The Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra won the 66th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday evening in Turin. Switzerland, represented by Appenzeller Marius Bear, finished in 17th place.
The group Kalush Orchestra, whose song ‘Stefania’ mixes hip-hop and traditional music, collected 631 points, ahead of the British Sam Ryder and his title ‘Space Man’ (466 points) and the Spanish singer Chanel with ‘Slo Mo’ (459 points).
After being elected in 12th place by the jury, Swiss participant Marius Bear suffered a setback in the public vote. Viewers gave him zero points and his song ‘Boys Do Cry’. With 78 points, Switzerland ended up finishing 17th, a better place than the betting houses had predicted.
The last place this year was occupied by Germany with six points. France is penultimate.
Second victory
“Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Facebook.
It is Ukraine’s second victory in this competition after that of 2016 – two years after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by Russia – with Jamala and the title ‘1944’, a song recounting the deportation of the Tatars by Stalin.
As in the two semi-finals organized this week in Turin, a tide of blue and yellow flags of the country under the grapeshot of the Russian army swept into the arena of the Pala Olimpico in the Piedmontese capital (north-west of the Italy) where the 25 finalists performed.
‘Please help Ukraine and Mariupol! Help Azovstal’, called on stage the singer of the Kalush Orchestra, Oleh Psiuk, whose performance was applauded. Political messages are generally banned at Eurovision, but the organizers have made it known that Ukraine will not be disqualified for these remarks.
“We understand the deep feelings around Ukraine in this context and consider that the comments of the Kalush Orchestra and other artists expressing their support for the Ukrainian people are of a humanitarian nature more than a political one,” the European Union said. Radio-Television (EBU), organizer of the event.
Provisional exemption
The EBU had excluded Russia from the competition the day after Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24.
Ukraine received the maximum score – 12 points – from several former republics or satellite countries of the Soviet Union: Poland, the country in Europe that has received the largest number of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war, Moldova , Latvia, Romania and Lithuania.
At six on stage, the members of the Ukrainian group, all of fighting age, benefited from a temporary dispensation issued by the government of kyiv, but they will have to 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,” singer Oleh Psiuk told AFP before Saturday night’s final. ‘We are very worried about him, we hope to find him safe and sound when we return’.
According to the rules of Eurovision, the next edition of the contest should be held in Ukraine, which would be in the words of Oleh Psiuk ‘a new, integrated, developed and flourishing Ukraine’.
/ATS