too bad he entered when it was The Roop’s year.
Who says he can’t try again next year or in the future?
No one. But he will need a strong song.
Look, as much as I love Monument, it’s quite sad that we already know they’re gonna win. It’s like 2017 voting procedure all over again!
Anyways, fyi I voted for Irama, KEiiNO and Jüri
Keiino fanboys striking. Oh boy 😀
Irama, by far
Monument all the way ofc, but also Albania, Finland and Italy. May the best one win! 🙂
My ideal selection winners lol
Bernarda
Emma Nicoline 🙁 not here either
Memoria
Phillipine 🙁
Ue La La
Eu.Clides 🙁
Era Rusi
Gebrasy
Ilta
Andrei Zevakin and Pluuto 🙁
Irama
IMERIKA 🙁
Dotter 🙁
🙁 = not here
🙂
I loved IMERIKA’s entry too
Albania, Finland And Norway are my favorite
I’m very surprised that the Russian choice was Future is Bright, imo Bitter Words is miles better ?
they were not very good live
Agree
I love so many of these songs. I voted for Lithuania, Israel, Estonia, Portugal, Sweden and Norway.
I will say for Sweden it was the staging that sold it for me, the lyrics were iffy.
So many of these songs were my nf winners.
OGAE Finland should’ve sent Teflon Brothers x Pandora.
I mean come on lets vote for something different and weird at the same time: for Era Rusi, she was lit !!
France, Sweden, Norway, Portugal for me.
For a second a was thinking there would be a big surprise in first place so far , but no it’s Keiino in the lead , lol. It’s July not April 1 . Bless, at least they have a big fan base . Roll on next season ,
KEiiNO is my top pick, but Where’d You Wanna Go is an EXTREMELY close second – it’s probably the song that resonates the most with me this year (Eurovision songs included) and is so magical and haunting!
Although Norway is the favorite here, my top 3 are Italy, Finland and Estonia.
It’s obvious Keiino are going to win, but the song is definitely inferior to Spirit in the Sky and I don’t think would’ve done as well as that song with the televise at Eurovision
I Disagree with you. I think KEiiNO would have been around 6th this year thanks to major jury support and less televote support than they had in 2019. Still, I am happy they are going to win the OGAE vote, they deserve it
Major jury support? I can’t imagine “Monument” getting more jury points than “Spirit in the Sky” did. It would be more or less the same placing TIX got.
Totally disagree. Spirit in the sky was like jury poison, while Monunent was way more complex in structure, it was much more calculated and less genuine than Spirit in the sky, but juries appreciate that in a song.
I mean…I think the obvious top three is going to be Norway, Italy and Sweden (in that order).
Not saying that’s how I’d go about it but yeah.
Yes, with Norway winning it all and Italy and Sweden fighting for the runner up spot. I would very much like to kick Sweden out of the top 3 but it is how it is
Norway, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia and Albania would be my personal top choices. Hon. mentions to Sweden, France and Israel.
All those songs have found their way on my spotify list. 🙂
Let’s hope he can return with an even greater song for next year.
I hope we get a fantastic national final from Lithuania next year so we can have great options.
I admit, I wasn’t really too keen on this year’s PIN because I felt like most of the songs were weak just to make an easy path for the Roop to win, but I hope the 8th place finish doesn’t discourage Lithuania from putting forth a higher effort for higher quality songs next year. I’d hate to see Lithuania regress, but I hope the artists who skipped this year have taken the two years to compose something worthy of a top five finish.
I think Norway is going to win it this year.
Irama’s song is great and would have been a likely contender to win Eurovision also. Check out the video of the song which is like a short film – excellent!
Irama.
KEiiNO winning and Irama a worthy runner up. Everyone else can get zero for all I care.
Why didn’t Dotter or the Mamas get the OGAE second chance spot for Sweden?
While I liked Eric’s song, I agree that Dotter or even the Mama’s or Clara Klingenström would have made preferable OGAE contestants (in my personal opinion).
You all need to stop with Dotter hype and realise she isnt liked here. She had an inferior song compared to last year while acting as if her win was a sure thing. Only fans thinks she is something hot
I don’t think Dotter is that popular within Sweden itself. She wasn’t selected last year for second chance either despite being the overall ESC fan favourite.
A shame really. I think her and her partner are very talented individuals.
Is there even point holding this vote? We all know all the yaas kweeners are gonna hype up KEIINO again and not give anyone the time of day haha
‘yaas kweeners’ are a large part of this community whether you like it or not, and the poll shows what the community like.
No it shows what a very small percentage of the overall Eurovision community like. Wiwibloggs polls are mostly voted on by one demographic of Eurovision fan as people who have different opinions are normally shouted down in the comments sections here. People aren’t allowed to have a different opinion on this site. It’s either you follow the loud yaass kweeners or you’re not welcome, at least that’s my perspective. I’ve tried many times to ask the Wiwibloggs team to do something about this and they never have. People who genuinely think KEiiNO would’ve won Eurovision are naive at best and… Read more »
Keiino would’ve won ESC :'(
Against Måneskin? 😀 are you sure?
italy and norway objectively deserve to be the top 2, but knowing the ogays they’ll probably make that every minute dated mess win
I enjoy both monument and every minute but how you think every minute is dated and monument isn’t is astounding
lol same… Monument is literally definition of dated. While Every Minute doesn’t sound exactly 2021 it still sounds very 2018/2019 which is still by every means modern.
every minute is a flavorless type of dated, there’s the difference
I guess Norway, Sweden or Italy will win this and I’d be ok with that, these are all good songs, but my favourite here is Lithuania. I also like Estonia and Croatia. Good luck to everyone!
Eric Saade!
He can’t sing at all.
ok fabio
Je suis fou pour Amour Fou! But it seems I am the only one.
You are not the only one 🙂
The Russian entry is very underrated
It was a small, surprise NS that a lot of people didn’t get into so I wouldn’t be surprised if it coma last but Future is Bright is a BANGER
But KEIINO is probably gonna win this lol, there’s no competition (although idk how the voting works, is it fan voted?)
I agree, future is bright is amazing. I do think la genesi del tuo colore is better but russia should come second in this
I think the disadvantage it has (along with Amour Fou) is that the winner of the national final was so clearly the obvious choice that people ignore all the other songs.
You’ll notice that the winners of ESC and 2nd chance are never from the same countries.
Juri, Gebrasy, KEiiNO, Ilta 🙂
RIP La Genesi Del Tuo Colore… the one who got away indeed……
i wish he’d saved it for 2022, it would’ve been the perfect host entry for italy
Is there a single person who expected anything other than KEiiNO to win this?
Some choices were made. Poney X had a great song but an autrocious live performance, Eric Saade for me was just boring and generic at least Tusse won over him but second was too high for this imo. Russia and Denmark didn’t have much choice so I’m not suprised about who came through. The entries from Israel also were on the same level as the others previously mentioned so I can’t say that I have a preference for any of these, suprisingly “Set me free” was indeed the best choice they could make. The rest of them are very strong,… Read more »
Granted in the case of France Voila was so clearly the obvious choice who actually is the second best becomes somewhat irrelevant.
i could easily vote 4 countries here. as always, the best songs dont win their selections.
was between albania croatia estonia and italy but i chose Jüri cuz the actual choice of estonia was 1000 times worse
Top 5:
Estonia
Sweden
Norway
France
Russia
Honorable Mention:
Portugal