“Rock and roll never dies”: Italy wins Eurovision 2021

By Lauren Wiles

Italian rock band Måneskin win the 65th Eurovision Song Contest with Zitti E Buoni, earning a staggering 524 points.

This year’s Eurovision was one of the most nail-biting finals yet, with less than 100 points between the top three acts; France and Switzerland were very close runners up, scoring 499 and 432 points respectively.

Two years since the last contest – as the previous year’s contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic – the Netherlands were finally able to host the competition at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, with 3,500 people in the audience.

Unfortunately, previous winner Duncan Lawrence was not able to attend the final, as he tested positive for COVID-19. Iceland also was not able to perform due to a band member testing positive. Footage from their rehearsals was used for their performance, for which they earned 378 points.

The 26 acts that performed in the final this year had a variety of different show-stopping performances, from a woman dancing in a peace sign costume to Flo Rida suddenly popping up out of nowhere. The sparkles, glitter and cheesiness are what a classic Eurovision contest is all about.

However, it hasn’t really been a good night for us. The UK ended up last in the final with a grand total of 0 points: the first country to ever receive null points from the Jury and Televote combined with the new voting system. (Hey, at least we were first in that sense.)

Måneskin are the first group to win the competition since 2006 and it is Italy’s third win; the last time they won was 31 years ago in 1990. This means that Italy will host the next contest in May 2022 as in Eurovision tradition.