Fans to vote from home as long-awaited Eurovision song contest returns

ROTTERDAM: Twenty six nations compete in the final of the Eurovision song contest in the Netherlands on Saturday, vying for votes in the world’s most popular live music event, which returns after being cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

A limited audience of 3,500 will be admitted to a concert venue in the city of Rotterdam to watch the performances after undergoing stringent testing for Covid-19.

Hours before the show, fans queued outside the venue in the wind and rain to get their coronavirus test out of the way.

“I’m just happy to be here, I’m happy to see a show on stage. It’s just the excitement,” Danish Eurovision fan Tore Peters-Munch, 43, said as he waited in line.

He attended one of the contest’s semi-finals earlier this week and said being in a crowd after so long had taken some getting used to.