OzFrog

And today we had a surprise drop from Belarus - this is already causing controversy as this group is known to be strongly sympathetic to the oppressive Lukashenko regime. Indeed the 2020 entrants VAL were removed from contention for 2021 after having voiced public support for the Belarusian opposition during their election protests. Anyway, here’s the song...

And tonight Russia chose their song in a 1-hour 3-song mini national final...

I’m definitely hearing a difference in vocal styles with the female vocalists. We must have different hearing then 🤷‍♂️ And this I agree with you on. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea (and nor should it be), it does have a distinctive style to it, and is one you can easily get lost in.

And we now have San Marino landing on our doorstep, with an appearance by none other than *Flo Rida*...

As I was saying to alphanguy above, I’m enjoying the actual diversity of the songs on offer this year. In fact I have Denmark, Estonia and Italy all in my Top 10 at the moment. And remember, for every song that we might not like, someone will definitely love. Music taste is not absolute 😉

And another couple of incredible choices from national finals tonight. Portugal have for the first time ever chosen a totally English-language song to represent them, and Italy selected a heavy-rock band in their Sanremo contest! Portugal... And Italy...

We’ve have two more entries decided via national finals tonight (Estonia and Denmark), with another two still going (Italy and Portugal)! Estonia... Denmark...

And that’s the beauty of Eurovision - the diversity that is on offer. I guarantee that for every female vocalist you don’t like, there will be many people who do like them. Everyone’s tastes are different, and that’s exactly what should be celebrated. There is no one correct way to sing 😉

And here’s Serbia... And before I forget, my home country of Australia...

Here are the videos for Moldova and the Netherlands (official video for Netherlands is not out until next week):

Also, it was confirmed in the last couple of days that most/all acts will perform live in Rotterdam, with the audience size yet to be confirmed, according to articles and interviews done with the producers and supervisors at the EBU and Dutch broadcasters.

So much happening today, with a number of internal songs being released! Here’s what we have so far today: Belgium (Hooverphonic): Romania (Roxen): There’s more to come in the next few hours... Netherlands (Jeangu Macroy), Australia (Montaigne), and Moldova (Natalia Gordienko). Stay tuned!

Here’s the official video for Albania (I’ve also updated on the main post): Melodifestivalen is quite bizarre this year, probably because of the lack of live audience. Their weekly hosts though have been absolutely hilarious - Lena Philipsson and Pernilla Wahlgren especially, both Swedish pop icons in their own right. The betting odds currently have Tusse winning the whole thing, with Eric Saade, Dotter and The Mamas close behind. I wish that Sweden had just done an internal selection with The Mamas this year, but alas SVT don’t want to sacrifice their Melfest cash cow (it’s seriously Sweden’s highest rating program every year, even higher than Eurovision itself). Also, the mountainous adventure that is Sanremo started last night... 5 consecutive nights of 5 hours each to pick an entry for Italy 🇮🇹.

Albania 🇦🇱 will release a revamp of Karma tomorrow night at 20.00 CET. It has not been unusual for Albania to do this with their entries in the last number of years, especially as a number of their songs from their national final will generally be longer than the required 3 minutes.

Slovenia has tonight chosen the gospel-inspired song Amen for Ana Soklic to sing in Rotterdam... And Cyprus has also put the video for El Diablo on Youtube...

Thanks @Huntress! I’ve added Ireland to the main post. Slovenia 🇸🇮‘s song is being chosen tonight for Ana Soklic through their EMA show. It also marks the 60th anniversary of Yugoslavia’s first involvement with Eurovision (their first year was 1962), which of course Slovenia was a part of until 1991. Also 55 years ago, Yugoslavia sent their first song in Slovene (prior entries up to that point had been either Serbian, Croatian or Bosnian). Big news - Little Big have been reconfirmed for Russia 🇷🇺. Song will most likely come out closer to the submission deadline date. Next week, starting Tuesday, it’s San Remo for Italy 🇮🇹, every night up to Saturday when the winner is announced. And in between now and March 15 (Head of Delegations meeting), we still have 28 songs to reveal. This is going to be an action packed 2 weeks coming up for Eurovision 2021 songs...

Why? I actually think it’s a great song with a great message. In fact, its my #2 behind France at the moment. It’s a shame the way Jendrik is being treated at the moment (he’s already started receiving quite hateful DMs on Instagram, which no artist should be subjected to). Everyone’s music tastes are different, and everyone has the right to like/dislike a song, but taking it out on the artist is just plain wrong. He is someone who is absolutely rapt to be representing Germany, and was chosen fairly and squarely by an international jury and a panel of 100 German fans. I absolutely admire his attitude and have loved him since his intro video a few weeks ago. Many people still seem to be upset that Ben Dolic didn’t represent Germany again this year, however according to Jendrik, it was Ben’s decision to walk away from the selection final. So the treatment he is getting is quite unfair.

My Top 3 at the moment are France, Finland and Norway. There are more internal songs coming out this week...

As well as Norway and Finland (which @Huntress helpfully posted above 🙏), Spain also chose their song last night. In a 2.5 hour show dedicated to Blas Canto and his career, he showcased the two songs up for Spanish selection, and the Spanish voters went with “Voy a querdarme”...

No, because it would absolutely bomb at the contest itself, and we’ve seen what happens to ESC-themed novelty songs in the past in Eurovision (eg. Scooch and Dustin The Turkey).

A NYT reporter tweeting about a WSJ article about the LA Times... You really cannot get any more meta than that... 😏

What is wrong with the USA?

After what seems like an eternity, the UK have finally reconfirmed their 2020 artist James Newman for this year’s contest in Rotterdam. Song is expected in March...