Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

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Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Country  Switzerland
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 20 March 2020
Song: 10 March 2021
Selected entrantGjon's Tears
Selected song"Tout l'univers"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (1st, 291 points)
Final result3rd, 432 points
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2020 • 2021 • 2022►

Switzerland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, having internally selected Gjon's Tears as their representative with the song "Tout l'univers" by the Swiss broadcaster Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). He was due to compete in the 2020 contest with "Répondez-moi" before the event's cancellation.

Background[]

Main article: Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2021 Contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty times since their first entry in 1956.[1] Switzerland is noted for having won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. Their second and, to this point, most recent victory was achieved in 1988 when Canadian singer Céline Dion won the contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi". Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Switzerland had managed to participate in the final four times up to this point. In 2005, the internal selection of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja, performing the song "Cool Vibes", qualified Switzerland to the final where they placed 8th. Due to their successful result in 2005, Switzerland was pre-qualified to compete directly in the final in 2006. Between 2007 and 2010, the nation failed to qualify to the final after a string of internal selections. Since opting to organize a national final from 2011 to 2018, Switzerland has managed to qualify to the final twice. In 2019, following a return to the internal selection method, Switzerland qualified for the final for the first time since 2014, placing 4th in the final with the song "She Got Me" performed by Luca Hänni.

Before Eurovision[]

Internal selection[]

On 20 March 2020, SRG SSR confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, as well as that Gjon's Tears would remain as Switzerland's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.[2][3] Multiple songwriting camps were later held in order to create potential songs for further phases of the selection. 20 songs were written by Gjon's Tears along with Swiss and international composers during the camps, and the combination of votes of a 100-member public panel (50%) and a 20-member international expert jury (50%) selected the winning song. The members of the public panel were put together according to selected criteria in cooperation with Digame, while the international jury consisted of members who had been national juries for their respective countries at the Eurovision Song Contest.[4]

On 10 March 2021, "Tout l'univers" was announced as the Swiss entry via the release of the official music video on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. The song was written and composed by Gjon's Tears himself along with Wouter Hardy, Nina Sampermans and Xavier Michel. In regards to the song, Gjon's Tears stated: "I am so happy that I will finally be able to take part in Eurovision this year and that I can spread a positive message with my song. It was important for us to keep hope in this particularly difficult time: we must not give up and we must stay strong. With love, friendship, strength and courage, we can rebuild our future. I am convinced that in this exceptional situation it is possible to rediscover and reinvent ourselves."[5]

The live-on-tape backup recording, which would be used in case Gjon could not travel to Rotterdam, was recorded at SRF Studios in Zürich on 17 March 2021.[6]

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, will be used. Switzerland was placed into the second semi-final, which was held on 20 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[7]

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Switzerland was set to perform in position 16, following the entry from Latvia and preceding the entry from Denmark.[8] At the end of the show, Switzerland was the eighth country of the ten to be announced as having qualified for the final.[9] It was later revealed that Swtizerland won the second semi-final with 291 points, Switzerland's highest placement in the semi-finals.

On stage, Gjon performed alone dressed in black with silver accents on his shirt on a white frame prop. Liquid silver elements appeared on the LED background and different camera angles and lighting effects accentuated his movements. He moved to a vertical beam of the frame during the second chorus at which the other two pieces of the frame split apart, and he remained performing on the vertical beam for the remainder of the song.

Switzerland performed 11th in the grand final on 22 May 2021, following Greece and preceding Iceland. It finished in third place with 432 points, the country's best result in the 21st century and its best result since 1993.

Voting[]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.[10] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members.[11] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.[12][13]

Points awarded to Switzerland[]

Points awarded by Switzerland[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Swiss jury:[12][13]

  • Sophie de Quay
  • Chiara Dubey
  • Rico Fischer
  • Lisa Oribasi
  •  [de]
Detailed voting results from Switzerland (Semi-final 2)[14]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  San Marino 8 6 12 6 10 9 2 12
02  Estonia 4 11 10 5 14 8 3 10 1
03  Czech Republic 9 14 13 9 8 12 16
04  Greece 7 9 7 14 6 10 1 9 2
05  Austria 3 5 4 3 9 4 7 7 4
06  Poland 12 15 15 15 16 15 13
07  Moldova 15 12 9 13 12 13 11
08  Iceland 11 1 8 2 3 3 8 4 7
09  Serbia 5 7 6 10 7 7 4 1 12
10  Georgia 16 16 14 16 13 16 14
11  Albania 6 8 3 8 5 6 5 3 8
12  Portugal 2 3 11 7 1 2 10 2 10
13  Bulgaria 1 2 1 1 2 1 12 8 3
14  Finland 10 4 5 4 4 5 6 5 6
15  Latvia 14 13 2 12 11 11 15
16   Switzerland
17  Denmark 13 10 16 11 15 14 6 5
Detailed voting results from Switzerland (Final)[15]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Cyprus 5 9 18 14 21 13 20
02  Albania 10 14 6 10 13 11 4 7
03  Israel 17 20 7 8 23 16 18
04  Belgium 16 11 22 17 17 20 21
05  Russia 21 17 2 11 6 8 3 11
06  Malta 8 5 4 7 3 5 6 12
07  Portugal 2 3 16 6 4 4 7 3 8
08  Serbia 12 22 10 24 15 19 1 12
09  United Kingdom 22 23 19 21 19 22 25
10  Greece 6 15 11 15 18 14 13
11   Switzerland
12  Iceland 15 6 21 4 5 6 5 6 5
13  Spain 18 19 13 20 16 21 17
14  Moldova 24 24 17 25 24 24 23
15  Germany 25 18 20 22 22 23 14
16  Finland 11 7 9 5 9 10 1 7 4
17  Bulgaria 1 4 5 3 7 2 10 16
18  Lithuania 7 8 3 13 14 7 4 10 1
19  Ukraine 23 21 15 9 12 17 9 2
20  France 3 2 8 1 1 1 12 5 6
21  Azerbaijan 19 10 1 19 11 9 2 19
22  Norway 20 25 25 23 25 25 15
23  Netherlands 9 16 24 12 8 15 22
24  Italy 14 1 14 2 2 3 8 2 10
25  Sweden 4 13 23 18 10 12 8 3
26  San Marino 13 12 12 16 20 18 24

References[]

  1. ^ "Switzerland Country Profile". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  2. ^ "In the spotlight: Gjon's Tears". European Broadcasting Union. 3 April 2020. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  3. ^ Jansen, Esma (20 March 2020). "Cry no more! Gjon's Tears confirmed as Switzerland's Eurovision 2021 act". Wiwibloggs. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  4. ^ Golightly, Thomas (22 December 2020). "Switzerland: 20 Songs Were Written For 2021 Entry". Eurovoix. Retrieved 12 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Gjon's Tears presents 'Tout l'univers'". eurovision.tv. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "