Eurovision 2021 Grand Final: All performances

Portugal – The Black Mamba – Love Is On My Side

A film noir setting for The Black Mamba. We get to see the singer also dressed in black with his white hat on, singing his blues, one hand in his pocket. The camera grabs the lead singer multiple times, but he looks right past the camera many times, not really connecting. In the backdrop, when things have changed to color, we see an orchestra with a conductor displayed in the backdrop. Classy.

After the chorus blue colors appear. The second chorus starts with yellow lights from behind and an animated character walks a yellow lanterned bridge in the perpendicular LED screen above the catwalk as the singer walks that one too towards the mid stage. This animation can lift the song or conflict with the rest of the staging. It’s up to each persons opinion. Near the end of the song the lead singer grabs his electric guitar and plays a solo at the front the catwalk, with a camera closing up on the guitar.

Serbia – Hurricane – Hurricane

Red light night club vibes from Serbia. The outfits of the girls are black with glitters. Red lights dominate the act, but some subtle blue from the Serbian flag is visible as well. The association with the Russian trio Serebro (2007) comes to mind.

Hurricane takes the main stage by storm doing their sexy (hair) choreography. The three singers appear in front of white squares each in there own frame, the words “loco loco” and “baby baby” are projected a lot, black on white. The girls are far apart at the beginning, filmed in solo body shots alternating between the three. Serbia uses this camera work in combination with wideshots for variety. Pyro during the first chorus.

The running low-stage pan shot in the second verse makes this performance visually unique compared to the others. The girls walk the catwalk for the final chorus. In this part, they dance closer together and are filmed in one shot, too. Vocals are much better than you would expect from a club song like this.

United Kingdom – James Newman – Embers

Two white big prop trumpets on stage, hanging in the air next to James. He is standing on a black pedestal wearing a black long leather jacket. He has four backing in white suits and trumpets with him on stage. Merely a red/white light setting, towards the end more colors are added. The trumpets come down, as James dances with the gang. He does make a good connection to the cameras. Not much going on in the performance besides the trumpet players standing around James.

Greece – Stefania – Last Dance

Stage director Fokas Evagelinos has created a performance in which a backdrop green screen plays an important part. Purple is the main color of the backdrop. She starts alone on stage, however there are 2 (and later 4) backing dancers projected onto the screen. They wear white suits and it appears as though they do the same dance routine as Stefania.

Right before the first chorus, there is a flipped camera shot with Stefania singing and the green room/arena behind her. In the second verse, Stefania plays with the projections in a Måns Zelmerlöw/Sergey Lazarev kind of way. She even climbs the stairs and sings upside down. Later in the performance, the projected dancers even “lift her up”. Stefania is a professional, her vocals are good and she looks comfortable playing with the projections. This could help with jurors, while televoters might wonder why Stefania is climbing a skyline.

Switzerland – Gjon’s Tears – Tout l’Univers

There is a white object where Gjon is standing on. Mainly a black and white scenery. Dark purple colors. The singer does a lot of modern dance hand moves and we get to see many close ups. He has an almost black/dark purple shirt with silver lines. The stroboscope lightings and strong drums . In general Gjon comes across uncomfortable doing his dance moves.

 Iceland – Daði og Gagnamagnið – 10 Years

The backdrop is purple/yellow colored boxes but then in a computer game style. Daði and his five companions wear the infamous turquoise sweaters and perform their silly dance routine. Three bandmembers have a banana shaped keyboard around the neck.

The first camera shot is semi-close, we see and one other band member. After that, high stage pans show the rest of the group. Iceland also uses a handheld shot of a cameraman walking the stage past all the band members during the second verse. During the second chorus three of the band members (including Daði) move on to the catwalk. The other three stay behind to piece together their banana instruments to make one circle. The pieces are connected to each other through magnets. This is a reference to Ovi & Paula from Romania. Many computer game characters in turquoise outfits appear on the screen like an audience. Then, the instrumental break has a wind machine, a fully dark stage and a nice close-up shot of Daði. The act ends with a 15 seconds silent pose like a ‘game over’ still.

Spain – Blas Cantó – Voy A Quedarme

In a dark starry night setting Blas sings the first lines of his song a-capella. After the first chorus, an inexplicable beat has been added to the composition. During the song we see a sun-corona in the backdrop. At the final minute, there is a big prop sun hanging at the ceiling while Blas walks the catwalk. He does not look comfortable with the cameras and vocals are a bit insecure.

Moldova – Natalia Gordienko – Sugar

The Moldovan team has decided to keep its performance rather modest – or at least not as cheesy/slutty as some have feared. Natalia is wearing a silver dress. She is standing on a moving centerpiece, accompanied by backing dancers. The choreography is very slick and fitting to the song. Vocally, Moldova cleverly uses the rule to have backing vocals on tape. The act breaths ‘Shady lady’ vibes. The backdrop displays silver and pink lines around black squares, and the squares are moving quickly, creating an effect as if the stage is moving around Natalia and her dancers.

Opening pose: the backing dancers form a kind of human chair, that Natalia sits on. She stands up after the verse, performs choreography during the first instrumental part. The high use of front-of-stage camera shots is working really well, but the Moldovans also mix in a few stage pans and wide shots for variety and energy. Natalia sings the chorus standing still, she only dances at the instrumental parts. Camera shots a combination of full stage pans and full body shots. At the bridge, Natalia walks across the centerpiece prop as if it were a treadmill. The dancers leave the prop for the final high note, leaving Natalia alone, and then the dancers drop dead next to her for the final camera shot.

Germany – Jendrik – I Don’t Feel Hate

The act looks like a comic strip. Black and white texts alternate with the colors of the holi-powder of the videoclip which reproduced in the backgrounds and mostly in the floor. Jendrik wears a pink short sleeved jacket with black shirt, bright blue pants, white sneakers. He opens the song in front of a large projected blue door on the backdrop. His ukulele is silver. The big hand with middle finger is on stage sometimes playing the trumpet sometimes showing the peace sign or middle finger. Also there are three other female backings in white clothing with bright red, yellow or orange accents all playing instruments.

The ‘mittlefinger’ is running around and lip-syncs the man’s low voice on the backing tape. The group follows Jendrik to the mid stage right after the tapdancing. On the catwalk Jendrik does his outro talk, even working in some Dutch words it, before ending the show with his entire team on that catwalk. Jendrik does a lot of dancing in the routine, leaving him out of breath at some points.

 Finland – Blind Channel – Dark Side

The guys from Blind Channel rock the stage in red and blue colored scene a lot alike their national final performance, including the backdrop where someone hangs upside down. There is a good chemistry between to two lead singers/rappers. Energetic jumping and pyrotechnical flames.

Bulgaria – Victoria – Growing Up Is Getting Old

Sitting crossed legged on a slope, which seems to be a quay or ship, the floor is a water projection. Victoria sings her song with emotion. She starts introverted, but later on looks in the camera often. The camera films her from the side for over half a minute. In the front we see sand falling as in a time glass. Then Victoria looks mainly at a picture on the floor, it’s a portrait of her father. Victoria touches the sand falling then starts climbing the slope. Yellow beams pointing up and orange lit dried ice on the floor. Her jumpsuit is soft blue, the hair is orange. A capella ending close up of her face, rest of the stage and shot is dark, and she has her hands around microphone folded hands.

Lithuania – The Roop – Discoteque

Eurovision starts off festive with The Roop dressed in banana yellow outfits. We see mainly purple backdrops and some white effects. In the first verse, camera direction is working with silhouettes against a white square when focusing on the lead singer. Split screen effects are visible as well. At the first chorus, we see wide shots from right opposite the stage showing the entire group dancing.

The Roop’s performs a slightly weird dance routine. Hand choreography combined with eccentric moves. At times a lot of wide shots are used, making The Roop looking a bit lost on the huge stage. However, this is compensated in the second half of the song with a couple of close-ups of the lead singer flirting with the camera.

During the break before the last chorus, the dance becomes more robotic. In close up the lead singer scissors his fingers in various ways, then ‘grasps’ the camera as if making a selfie of himself and his group while they walk along the edge of the stage.

Ukraine – Go_A – Shum

In the scenery of a white winter/leafless forest created by props, the lead singer stands almost the entire song as a green feathered bird singing her song. There are two musicians and two extra dancers on stage, all dressed in white. The flute player sits in what looks like a birds nest.

Performance starts with a long close-up of the lead singer. Then, the rest of the stage is revealed via a front-of-stage shot. The dancers carry a circle-light and they perform a sort of courtship during what seems to represent sunrise. Wide shots used during the first instrumental break. After that, we see a diagonal split screen and the color changes to Ukrainian flag blue and more stroboscopic lights. The two dancers now step to the front of the stage for the second chorus.

At the large instrumental break before the music is speeding up, the two dancers are filmed close-up at the side of the stage, holding flashing gold boxes filled with powder in front of them. Then a multitude of screens appear on the background and animated men start running. End pose is a still of Katerina Pavlenko with a halo (the circle light switched off) against an evening sun background.

France – Barbara Pravi – Voilà

A classic ‘film noir’ setting. A single white spotlight on Barbara Pravi who is alone on stage behind a microphone pole. Lots of sideways close-up camera shots. In an almost black and white staging with subtle soft purple/white light beams or bright light spots behind her. Halfway through the song, animated white pigeons are flying around the singer in a camera shot from above. From the second chorus until the end, France uses a single shot, deliberately shaky and almost waltzing handheld camera position close-up to Barbara Pravi as she does her enthusiastic hand gestures.

Azerbaijan – Efendi – Mata Hari

Azerbaijan brings a colorful act to the stage: turquoise, gold and purple. Many oriental ornaments, symbols and off course flames in the projections on backdrop and floor. A big golden bulb in the backdrop, in which a double headed cobra is projected behind. Efendi is wearing a black short dress, her four dancers wear also black outfits revealing a lot of skin.

Dancers pose in silhouettes and perform a simple dance routine. When they line up behind Efendi together they perform an oriental arm choreography like the Indian goddess Durga. Towards the end the lighting becomes more and more intense and an ‘evil eye’ is projected in the background. Camera work is a nice mix of front-of-stage, dark close-ups and wide shots including the audience/green room. Vocals are solid, though the song is not difficult to sing either.

Norway – TIX – Fallen Angel

TIX stands on his box with his angel wings lit from behind. His four backing vocalists/dancers are dressed as dark angels and the five of them are locked together through chains and shackles.

The opening shot is head-to-toe on TIX only. We see his wings, his headband, and his white pimp suit. As well as his shackles. However we do not yet see the black angels yet. During the prechorus, the camera shifts to a full stage shot, but the black angels are still in the dark. They become visible during the first chorus.

Soft blue and white are the colors to start with, later on purple and yellow skies with clouds and occasional lightning. Heavy use of a fogger to create cloud of dried ice. Basically the concept of act is a copy of their national final.

The Netherlands – Jeangu – Birth of a New Age

Starting of with a close-up of Jeangu, then zooming out to show side shots of his two dancers/backings. The scenery is dark/blue with thunderlights background. Jeangu wearing a bright blue jacket with a latex tank top underneath. He shows of his bellybutton.

One backing dancer dances in a modern style, the same way Waylon’s crump dancers did. It’s being filmed in close-up, with Jeangu standing unsharp behind the krump dancer. Impressive camera angle. In the backdrop the Suriname language title is translated; “You can’t break me”. Halfway the song Jeangu and his dancers move to the catwalk and dance synchronic while the screens explode with happy colors. Towards the end the song is very festive. The group of four ends on the small stage in a very confident end pose.