Ukraine Wins Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final 2022: Live Updates
Kalush Orchestra of Ukraine was named the winner, pushed to the top by the public vote. The band was victorious with a performance of a rousing, anthemic song delivered as a tribute to Ukraine as a motherland.
TURIN, Italy — The Ukrainian rap and folk band Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, as European viewers and juries delivered a symbolic, pop culture endorsement of solidarity behind Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion.
After 80 days of fighting that has forced millions from their homes, brought ruin to cities and towns across Ukraine’s east and killed tens of thousands, the band won an emotional victory for Ukraine with a performance of “Stefania,” a rousing, anthemic song. Written to honor the mother of the group’s frontman, Oleh Psiuk, the song has been reinterpreted during the war as a tribute to Ukraine as a motherland.
The song includes lyrics that roughly translate to, “You can’t take my willpower from me, as I got it from her,” and “I’ll always find my way home, even if the roads are destroyed.”
After Psiuk performed the song on Saturday night, he put his hand to his heart and shouted, “I ask for all of you, please help Ukraine!” Europe’s voters listened, giving the band 631 votes to win, far ahead of Sam Ryder of Britain, who took second place with 466 votes.
Kalush Orchestra had been considered a favorite, traveling with special permission to bypass a martial law preventing most Ukrainian men from leaving the country.
The band’s victoryover 39 other national acts illustrated how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has unified Europe, inspiring a wave of weapons and aid deliveries for Ukraine, pushing countries like Sweden and Finland closer to NATO and bringing the European Union to the verge of cutting itself off from Russian energy.
And it underscored just how sweeping Russia’s estrangement from the international community has become, extending from foreign ministries through financial markets and into the realm of culture. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, organizers barred Russian performers from the event, citing fears that Russia’s inclusion would damage the contest’s reputation.
Eurovision, the world’s largest and possibly most eccentric live music competition, is best known for its over-the-top performances and its star-making potential — it helped launch acts like Abba and Celine Dion to international fame. But as a showcase meant to promote European unity and cultural exchange, it has never truly been separate from politics, though the contests rules forbid contestants from making political statements at the event.
In 2005, Ukraine’s entry song was rewritten after being deemed too political, because it celebrated the Orange Revolution. When Dana International, an Israeli transgender woman, won in 1998 with her hit song “Diva,” rabbis accused her of flouting the values of the Jewish state.
Ukraine also won the contest in 2016 with “1944,” a song by Jamala about Crimean Tatars during World War II. It was also interpreted as a comment on the Russian invasion of Crimea, which took place two years earlier.
And in 2008, when Dima Bilan, a Russian pop star, won Eurovision with the song “Believe,” President Vladimir V. Putin weighed in promptly with congratulations, thanking him for further burnishing Russia’s image.
Russia began competing in the song contest in 1994, and has competed more than 20 times. Its participation had been a cultural touchstone of sorts for Russia’s engagement with the world, persisting even as relations worsened between Mr. Putin’s government and much of Europe.
Before the final on Saturday, several bookmakers had said that Ukraine was by far the presumptive favorite to win. Winners are determined based on votes from national juries and viewers at home.
War has necessitated other adjustments. The Ukrainian commentator for the show, Timur Miroshnychenko, broadcast from a bomb shelter. A photo posted by Suspilne, the Ukrainian public broadcasting company, showed the veteran presenter at a desk in a bunkerlike room, surrounded by computers, wires, a camera and eroding walls that revealed patches of brick underneath. It was not clear what city he was in.
The bunker had been prepared to prevent disruptions from air raid sirens, Mr. Miroshnychenko told BBC radio. He said Ukrainians loved the contest and were “trying to catch any peaceful moment” they could.
Not all ofKalush Orchestra’s team was present in Italy; Slavik Hnatenko, who runs the group’s social media, was in Ukraine fighting. In a recent video interview from Kyiv, Hnatenko said he felt the band’s appearance at Eurovision was “equally important” as his own service in the war.
“It’s a chance to show the world that our spirit is difficult to break,” he said, adding that he intended to watch the contest, if he was not in combat and could get a signal on his cellphone.
In an interview in the days leading up to the contest, Psiuk said that even if Kalush Orchestra won, its members would return to Ukraine. He was running an organization there to provide people with medicine, transport and accommodation, he said. And he was prepared to fight if asked, he said. “We won’t have a choice,” he added. “We’ll be in Ukraine.”
Alex Marshall and
The story of Eurovision 2022 was always going to be Ukraine’s victory, but this year’s contest was also about so much more. Here’s what we learned from the grand final:
Britain is no longer Europe’s most hated country!
For the past 20 years, Britain has performed appallingly at Eurovision. Twice during that time its entrants has come last with “nul points” — the song contest’s ultimate indignity. So tonight, Britain’s Eurovision viewers were shocked when their entrant Sam Ryder — a rock singer who found fame on TikTok — came in second with “Space Man.” His success even took the country’s political leaders by surprise. At a moment when Britain was leading, Nadine Dorries, Britain’s culture minister, wrote on Twitter, “Wow, we are at the top. Let’s just enjoy this moment.”
Germany’s music scene needs to get itself in gear.
If Britain saved its musical reputation, Germany’s took a nosedive. Its entrant, Malik Harris, an Eminem-like rapper, finished last with just six points, the country’s latest poor result. Is it a sign that Europeans feel Germany is too politically dominant on the continent, or just that its songs are bad?
We might be singing along in Serbian soon.
Spanish-language pop stars like Bad Bunny and Rosalía have started topping pop charts worldwide, and Spain’s entrant Chanel came in third on Saturday, giving a further boost to the language. But what might be the next language to conquer pop charts? Based on this year’s Eurovision, Ukrainian is in with a chance, and the country has a host of great pop musicians, including the rapper Alyona Ayona and the singer Ivan Dorn.
Or perhaps it will be Serbian. Serbia’s entry, Konstrakta, ended up in a surprising fifth place on Saturday with a song about Meghan Markle’s hair.
The era of dance-pop bangers is over.
A normal Eurovision contains at least a dozen electronic dance tracks that would be perfect for a Mediterranean nightclub at 3 a.m.. This year, there were only a handful, including one from the Czech Republic’s entry, We Are Domi. So, where is European pop music heading instead? Apparently toward emotional pop songs that start at a whisper, and end in a belting chorus. Both Greece’s entry, Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord, and Sweden’s Cornelia Jakobs, followed that formula, and both sang about heartbreak.
Even the fashion showed support for Ukraine.
There was an amazing range of style on Saturday. Some contestants wore plain T-shirts or went barefoot. Others wore total show-stopping costumes, like the Australian Sheldon Riley’s white gown, which pooled around him like a feathered, beaded cocoon of opulence — and yet was still outshone by his elaborate crystal chain face mask.
At this kind of competition, the most theatrical, costume-y moments are usually the most memorable. So why did so many contestants strip down? One reason might be to show support for something bigger than one’s self: Peace in Ukraine. Instead of seeing a slew of blue-and-yellow looks, though, many artists including Armenia’s and Greece’s went for serene, all-white ensembles. These looks communicated a sense of optimism, and stood out among the super-shiny, skintight, stage-friendly looks we’ve come to expect from Eurovision — no matter how fabulous those outfits were, too.
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An exhilarating Eurovision has come to an end, but now a big question looms: since the winning country hosts the following year, where will the contest take place in 2023? We can only hope, of course, that Ukraine will no longer be at war, but it would be a tall order for the nation to be ready to present an international event of that scope, with the complex logistics it entails. There have been a few exceptions to the hosting rule, which might suggest a solution: Israel won in 1979 but the 1980 contest was held in the Netherlands because Israel, which had won back to back, could not shoulder the burden of organizing the event two years in a row. (A similar scenario unfolded in 1974, when the United Kingdom stepped in for Luxembourg.)
A distinct possibility is that if Ukraine cannot host in 2023, Eurovision will take place in one of the so-called Big Five countries — Spain, Germany, France, Italy or the U.K. The latter, which was the runner-up this year, might be a natural candidate.
As far as the press is concerned, the vote went to the best group.
A British friend just texted me: “I don’t want the U.K. to win because then everyone will hate us again.”
Ukraine has just pole-vaulted to the top thanks to the public vote. That this is not a huge surprise does not make it any less incredible.
The public vote is wild. Now this is what I call great television.
Pin-drop moment as Italy is up for its count.
Big cheer for Serbia here.
Second shocker from the public vote as Switzerland gets zero points.
First surprise from the public vote as Moldova gets a big bump.
Germany has come in last place, as its entrant secured just 6 points.
While national votes were still coming in, reporters accredited with Eurovision got a cryptic message from the press office stating that after the second dress rehearsal of the second semifinal “certain irregular voting patterns were identified in the results of six countries.”
The European Broadcasting Union, the statement said, “takes any suspected attempts to manipulate the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest extremely seriously and has the right to remove such votes in accordance with the Official Voting Instructions, irrespective of whether or not such votes are likely to influence the results and/or outcome of the voting.”
Britain is still at the top of the voting. Nadine Dorries, the country’s culture minister and a figure of fun for many liberals, has tweeted her pleasant surprise in the results so far.
Wow, we are at the top. Let’s just enjoy this moment. #Eurovision
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) May 14, 2022
The artist Diodato is sitting with Mahmood and Blanco, waiting for the votes to come in. He won Sanremo in 2020 and would have performed at that year’s Eurovision had it not been cancelled due to “the uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 throughout Europe and the restrictions put in place by the governments of the participating broadcasters and the Dutch authorities,” according to Eurovision.
Instead, on May 16, 2020, Diodato performed his winning “Fai Rumore” which was retitled “Europe Shine a Light,” in the empty Roman-era Arena in Verona still used for concerts and operas.
He performed “Fai Rumore” here in Turin on Tuesday, at the first semifinal, and for me, it may be a personal highlight of this competition.
Serbia’s jury didn’t give any points to Ukraine, which could be a musical decision, but could also be a political move given public sympathy to Russia in the war with Ukraine.
It will be interesting to see how the popular vote diverges from the jury vote because right now this is not going the way I expected.
Poland’s jury gives 12 points to Ukraine, which is perhaps unsurprising given Poland is a major home for Ukrainian refugees.
Germany has yet to score any points. If that continues, will Germany’s tabloid newspapers start asking if the rest of Europe hates its politics?
Could the U.K. go from zero (dead last with "nul points" last year) to hero?
There is no spreading the love so far.
Roughly a third of the countries are scoring major points while another third is completely stuck at the bottom. I’m surprised to see that some of the early favorites are not doing well with the national juries, including Ukraine and Italy.
Ukraine’s judge has just given 12 points to the United Kingdom’s entry, a country that has publicly pushed its cause in the war.
Britain, which last year got zero points, has also got off to a brilliant start — it’s in third place with 20 points. Spain in the early lead, despite having a Shakira track.
Ukraine is off to a bad start. The first two judges have awarded its entry a total of two points, out of a possible 24.
This was the first Eurovision without a song in French, but we’re now about to hear a lot of people say the phrase “douze points” — or 12 points in French — as Eurovision’s judges reveal who they’ve given top marks to.
It’s only about, well, another hour until we find out who’s won!
We’ve had presidential lobbying and now we have the Italian European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti beaming in from the International Space Station where she is participating in ESA mission “Minerva.” It’s not the first time that the first Italian woman in space crashed a music festival. In 2015, she chatted from space during Sanremo as part of 199-day mission (at the time a record for a woman in space).
VOTING HAS CLOSED! VOTING HAS CLOSED!
We are about to enter hour four of Eurovision and it’s time for…no, not the results, silly, but another recap of the finalists.
Mika has finally managed to pry the mic away from Laura Pausini. I remember seeing him perform a showcase at the tiny venue The Box, in New York, in 2007 and now he’s doing a medley at Eurovision.
A moment of appreciation for Mika’s white suit, with that wild flower embroidery — and the cartoonish doodles affixed to the totally sheer shirt he’s wearing underneath the blazer. (Going bare-chested underneath a suit jacket: very big with celebrities at the moment.)
Mika’s manager told me that he’s performing a medley: “Love Today,” “Grace Kelly“ (done in the fashion of the big Tik Tok challenge famously covered by Will Farrell and Ryan Reynolds), “Happy Ending” and his brand new single “Yoyo,” released yesterday.
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra is competing at Eurovision while the country it represents is at war. But it’s not the first act to do so.
In 1993, Bosnia and Herzegovina made its debut in the competition while fighting to maintain its independence, and while its capital city Sarajevo was under siege, surrounded by Serbian forces.
That year, Eurovision was held in Ireland, and to get there Muhamed Fazlagic — Bosnia’s entrant, better known as Fazla — had to run across the fields and through mountain passes, all the while at risk of being killed.
Fazlagic, now 55 and a senior adviser to Bosnia’s defense minister, said by phone this week that melting snow had left the ground so wet that his shoes got stuck in mud soon after he started his escape. He had to run barefoot, he said, as snipers shot at him.
Why did he risk his life for a song contest? Fazlagic said Eurovision was a vital way to raise awareness about Bosnia’s plight. “Eurovision is about representing your nation,” he said, “about giving yourself a platform to bring your story into the living rooms of normal people.”
Despite widespread sympathy for Bosnia, Fazla’s song “Sva Bol Svijeta” (“The Whole World’s Pain”), finished a lowly 16th. Fazlagic said that didn’t matter, as his performance filled Bosnians with pride and hope. Ukrainians watching Kalush Orchestra, especially the millions of refugees who’ve fled the war, will feel the same, he added.
Gigliola Cinquetti is reprising the song with which she won Eurovision in 1964. We can hear the audience singing along in the arena and it’s quite a moment.
One of the sweetest moments I experienced here was when Gigliola Cinquetti — who Pausini just called “the Queen of Eurovision” sang the song during yesterday’s first dress rehearsal to an audience of journalists who I assume were Italian because they were so warm in their reception.
She was 16 when she won in 1964, the first Italian to do so. She still looks great. Do the math.
Maneskin has emerged as one of the biggest Eurovision success stories ever. But even some recent songs that have not earned much recognition in the U.S. have been doing tremendously online, like Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade,” the winner in 2019.
Maneskin’s lead singer is asked if he has any advice for contestants tonight. “Have fun and don’t get close to the table, guys,” he says, a reference to a scandal last year when the band almost lost Eurovision after being accused of snorting cocaine on a table.
This feels awful to write, but Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra aren’t in my top three songs. For any of Europe’s music fans in the same position, they now have to choose between sentiment and taste.
It’s been quite the year for Maneskin, the Rome rock band that won last year’s Eurovision in Rotterdam with “Zitti e Buoni,” a song that propelled the group to global recognition. Thirteen months ago, the quartet, whose combined age is 87, was barely known outside Italy. Since then, they’ve opened for the Rolling Stones, got North American exposure on “Saturday Night Live” and top talk shows like Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres and last month they rocked Coachella. Up next, gigs at the Arena in Verona, Italy, three Lollapalooza dates and Rock in Rio. That’s not even counting all the diamond, platinum and gold records the band has racked up.
Maneskin is performing its new hit “Supermodel” (in English), which they developed in Los Angeles with producer Max Martin, the Swedish record producer and songwriter Later, the band will perform a cover of Elvis’s “If I Can Dream” a song created as a tribute to Martin Luther King, according to the Graceland blog. The Maneskin version is getting its TV debut here, and was recorded for the soundtrack of “Elvis” the Baz Luhrmann biopic that will have its world premiere later this month at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Continue reading the main storyDear Eurovision newcomers, we have now started the contest’s third hour and trust me, we are nowhere near done. There is voting, there is filler, there are endless recaps, more filler, and then the results are not just announced but stretched like taffy.
From a trends perspective, we saw so, so many all-white looks tonight — including that closing number from Estonia, and the (excellent) previous one, from Serbia, and now in our angelic U.S. host Johnny Weir, who is filling air while eligible countries vote. It’s like they’re all trying to communicate a sense of peace, hope and purity.
The singing is over. What happens next? Well, now it’s time for the lengthy and often excruciating voting process.
How does it work? First, viewers in each country vote for their favorite act online or by phone. They’re banned from voting for their own country — so British voters this year can’t vote for Sam Ryder — but otherwise, they can vote for as many different acts, and as many times, as they like. (Viewers in the United States can’t vote at all, sorry!)
When the polls close, the 10 songs with the greatest number of votes from each country receive points. The top-ranked performance gets 12 — or “douze points,” to use the favorite phrase of all Eurovision fans. (French is one of Eurovision’s official languages.) The second-ranked song gets 10 points, the third 8, and the rest get from seven to one point.
But alongside the public vote, there is another one. Before tonight’s contest even began, juries of supposed music experts representing each country have secretly picked their own top 10 acts, which are then allocated points in the same way. Their choices often appear to be heavily influenced by political events or cultural ties. Eastern European countries, for instance, often vote for each other.
Will we see any strategic voting tonight? Look out for Serbia’s jury vote. At the start of the war in Ukraine, there was widespread public sympathy in Serbia toward Russia, and a sense that Europe and the United States were ganging up on Russia, just as many saw the West victimizing Serbs during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Will Serbia give Ukraine any points tonight? It may be a long time until we find out: The voting process seems to take forever. Once the polls close, the hosts of the show talk to all the national juries by satellite link, and hear how they voted. Then, the public votes are added to those tallies and the leaderboard is reconfigured. Warning: At the end, it can get tense.
Perhaps strangest act of the night, Serbia’s Konstrakta, has just taken the stage to perform “In Corpore Sano.”
It is, technically, a song, but it feels more a piece of performance art. Konstrakta spends the entire song sitting down, and for most of that time washes her hands in a basin while four dancers twirl towels around their heads.
If that sounds odd, wait for the lyrics. Konstrakta opens the track by asking, in Serbian, “What could be the secret of Meghan Markle’s healthy hair?” A few moments later she comes up with an answer: “It’s all about the deep hydration.”
Konstrakta is the latest project of Ana Duric, an architect and singer who has been in several bands, one of which opened for Amy Winehouse in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital.
Her song is meant to be a comment on the pressure society puts on women to meet high beauty standards. But it’s also intended to spark debates about how governments treat artists and musicians. Toward the end of the track, Konstrakta sings, “God grant us health, since there’s no medical insurance for me.” That isn’t actually true for her since Serbia has free health care, but it is certainly a reflection of a problem artists can face elsewhere — including in the United States.
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Continue reading the main storyBritain may be Europe’s pop music powerhouse, the home of global stars including Adele and Ed Sheeran, but for the past few decades it’s been awful at Eurovision, performing miserably no matter what it tries.
In 2011, the country entered the chart-topping boy band Blue. It came 11th. In 2013, the country sent Bonnie Tyler, the singer of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and a bona fide music legend. She came 19th.
Last year, Britain’s entry was James Newman singing “Embers,” a funky dance number in which he promised to “light up the room.” He did not light up the room; instead, he suffered the ultimate Eurovision indignity of scoring “nul points” (a feat that has only been achieved by four other acts this century, including Britain’s Jemini in 2003).
Some British newspapers have blamed these results on Britain’s poor political relationship with mainland Europe, or on Eurovision dropping a rule requiring entrants to sing in their country’s official languages in 1999 so that everyone could sing in English. In truth, the British entries have just been rubbish.
So, what is Britain turning to this year to change its fortunes? TikTok. Yes, the social media app. Britain’s entry — about to take the stage — is Sam Ryder, a musician who during the pandemic secured over 12 million TikTok followers (more than Sheeran) by posting boisterous, unpolished, and at times silly, covers of famous songs.
British bookmakers say Ryder is third favorite to win tonight with “Space Man,” an epic rock song about wanting to be an astronaut. But it’s a risky choice, requiring Ryder to sing in falsetto. If he misses the high notes, even a legion of TikTok followers won’t save him from being another British disaster.
Despite not being in Europe, or even near it like Morocco (which appeared in the 1980 edition), or even Israel (four victories since 1973), Australia has been competing in Eurovision since 2015. This year’s entry, Sheldon Riley, will even be familiar to American viewers, because he made it to the quarterfinals of “America’s Got Talent” in 2020.
It’s hard to find a country more mad about pop music than Australia — it was an early ABBA adopter, after all. The contest has been broadcast there since 1983 and, naturally, the country was itching to participate. It first sneaked in with a prerecorded video in 2013; the following year, it was allowed to perform during the second semifinal’s intermission. And finally, Australia landed an invite to compete — it was supposed to be only for a year but, well, the Aussies are still here.
And they are not joking around: Australia’s 2016 entry, Dami Im, was the runner-up that year, behind Ukraine, and Australia has been in the top 10 four times. Fun fact: Kate Miller-Heidke (9th in 2019) also co-wrote the score for “Muriel’s Wedding — The Musical.”
After failing to make it to the final last year, Australia is back again. Riley is not among the favorites, but what will happen if Australia ever wins? Will Melbourne and Sydney battle to host? Alas, that’s a fight we won’t get to see: the contest’s rules stipulate that hosting duties will be delegated to a European country.
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Continue reading the main storyIt is impossible to watch this year’s Eurovision Song Contest and not think about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia was barred from this year’s competition at the start of the war, and while this may be a symbolic move, it carries some weight, given that the two countries are Eurovision powerhouses.
Since its first participation in 1994, Russia has won the contest once, with Dima Bilan in 2008, and finished in the Top 5 ten times. Ukraine has won twice: with its sophomore attempt, Ruslana’s “Wild Dances,” in 2004, and again in 2016.
By then, the countries’ Eurovision relationship — which had started with friendly exchanges of high scores — had considerably deteriorated, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. (That year’s Russian entry, the Tolmachevy Sisters, was booed by the live audience in Copenhagen.)
So when the Ukrainian singer-songwriter Jamala won the 2016 competition with “1944,” a song about the deportation of Crimean Tatars that year, Russia complained. It argued that Jamala was really singing about the current situation in Crimea, not World War II — a partisan position that would trigger the Eurovision rule forbidding political songs. Russia’s contestant, Sergey Lazarev, placed 3rd, and the complaints were dismissed.
(Russia’s Eurovision aggressions are not limited to Ukraine: the year after it invaded Georgia, that country’s entry in the competition was rejected for being anti-Putin and thus political.)
Tensions flared again when Ukraine hosted the contest in 2017: The Russian entry, Yuliya Samoylova, had been banned from entering Ukraine, so Russia decided not to broadcast the show, effectively withdrawing from the competition.
Two years later, in 2019, it was Ukraine’s turn to withdraw following a kerfuffle with its own contestant, Maruv, over her positions on Crimea and Russia.
Now, the men in the Ukrainian entry, Kalush Orchestra, have a special authorization to leave the country and compete in Turin. They are firm favorites to win.
Tonight there’s one act everyone is looking forward to: Ukraine.
Kalush Orchestra’s “Stefania” has all the elements of a Eurovision hit: high-speed rapping, catchy folk singing, a break dancer dressed as a carpet. And after Russia’s invasion, many Eurovision fans want the band to succeed.
Here’s everything you need to know about the group’s journey to Turin:
Who is Kalush Orchestra?
Kalush is the brainchild of Oleh Psiuk, an Eminem-obsessed rapper from the city of Kalush, in west Ukraine. In a recent video interview, he said he rapped in Ukrainian to prove people wrong who said the language doesn’t work for rap.
Since 2019, his group — including the mysterious MC Carpetman, dressed in a head-to-toe bodysuit patterned like a traditional rug — have had multiple hits in Ukraine.
How did they get to Eurovision?
They almost didn’t. In February, the group came second in Ukraine’s qualifying competition behind Alina Pash, a pop singer. But after it emerged she had visited Russian-occupied Crimea, which was frowned upon in Ukraine, Kalush Orchestra took her place.
Days later, the war began. On the night of Russia’s invasion, Psiuk said the band were driving home from a concert when they heard the first explosions. He stopped thinking of music. “My main aim was to survive,” he said.
What’s the song about?
Psiuk said he wrote “Stefania” about his mother, and it includes lines like “she rocked me, gave me rhythm.” Now, many Ukrainians see it as a metaphor for Ukraine, especially the lyric, “I will always walk to you by broken roads.”
Aren’t men barred from leaving Ukraine?
Yes, Ukraine’s government has said men aged 18 to 60 must stay put in case they are needed in the war, but the members of Kalush have been given special permission to take part in Eurovision.
Not all the band’s team is in Turin. Slavik Hnatenko, who runs the group’s social media, is in Ukraine fighting. In a video interview from Kyiv, Hnatenko said he felt the band’s appearance at Eurovision was “equally important.” “It’s a chance to show the world that our spirit is difficult to break,” he said.
Is ‘Stefania’ playing a role in the war?
Hnatenko said he was hearing “Stefania” every day in Ukraine. He had even, somewhat bizarrely, seen Russian soldiers using it in TikTok clips, he said, apparently not realizing it was Ukraine’s Eurovision entry.
Eurovision is meant to be apolitical. Will that affect Ukraine’s performance?
In the video interview, Psiuk said he wouldn’t make any strong political statements at the contest. But it’s unlikely to stop people thinking of the war. At the end of the group's semifinal performance, Psiuk said, “Thank you for supporting Ukraine.” The audience — many waving Ukrainian flags — went wild.
What will happen to the band after the contest?
Psiuk said that even if they win tonight, he will return to Ukraine. He was running an organization there to provide people with medicine, transport and accommodation, he said. And he was prepared to fight if asked. “We won’t have a choice,” he said: “We’ll be in Ukraine.”
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Continue reading the main storyItaly, represented by Mahmood and Blanco, is one of only eight countries competing at all stages of the competition to sing in their national language. (Another seven were identified by the organizers as singing in more than one language.)
When I interviewed Mahmood (real name Alessandro Mahmoud) and Blanco (real name Riccardo Fabbriconi) before the finals for an article, I asked them about their decision to sing in Italian when so many other participating countries had decided to sing in English.
“We’re Italian,” said Mahmood, who was born in Italy to an Italian mother and an Egyptian father. When he won the national Sanremo song contest in 2019, his lineage spurred anti-immigration comments. Mahmood just got back to Italy after a multicity European tour that touched down in Paris, London and Madrid, to name a few gigs.
Blanco was even more direct about the Italian question: “We’re not going to Eurovision to have broader appeal, we’re going to Eurovision to represent Italy and in the end, the people who sent us to Eurovision were Italians.”
Carlo Fuortes, the chief executive of Italy’s national broadcaster, RAI, told me earlier this month that singing in Italian was a natural choice. “Italy has made song a national brand,” from medieval motets to opera to “la canzone napoletana,” a Neapolitan tradition that in the 19th century produced classics like “O Sole Mio.” Fuortes knows a thing or two about music: From 2013 to last year he was the superintendent of the Rome Opera House Foundation.
And he was excited that the success of Maneskin has made Italian cool again. The band has had a wild ride since winning Eurovision 2021 and the international exposure has been global.
“You’ve got bands doing covers of ‘Zitti e Buoni’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ around the world,” Fuortes told me. “It’s been an extraordinary vehicle for the Italian language” and belies the adage that English is the lingua franca of music. “Maneskin’s success proves that isn’t always the case.”
It’s hard to know where to begin with Norway’s entry.
The act is called Subwoolfer, and features two men dressed as fluorescent yellow wolves called Keith and Jim.
The song, “Give That Wolf a Banana,” offers instructions on how to stop wolves eating your grandma.
And it features a break dancing D.J. dressed as an astronaut.
It’s also fantastic, perfect for your next children’s party — and it might win.
Europe’s tabloid newspapers have been mildly obsessed with Subwoolfer lately, thanks to its members’ ludicrous costumes, which — like those on a “Masked Singer” entrants — encourage speculation about who might be inside.
Verdens Gang, a Norwegian newspaper, suggested in February that it might be Ben Adams, once of a British-Norwegian boy band called A1, and the Norwegian singer Gaute Ormasen. Many Eurovision fans have theorized that the wolves are Ylvis, the Norwegian duo behind the 2013 novelty hit, “The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?).”
Who are they really? To be honest, who cares? It’s a novelty song called “Give That Wolf a Banana”! But if it does win, The New York Times will put its best sleuths on the case. Maybe.
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Continue reading the main storyFrance’s Alvan & Ahez are just taking to the stage to sing their entry “Fulenn.” And while the track’s music is attention grabbing — I can only describe it as pagan trance — it’s also notable for being sung in Breton, a Celtic language only spoken by about 250,000 people in northwest France.
Tonight’s is the first final in Eurovision’s long history that won’t feature any acts singing in French, but Marine Lavigne, Ahez’s lead singer, said in a recent phone interview that she was proud to be bringing one of France’s minority languages to the competition instead.
“Our grandparents used to be ashamed of Breton as it was seen as worse than French and not valid,” Lavigne, 24, said. Nobody even taught her mother to speak it, Lavigne added. “It’s really important to sing in our heart language.”
A few French journalists complained about the language choice, and so did a host of people on the internet. But Lavigne said the band had laughed off the criticism. “People all over Europe have been telling us, ‘Oh, it’s a beautiful language, we really enjoy its sound,’” Lavigne said. “That’s made us really proud.”
Before tonight, Ahez had only performed outside of France at Celtic music festivals in Scotland and Wales. The Eurovision stage is a step up, but at a time when pop stars like Rosalía are showing that English-speaking audiences will happily listen to songs in Spanish and Catalan, who’s to say Breton can’t storm the Eurovision leaderboard too?
We’re off! And with a bang, too.
The first act is We Are Domi from the Czech Republic, with “Lights Off” — a title that you have to assume is ironic given their performance contains so many flickers and flashes.
We Are Domi — a trio that met while studying music in Leeds, England — is one of tonight’s pure dance acts, making the sort of euphoric electronic music that chart toppers like Calvin Harris would be proud of.
The song — sung in English — seems to be about a woman struggling to forget her ex. During the song’s three minutes, the singer Dominika Haskova tries everything she can to forget the lover, including changing her job, changing her furniture and even her “bed covers.”
It’s certainly a bold start to Eurovision — helped by Haskova’s enthusiasm, soaring vocals, and by being performed in front of videos of giant, exploding, Greek statues. But can it win? Going first is a poisoned chalice in Eurovision because, with two dozen acts to come, chances are people will have forgotten you within a few minutes.
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Continue reading the main storyTURIN, Italy — Eurovision hosts Laura Pausini and Alessandro Cattelan are certified A-list Italian celebrities, born and bred here. But their co-host Mika is more of an enigma, although he is such a fixture on Italian television that, when I called him a few days ago, we began the conversation in Italian, even though he is British-Lebanese and has an American passport through his father.
“I’ve been doing my lines in English and French,” he said, but the instructions he gets in his earpiece were in Italian. “Welcome to the blender,” he laughed.
Mika, 38, whose real name is Michael Holbrook Penniman, burst on the music scene with his 2007 breakthrough hit “Grace Kelly.” Global No. 1 hits, accolades and awards have followed.
In Italy, Mika has the special celebrity status granted to prime time television stars that conquer family living rooms. Italians first came to adopt Mika as one of their own when he joined the panel of judges of “X Factor Italia” in 2013. He was on the panel for several years, and even had his own variety show in Italy, “Stasera Casa Mika,” which ran for two seasons. He was also a coach on “The Voice,” a singing contest in France.
Mika fans in France and Italy may find it odd to hear him switch between languages, as he’s been doing during the Eurovision semifinals.
“But isn’t that good?” he asked. “It comes back to identity for me, a fundamental thing that’s always been part of my life.” Born in Beirut, Lebanon, to an American father from Savannah, Ga., who had traveled the world as a diplomat’s son, and an American mother from Brooklyn of Syrian and Lebanese background, Mika and his siblings were raised in Paris and London.
“Europe is really where I found my sense of compass. I relate to the idea of Europe to the kind of universality of Europe and the diversity of it more than anything else,” he said. “And if that makes me kind of slightly surprising, or strange, to the audience,” he added, “well, that’s OK. That’s fine. That’s fine with me.”
Despite its distinctly “euro” sensibility, Eurovision is a global phenomenon with fans all over the world. In the age of video streaming and social media, it has never been easier to follow.
In 2018, we met some Eurovision obsessives to find out how they watch the contest, and what it means to them.
Frank Lochthove, Germany
Mr. Lochthove, 45, recalled how Germany’s hosting the soccer World Cup finals in 2006 had given his country the opportunity to shed a postwar suspicion of flags and national pride to cheer on the national team. But for Mr. Lochthove, the most important competition was the 2010 Eurovision, held in Oslo, which the German singer Lena won. “She managed to cast a spell on the whole audience,” he said.
James Sheen, Britain
Mr. Sheen said he held his first Eurovision party in 1991, and continued to host parties for the next 20 years. Each time, the shindigs grew more elaborate as he added score sheets, themed food, colored spotlights, a sound system and a smoke machine.
In 2011, Mr. Sheen drove to Düsseldorf, Germany, to be in the audience for the first time. While the parties were dear to him, nothing beat the thrill of the real thing, he said.
Maria Bresic, Australia
When Ms. Bresic was growing up in the 1970s in the western suburbs of Sydney, she knew about the Eurovision Song Contest from Croatian-language radio and from her parents’ friends.
Her parents had come from Croatia and the way they watched the contest in the 1980s was influenced by the complicated politics of the Balkans at the time.
“Mum and Dad wouldn’t be interested in watching any of the performances by certain countries,” Ms. Bresic said. When Yugoslavia won the contest in 1989, “my parents were outraged,” she said, because, in their mind, the winning band, Riva, should have been considered Croatian, not Yugoslav.
Ricardo Mohammed, United States
Mr. Mohammed has a singular way of keeping track of time. Asked when he started his Eurovision viewing party at Hardware, a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, he replied, “Emmelie de Forest won that year.” (For the uninitiated, that would be 2013.) He also remembered a trip to London, “the year Nicki French represented England” (otherwise known as 2000).
Mr. Mohammed, a.k.a. D.J. ohRicky, discovered Eurovision as a child in his native Trinidad, via British broadcasts. He said the closest analogy for the contest was Broadway. “Those fans know the statistics, like how many Tonys someone won,” he said. “It’s the same for Eurovision die-hards: They know the last time a country won, who wrote a particular song.”
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