One of the Dutch broadcasters who organised the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, NOS, has confirmed that there may have been an issue with voting from the Dutch viewers.
Zelfde verhael voor mij pic.twitter.com/iV3LAyXunp
— Joran Chalk (@JORAN_Chalk) May 23, 2021
It is claimed that many voters in the Netherlands voted during the allocated voting period, only to receive text messages several hours after the voting, and indeed the show had finished stating that the voting period had ended and that the votes would not be counted.. It is unclear at this time how many people had this issue, or if the issue had impacted the Dutch televote in any way.
It is understood that NOS are investigating this matter and have reached out to the EBU for clarification on the issue.
UPDATE:
The EBU confirmed on 24 May that they had issues handling the Dutch televote in the final. Many people on social media complained about their votes not being counted and had only received their confirmation texts hours after the show. 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. The Dutch televote, however, remains valid.
