More than 183 million viewers around the world followed Eurovision 2021. The average screen share in the countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU, the international organization of public broadcasters that coordinates the festival) was 40.5%, double than the average during prime time for the group of stations that make up the UER.
More than four million viewers (29.4% share) followed the final in Spain.
The data overthrows any prejudice that Eurovision is an outdated and uninteresting event: the contest is more alive than ever and has been able to adapt to the new times naturally.
We review all the basic information to enjoy the 66th edition of the European song festival, which celebrates its end this Saturday in Turin (Italy).
More information
Analysis of the 40 songs of Eurovision 2022: "Beautiful", "a horror"
Where and when to watch Eurovision?
In Spain, La 1 will broadcast the final live this Saturday from 9:00 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time).
Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela will be the commentators of the event for the fourth time.
In addition to following it on television, an extra recommendation for the night is to keep an eye on Twitter, because Eurovision is a real party on the web, where tweeters unleash their creativity and ingenuity.
In fact, it is one of the events about which the most tweets are published each year, with Spain as one of the countries with the most activity.
In EL PAÍS we will also follow the gala live from 7:00 p.m. to analyze and comment on what it gives of itself.
More information
Video |
Do political interests decide who wins Eurovision?
Who is competing and what will be the order of performance in the final?
25 countries will meet in the final, 20 from the two semifinals on Tuesday and Thursday and the five countries of the so-called
Big Five
(Spain, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy), which qualify directly.
This year, Russia has been eliminated from the competition for the invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland, Armenia, Iceland, Lithuania, Portugal, Norway, Greece, Ukraine, Moldova and the Netherlands qualified for the first semi-final.
In the second, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Australia, Sweden, Romania and Serbia passed.
This will be the order of action in the final, with Spain in 10th place:
Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Finland, Switzerland, France, Norway, Armenia, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Moldova, Sweden, Australia, United Kingdom, Poland, Serbia and Estonian.
What is the
Big Five
and why is Spain in it?
It is the term by which the five countries that make the greatest economic contribution to the EBU are popularly known: France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Being the ones that pay the most, they have the privilege of directly accessing the final without having to go through the semifinals.
The idea of this group arose in 1996, when Germany was left out of the final and its absence caused a major economic problem in the organization, so it was decided that the countries that contribute the most money to all the activities of the EBU have a place insured.
Will there be changes due to the pandemic?
After the cancellation of the festival in 2020 for the first time in its history, Eurovision has introduced some changes to ensure its celebration.
This year's delivery will include anticovid measures such as PCR and antigen tests every 72 hours, safety distance, use of masks... Of course, the full capacity returns.
However, they have only allowed a third of the press that usually covers the contest in person to be accredited.
And because of the war in Ukraine?
Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the executive board of the EBU announced that the participation of the Russian delegation in the festival was banned, despite the fact that shortly before it had defended its presence.
In a statement they explained that they were based on the rules of the festival and the values of the EBU for it.
Russia's involvement would "discredit competition," even though the body describes itself as an "apolitical" organization dedicated to "protecting the values of a cultural competition that promotes sharing and understanding," that "celebrates diversity through of music” and that “unites Europe on the same stage”.
The situation in Ukraine has made their representatives favorites, according to bookmakers, to win the festival,
Kalush Orchestra, representing Ukraine, during the first semifinal of Eurovision.
DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press)
Besides Ukraine, what other countries sound like to win?
The bookmakers are quite reliable when it comes to guiding themselves in the days leading up to the festival and having an idea of where the shots will go in the high places.
It's been a long time since we said this, but according to this reference Spain could finish at the top of the table, even in the top five.
The predictable popular support for Ukraine (and that its proposal, which combines folklore and rap, was already popular before the Russian invasion began) makes the group Kalush Orchestra take first place in bookmakers.
According to Eurovision World, the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden are the other countries that would be ahead of Spain in terms of winning.
Apparently in the rehearsals, in the buzz that comes from Turin the United Kingdom sound strongly, with the theme
Space Man
by singer Sam Ryder, a phenomenon on social networks, and Italy, the hosts, with Mahmood and Blanco and the song
Brividi
.
In addition to playing at home and being a phenomenon in his country, Mahmood already came second in Eurovision in 2019.
Who is Chanel, the representative of Spain this year?
Chanel Terrero (Havana, Cuba, 31 years old) is a singer, dancer and actress who has been working on series and musicals for years.
When she was three years old, she moved to Olesa de Montserrat (Barcelona), where she grew up.
She has participated in musicals such as
The Lion King, The Bodyguard
and
Flashdance
, she has acted in series such as
El secreto de Puente Viejo, El Continental
or
Gym Tony
and she was part of the dance group of
Tu cara me sonido.
She won in January at the Benidorm Fest, beating the favorites Rigoberta Bandini and Tanxugueiras in a vote that reached the Congress and in which she had great support from the professional jury.
The song that she will defend, with a great choreographic presence, is called
SloMo
and has been composed by Leroy Sánchez, Keith Harris, Ibere Fortes, Maggie Szabos and Arjen Thone.
What
eurodrama
has been unleashed in this edition?
Eurovision is full of
eurodramas
.
This year one arrived even before the festival started.
One of the great bets of Italy on the stage of the Pala Alpitour, the old Olympic stadium in Turin, was a large semicircular structure that recreated the movements and light of a kinetic sun in the central part of the stage and that would move during the performances .
In it, the delegations could project images from various points of view.
However, a few days before the celebration of the festival, the organizers recognized that this part of the scenery, made up of seven concentric arches, was not rotating as fast as desired and will remain static.
That has become a big problem for some delegations,
that they had that support in their staging and that now they find themselves with a tome that even hides part of their original scenery.
Spain is not affected.
Why is Australia participating in Eurovision?
It has already become a classic.
Since 2015, when it was invited to the 60th anniversary of Eurovision, the oceanic country is one more in the festival.
Eurovision has been broadcast in the antipodes since 1983 and there it is a phenomenon of audiences despite being broadcast at dawn.
Except in 2018, they have always managed to reach the final, and usually get good places.
Of course, if it won, it would not be able to host the festival and would have to choose any broadcaster from the member countries of the EBU to host it instead.
Other countries that do not belong to Europe also participate and have participated in Eurovision.
Members of the EBU can do so, included within the European Broadcasting Area, which not only includes Europe, but also part of Saudi Arabia and countries bordering the Mediterranean.
How is the voting system?
The most exciting section of the Eurovision final is the one in which the results of the voting are revealed.
The points system has been the same for years, with 50% votes from the professional jury, 50% votes from the public.
But in 2016 the way of advertising changed so that the winner cannot be known until the last moment.
The points of the jury are those announced by the spokesperson of each country (in the case of Spain, it will once again be the presenter Nieves Álvarez), who only reads the name of the country to which it grants the 12 points.
Once this first round ends, the points of the popular vote are added up in a figure that collects the points of all the countries at the same time for each song.
Since 2019, the televote is revealed according to the order of the resulting classification in the voting round of the professional jury.
Namely,
the one who has obtained the last position, will first know his votes from the public, whether they are many or few.
As the criteria of the professional jury and that of the public at home are usually very different, this system always holds surprises and big changes in the classification.
The popular vote can be exercised by phone calls, SMS or through the official application (at the same cost as an SMS).
[
This piece corresponds to one of the shipments of the weekly newsletter of EL PAÍS Television, which comes out every Thursday.
If you want to subscribe, you can
via this link
].