It’s back on song
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2021: SEMI-FINALS BBC4, 8pm
LOVE it or loathe it, you definitely can’t ignore it…. the Eurovision Song Contest is the biggest music competition in the world and one of the mostwatched events.
More than 182 million people tuned in to the 2019 event in Tel Aviv – and with last year’s competition cancelled due to Covid, this return is hugely-anticipated.
On Saturday, Rotterdam in the Netherlands will play host, while of course our expert Graham Norton will be commentating for us Brits. But first, it’s the small matter of the semi-finals, broadcast live tonight and at the same time on Thursday.
Rylan Clark-Neal, Scott Mills and Chelcee Grimes host as the first group of countries competes for a place in the Grand Final. The 16 countries taking part tonight are Lithuania, Slovenia, Russia, Sweden, Australia, North Macedonia, Ireland, Cyprus, Norway, Croatia, Belgium, Israel, Romania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Malta. Opening the show is the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence, the most recent winner of Eurovision from 2019.
Since then, his winning song Arcade has become a TikTok phenomenon, and earlier this year it was even back in the UK and US charts.
Watch out also for one of the bookies’ favourites Destiny, who is representing Malta.
Also appearing is a Russian rapper who is also a women’s rights activist, a Ukrainian electro-folklore outfit, and a Cypriot act whose song El Diablo has faced protests from some of the country’s devout Christian community.