Just a few hours ago, we got the official news from the European Broadcasting Union that this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is cancelled due to COVID-19. Yes, this is probably the worst nightmare for Eurovision fans. Not having Eurovision 2020. While we appreciate EBU’s decision to put health first, we had hoped and were expecting it to be a TV-show event rather than cancelling it totally…
EFENDI (Aka Samira Efendi) – Azerbaijan
Diodato – Italy
Uku Suviste – Estonia
It is also worth mentioning that there is a number of artists who planned to participate in Eurovision, but never had the chance to participate until now. They are: Athena Manoukian (Armenia) – she tried to be in JESC from Greek side; Vincent Bueno (Austria) – he tried it in 2016 from Austrian side; Ben Dolic – he tried to represent Slovenia with a band in 2016; The Roop (Lithuania) – the band participated in 2018 selection and became 3rd; as well as Ulrikke (Norway) – who also participated in Melodi Grand Prix 2017.
Nevertheless, there are also artists who participated in Eurovision previously. And it’s still a question mark if they will participate in Eurovision for 2021… These are artists such as SuperG!rl Stefania – who represented the Netherlands in JESC; Destiny – the Maltese JESC Winner 2015; Natalia Gordienko – who participated in ESC for Moldova with Arsenium; Vasil, who was the backing singer for Tamara Todevska last year; Senhit – who also represented San Marino in 2011; as well as the beautiful Mamas, who was the backing singers for John Lundvik last year.
All in all, it is like a nightmare knowing all the artists will be thrown aside without giving any opportunity to show their performances to all of Europe. Perhaps EBU can come up with an alternative this year, that still gives Europe a chance to experience the music of all the selected artists without compromising on the health and safety of everyone involved. Let the music win!