What can we expect and who will win tomorrow?

After a film with, again, beautiful images of the Netherlands, and yes, a role for Duncan Laurence, we go to the flag parade. DJ Pieter Gabriel accompanies the artists musically with his own adaptation of the worldwide hit “Venus” by Shocking Blue, also a hit from Dutch soil. Presenters Edsilia Rombley, Jan Smit and Chantal Janzen sing the song.

We open with Cyprus; often an uptempo pop song is chosen to open, this year too. Albania takes the cursed second place. However, Albania is not one of the potential winners anyway, so the second place remains where it is. Israel follows; she once bursted out in tears when the Eurovision song contest was canceled, but now Eden Alene is in the final, followed by Belgium. Hopefully Hooverphonic will remain in peoples memories in the beginning of the broadcast. The advantage is that the song may stand out even more after an uptempo song. However, Russia follows with a striking act and then Malta. What that does to Malta’s chances is a big question mark, but it is not favorable. Certainly not because Portugal will follow after Malta; they are the surprise of the contest. We wouldn’t even be surprised if Portugal ends up very high; The Black Mamba isn’t Salvador Sobral, but still. The end of the first block is formed by Serbia; The fact that the three ladies are through to the final was no surprise, but it will probably not be much more there. Or is Serbia lucky that all other countries of the former Yugoslavia are not there?

While advertisements are watched in some countries, the rest of Europe sees Nikkie Tutorials showcasing three winners of the #Eurovisionchallenge. Valentina, who won the junior Eurovision this year, will also say something. Emmelie De Forrest, Jamala and Duncan Laurence talk about their trophy. After that, Chantal Janzen and Jan Smit will make an appeal to share your photo of how you watch the Eurovision song contest.

The second block is opened by the United Kingdom. That is usually not something to be happy about. People are still refilling the glasses or sitting on the toilet. By the way, yesterday in the Dutch tv-show Op1 you could see how British journalists are already busy putting the blame for a low score apart from themselves, even before the contest is over. However, the UK entry is completely insignificant to Greece that performes next. Greenscreen is certainly not new, but it is smart to use it. In quality, however, the Greek entry is far surpassed by that of Switzerland. According to many, one of the strongest voices of the festival. Still, the song may soumd a little too much like “Arcade” to be a winner. Also a top song, possibly even a winner, is Iceland. Would it give Daði og Gagnamagnið sympathy votes that they are not allowed to be present live? The Icelandics are in any case followed by the not too strong entry from Spain, although, to be honest, it must be said that the singing of Blas Cantó improves with each rehearsal. Moldova will then take office. But it is still doubtful whether the name of Filipp Kirkorov (composer) will be good for a high score. Germany is a “love it or hate it” entry that can go in any direction. And after a song about a middle finger, the director has chosen to put the other middle finger song right after it. The song from Finland turned out to have a lot of fans yesterday. Whether it helps them on the scoreboard? We’ll know tomorrow night.

And then we see Edsilia Rombley at the top of the comment booths to chitchat with various commentators. Chantal Janzen and Jan Smit refer to the time when there was still a live orchestra. They promise an orchestra with a top DJ.

In the meantime, Bulgaria is ready with Victoria on her rock. Another strong entry. Then we see Lithuania again. At the bookies, the yellow-clad men have fallen somewhat; not because they are not good, perhaps because a large number of countries have an even stronger entry.

And then Chantal Janzen announces Duncan Laurence, who speaks to the viewer in a video. Why so soon? Well, it gives the crew time to prepare the scenery of Ukraine.

A trip, as Dutch commentator Sander Lantinga called the entry. of Ukraine We can imagine why. It would not surprise anyone if Ukraine ends up in the top of the rankings. Immediately after that, another top favorite follows: France. Take a good look, because this could well be the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. To be honest, the entry from Azerbaijan is fairly insignificant. Anyway, the King’s Commissioner in Friesland Arno Brok and Mayor of Leeuwarden Sybrand Buma give a voting advice: stim Azerbaijan (vote Azerbaijan, but in Frisian language). It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, but after Azerbaijan, Norway will perform. All week, something seems to be going on between the Azerbaijani Efendi and the Norwegian TIX. It is very worthy to lsearch for #efentix.

Then NikkieTutorials and Edsilia Rombley take the floor and announce some entre-acts and… the entry of the Netherlands. Jeangu Macrooy is praised for his cast-iron voice. He seems to slightly do better among bookmakers. But after the Netherlands, another top favorite (there are quite a lot this year) follows: Italy. Would the glam rock-leaning group win the Eurovision song contest? We do not consider it impossible. Sweden is not one of this year’s top favorites. The entry is just not strong enough for a top score. Finally we see San Marino. And then the rule of applies: world stars do NOT win the Eurovision song contest. Whether it’s Cliff Richard, t.A.T.u., DJ Bobo or Bonnie Tyler, it doesn’t work. A high position is definitely not impossible, San Marino will break its own record for sure.

Then a spectacular entre act:follows: a classical orchestra of toung people and Afrojack accompany Wulf and Glennis Grace while they sing under the title “Music binds us”. We see images of people in Rotterdam, but the song and music come from the Erasmus Bridge.

NikkieTutorials comes again with a section of Eurovision Tutorials about the voting. Then she shows us images of how the festival in Ahoy is structured and how it works behind the scenes. Edsilia Rombley then meets several Eurovision winners, a film that was already shot before the Corona crisis. That is why Edsilia explicitly announces that she is hugging the former winners and not keeping a one and a half meter distance. Then we see a video in which Chantal Janzen explains how the audience has changed over the years.

And then we’re going to look at Teach In, Lenny Kuhr, Måns Zelmerlöw and Lordi. They sing from different rooftops in Rotterdam. Duncan Laurence then sings his hit “Arcade” and a new song. Not live, because he is at home with Corona, but a previously recorded rehearsal of his performance. And then…. The producers have even turned the countdown moment into something beautiful with dancers. The voting goes pretty smoothly. Of course something can go wrong, but there is no useless waiting. The scoreboard, with a lot of white, is easy to read. Edsilia and Nikkie are present in the greenroom while Jan and Chantal do the voting. Who is going to win remains uncertain for a long time, longer than ever. The bookmakers do not state a clear winner.

However, team Eurovision Universe has tried to predict the top 10. In a little more than 24 hours we know how right (or wrong) we are:

1.France
2.Italy
3.Malta
4.Switzerland
5.Ukraine
6.Bulgaria
7.Iceland
8.Portugal
9.Norway
10.Finland

photo credits: EBU

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Martijn

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70 years of Eurovision: chaos

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 1990 Eurovision was held in Zagreb. The hosting proved to be quite a challenge. When hosts Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović discovered that a much younger duo was ready to replace them, they called it quits. It took the Yugoslav broadcaster considerable effort to get the two back. The Norwegian Ketil Stokkan participated for the second time. After 1986, he now sang about the “Brandenburger Tor”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a striking number of songs were built around the theme of peace. The German entry was titled “Frei zu Leben” (Free to Live). Italy sang about the unification of Europe in “Insieme: 1992” (In Together: 1992). The Finnish group Beat sang “Fri?” (Free?), and the Austrian Simone sang “Keine Mauern mehr” (No More Walls). The latter did not even win the national final. The winning duo, Duett, was disqualified because it turned out that the song had already participated in a German national final.  The show started in a peculiar way. Spain was allowed to open, but after the intro, the ladies of the duo Azucar Moreno walked off angrily. The backing track had been started incorrectly. The ladies had to start over. The uptempo number by the Icelandic duo Stjórnin also stood out. It achieved a fourth place. Honking cars drove down the streets in Iceland as if the country had won. Joëlle Ursull represented France with a song by Serge Gainsbourg: “The White and Black Blues”. There was cheerful drumming on oil drums. Ursull came second, but had to share that place with the Irishman Liam Reilly. Seated at the piano, he sang “Somewhere in Europe”. And we do not want to leave Tajči unmentioned. She was a sort of Yugoslavian Marilyn Monroe, who managed to score quite nicely with the cheerful “Hajde da ludujemo”.  Toto Cutugno But Italy’s European song, “Insieme: 1992”, won. The singer, Toto Cutugno, was certainly no stranger. His biggest hit across Europe was “L’Italiano”. He finished high at the San Remo festival several times. In 1990 he did not win, but the numbers one and two were not interested in participating in Eurovision. When he won, all sorts of things happened. Champagne was poured over his head, causing the black dye to start dripping from his hair. That was very visible because he was wearing a white jacket. Someone in a black jacket quickly rushed over to solve this problem. Out of enthusiasm, Cutugno crawled into the audience during the encore, followed by a whole horde of journalists. For the public, the whole thing was not really safe. But Cutugno hadn’t noticed any of that, he said later. 1991 The entire 1991 Eurovision Song Contest can be summed up by one word: chaos. It started with the venue itself. The contest was supposed to be held in San Remo, but after the outbreak of the Gulf War, that proved not to be safe enough. It became Cinecittà, the studio in Rome where the spaghetti westerns were filmed. The set looked mostly like a collection of props that hadn’t been put away. The Italian broadcaster RAI decided to invite the two former winners, Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, as hosts. While Gigliola tried to keep things on track a little bit, Toto Cutugno was mainly an unguided missile. He didn’t listen, talked over jury chairmen, and started talking about something completely different at unexpected moments. At the end of the evening, scrutineer Frank Naef, usually an eloquent man, sat behind his table, turned red with annoyance. The songs Thomas Forstner returned for Austria. He had been successful in 1989, so he hoped to finish in the top 10 once again. It was quite disappointing: no one had points for him. The group Just4Fun from Norway included former Bobbysock Hanne Krogh and former Icy member Eirikur Hauksson from Iceland. Stefan Hilmarsson participated for Iceland itself; he was one half of the duo Beathoven. Malta was back! Not having participated since 1975, the duo Georgina & Paul Giordimaina was back. Surprisingly, their ballad “Could It Be” finished sixth. That was Malta’s best score ever up to that point. The Israeli Duo Datz also stood out, particularly with their typical Israeli dance. Sergio Dalma from Spain lived up to his reputation as a crooner with a fourth-place finish. And then there was Atlantis 2000 from Germany. They had bypassed the televoter and let a panel of a thousand people choose the song. Not a good idea, as it turned out. Singer and face of the group, Hermann Weindorff, sang so badly that his solos were distributed among the other group members to salvage what could still be salvaged. The group Clouseau, wildly popular in Belgium, also failed to do well, despite an Italian newspaper labeling them as the big favorites. The Belgians received no support from the Netherlands, where the group was also very popular. The Netherlands had to withdraw due to a remembrance day. And then there was Greece. Sophia Vossou’s song “I Anixi” featured a saxophone solo. Unfortunately, the young saxophonist from the orchestra was replaced at the last minute by an older gentleman. He couldn’t manage to get his fingers on the saxophone at the right moment. The sax solo went completely wrong. Carola At the end of the show, there were two winners. France and Sweden had the same number of points. The countries also received 12 points equally often, but Sweden received 10 more frequently. Sweden therefore won in the end. France had scored well with a singer from Tunisia. That was clearly audible. The song contained many Arabic influences. Singer Amina knew how to capitalize on her participation. Her song “Le dernier qui à parlé” became an international hit. But it was Carola, also

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April 12, 2026 No Comments
Uncategorized
Martijn

70 years of Eurovision: chaos

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 1990 Eurovision was held in Zagreb. The hosting proved to be quite a challenge. When hosts Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović discovered that a much younger duo was ready to replace them, they called it quits. It took the Yugoslav broadcaster considerable effort to get the two back. The Norwegian Ketil Stokkan participated for the second time. After 1986, he now sang about the “Brandenburger Tor”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a striking number of songs were built around the theme of peace. The German entry was titled “Frei zu Leben” (Free to Live). Italy sang about the unification of Europe in “Insieme: 1992” (In Together: 1992). The Finnish group Beat sang “Fri?” (Free?), and the Austrian Simone sang “Keine Mauern mehr” (No More Walls). The latter did not even win the national final. The winning duo, Duett, was disqualified because it turned out that the song had already participated in a German national final.  The show started in a peculiar way. Spain was allowed to open, but after the intro, the ladies of the duo Azucar Moreno walked off angrily. The backing track had been started incorrectly. The ladies had to start over. The uptempo number by the Icelandic duo Stjórnin also stood out. It achieved a fourth place. Honking cars drove down the streets in Iceland as if the country had won. Joëlle Ursull represented France with a song by Serge Gainsbourg: “The White and Black Blues”. There was cheerful drumming on oil drums. Ursull came second, but had to share that place with the Irishman Liam Reilly. Seated at the piano, he sang “Somewhere in Europe”. And we do not want to leave Tajči unmentioned. She was a sort of Yugoslavian Marilyn Monroe, who managed to score quite nicely with the cheerful “Hajde da ludujemo”.  Toto Cutugno But Italy’s European song, “Insieme: 1992”, won. The singer, Toto Cutugno, was certainly no stranger. His biggest hit across Europe was “L’Italiano”. He finished high at the San Remo festival several times. In 1990 he did not win, but the numbers one and two were not interested in participating in Eurovision. When he won, all sorts of things happened. Champagne was poured over his head, causing the black dye to start dripping from his hair. That was very visible because he was wearing a white jacket. Someone in a black jacket quickly rushed over to solve this problem. Out of enthusiasm, Cutugno crawled into the audience during the encore, followed by a whole horde of journalists. For the public, the whole thing was not really safe. But Cutugno hadn’t noticed any of that, he said later. 1991 The entire 1991 Eurovision Song Contest can be summed up by one word: chaos. It started with the venue itself. The contest was supposed to be held in San Remo, but after the outbreak of the Gulf War, that proved not to be safe enough. It became Cinecittà, the studio in Rome where the spaghetti westerns were filmed. The set looked mostly like a collection of props that hadn’t been put away. The Italian broadcaster RAI decided to invite the two former winners, Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, as hosts. While Gigliola tried to keep things on track a little bit, Toto Cutugno was mainly an unguided missile. He didn’t listen, talked over jury chairmen, and started talking about something completely different at unexpected moments. At the end of the evening, scrutineer Frank Naef, usually an eloquent man, sat behind his table, turned red with annoyance. The songs Thomas Forstner returned for Austria. He had been successful in 1989, so he hoped to finish in the top 10 once again. It was quite disappointing: no one had points for him. The group Just4Fun from Norway included former Bobbysock Hanne Krogh and former Icy member Eirikur Hauksson from Iceland. Stefan Hilmarsson participated for Iceland itself; he was one half of the duo Beathoven. Malta was back! Not having participated since 1975, the duo Georgina & Paul Giordimaina was back. Surprisingly, their ballad “Could It Be” finished sixth. That was Malta’s best score ever up to that point. The Israeli Duo Datz also stood out, particularly with their typical Israeli dance. Sergio Dalma from Spain lived up to his reputation as a crooner with a fourth-place finish. And then there was Atlantis 2000 from Germany. They had bypassed the televoter and let a panel of a thousand people choose the song. Not a good idea, as it turned out. Singer and face of the group, Hermann Weindorff, sang so badly that his solos were distributed among the other group members to salvage what could still be salvaged. The group Clouseau, wildly popular in Belgium, also failed to do well, despite an Italian newspaper labeling them as the big favorites. The Belgians received no support from the Netherlands, where the group was also very popular. The Netherlands had to withdraw due to a remembrance day. And then there was Greece. Sophia Vossou’s song “I Anixi” featured a saxophone solo. Unfortunately, the young saxophonist from the orchestra was replaced at the last minute by an older gentleman. He couldn’t manage to get his fingers on the saxophone at the right moment. The sax solo went completely wrong. Carola At the end of the show, there were two winners. France and Sweden had the same number of points. The countries also received 12 points equally often, but Sweden received 10 more frequently. Sweden therefore won in the end. France had scored well with a singer from Tunisia. That was clearly audible. The song contained many Arabic influences. Singer Amina knew how to capitalize on her participation. Her song “Le dernier qui à parlé” became an international hit. But it was Carola, also

Read More »
April 12, 2026 No Comments
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