“Isn’t it just one night in May?” is a question fans receive every year, here’s the truth behind it all.
In this article, we’ll explain the basics of the Eurovision Song Contest and how it isn’t just one night in May. Starting off at the official beginning of the Eurovision season months in September before the final and culminating in the Grand Final.
September 1
September 1 is the date that a song must not have been commercially released before to be eligible to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. It marks the official start of the Eurovision Song Contest selection season.
National Selection Season (December-March)
This is, after the main shows, the most exciting part of each Eurovision season. Each country, represented by its public broadcaster, sends an artist to perform a specific song in May. There are different methods to select the act:
National Final: Both the artist and the song are selected by the audience and jury. Some selections can be just one night others like Sweden’s Melodifestivalen or Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix go on for six weeks or more.
Eurovision artists participating this year thanks to winning their national finals include Barbara Pravi from France, Tusse from Sweden or The Roop from Lithuania.
Internal Selection: Both the artist and the song are selected internally by the public broadcaster. Usually, the artist is revealed some weeks before releasing the song. Eurovision artists participating in this year’s contest thanks to being internally selected include Elena Tsagrinou from Cyprus, Rafal from Poland, and the majority of the 2020 Eurovision contestants.
National Final for the Song: In some cases, even if the artist has been chosen by the public broadcaster, the song can still be decided by the audience. Some songs that won their national finals this year are “Voy a Quedarme” from Spain, “Growing up is getting old” from Bulgaria, or “Set me free” from Israel.
Pre-party Season
In order to promote their songs, some Eurovision artists will go on a European tour, and they perform together at some special Eurovision parties, being the most famous ones Amsterdam, London, Tel Aviv, and Madrid.
Since the breakout of the covid-19 pandemic, Eurovision parties have been cancelled. However, some of them have gone digital, for example, the ES-Preparty. In addition, new Eurovision parties have been created within the covid era, such as our own Concert in the Dark.
Rehearsals
Most probably, at the time you are reading this, the artists participating in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest are rehearsing for their performances.
During this period, you can find several snippets from the live performances. Rehearsals commence two weeks before the Grand Final and see each country given two individual rehearsals, the first 40 minutes long and the second 20 minutes long. After this, they will take part in three dress rehearsals before each live show.
Eurovision Live Shows
The most exciting part. Each year, with the exception of 2021, the countries are allocated in January into two different semifinals. This year, the first semifinal (May 18) sees 16 participating countries, whereas the second semifinal (May 20) sees 17.
Six countries do not need to compete in the Semi-Finals for a place in the Grand Final. They are the host nation of the contest, this year this is the Netherlands, plus the Big Five. The Big Five are the five broadcasters that make the largest financial contribution to the European Broadcasting Union and have a large viewing audience.
10 countries will qualify from each semifinal, making a total of 26 finalists.
In the Grand Final, all the twenty-six acts will take to the stage one final time. The tension builds and then the moment that many viewers will just tune in for the voting.
First, the votes from each national jury will be presented by the spokespersons of the respective countries, with 12 points to the favourite song, 10 to the second one, and then 8 to 1 to the rest of their top 10. After all the juries votes have been given, the points from the audience will come in.
The presenters will start giving the televoting points to the song that came last in the jury voting and then going up until reaching the juries’ favourite. In 2019 for example, Norway, who came 18th in the jury vote, won the televoting, which after the combination of the points gave Keiino a 6th place overall.
The winner will be the country with the biggest amount of points after the combination of both the juries and the televoting. The rules of the contests state that the winning country will be the one hosting Eurovision the year after.
The day after the final it starts all over again, with a broadcaster beginning preparations for the next Eurovision Song Contest. The circus continues as cities express interest in hosting the competition and countries begin announcing selection plans.
Credit Image: NPO/NOS/AVROTROS-Nathan Reinds
