The winner was Italy with the song "Zitti e buoni", performed by Måneskin and written by the band's members Damiano David, Ethan Torchio, Thomas Raggi, and Victoria De Angelis.

[1][2] The 2021 contest was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands,[3] following the country's victory at the 2019 edition with the song "Arcade", performed by Duncan Laurence.

The "Turquoise Carpet" event, where the contestants and their delegations[b] are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place at the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal on 16 May 2021.

[12] On 23 April 2020, the municipal council of Rotterdam approved an increased budget after Dutch media reported that the city would require an additional €6.7 million to host the contest.

Those artists were: Efendi for Azerbaijan, Montaigne for Australia, Vincent Bueno for Austria, Hooverphonic for Belgium (albeit with a different lead singer), Victoria for Bulgaria, Benny Cristo for the Czech Republic, Tornike Kipiani for Georgia, Stefania for Greece, Eden Alene for Israel, Lesley Roy for Ireland, Daði og Gagnamagnið for Iceland, Samanta Tīna for Latvia, Destiny for Malta, Natalia Gordienko for Moldova, Roxen for Romania, Jeangu Macrooy for the Netherlands, Vasil for North Macedonia, Senhit for San Marino, Hurricane for Serbia, Ana Soklič for Slovenia, Blas Cantó for Spain, Gjon's Tears for Switzerland, Go_A for Ukraine, and James Newman for the United Kingdom.

[42][better source needed] Liechtensteiner broadcaster 1 FL TV, despite previous attempts to become an EBU member, halted its plans after director Peter Kölbel's unexpected death, and did not resume them due to the lack of sufficient funds and of government support; thus it ruled out debuting in 2021.

[50][51] In January 2020, the EBU announced that Martin Österdahl would become the executive supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest after the 2020 edition, succeeding Jon Ola Sand.

Designed by Clever°Franke, it is "an abstract presentation inspired by the map of the world and visually connects the location of the capitals of the [then] 41 participating countries with Rotterdam as Europe's beating heart".

[80] Unlike the 2019 contest, the green room was placed in the main performance venue, and encompassed the entire floor space previously reserved for the standing audience, so as to facilitate social distancing.

[82] Filmed between January and April, and directed by Martijn Nieman and Laurence Drenthe, with Kevin Soares serving as executive producer, the 2021 postcards were based on the "Open Up" theme of the contest.

In a departure from the initial concept created for the 2020 contest owing to travel restriction concerns, the postcards involved the acts being presented through footage shot in their country of origin.

This includes that the maximum length for a song is three minutes, that there can be at most six performers on stage, and that the compositions (lyrics and music) must not have been commercially released before 1 September of the year before.

[105] Switzerland won the most points, followed by Iceland, Bulgaria, Portugal, Finland, Greece, Moldova, Serbia, San Marino, and Albania.

[31] Armenia was originally allocated to participate in the second half of the semi-final, but withdrew from the contest due to its social and political crises in the aftermath of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

[19] This semi-final was opened by breakdancer Redouan "Redo" Ait Chitt and singer-songwriter Eefje de Visser,[112][113] with ballet dancer Ahmad Joudeh and BMX-er Dez Maarsen performing during the interval;[114] the acts are titled "Forward Unlimited" and "Close Encounter of a Special Kind", respectively.

France came second with 499 points, with Switzerland (who won the jury vote), Iceland, Ukraine, Finland, Malta, Lithuania, Russia, and Greece completing the top ten.

San Marino, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom occupied the bottom five positions, of which the last four countries received no points from the televote.

The final was opened by the traditional flag parade, introducing all twenty-six finalists, accompanied by a remix of "Venus" produced and performed by 16-year-old DJ Pieter Gabriel, with co-presenters Chantal Janzen, Jan Smit and Edsilia Rombley singing parts of the song.

[119][120] The interval acts included a medley of "Hero", "Ten Feet Tall" and "Titanium" performed by DJ Afrojack, singers Wulf and Glennis Grace, and an orchestra composed of young Dutch musicians;[121][122] the "Rock the Roof" interval act, where six former Eurovision winners – Måns Zelmerlöw, Teach-In, Sandra Kim, Lenny Kuhr, Helena Paparizou and Lordi – performed their winning songs – "Heroes", "Ding-a-dong", "J'aime la vie", "De troubadour", "My Number One" and "Hard Rock Hallelujah" respectively – atop several venues in Rotterdam;[123] and Duncan Laurence, who performed his winning song "Arcade" and his new single "Stars".

Bulgaria, Greece, and Moldova received the maximum score from two countries, while Albania, Cyprus, Iceland, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, and Ukraine were each awarded one set of 12 points.

The European Broadcasting Union provided international live streams of both semi-finals and the final through their official YouTube channel with no commentary.

[258] After failing to meet an extended deadline for submitting an eligible entry, with their second submission "Pesnya pro zaytsa (Song About Hares)" also being found to not comply with the rules, it was announced on 26 March 2021 that Belarus was disqualified from the contest.

The other band members tested negative and were able to rehearse, with Dutch stand-in singer Emmie van Stijn providing vocals instead of Pavlenko.

[270] He was due to perform his winning song "Arcade" and his new single "Stars" during the interval, and present the points on behalf of the Dutch jury; the latter role was filled by Romy Monteiro.

[272] During the jury show of the first semi-final, the Romanian, Ukrainian and Maltese delegations reported problems with their performances; most notably, Roxen was heard to be off-beat with the chorus of her song "Amnesia".

The contest's executive supervisor, Martin Österdahl, apologised to the delegation and reaffirmed that the issue would be addressed moving forward and that they would be protected to the highest degree.

The EBU also expressed concern over "inaccurate speculation leading to fake news [that] has overshadowed the spirit and the outcome of the event and unfairly affected the band.

The EBU later confirmed to NOS that those votes were not counted due to a problem with the Dutch branch of the telecom provider T-Mobile, while clarifying that they had no authority over the issue.

I (2021), which contained their winning song "Zitti e buoni" as well as tracks "I Wanna Be Your Slave" and "Coraline", entered European and global weekly charts.

After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2021 poll was Malta's "Je me casse" performed by Destiny; the top five results are shown below.