The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was set to host the , before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters (NPO), (NOS) and AVROTROS, the contest was held at Rotterdam Ahoy, and consisted of two semi-finals on 18 and 20 May, and a final on 22 May 2021. The three live shows were presented by Dutch television presenters and singers Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit, and Dutch YouTube personality and make-up artist Nikkie de Jager.
Thirty-nine countries participated in the contest, of which twenty-six re-entered the artists chosen for 2020 (albeit with different songs, as per the contest's rules). and returned after their absence from the 2019 contest, while and did not return after their participation in the 2019 edition. and had originally planned to participate, but Armenia withdrew due to its social and political crises following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and Belarus was disqualified after submitting entries in violation of the rules twice, and not providing an eligible entry before the deadline.
The winner was with the song "", performed by Måneskin and written by the band's members Damiano David, Ethan Torchio, Thomas Raggi and Victoria De Angelis. , , and rounded out the top five, with France and Switzerland achieving their best results since and respectively. Italy won the combined vote and televote, but placed fourth in the jury vote after Switzerland, France, and . Italy was the second member of the "Big Five" since its introduction to win the contest after in . For the first time since , none of the top three entries were performed in English, with France and Switzerland performing in French, and Italy in Italian.
Also, for the first time since the current voting system was implemented in , more than one country received no points from the televote in the final; these countries were , , the host country the , and the , the last of those becoming the first country to receive no points from both the jury and televote. It was the second time that the United Kingdom had received no points in the contest, the last time having been in . For the first time since its debut in 2015, failed to qualify for the final, making Ukraine the only country that has never failed to qualify from the semi-finals since their introduction in .
The EBU reported that the contest had an audience of 183 million viewers in 36 European markets, an increase of a million viewers from the previous edition, with an increase of seven percent in the 15–24 year old age range.
Location
The 2021 contest was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the 2019 edition with the song "Arcade", performed by Duncan Laurence. It was the fifth time that the Netherlands had hosted the contest, having previously done so in , , and . The selected venue was the 16,400-seat Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam Ahoy, a convention centre and multi-purpose indoor arena located on Ahoyweg, which serves as a venue for many events, including concerts, exhibitions, trade fairs, and conferences. Rotterdam Ahoy had previously hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007, and was set to host the 2020 contest before its cancellation. The "Turquoise Carpet" event, where the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place at the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal on 16 May 2021.
Host city selection
By Eurovision tradition, the Netherlands received the right to host the Eurovision Song Contest after the country won the competition in 2019. The Dutch host broadcasters NPO, NOS and AVROTROS launched the bidding process in the same month on 29 May, in which five citiesArnhem, 's-Hertogenbosch, Maastricht, Rotterdam, and Utrechtsubmitted their bid books during a ceremonial event held in Hilversum on 10 July 2019. On 16 July, Maastricht and Rotterdam were shortlisted, and after the NPO visited both cities, on 30 August 2019, Rotterdam was announced as the host city of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.