Tonight’s Eurovision Grand Final sees Helena Paparizou in a one-off ‘Rock the Roof’ interval act for this year’s competition.
16 years later since Greece’s first Eurovision winner, in 2005, with the still-brilliant ‘My Number One’.
And just hours after celebrating her Orthodox Greek name, she’s in for a weekend of celebration with Eurovision fans world-wide.
‘Rock the Roof’ will be a spectacular interval performance featuring six previous winners of the Eurovision song contest.
The former champions will perform their winning songs across three unique arenas in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The roofs of party venue Maassilo, Hotel New York and the iconic Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot museum will be transformed into sky-high stages for the performers.
The other winners involved are Lenny Kuhr (De Troubadour, Netherlands 1969), Teach-In with Getty Kaspers (Ding-a-dong, Netherlands 1975), Sandra Kim (J’aime La Vie, Belgium 1986), Lordi (Hard Rock Hallelujah, Finland 2006) and Måns Zelmerlöw (Heroes, Sweden 2015).
EBU press release outlines: “The winners will perform their song from three unique locations in the Eurovision Song Contest host city Rotterdam. The roofs of the Maassilo, Hotel New York and the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen will be transformed into a stage, lifting the six former winners to new heights. Hence the name of the act: ‘Rock the Roof’.”
Head of Show Gerben Bakker said: “The Eurovision Song Contest is back after a year of absence. Reason enough to treat the millions of viewers to unique performances from three locations in the middle of the city. The title of this great act is ‘Rock the Roof’ for a reason. By literally filming at great heights, we want to surprise Europe creatively and visually. In addition, I could not have wished for a better city than Rotterdam. Every shot in this city is a hit. Rotterdam will not soon be forgotten.”
“Because this is the 65th Eurovision Song Contest, we are taking a journey through time. Of course we give Dutch winners such as Lenny Kuhr and Getty Kaspers this unique podium with a lot of love. We are particularly proud that Teach-In reunites in the original line-up after a very long time. Every performance has its own unique atmosphere.”
Cyprus, Greece, the UK
Cyprus’ singer Elena Tsagrinou with ‘El Diablo’ have the honour of opening the contest, slot #1. Greece’s Stefania Liberakakis with ‘Last Dance’ is up at slot #10. Elsewhere, UK’s act James Newman, with ‘Embers’ in the running order of 26 is at slot number #9.
The Eurovision Song Contest Final 2021, Saturday 22nd May, at 8pm BST
Photo credit: Panos Giannakopoulos
