Italy wins Eurovision Songcontest, the Netherlands places 23rd

Italy came in first place at the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam last night with their hit Zitti e Buoni by Maneskin. The Netherlands placed 23rd in the ranking with Birth of a New Age by Jeangu Macrooy.

Nearly 5.5 million viewers tuned in to watch in the Netherlands, the most viewers in 19 years, the ANP reported.

Greece, presented by the singer Stefania who was born in Utrecht finished tenth together with Bulgaria.

The mood in the Rotterdam Ahoy was festive as one fan described to NOS, “Everyone has their flags, fancy dresses and especially, glitter. The atmosphere is happy and relaxed. People feel they are the lucky ones.”

The performance took place as part of a Fieldlab experiment. The 3,500 people in the live audience all had to present negative coronavirus tests before attending the show.

The winner, Italy, received a total of 524 points, 206 from the jury and 318 from television viewers. France came in second with 499 pints and Switzerland third with 432 points.

Stoplicht aangepast🔥🤟🏻🎸#ESC2021 #italy 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/pYy34urFhn

— Henrik-Willem H⭕️fs (@HWHofs) May 22, 2021

The first three points for the Netherlands came from the Austrian jury. Afterwards, the Netherlands had to wait for 20 countries to announce their verdict before more points were awarded to them.

In total, the Netherlands won eleven points from the international juries, but did not receive much support from the public.

Surprsingly Belgium did not award the Netherlands any points, while the other way around the Netherlands gave six points to their neighbor, Belgium.

The United Kingdom came in last at the Eurovision finale 2021. No points were awarded to the Brits by the jury or viewers.

Dutch singer and winner of the Eurovision 2019, Duncan Laurance, was unable to perform live at the Rotterdam Ahoy due to testing positive for the coronavirus a few days earlier.