When you tune into the Eurovision Song Contest, you know what to expect: cheesy tunes, outrageous costumes and extravagant staging. Put simply, the competition is the antithesis of subtlety. This is essential to its appeal for viewers – it’s unlikely anyone would watch if every song was a solemn musical ballad.
The nature of its internationalism is perhaps the only element of the competition that is taken seriously, and this manifested itself in this year’s edition with the UK receiving a whopping nul points. Whether this was down to the stinging aftermath of Brexit or our lacklustre performance, or a combination of both, it was sadly deserved. Singer James Newman gave it his all but the song ‘Embers’ signified the dying flame of the UK’s Eurovision journey.
The UK is far from the only country to be awarded zero points – Belgium was first given the honour in 1962, while the most recent countries were Austria and Germany in 2015. However, given that the change to the voting system in 2016 means it is almost impossible to be given zero points, this rejection was pointedly done and the whiff of Brexit was strong in the air.
It was Italy that triumphed with their song ‘Zitti en buono’ by the rock band Måneskin, beating runners-up France and Switzerland. But the real winners of the show were the organisers and staff that put the show together in Rotterdam’s Ahoy arena with a live audience of 3500. Much focus was rightly given to their efforts in executing the trial event, which surprisingly only faced one hurdle with a member of Iceland’s delegation testing positive for coronavirus. This meant that Iceland’s rehearsal performance was shown instead, as they were isolated in a hotel room.
Arguably the most remarkable performance was San Marino’s act Senhit with their song ‘Adrenalina’ which featured US rapper Flo Rida. You will recognise him from hit songs such as ‘Low’, ‘Whistle’ and ‘Wild Ones’, and now his apparent soft spot for a country with a population of 34,000. It is random and inexplicable surprises like this that make Eurovision what it is – a melting pot of wonderful weirdness.
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