Eurovision Song Contest 2021
The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the 2019 contest with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was due to host the 2020 contest, before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the fifth time that the Netherlands had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1958, 1970, 1976 and 1980. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO), Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) and AVROTROS, the contest was held at Rotterdam Ahoy and consisted of two semi-finals on 18 and 20 May, and the final on 22 May 2021. The EBU discussed carryovers between the 2020 and 2021 contests, and many participating countries allocated the same artists who were due to represent them in 2020. The three live shows were hosted by Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley, Jan Smit and Nikkie de Jager.
Thirty-nine countries participated in the contest. Bulgaria and Ukraine returned after their absences from the 2019 contest, while Hungary and Montenegro did not return after their 2019 participation. Armenia and Belarus had originally planned to participate, but Armenia later withdrew due to social and political crises following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and Belarus was disqualified after their intended entry was found to be in violation of the contest's rules.
The winner was Italy with the song "Zitti e buoni", performed by Måneskin and written by the band's members Damiano David, Ethan Torchio, Thomas Raggi and Victoria De Angelis. This was Italy's third victory in the contest, following their wins in 1964 and 1990, and making them only the second member of the "Big Five" to win the contest since Germany in 2010. Måneskin's victory also makes them the first band to win the contest since Lordi for Finland in 2006. France, Switzerland, Iceland and Ukraine rounded out the top five, with France and Switzerland achieving their best results since 1991 and 1993 respectively. For the first time since 1995, none of the top three entries were performed in English. Also, for the first time since the current voting system was implemented in 2016, four countries received nul points from the televote: host country the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, the last of those becoming the first country to receive nul points from both the jury and televote. This was also the second time that the United Kingdom had received nul points in the contest, the last time having been in 2003. For the first time since its debut in 2015, Australia failed to qualify for the final, leaving Ukraine as the only country to have never failed to qualify from the semi-finals since their introduction in 2004.[a]