The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest was postponed due to the coronavirus and the EBU rejected the idea of an online broadcast.
By HANNAH BROWNEUROVISION ENTRY Eden Alene, 19, will represent Israel at the Eurovision 2020(photo credit: RONEN AKERMAN)
Pop music lovers and Eden Alene fans can rejoice that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced Wednesday that the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in May 2021 – no matter what is going on with the coronavirus pandemic – through “live-on-tape” recordings.These recordings will be made prior to the event, which is scheduled to run from May 18-22 2021 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and will be used if a participant cannot travel or in what the Eurovision website termed “the unfortunate instance of an artist having to quarantine on site.”The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest was postponed due to the coronavirus and the EBU rejected the idea of an online broadcast. But earlier this year, it was announced that the Eurovision 2021 would “definitely” take place in one of four possible scenarios, and they have chosen to go with a mix of live on tape and live-in-person performances, assuming that these will be possible in May 2021.The EBU said all the participating broadcasters have been asked to record a live performance of their act in their own country. This recording will be delivered before the event and will be made in a studio setting. The recording will take place in real time (as it would be at the contest) without any edits to the vocals or any part of the performance after the recording.The Eurovision website gave details of how the contestants should create the tapes so that they are as uniform as possible. This means that they won’t have the many bells and whistles in terms of lighting and other pyrotechnics that are generally used on Eurovision. The taped performances must be submitted by the end of March.This live on tape directive is good news for Alene, the Israeli singer of Ethiopian descent who has been chosen to represent Israel in the next Eurovision. Alene, 20, who has a beautiful voice, chose a unique song, “Feker Libi” – in Hebrew, Amharic, Arabic and English – to perform. While she looks great with fancy lighting and wearing elaborate costumes, she doesn’t really need them and may even be shown to the best advantage without them.Israelis have often done well at Eurovision. In 2018, Netta Barzilai won, and Israelis have won three other occasions.
