This week the 66th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest took place in Turin, Italy, following the country’s victory at the 2021 contest with the song Zitti e buoni by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), the contest was held at the PalaOlimpico, and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and a final on 14 May 2022. The three live shows were presented by Italian television presenter Alessandro Cattelan, Italian singer Laura Pausini and Lebanese-born British-French singer Mika.
Forty countries participated in the contest, with Armenia and Montenegro returning after their absence from the previous edition. Russia had originally planned to participate, but was excluded due to its invasion of Ukraine.
The winner was Ukraine with the song Stefania, performed by Kalush Orchestra and written by the group’s members Ihor Didenchuk, Oleh Psiuk, Tymofii Muzychuk and Vitalii Duzhyk, along with Ivan Klymenko. The United Kingdom finished in second place for a record-extending sixteenth time, also achieving its best result since 1998. Spain, Sweden and Serbia rounded out the top five, with Spain achieving its best result since 1995. Ukraine won the televote with 439 points, the most received in the contest’s history to date, and came fourth in the jury vote behind the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain. “Stefania” is the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian and the first song with hip-hop elements to win the contest.
The EBU reported that the contest had a television audience of 161 million viewers in 34 European markets, a decrease of 22 million viewers from the previous edition, however, it is noted that this is due to the exclusion of Russia and the lack of audience figures from Ukraine, with the overall figures up by 7 million viewers in a comparable market from 2021. An increase of three per cent in the 15–24 year old age range was also reported. A total of 18 million viewers watched the contest online on YouTube and TikTok.
S10 will represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin next year. Broadcaster AVROTROS announced this on Tuesday afternoon via social media.
“I almost explode with happiness at the idea that I can participate in the Eurovision Song Contest this year,” S10, full name Stien den Hollander, said in an initial response. It has not yet been announced which song she will travel to the Italian city with. In recent years, AVROTROS first announced an artist and followed with the presentation of the song in March.
Eric van Stade, general manager of AVROTROS, says on behalf of the selection committee that the S10 song “shows courage and authenticity”. Van Stade reports that S10 will perform her song in Dutch. For the first time since 2010, when Sieneke represented the Netherlands, a Dutch participant will sing in their own language.
Cornald Maas, commentator at the Eurovision Song Contest and part of the selection committee, says that the entire committee was “overwhelmed” by S10’s song. “You are immediately taken into the story she tells, both lyrically and with the composition. It is a really strong song that we have chosen.”
The 21-year-old singer and rapper, who told her team that she wanted to take a shot at the Eurovision Song Contest ticket, has two albums and two EPs to her name. In 2019 she released the album Snowsniper and Vlinders followed a year later. With Adem Je In she scored her biggest hit to date earlier this year. She has released the song both solo and together with rappers Frenna and Kevin. S10 has been under contract with the record label Noah’s Ark since 2018.
S10 takes over from singer Jeangu Macrooy, who finished 23rd last May. It is the first time since Trijntje Oosterhuis’s participation in 2015 that a solo singer has been sent to the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the Netherlands.
Because the Italian band Maneskin won in Rotterdam, the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in an Italian city. The semi-finals will be held in Turin on May 10 and 12 and the final will take place in the same city on Saturday, May 14.
The Netherlands is not the first country to announce a candidate for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Belgium previously announced that it would send singer Jérémie Makiese and Bulgaria presented its entry Intention from Intelligent Music Project last weekend.
This week the 65th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country’s win at the 2019 contest with the song Arcade by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was set to host the 2020 contest, before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters Nederlandse Publieke Omroep(NPO), Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) and AVROTROS, the contest was held at Rotterdam Ahoy, and consisted of two semi-finals on 18 and 20 May, and a final on 22 May 2021. The three live shows were presented by Dutch television presenters and singers Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit, and Dutch YouTuber and make-up artist Nikkie de Jager.
Thirty-nine countries participated in the contest, of which twenty-six re-entered the artists chosen for 2020 (albeit with different songs, as per the contest’s rules). Bulgaria and Ukraine returned after their absence from the 2019 contest, while Hungary and Montenegro did not return after their participation in the 2019 edition. Armenia and Belarus had originally planned to participate, but Armenia withdrew due to its social and political crises following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and Belarus was disqualified after submitting entries in violation of the rules twice, and not providing an eligible entry before the deadline.
The winner was Italy with the song “Zitti e buoni“, performed by Måneskin and written by the band’s members Damiano David, Ethan Torchio, Thomas Raggi and Victoria De Angelis. France, Switzerland, Iceland and Ukraine rounded out the top five, with France and Switzerland achieving their best results since 1991 and 1993 respectively. Italy won the combined vote and televote, but placed fourth in the jury vote after Switzerland, France, and Malta. Italy was the second member of the “Big Five” since its introduction to win the contest after Germany in 2010. For the first time since 1995, none of the top three entries were performed in English, with France and Switzerland performing in French, and Italy in Italian.
Also, for the first time since the current voting system was implemented in 2016, more than one country received no points from the televote in the final; these countries were Germany, Spain, the host country the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, the last of those becoming the first country to receive no points from both the jury and televote. It was the second time that the United Kingdom had received no points in the contest, the last time having been in 2003. For the first time since its debut in 2015, Australia failed to qualify for the final, making Ukraine the only country that has never failed to qualify from the semi-finals since their introduction in 2004.
The EBU reported that the contest had an audience of 183 million viewers in 36 European markets, an increase of a million viewers from the previous edition, with an increase of seven percent in the 15–24 year old age range.
For this year, delegations were given the option to use pre-recorded backing vocals. Each delegation could still choose to use backing singers, whether on or off stage, or a combination of live and recorded backing vocals. All lead vocals performing the melody of the song must still be live, according to the rules. As a measure to guarantee that all participants could take part in the contest, every national broadcaster were required to create a ‘live-on-tape’ backup recording prior to the contest, which could be used if a participant was unable to travel to Rotterdam, or subjected to quarantine on arrival. The recordings took place in a studio setting, in real-time (as it would be at the contest) without any edits to the vocals or any part of the performance itself after the recording. A set of production guidelines was also revealed to ensure fairness and the integrity of the recordings.
Other rules for the entries stayed the same in the 2021 contest. This includes that the maximum length for a song is three minutes, that there can be at most six performers on stage, and that the compositions (lyrics and music) must not have been commercially released before 1 September of the year before. Following the cancellation of the 2020 contest, the EBU explored the option of allowing the songs selected for the 2020 contest to compete in the 2021 contest, which needed to be discussed with the Eurovision Song Contest reference group and the national broadcasters. Victoria, Bulgaria’s representative for 2020 and 2021, publicly expressed her support for such a move. However, on 20 March 2020, the reference group decided that, in accordance with the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, the 2020 songs would not be eligible to compete in the 2021 contest.
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