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Posted: 2021-05-23 04:12:47

If you haven't watched the grand final of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest yet, now is your time to stop reading this article, because there are many spoilers ahead.

So very many.

*LAST SPOILER WARNING*

OK, now that that's out of the way we can get to the good stuff.

Even though the favourite going into the whole thing — Måneskin —  won Eurovision 2021 in the end, there was still plenty to keep viewers entertained on the way there.

From Italy's delightfully over-the-top post-event reactions to Flo Rida's appearance, here's how the night unfolded — including the things you may have missed at the time. 

Italy won – and they certainly celebrated

Måneskin brought the roof down at the Rotterdam Ahoy arena, with the 3,500-strong crowd going wild after their performance of rock entry Zitti E Buoni.

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Play Video. Duration: 1 minute 44 seconds
Måneskin frontman Damiano David made headlines with his performance at the winners' press conference. (Photo: AP: Peter Dejong)

They were in range of the leaders, France and Switzerland, after the jury vote, and then scored an incredible 316 points from the public televote to give them the victory with 524 points.

There was a dramatic finale when France could only manage a total of 499 points, and then Switzerland, the last country to be called, fell 92 points short.

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Lead singer Damiano David enjoyed his moment of victory, yelling: “We just want to say to the whole Europe, to the whole world – rock ’n’ roll will never die!”

He then split his pants on stage after over-exerting himself.

David then turned up at the winners' press conference, showing off more than a little skin and spraying champagne all over his band mates.

There, he was asked to share advice for young people who "defy stereotypes in gender and also outdated norms in society".

"Keep being who you are … if you always stay authentic to who you are, the achievements are gonna come," David responded. 

Måneskin's win means next year’s Eurovision will be held in Italy.

Double zero a Euro-shocker for the UK

The United Kingdom has had some tough moments at Eurovision in recent years, with the country last winning the contest in 1997.

But James Newman’s song Embers received an unwanted Eurovision first, receiving not a single point from either the professional juries or televoters.

A bearded singer is hugged by a man in a pink jacket in the backstage area at the Eurovision Song Contest.
It was a rough night for some of the "Big Five" countries, with Germany's Jendrik (left) and the UK's James Newman (right) getting no love from the voting public. (

AP: Peter Dejong

)

He wasn’t alone in getting bad news from televoters.

Of the so-called “Big Five” nations — Italy, France, Germany, the UK and Spain — who automatically qualify for the final, the latter three failed to score from the public.

Of course, the top two nations at the contest were the other two Big Five members, with Italy winning and France second.

Germany’s entrant, Jendrik, came forward to give Newman a hug after his votes were announced, before receiving the bad news himself.

The UK’s overall score makes them the 37th country to receive “nul points” since the contest began in 1956.

Iceland gave douze points to Jaja Ding Dong

The Icelandic competitors were stuck on the sidelines after a positive COVID-19 result in the band forced them to isolate in the hotel rather than attend the contest. They phoned in via a tablet affixed to a pillow wearing a band jumper that sat in the vacated space among the bandmates.

A group sit on a couch posing excitedly at the camera. Among them are two tablets on video call resting on pillows.
This is the second time in a row the Icelandic competitors have not performed live on stage at the grand finals.(

Supplied: Eurovision

)

It must have been heartbreaking to come so close to performing at the grand finals, only to be barred from the opportunity at the last minute.

But Daði & Gagnamagnið frontman Daði Freyr didn't seem too disappointed with the results going by his post-final tweet: "4th place! I like!"

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It's the second time the Icelandic representatives have had their dreams of performing on the Eurovision stage dashed. The group were due to perform in the 2020 contest (before it was cancelled) with Think About Things, which subsequently went viral.

Iceland's Eurovision entry has pulled out of live shows
Iceland's Daði & Gagnamagnið went for a very familiar vibe with their 2021 song.

However the show-stealing moment for Iceland this time around came not from their performance — which had much in common with last year's — but the delivery of the country's jury votes.

An iconic character from the Eurovision movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, which starred Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, made an appearance on screen as countries took it in turns to announce their votes.

When it came to the big-ticket 12 point allocation, movie character Olaf Yohansson took to the screen in his fisherman's jumper with a total disregard for the glitz and excitement of the night, and announced Iceland's points had been awarded to Jaja Ding Dong, the Icelandic song he fervently supports in the film.

Greece's green screen 

Stefania had one of the most *interesting* performances thanks to the special effects road Greece decided to go down.

Her four backing dancers donned green suits for the act, with white suit jackets and caps over the top. The result was a surreal group of mostly-invisible men.

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Stefania's green screen-heavy performance somehow involved zero gaffes.(Photo: AP: Peter Dejong)

SBS hosts Joel Creasey said one of the green men hit a camera operator during the rehearsals, likely because of their vision-obscuring green suit.

Given this, and the fact that one part of this performance called for Stefania to lean back onto a green man standing on a set of stairs, without looking, while wearing heels *and* singing at the same time, it's impressive Greece's act was gaffe-free!

The same cannot be said for all of this year's performances, however…

Moldova's Natalia Gordienko dropped her mic mid-song  

An unfortunate case of overly vigorous dancing befell the Moldovan contestant Natalia Gordienko after the singer dropped her microphone during a string of boppy choreographed moves.

But, if it were going to happen at all, it happened at the most opportune moment.

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Moldova's Natalia Gordienko dropped her mic mid-song, and almost got away with it. (Photo: AP: Peter Dejong)

The troupe had just reset after a chorus to enter into a new phase of choreography and were in a tight circle around the vocalist when the mic slipped her fingers.

Luckily, the front dancer's reflexes were on point and they promptly squatted down and picked it back up, missing no more than a beat.

Low singer Flo Rida was randomly there

Flo Rida, who you may remember from his 2007 song Low (apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur) was in Eurovision 2021 as a featured artist on Moldova's song, Adrenalina, for reasons that are still very unclear.

Flo Rida told the BBC earlier this year he had never heard of Eurovision before being approached to do his verse for Senhit's song.

A woman and a man walk down a blue-lit stage together singing into microphones
Flo Rida admitted he'd never heard of Eurovision before being approached to participate in the San Marino entry.(

AP: Peter Dejong

)

"Senhit's people reached out to my people. The song is high energy, which I love," he told Radio 1 Newsbeat earlier this year.

He wasn't wrong about the high energy part. The performance started off with Senhit — who calls herself the Freaky Queen — looking fierce in a gold headdress, only for another costume underneath to be revealed mere moments later. Perhaps the headdress was too heavy?

A spinning platform, ever-changing backdrop and some dramatic lifts later and Flo Rida appeared on the stage wearing a bedazzled vest and jorts and started rapping: "Step in the party, 'cause she know to do my body like hot coals / Gasoline, kerosene, stop, drop, roll / I can't blame it on the stove / 911 when she comin' down the pole."

The stuff of Eurovision dreams.

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