The Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra won the final of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Stefania” on Saturday. A six on stage, the members of the group, all of fighting age, benefited from a temporary dispensation issued by the government of kyiv, but they must return home to take up arms as soon as the competition is over. One of them stayed in the country. “A member of the group joined the territorial defense of kyiv on the third day of the war“, confided the singer By Doggie at AFP. “We are very worried for him, we hope to find him safe and sound when we return.“.
A few days after the victory, the leader of the Kalush Orchestra said goodbye to his girlfriend before joining the front line of Ukraine’s war against Russia. Oleg Doggie was pictured kissing his girlfriend Oleksandra outside his hotel in Turin, Italy.
The business of Doggie were placed in a taxi ready to leave for the airport one day after the competition.
“Our courage impresses the monde“
Ukraine’s victory in Eurovision on Saturday night, thanks to the massive support of European viewers, offered a moment of joy to the inhabitants of kyiv, whose daily life remains marked by the war in their country.
President Volodymyr Zelensky set the tone for reactions Ukrainians: “Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe“, he wrote on Facebook.
Et, While the news of Ukrainians remains marked by the war against Russia, inhabitants of kyiv praised a rare good news.
This victory”is a little ray of happiness“, told AFP Irina Vorobeya 35-year-old entrepreneur. The support from the European public has been “incredible”, “it is very important for us in the current context“, she notes.
“I am very happy (…)this victory is so good for morale“, adds Andriy Nemkovycha 28-year-old project manager.
The award-winning song, chosen in February by Ukraine, before the Russian invasion began, took on new meaning in the competition, with lyrics like “I will always find the way home even if all the roads are destroyed” taking on a particular resonance.
In the streets of kyiv on Sunday, proof that it was only a parenthesis, some nevertheless wanted to put the event into perspective.
“Right now it’s not the most important thing.“, judge Vadym Payers61 ans. “Reclaim Crimea“, “it would be something else“, he says.
Saturday night’s triumph in Italy is Ukraine’s third at Eurovision, after that of 2004 and especially that of 2016, two years after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Moscow. During this competition, it is Jamala who had won with its title “1944”, a song recounting the deportation of the Tatars by Stalin.