Rotterdam, the Netherlands was going to host Eurovision 2020, but…
The Netherlands won the right to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2020 following the win of Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade” in Tel Aviv, Israel. Rotterdam Ahoy was selected to host 41 competing countries and guests from around the world for the event. The semi-finals were scheduled to take place Tuesday, May 12 and Thursday, May 14. The Grand Final of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest was to be held Saturday, May 16.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, brought about by a novel coronavirus discovered in late 2019, the European Broadcasting Union announced on March 17, 2020 that the Eurovision Song Contest would be cancelled. It was further decided that the songs selected for 2020 would not be eligible to compete in the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, scheduled for May 2021.
Selection Season
Participating Countries
Participants selected their entries via several different methods:
- Internal Selection: The broadcaster selected the act and the song.
- National Final: The broadcaster held a one-off competition to determine their act and song.
- Festival: The broadcaster held a slightly longer competition, usually with one or two semi-finals and a grand final. Sometimes the competition took place over the course of a week (Italy’s Sanremo or Albania’s Festivali i Këngës) or over a couple of weekends (Portugal’s Festival da Cancão or Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin).
- Selection Series: The broadcaster held a long-form competition to determine their artist and song, usually with multiple rounds of winnowing down options.
- Hybrid: A broadcaster may use one method to determine their artist and another method to select their song.
First Semi-Final
Eurovision Song Contest 2020 First Semi-Final
| Country | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Montaigne | Don’t Break Me |
| Azerbaijan | Efendi | Cleopatra |
| Belarus | VAL | Да вiдна (Da Vidna) |
| Belgium | Hooverphonic | Release Me |
| Croatia | Damir Kedžo | Divlji vjetre (Wild winds) |
| Cyprus | Sandro Nicolas | Running |
| Ireland | Lesley Roy | Story of My Life |
| Israel | Eden Alene | Feker Libi |
| Lithuania | The Roop | On Fire |
| Malta | Destiny | All of My Love |
| North Macedonia | Vasil Garvanliev | YOU |
| Norway | Ulrikke | Attention |
| Romania | Roxen | Alcohol You |
| Russia | Little Big | UNO |
| Slovenia | Ana Soklič | Voda |
| Sweden | The Mamas | Move |
| Ukraine | Go_A | Solovey |
Second Semi-Final
Eurovision Song Contest 2020 Second Semi-Final Participants
| Country | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|
| Albania | Arilena Ara | Fall from the Sky |
| Armenia | Athena Manoukian | Chains on You |
| Austria | Vincent Bueno | Alive |
| Bulgaria | VICTORIA | Tears Getting Sober |
| Czech Republic | Benny Cristo | Kemama |
| Denmark | Ben & Tan | YES |
| Estonia | Uku Suviste | What Love Is |
| Finland | Aksel | Looking Back |
| Georgia | Tornike Kipiani | Take Me As I Am |
| Greece | Stefania | SUPERG!RL |
| Iceland | Daði & Gagnamagnið | Think About Things |
| Latvia | Samanta Tina | Still Breathing |
| Moldova | Natalia Gordienko | Prison |
| Poland | Alicja | Empires |
| Portugal | Elisa | Medo de Sentir |
| San Marino | Senhit | FREAKY! |
| Serbia | Hurricane | Hasta la Vista |
| Switzerland | Gjon’s Tears | Répondez-moi |
Automatic Qualifiers
Eurovision Song Contest 2020 Grand Final Participants
| Country | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|
| France | Tom Leeb | Mon Alliée (The Best in Me) |
| Germany | Ben Dolic | Violent Thing |
| Italy | Diodato | Fai Rumore |
| Netherlands | Jeangu Macrooy | Grow |
| Spain | Blas Cantó | Universo |
| United Kingdom | James Newman | My Last Breath |
#78: Remedial Dance Party
We're in the eye of the Eurovision Selection Season storm thanks to a light TV schedule this weekend. Time to practice the "I'm a Little Tempest in a Teapot"...
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#79: Songageddon 2020
Somehow we managed to be verbal after mainlining hours upon hours of Eurovision content this past weekend. It's Songageddon 2020!
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#80: This is Fine
We made it through the end of Eurovision Selection Season! Well, the competitions in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Portugal, at least.
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#81: WHY ARE WE YELLING?
We finish up our initial evaluations of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest entries with the last nine songs to drop in March.
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Special Edition: Well…
No news is good news. This news is bad news. Eurovision 2020 has been canceled. Now what?
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#77: Anarchy in the NRK
The Eurovision 2020 songlist has hit double digits after this past weekend as we encounter internal selections and national final results.
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