Eurovision holds ‘Shine a Light’ program after contest cancellation
A LIVE program was organized in The Netherlands on May 16 ( May 17 in Manila) to honor the competitors of this year’s cancelled annual Eurovision Song Contest.
On the night of the contest’s supposed grand finals, “Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light” streamed from Studio 21 at the Media Park in Hilversum, hosted by Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit.
All 41 songs from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest were featured- including “Alive” from Filipino- Austrian
singer Vincent Bueno who was supposed represent Austria — along with video messages.
“Man, we all miss each other and we want to hug each other,” Bueno said in his. “We should stay at home, we should really obey our laws, at the same time, we should listen to a lot of music, especially my track, ‘Alive’, to feel alive again.”
Bueno is one of the entrants who have been confirmed in next year’s event.
Previous winners including Marija Šerifović from Serbia, and Israeli winners Netta Barzilai and Gali Atari also gave performances from their home countries among others.
A highlight was last year’s winner from The Netherlands, Duncan Laurence, debuting his new single, “Someone Else.”
Multiple landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower in France, the Matterhorn in Switzerland and even the Sydney Opera House in Australia, were lit during the segment “Europe Shine a Landmark” as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra performed.
The show concluded with all but one of the Eurovision Song Contest participants remotely singing the 1997 Contest winning song, “Love Shine a Light,” originally by Katrina and the Waves.
It was also announced that Rotterdam, the Dutch city that was supposed to host the contest this year, will be next year’s host city again.
This year was the first time a Eurovision Song Contest, an annual music competition since 1956, was cancelled. Forty- one countries were supposed to participate.