Italy has won the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Zitti E Buoni’. Our Belgian entry Hooverphonic could not convince the viewers: it only ended 19th with the song ‘The wrong place’.
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Rock can score at the Eurovision Song Contest, as the Italian band Måneskin proved. With the delicious glam rock song ‘Zitti E Buoni’ they mainly convinced the televoting audience. The singer’s tough but androgynous look, the juicy Italian lyrics (‘Parrrla!’) And the flashy red-white-black aesthetic (reminiscent of The White Stripes) were clearly appreciated.
France finished in second place, with the song ‘Voilà’ by Barbara Pravi (499 points). The podium is completed by Switzerland, with the song ‘Tout l’univers’ by Gjon’s Tears (432 points).
– Switzerland was in the lead after the jury’s points. Photo: EPA-EFE
The professional juries had put Switzerland in first place (with 267 points), followed by France (248 points) and Malta (208 points). However, the public gave the most points to Italy (318), Ukraine (267 points) and France (251 points), so that Italy took the overall victory at the end.
The United Kingdom received zero points from both the public and the professional jury. The Netherlands is also disappointing: Jeangu Macrooy only managed to collect eleven points for ‘Birth of a new age’. The Belgian public mainly gave points to France (12), Ukraine (10) and Italy (8).
Italy wins the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time. The last time was in 1990, with the song ‘Insieme’: 1992 by Toto Cutugno. In recent years, Italy has been on the rise at the festival, with Mahmood taking second place at the previous Eurovision Song Contest with his song ‘Soldi’.
Belgium is disappointing
Hooverphonic could not convince the audience at home. The group from Sint-Niklaas was fourth of 26 countries in the final and such an early place is always a disadvantage. ‘The wrong place’ was well received by the professional jury, which gave Belgium 71 points, which meant that Belgium just finished in the first half of the table. But the public barely gave our country 3 points, so that the group around Alex Callier, Geike Arnaert and Raymond Geerts finished 19th on 26 finalists. Before the final, Alex Callier had expressed the ambition to reach the top 5. So that did not work.
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Photo: EPA-EFE
As a real group with a rather dark, mysterious act, Hooverphonic was an outsider at the Eurovision Song Contest anyway, between many eighties disco songs (Israel, Greece), ecstatic pop (Cyprus, Malta, San Marino), dramatic ballads (France, Switzerland), hard rock (Italy, Finland) and hilarious acts (Ukraine, Iceland, Germany). Geike sang perfectly and it looked beautiful and stylish, but the act was not noticeable enough to convince.
Corona at the festival
The 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, after the Netherlands won the song contest two years ago. Duncan Laurence was not allowed to bring his winning song ‘Arcade’ live in the final this year, because he tested positive for corona this week.
Iceland was also unable to perform live in this final after a corona infection of one of the members of Daði og Gagnamagnið. Instead, a rehearsal video was shown as the band watched from the hotel. Iceland eventually finished fourth, ahead of Ukraine with their frenzied spring ritual.
In the Ahoy Arena, 3,500 spectators, who had to submit a negative corona test in advance, attended the final live.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 will take place in Italy. Then it is the turn of the RTBF to send an entry for Belgium.
Watch a clip of Italy’s winning song in the first semifinal
Watch Hooverphonic’s performance in the final
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