What a shock for Austria! Our participant Kaleen only made it to second to last place at the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with “We Will Rave”. She doesn’t let it get her down.
“I’m not disappointed at all. The important thing is that I can be there – it doesn’t matter where you end up,” said Austria’s song contest candidate Kaleen on Saturday night, anything but devastated by her penultimate place at the 68th ESC. She thoroughly enjoyed her performance : “I wasn’t nervous at all, I was able to absorb everything. I had the feeling that I was an interval act and not part of the competition.” “Didn’t expect that” Her song “We Will Rave” ultimately won 19 points from the international juries and five points from the audience Expert song turned out to surprise the 29-year-old: “I actually didn’t expect that. But it shows that you never know where the journey will take you. It’s a game, a competition.” And so the native Upper Austrian is already looking forward again, as she has received a record contract with Global Records: “It’s on to the next adventure.” Kaleen was the last act in the field of participants at the 68th . Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.Couldn’t convinceAlthough she delivered a perfect show with her techno number “We Will Rave” in a designer glitter bodysuit by the Austrian designer Marina Hoermanseder, she apparently couldn’t convince the country juries or the audience. In the second semi-final they finished ninth out of the 16 participating countries with 46 points. Israel secured first place here with 194 points, followed by the Netherlands with 182, who were ultimately disqualified from the final due to an incident with singer Joost Klein and a camerawoman. This can be seen from the detailed results published by the organizer EBU on Saturday night.Switzerland winsSwitzerland is the winner of the 68th ESC in Malmö. Nemo became the first non-binary person to win the title of the world’s largest music competition with the bombast number “The Code” at the Malmö Arena. Austria’s candidate Kaleen, however, ended up in the disappointing, penultimate place in the evening with only 24 points. Switzerland’s victory ultimately came as a surprise, as the Croatian candidate Baby Lasagna had recently been considered a much bigger favorite. He now ended up in second place with a certain respectable gap. While Switzerland received 591 points, Croatia received 547. Ukraine followed at a distance in third place with 453 points. Signs against politicization Nemo, with his mixture of rap, opera and Queen paraphrase, turned out to be the clear favorite of the international juries voted the act from Switzerland clearly in first place with 365 points. Croatia was only able to score 210 points and came in behind France with 218 points in the pure jury rankings. In terms of audience, however, Croatia was clearly ahead, but that was no longer enough to catch up with Switzerland’s lead. Switzerland’s triumph in Sweden represents the country’s third victory in the competition. The ESC, the largest music competition in the world, is held in dozens of countries broadcast worldwide – from Australia to the Northern Cape. Every year, around 150 million people watch the final round of the show alone. At the same time, the ultimately clear vote for Nemo is also a sign against the recent strong politicization of the competition and for music. Above all, Israel’s participation in the middle of the Gaza war caused some angry protests within the ESC bubble, but also in the city of Malmö itself. After there had already been a large anti-Israel demonstration in the city on Saturday afternoon, during which, among others, “Fridays for Future” icon Greta Thunberg was taken away, there were loud protests in front of the event hall shortly before the start of the final. Demonstrators, boos and an exclusionSeveral hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators welcomed the ESC viewers with chants of “Shame on you”. In the hall itself, the Israeli singer Eden Golan, who ultimately ended up in fifth place thanks to a high audience rating, was always accompanied by massive whistles and boos during her performances. Added to this was the surprising exclusion of the Netherlands due to an incident with the singer Joost Small. According to the Dutch TV broadcaster Avrotros, the background was an aggressive gesture by the artist towards a camerawoman. Klein filmed this against his will after a performance. However, the police started an investigation into why Klein’s appearance was inappropriate, the organizers said. The Dutch public broadcaster has now filed a formal complaint against the exclusion.
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