Countdown to Eurovision 2021!

It's Eurovision season again! It's now a year since the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus. Seems hard to believe it was a year ago! A special event called Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light was held instead.

So, this year's contest will be the 65th edition instead of last year's. It will be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, since in 2019 Duncan Laurence won for Holland with the song Arcade. The Semi-Finals will be held on Tuesday and Thursday, and the Grand Final next Saturday.

James Newman who entered for the UK last year with My Last Breath, will enter for us again, this time with the new song Embers. This sounds like an ok song, I generally prefer dancey ones to ballads (although I like some slow songs. :)

In the first of my two annual Eurovision posts (I've done two for the past few years), I'm linking to previous posts and sharing a couple of new songs from past contestants. Next week I will feature some of the song from this year. :) 

In 2017 I did a round-up of previous Eurovision posts up to 2016. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/05/eurovision-round-up.html

 

And here are the posts since then:

Eurovision- Current Faves and Past Contestant Updates (2017): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/05/eurovision-faves-and-past-contestant.html

Countdown to Eurovision! (2018): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/05/countdown-to-eurovision.html

Selection of Eurovision Songs: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/05/selection-of-eurovision-songs.html

Countdown to Eurovision 2019!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2019.html

Eurovision 2019 Favourites: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-favourites.html

 

Countdown to Eurovision (At Home) 2020!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/countdown-to-eurovision-at-home-2020.html

Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/eurovision-europe-shine-light.html

Past Contestant Updates 

 

Kristian Kostov (2017 Bulgarian entry) and Eleni Foureira (2018 Cyprus entry)

In last year's countdown post I shared updates on Kristian Kostov (Bulgaria's entry for 2017) and Eleni Foureira (the 2018 Cyprus entry). Check that out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/countdown-to-eurovision-at-home-2020.html

You can see Kristian's performance of Beautiful Mess, plus more songs from the 2017 contest here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/05/selection-of-eurovision-songs.html

And Eleni's performance of Fuego in the same post.

 

Last summer I also shared their songs Things I like (Kristan) and Temperatura (Eleni) in my New Music Releases post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-music-releases.html

 

Visit Kris' YouTube channel to see the latest releases from VOSTOK, the audiovisual project he co-created: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4BZzsKR92caJ9qgmq8gM-w

And watch the official visualiser for Δοκίμασέ Με (Dokimase Me), which Eleni released back in December here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul7ZDK4UFts

It's a Greek language song and according to a lyrics translation, it means "Try me" in English.

 

 Hadise (2009 Turkish entry)

Turkish Belgian singer Hadise entered for Turkey with Dum Tek Tek back in 2009! It was one of my favourite entries that year. 

Watch her performance of Dum Tek Tek here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzKgojZqO5Y

I last wrote an update on Hadise in my Countdown to Eurovision 2019! post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2019.html

Her 2020 single  Küçük Bir Yol was also a Weekly Music Video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/10/weekly-music-video_21.html 

Here is Olsun, which is from her latest EP Aşka Kapandım (2021). It came out in February.

 

Turkey hasn't entered for several years but I hope one day they come back! Check out this post for links to my fave past Turkish entries: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2019.html

Dami Im (2016 Australian entry)

Dami entered for Australia in 2016 with The Sound of Silence. (Australia have been able to enter since 2015). She was my favourite and I voted for her, but she lost out to Jamala from Ukraine (my 2nd fave! lol). 

Watch her performance of Sound of Silence here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/05/current-eurovision-acts-nostalgia.html

 

I have written a couple of updates on Dami which you can read below:

Eurovision Faves and Past Contestants: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/05/eurovision-faves-and-past-contestant.html

Countdown to Eurovision 2019!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2019.html

Since then, she has released several singles including Crying Underwater, Paper Dragon and her latest Lonely Cactus.

This is Crying Underwater, released back in September 2019. 

 

 

Watch the video for Lonely Cactus which came out in February, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDrDcgz34x4

Fan of Australia in Eurovision? Check out these posts:

Features Isaiah's Don't Come Easy (2017: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/05/eurovision-faves-and-past-contestant.html

Includes Jessica Mauboy's We Got Love (2018): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2019.html

Keep up with Eurovision news at the official site: https://eurovision.tv/

 

Hope you liked the post! :) What's your all-time favourite Eurovision song? Or do you have several?  Look out for my 2nd Eurovision post next week! :) 

The 1st and 2nd Semi-Finals will be on Tuesday 18th May and Thursday 20th May at 8pm UK time/9pm CEST. The Grand Final will on Saturday 22nd May at 8pm BST/9pm CEST. UK viewers can vote in the 2nd Semi-Final.

In the UK the Semi-Finals will be shown on BBC Four and the Grand Final will be on BBC1.