Eurovision Song Contest 2021 First Semi-Final

Belarus was originally scheduled to participate in this semi-final. Their initial entry “Ya nauchu tebya (I’ll Teach You)” by Galasy ZMesta included lyrics with what some referred to as “obvious political subtext” and was rejected by the EBU. After an extension to the submission deadline, the song “Pesnya pro zaytsev (Song about hares)” was also rejected, resulting in disqualification from the 2021 Contest.

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 Second Semi-Final Participants

Armenia was initially scheduled to participate in this semi-final. In late 2020, conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region escalated. While a ceasefire agreement was reached in December, political instability continued in Armenia, including a coup attempt in February 2021. The Armenia Eurovision account tweeted on March 5: “After careful and detailed discussions, the @ArmPublicTV decided to withdraw from the @Eurovision 2021, considering the latest events, the shortness of production time as well as other objective reasons that make the proper participation of 🇦🇲 #Armenia at #ESC2021 impossible.”

Since the year 2000, France, Germany, Spain, and United Kingdom have been granted an automatic pass to the Grand Final, thanks to their respective broadcasters providing significant financial support for the Contest. When Italy returned to the competition in 2011, they were also granted this pass. This group is known as the Big Five.

The Netherlands, as the hosting country, is also granted an automatic pass into the Grand Final and will draw its running order assignment prior to the competition.

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 Grand Final Participants

Participant countries will use a variety of method to select their entries for Rotterdam:

• Internal Selection: The broadcaster selects the act and the song.
• National Final: The broadcaster holds a one-off competition to determine their act and song.
• Festival: The broadcaster holds a slightly longer competition, usually with one or two semi-finals and a grand final. Sometimes the competition takes 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 Canção or Estonia’s Eesti Laul).
• Selection Series: The broadcaster holds a long-form competition to determine their artist and song, usually with multiple rounds of winnowing down options. Sweden’s Melodifestivalen (Melfest) is the gold standard.
• Hybrid: A broadcaster may use one method to determine their artist and another method to select their song. Many of the artists selected in 2020 have been invited back to represent their country while the public may have input in what song is selected.

Here is a schedule of upcoming events. Click on individual events for more information and to add to your calendar (times shown US Eastern).