If you’ve been yelling, “Play ‘Jaja Ding Dong’!” for the past year, then you’re probably interested in watching the real-life spectacle that is the Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision is an international music competition whose participants come from (mostly) European countries that belong to the European Broadcasting Union. Performances are often over-the-top and highly entertaining. As Deadline notes, it helped launch the careers of ABBA, Olivia Newton-John, and Celine Dion.
Each country can put forward one original song that clocks in at three minutes or less; points are awarded by a professional jury and televoting viewers. The country that wins Eurovision hosts it the following year. This year, the contest takes place in Rotterdam since the Netherlands won in 2019 with “Arcade” from Duncan Laurence. (2020’s contest was cancelled due to COVID-19 and, unfortunately, Laurence will not be at this weekend’s finale because he just tested positive for the virus, The Independent reports.)
Despite the worldwide popularity of the campy phenomenon, it’s long been difficult to watch the competition in the US, so interest among Americans has lagged. Netflix moved to change that when it secured the rights to the 2019 and 2020 shows, and produced the original film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire SagaEurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams.
In 2021, however, streaming rights go to NBC’s Peacock. The first and second semi-finals are done, but replays are currently streaming on Peacock via the free, ad-supported version of the service; ditch ads for a few bucks a month. The Grand Final airs this Saturday, May 22 at 3 p.m. ET, and you can watch with a free account, no premium subscription needed; sign up here.
If you don’t want to sign up for Peacock, you can use a VPN and watch on Australia’s SBS On Demand by signing up for a free account, and connecting to a server in Australia.
While it won’t stream live on YouTube, the Eurovision Song Contest channel has rehearsals, semi-final performances, and more. After watching them, all our points are going to Ukraine’s Go_A and their over-the-top song “Shum,” whose official video has a Mad Max vibe, complete with an eagle and a snowy outdoor rave.
