History Recap / EurovisionSongContest2021

** And {{Inverted}} by Music/LittleBig, who ''declined'' a chance to participate after being selected for 2020 on grounds that a new group should get a chance this time around.

** Israel's Eden Alene received ire from some viewers (especially after qualifying) because of the then-newsworthy conflict unfolding in Gaza between Israel and Palestine in the weeks before and during Eurovision--[[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment and that's all we'll say about it here]].

** Subverted, by and large, with the United Kingdom's embarrassing dual "nil points." Seeing as the song was not only completely passed over by the juries, but also alongside three other less controversial countries in the televote, it was pretty obvious that the usual "Europe hates us because of Brexit" argument wasn't going to work (not that that wasn't tried by the usual pundits) and that the issue came down to not having the right song/staging for so competitive a year as 2021.

* HolyHalo: At the end of Ukraine's performance, the dancers raised their ''Film/{{Tron}}''-esque ring lights behind the head of vocalist Kateryna Pavlenko of Music/GoA, giving her the appearance of a halo.

** When Kateryna Pavlenko, lead singer of Ukraine's Go_A, had a health scare the morning before their second rehearsals, stand-in singer[[note]]Stand-in singers are a number of local singers who help the crew with the technical rehearsals before the acts arrive in the host country, essentially covering the songs on stage[[/note]] Emmie Van Stijn subbed for her temporarily - and the band themselves praised her for doing a really good job, despite singing a complicated song in a language she didn't know. The band invited Emmie to sit with them in the green room during the semi-final as a thank you for her help.

* HolyHalo: At the end of Ukraine's performance, the dancers raised their ''Film/{{Tron}}''-esque ring lights behind the head of vocalist Kateryna Pavlenko of Go_A, giving her the appearance of a halo.

** One of the reason for allowing pre-recorded background vocals was to reduce the number of people travelling in each delegation, to limit the risk of a COVID-19 infection. Many countries just chose to add more dancers instead, rendering this reason void.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: Croatia was only five points shy of qualifying from the first semifinal.

* {{Adorkable}}: Switzerland's Gjon's Tears, full stop.

** ZigZagged by other Anglophone songs that include a line or two in the competing country's national language, like Israel or the Czech Republic, making it technically not "gratuitous".

** After VAL, the band selected to represent Belarus in 2020, openly supported protests against allegations of fraud surrounding the August 2020 elections that reelected long-time strongman Alexander Lukashenko, their national broadcaster BTRC announced that VAL would not be returning in 2021 because they had "no conscience". Another band, Galasy [=ZMesta=], was selected instead, and immediately came under fire because their song "Ya nauchu tebya" ("I'll Teach You") was interpreted as being openly mocking the same protests. The EBU, invoking the "no politics" rule, asked the BTRC to submit a new song, but when their new submission, "Pesnyu pro zaytsa" ("Song About Hares"), was likewise found in violation of the rule ("hare" being a pejorative slang for gay men in Belarus), to say nothing of the emergence of the band's pro-Lukashenko stance and its history of transphobic and homophobic remarks, Belarus was disqualified from the 2021 contest, and a week after the contest, BTRC was slapped with an indefinite suspension following global outrage over the arrest of opposition figure Roman Protasevich and continued crackdown on independent media.

** While three of the Big Five had a pretty miserable year, two nations stood out for taking ''top spots'':

* GracefulLoser: The four acts that received zero points in the televote were all extremely good sports about their results.

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: A brief skit in the Grand Final hasNikkie showing the audience the backstage, before being distracted by a worker carrying the Eurovision trophy in front of her.

** The Grand Final's "Rock the Roof" interval act features a medley of past Eurovision winners from various rooftops across Rotterdam--"Heroes" by Music/MansZelmerlow of Sweden (Vienna 2015), "Ding-a-Dong" by Teach-In of the Netherlands (Stockholm 1975), "J'aime la vie" by Sandra Kim of Belgium (Bergen 1986), "De Troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr of the Netherlands (co-winner, Madrid 1969), "My Number One" by Music/HelenaPaparizou of Greece (Kyiv 2005), and "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Music/{{Lordi}} of Finland (Athens 2006).

* ColorMotif: A ''lot'' of acts this year chose to go with vaguely neon 80s-inspired stage shows. Samira Efendi of Azerbaijan, Albina Grčić of Croatia, Fyr & Flamme, Denmark, Stefania Liberakakis of Greece, Eden Alene of Israel, Music/TheRoop of Lithuania, Music/DestinyChukunyere of Malta, Natalia Gordienko of Moldova, and Rafał Brozowski of Poland all prominently included pink, purple and/or blue in their backdrops.
* CurbStompBattle: Not overall, but the very low televote marks announced for most of the countries on the lower half of the jury rankings (including four straight ''nul points'' for the UK, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands) was an early indication that the televote was absolutely dominated by a handful of countries--and it very much was, as there were a very clear eight or nine songs (pretty much everything from ninth-placed Russia upward) that scored with the vast majority of televotes. In particular, the televote's top three--Italy, Ukraine, and France--were the only countries to earn televote points from every other country except themselves, and fourth-placed Finland only missed out on Georgia's.

* {{Keet}}: Jendrik (Germany) is very happy to be there, ''and it shows''. Vaidotas from Music/TheRoop (Lithuania) is a more restrained example.

* SequelSong: Iceland's "Ten Years" by [[Music/DadiFreyr Dadi & Gagnamagnið]] is an outright sequel to their would-be 2020 entry and viral hit "Think About Things".

* EpicFail: For the second consecutive year, the United Kingdom (represented by James Newman) languished at the very bottom of the standings. Worse still, they also suffered their first ''nul points'' since Jemini in Riga 2003, and as if to add insult to injury, they also had the dubious honour of being the very first country to blank out with both juries ''and'' televotes in the split results era, a feat in itself given that splitting both votes was seen as significantly reducing the risk of earning ''nul points'', and it is of little consolation that Jendrik Sigwart of Germany, [[Music/{{Auryn}} Blas Cantó]] of Spain, and Jeangu Macrooy of host Netherlands also failed to get any televote points (the first time ''four'' countries received ''nul points'', at least from one voting segment), because at least they had jury points to somewhat ease the pain (respectively, three, six, and eleven).

* PregnantBadass: Árný Fjóla of Gagnamagnið (Iceland) was pregnant with her and Music/DadiFreyr's second child when they performed on stage.

* SequelSong: Iceland's "Ten Years" by Music/DadiFreyr is an outright sequel to their would-be 2020 entry and viral hit "Think About Things".

** Iceland's Music/DadiFreyr and his band Gagnamagnið was long considered a favourite dating all the way back to their prospective 2020 entry and viral hit "Think About Things", until bandmate Jóhann Sigurður tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the band to stay in a hotel while footage from their rehearsal was played in place of a live performance. Nevertheless, their song, "10 Years", earned fourth overall (fifth with juries and televotes), its best finish since Yohanna placed second behind Norway's Music/AlexanderRybak in Moscow 2009.

** After VAL, the band selected to represent Belarus in 2020, openly supported protests against allegations of fraud surrounding the August 2020 elections that reelected long-time strongman Alexander Lukashenko, their national broadcaster BTRC announced that VAL would not be returning in 2021 because they had "no conscience". Another band, Galasy [=ZMesta=], was selected instead, and immediately came under fire because their song "Ya nauchu tebya" ("I'll Teach You") was interpreted as being openly mocking the same protests. The EBU, invoking the "no politics" rule, asked the BTRC to submit a new song, but when their new submission, "Pesnyu pro zaytsa" ("Song About Hares"), was likewise found in violation of the rule ("hare" being a pejorative slang for homosexuals in Belarus), to say nothing of the emergence of the band's pro-Lukashenko stance and its history of transphobic and homophobic remarks, Belarus was disqualified from the 2021 contest, and a week after the contest, national broadcaster BTRC was slapped with an indefinite suspension following global outrage over the arrest of opposition figure Roman Protasevich and continued crackdown on independent media.

** North Macedonia's singer, Vasil Garvanliev, was investigated by national broadcaster MRT when a shot of his song's music video appeared to include a Bulgarian flag (actually an unrelated artwork), generating dispute due to the rocky relationship between both nations. Vasil himself received personal attacks when he confirmed that he holds Bulgarian citizenship through his grandmother, though thankfully he was later cleared by the investigation and the video was edited to remove the controversial shot.

** Latvia's Samanta Tīna and Russia's Manizha were the focus of controversy from national conservative audiences for their feminist-themed songs (and in the latter case, for being an ethnic Tajik immigrated to Russia as a refugee).

* AscendedExtra: As usual, some acts previously participated as backup vocalists or were otherwise involved with the contest before getting the full ticket:
** Ksenija Knežević (one-third of Serbia's Hurricane), Vincent Bueno and Vasil Garvanliev previously sang backup for Montenegro in Vienna 2015, Austria in Kyiv 2017 and North Macedonia in Tel Aviv 2019, respectively.
** Music/DestinyChukunyere of Malta won the 2015 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Sofia, and she sang backup to Michela in Tel Aviv 2019 as well.
** Greece's Stefania Liberakakis previously participated in the 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Valletta as a member of the girl band Kisses representing the Netherlands.
** Barbara Pravi of France co-wrote the French entries in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Gliwice 2019 and Warsaw 2020, the latter of which won the trophy.

* TheBusCameBack: The second semifinal features three returning artists. Amazingly, all three of them qualified for the final.
** Music/{{Senhit}} of San Marino returns after going as far as the semifinals in Düsseldorf 2011.
** Sanja Vučić flies again the Serbian flag after Stockholm 2016, this time as a member of the trio Hurricane.
** Natalia Gordienko, who represented Moldova in Athens 2006 alongside Arsenium, returns as a solo act.

** Senhit's postcard included a video of her performance from the 2011 contest, while Samanta Tina's featured clips from all of her national final attempts prior to making it to the contest at last. Destiny's postcard includes a clip from her Junior Eurovision 2015 appearance as well.

* ColorMotif: A ''lot'' of acts this year chose to go with vaguely neon 80s-inspired stage shows. Azerbaijan, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova and Poland all prominently included pink, purple and/or blue in their backdrops.
* CurbStompBattle: Not overall, but the very low televote marks announced for most of the countries on the lower half of the jury rankings was an early indication that the televote was absolutely dominated by a handful of countries--and it very much was, as there were a very clear eight or nine songs (pretty much everything from ninth-placed Russia upward) that scored with the vast majority of televotes. In particular, the televote's top three--Italy, Ukraine, and France--were the only countries to earn points from every other country except themselves, and fourth-placed Blind Channel of Finland only missed out on Georgia's.

* EpicFail: For the second consecutive year, the United Kingdom (represented by James Newman) languished at the very bottom of the standings. Worse still, they also suffered their first ''nul points'' since Jemini in Riga 2003, and as if to add insult to injury, they also had the dubious honour of being the very first country to blank out with both juries ''and'' televotes in the split results era, a feat in itself given that splitting both votes was seen as significantly reducing the risk of earning ''nul points'', and it is of little consolation that Jendrik Sigwart of Germany, Blas Cantó of Spain, and Jeangu Macrooy of host Netherlands also failed to get any televote points (the first time ''four'' countries received ''nul points'', at least from one voting segment), because at least they had jury points to somewhat ease the pain (respectively, three, six, and eleven).
* GracefulLoser: The four acts that received zero points in the televote were all extremely good sports about their results.

* GuestFighter: As is normally the case at Eurovision, several countries are represented by acts that ''aren't'' from them, as the EBU does not have nationality-based restrictions on entrants (any that may exist are purely at the discretion of national broadcasters):

*** Finland's Blind Channel represented rock, a genre seldom heard at Eurovision; come the final, they scored sixth, their very best finish to date since Music/{{Lordi}} won Athens 2006, and tying Marion Rung from all the way back in Luxembourg 1973 for best non-winning finish.

** Iceland's Music/DadiFreyr and his band Gagnamagnið was long considered a favourite dating all the way back to their prospective 2020 appearance, until bandmate Jóhann Sigurður tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the band to stay in a hotel while footage from their rehearsal was played in place of a live performance. Nevertheless, their song, "10 Years", earned fourth overall (fifth with juries and televotes), its best finish since Yohanna placed second behind Norway's Music/AlexanderRybak in Moscow 2009.

** And {{Inverted}} by LittleBig, who ''declined'' a chance to participate after being selected for 2020 on grounds that a new group should get a chance this time around.