Eurovision 2021: All about the Grand Final

The 65th edition of Eurovision Song Contest ends tonight. 26 songs will compete, and after 3,5 hours of music, performances, entertainment and excitement, we know the winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2021.

The show starts at 21:00 CEST, live from Rotterdam Ahoy in The Netherlands. Hosts are Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley, Jan Smit and Nikkie de Jager. The running order has been decided by the producers (Dutch broadcasters AVROTROS, NOS and NPO) based on an allocation draw.

The qualified countries are:

• Top-10 from Semi-final 1
• Top-10 from Semi-final 2
• Host (Netherlands), Big-5 (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy)

Lineup Eurovision 2021 Grand Final

Opening: Flag Parade

The opening starts with a recording of the reigning Eurovision winner, Duncan Laurence. Whilst he is playing on a piano, video clips are shown of people from different countries celebrating moments of life. During each clip we can see sparks rising to the air and all connect towards Duncan to form a glowing sphere which heads to the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena.

We are joined by Peter Gabriel, a Dutch DJ who has worked with Dutch Musical Director Eric van Tijn for the opening artist parade.

Artists, as per the running order, get called out on stage with a backdrop of their flag. During this parade, we get short segments of three of the hosts singing a special mix "Venus" by the Dutch band Shocking Blue (later covered by Bananarama). The parade closes of with an explosion of pyros and a dance number.

Give a warm applause to the four hosts: Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley, Jan Smit and Nikkie de Jager:

LET THE GRAND FINAL OF EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2021 BEGIN!

Commercial Breaks

After song number 8 (Serbia), the evening's first commercial break takes place:

For the viewers without commercials, we see Nikkie de Jager telling us what is happening online in the Eurovision universe. After sharing several videos from the Eurovision Challenge during the semi-finals, Nikkie finally reveals the top 3. We are joined by the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020 winner, Valentina, who sends a video message:

– Big kiss and let's open up to a great Eurovision Song Contest she says.

Nikkie later tells us that she spoke with Emmelie de Forest (Denmark 2013), Jamala (Ukraine 2016) and Duncan Laurence (Netherlands 2019) to ask them where do they keep their winning trophy

We are joined by Chantal and Jan in green room understand that not everybody could make it to Rotterdam so they are inviting viewers to take photo and share on social media platforms with #Eurovision.

After song number 16 (Finland), the second commercial break takes place:

We join, Edsilia in the commentary booths area, showing us the breathtaking the stage from above. She later visits random commentary booths and chats with the commentators from several countries.

Hosts Chantal and Jan are now on the second stage speaking about how the orchestra was an integral part of Eurovision up to 1998. They tease the viewers that the orchestra is back tonight as part of an interval act and will be joined by top DJ, Afrojack. Chantal and Jan introduce Bulgaria as we continue with the competition.

Interval Acts

The four presenters are back on the main stage explain the voting rules and are quick to open the voting:

EUROPE! START VOTING NOW!

A first recap of all 26 performance is shown, followed by the first interval act of the evening.

Music Binds Us

The segment starts of with a video clip of a boy declaring his love to a girl as they run away together the city during the night. The orchestra is featured in a spectacular way on a Eurovision branded tram. The orchestra is later seen on the Rotterdam bridge with the kids meeting Afrojack who is goes behind his DJ deck and is joined by Wulf singing on the bridge. Later we see Glennis Grace singing (Netherlands 2005) "Titanium", originally sung by David Guetta ft. Sia. The video clip transactions to the arena with Glennis surrounded by dancers ending the song with Afrojack behind her.

We head to the green room with Edsilia and Nikkie who promote the Eurovision app and reminding the viewers to vote. A second recap of the night is shown.

Jan, Edsilia and Nikkie are back in the green room, introducing the third part of Nikkie's “Eurovision Tutorials”, giving tips on how to behave during the voting part of the contest. We're back with Nikkie giving us behind the scenes of what happened in the previous months to make Eurovision 2021 happen at Rotterdam.

Edsilia back on the stage explaining that before COVID-19, she started to meet previous Eurovision Winners for a Eurovision ride as the video clip airs. The video clip features Anne-Marie David (Luxembourg 1973), Izhar Cohen (Israel 1978), Ruslana (Ukraine 2004), and Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland 1993) listening and comment about past winning songs.

Chantal and Jan are next to introduce another video segment which serves as a tribute to viewers and Eurovision fans down memory lane with past facts and several clips from past Eurovision contests.

As the video ends Chantal tells us that we will be back together soon. Chantal and Jan once again in the green room for the third and last recap of the night.

Nikkie and Edsilia now introduce the next interval act as a Eurovision legacy: Rock the Roof.

Rock the Roof

Six Eurovision winners sings their winning songs on top of Rotterdam’s most iconic buildings (Maassilo, Hotel New York, and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot Museum):

• Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Sweden 2015)
• Teach-In – Ding-A-Dong (Netherlands 1975)
• Sandra Kim – J'aime La Vie (Belgium 1986)
• Lenny Kuhr – De Troubadour (Netherlands 1969)
• Helena Paparizou – My Number One (Greece 2005)
• Lordi – Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland 2006)

Duncan Laurence

Jan and Chantal are back in the Green room ready to introduce Duncan Laurence however sadly inform us that he cannot be present in the arena due to his positive COVID-19 test however as preparations were in full swing, the crew managed to record his prepared performance.

Sitting alone behind the piano in a dark setting, Duncan starts off his performance with "Arcade", the song that won the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, followed by the debut of his new single "Stars"

Jan and Chantal are back and remind the viewers to vote. The Eurovision countdown sequence is shown by a group of dancers on the main staging forming the numbers of the countdown.

EUROPE! STOP VOTING NOW!

Results

While the votes are being counted and verified, Edsilia is back in the greenroom chatting with the contestants. Jan and Chantal back on the main stage to introduce the new Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor, Martin Österdahl with his new catchphrase: You're good to go!

Jury Results

Each of the 39 countries participating in Eurovision 2021 has a jury that decides half of the result. The juries' points are given by a spokesperson from each country, where only the 12 points will be announced orally.

Televoting Results

All televotes from the 39 countries are bundled and announced for each receiving country. Starting with the country with less points from the juries.

AND THE WINNER OF EUROVISION 2021 IS...

🏆

Voting

The voting procedure will be the same as previous four years. Each country will have two sets of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12 points to give. One set for each country's jury, and one set for each country's televoting.

• Each of the 39 countries participating in this years Eurovision will vote
• Each country has a national jury who gave one set of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12 points
• Each country will have televoting which also results in a set of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12 points
• First the the juries points will be presented individually by a spokesperson from each country
• Secondly the points from televoting will be bundled and given combined
• Televoters and national juries have equal weight in the voting
• The national juries voted yesterday evening (Friday, 21 May) during the second dress-rehearsal
• If two countries have the same points, the best of the two is the song which has obtained points from the highest number of countries. If the tying songs have received points from the same number of countries, the highest number of 12-point scores shall be decisive. If the winner still cannot be determined by this procedure, the number of times ten points have been awarded shall be the deciding factor. If necessary, this method shall continue until account has been taken of the number of times one point has been awarded

Shortly after the Grand Final, the detailed results, voting and points will be revealed.