Amidst feather dresses, smoke machines, player pianos, and more LED lights and sequins than you can shake a stick at, strong vocal performances, pedestals and some truly incredible nail art from Sweden. It defined Eurovision 2023.
Lorin Zineb Nora Talhauy, better known as Loreen, performed her song flawlessly.tattooThis makes Sweden, along with Ireland, the two most successful nations in the history of this glamorous competition, with seven wins each.
But the fear of a full-blown Russian invasion of Ukraine haunted the proceedings of the contest, which was created to bring together a European nation torn by World War II through song, glitz and glitz.
Minutes before Ukrainian artist Tvorki takes the Eurovision stage, report It has been revealed that Russia has attacked its stronghold in western Ukraine, Ternopil, about three hours by car from the Polish border. It cast a darker tone on the event, known not only for its songwriting and vocals, but also for its over-the-top costumes and ludicrous staging.
Tvorki, an electronic music duo consisting of Andriy Hutsuriak and Geoffrey Kenny, said, “Ternopil is our homeland bombed by Russia when we were singing about hearts of steel, fortitude and will on the Eurovision stage. ‘s name,” he said in the post.upon Instagram after their performance. “This is a message to all Ukrainian cities under daily shelling: Kharkov, Dnipro, Khmelnitsky, Kiev, Zaporizhia, Umani, Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and all others. Europe, unite for peace and stand against evil!”
Tvorki says,heart of steel” was performed on a stage lit up in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, the yellow and blue trident, or Trizb. The title of the song is a reference to the Azohustal Ironworks in Mariupol. There, last year, a small group of Ukrainian soldiers held out against a Russian siege for weeks in terrifying conditions.
The organizers of the annual singing contest insist Eurovision “must not be politicized or instrumentalized in any way”. That’s why the European Broadcasting Union blocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from speaking at the final, citing the need to keep things apolitical. But deeds have long found ways to circumvent the rules with oblique political statements.
Tvorki, who finished 6th in the 2023 contest, was aiming for Ukraine’s second consecutive Eurovision victory following last year’s Karsh Orchestra.
Ukraine, as the reigning champions, would normally have held this year’s competition. But with Russia’s aggression continuing, organizers turned to 2022 runner-up Britain to host the contest on behalf of Ukraine. Liverpool, home of the Beatles, was then chosen as the host city. Russia was banned from participating in the competition.
With a medley of Liverpool’s famous musical contributions and a moving rendition of Liverpool’s signature ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, the night saw a nod to Ukraine’s plight.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, makes her second Royal Eurovision cameo appearance, wearing a flowing ball gown in a vibrant hue of Ukrainian blue, opening the star-studded Karush Orchestra’s winning song played the piano inStephania(The semi-final featured King Charles III and Queen Camilla in a video sequence.)
The 67th Eurovision finalist and 2012 Singing Contest winner, Laureneen is only the second artist to win two coveted trophies, after Ireland’s Johnny Logan. became. Her fan-favorite Finland came in second, while Israel came in third.
For the first time, people from non-participating countries vote The competition will have 50% public votes and a jury verdict made up of music industry experts from participating countries.
After the jury vote, Sweden built a lead of 163 points, while fourth-place Finland moved to the top with 376 points in the public vote. It took 187 referendums to win, but Sweden, the last to be announced, secured 243, ensuring a relatively easy victory despite initial concerns.
Sweden first won the competition in 1974, when the quartet ABBA famously performed “Waterloo”, and the country’s most recent win was in 2015.
Norway moved up after the public vote to finish fifth, while France, Belgium and Spain, among others, did not perform well in the jury vote.
The 7,000-strong crowd that filled Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena wore flags, waving psyllium, and went wild to Finnish songs, among crowd favorites.Cha-cha-cha”
About 26 nations took part in Saturday’s grand final, but this week Ireland, Malta, Azerbaijan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania, Denmark, Georgia, Iceland, San Marino and Greece were eliminated from the two semi-finals.
Known as the Big 5, Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany and Italy automatically qualified for the finals as the countries that contributed the most to the competition through their respective broadcasters. Great Britain moved from runners-up in 2022 to the bottom two this year.
Winner Sweden will host next year.
