Analysis translated from article by eurowizja.org –

Eurovision 2021 is over, it’s time for summaries. After the competition, as usual, there were many analyses and controversies regarding scoring. Let’s summarize all the problems and potential manipulations caught by fans.

After the final 65. As every year, there have been many allegations and problems related to the results of the vote. The organizers have already published the exact results, and in them fans and observers have caught a lot of controversial and interesting elements.

The results of the polish jury’s vote looked interesting. It consists of Anna Żaczek-Biderman, Cleo, Michał Michalik, Norbi and Piotr Winnicki. The loudest element regarding the scoring of the Polish panel is the casting of votes for San Marino. Senhit, representing this country, appeared in what is the melody? at the invitation of Rafał Brzozowski, with whom she became friends. Polish judges gave back her 10 points in the semi-finals and 12 points in the final. It wouldn’t be so strange if it weren’t for the jury votes in San Marino. The small country voted so that Poland won from him 12 points. It’s hard to believe by chance, especially since these are the only twelve won by both countries. So we’re not surprised by the embarrassed fans and the media who comment loudly on it.

The composition of the Polish jury is controversial, but not better is San Marino – there may have been a violation of Eurovision rules. One of the jurors sat on the Sanmarina Commission as early as 2019, although according to official rules: you can not be a juror more than once in three editions.

Moldova, Greece and Bulgaria – these countries have voted the most this year. However, we should start with the fact that they also had their influence in Poland. The main thing is that behind the works of Moldova and Greece are the same creators – experienced composers Filip Kirkorov (Russia, ex-husband of Ała Pugaczowa, representative at Eurovision 1995) and Dimitris Kontopoulos. They form the so-called Dream Team. Live-on-tape performances, which would be used in case of inability to come to Rotterdam, both Natalia Gordienko in moldovan and Stefania colors of Greece, have made in Bulgaria.

The Poles strangely favored the three countries in the semi-finals, which they did not translate into final votes. Let’s compare the decidedly inconsistent ratings of Polish jurors, who first highly classified proposals related to Dream Team, and then placed them very low in their rankings.

These countries associated with dream team activity in this year’s Eurovision voted, the jury awarded each other the highest marks. It can also be assumed that the jurors in Russia and Azerbaijan also deliberately voted in favour of Filip Kirkoou and his comrades. Here’s a breakdown of the suspicious points from the jury:

• MOLDOVA – semi-finals: 12 points for Bulgaria, 10 points for Greece, final: 12 points for Bulgaria, 8 points for Greece
• GREECE – semi-final: 12 points for Moldova, 8 points for Bulgaria, final: 10 points for Moldova, 8 points for Bulgaria
• BULGARIA – semi-final: unanimously 12 points for Moldova, 10 points for Greece, final: 12 points for Moldova, 8 points for Greece
• RUSSIA – final: 12 points for Moldova, 7 points for Greece, 6 points for Bulgaria
• AZERBAIJAN – final: 12 points for Russia, 10 points for Greece, 8 points for Moldova

It is not only the jury vote that can cause a lot of controversy after the eurovision 2021 results are announced. So far, two technical errors have been detected, one of which has been officially confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union. Users of one of the mobile networks in the Netherlands cast their votes in time for this, but the system blocked their calls and sms without sending notifications about the accepted vote. They were later notified that their votes had been received, but they were invalid because the server had accepted them outside of the time set for the audience to cast their votes. We don’t know if the costs incurred by the spectators will be reimbursed.

The problem also occurred in Russia, where users reported that the system ordered them to confirm their vote by sending/clicking the number 1. It turned out, however, that televoting during Eurovision did not require confirmation, and those who suggested notification cast their votes for the first song in the stakes, namely Cyprus. In this way, Elena Tsagrinou with the song El diablo won the Russian televoting and scored 12 points. So far, the information is not official and it is not known whether the matter will be clarified at all. It is rather impossible to examine which Russian votes for Cyprus were deliberate and which were accidental.

The problem of the Moldovan proposal, written by dream team, does not end with the suggestive votes of the jury. Natalia Gordienko in the tv viewers’ vote performed surprisingly well in the semi-finals, so as not to repeat her result in the final. The most interesting cases are the countries that awarded her the maximum score in the semi-finals, but placed low in the final. 

Moldova’s results show that in a few small countries it won the most votes in the semi-finals and far fewer in the final. It is suggested that during the semi-finals there was manipulation in the form of buying votes (e.g. SIM cards) in countries where the fewest votes are enough to win the highest scores. In the second semi-final, Moldova won the vote in as many as eight countries, although in six it did not win a single point or even placed in a low place. This is not necessarily a question of the Romanian and Moldovan diaspora, because the votes for Sugar in Spain, Portugal or Italy were not as high as usual. Eurovision 2021 is over, but we are unlikely to see an explanation of the controversy over the vote.