The Ukrainian Kalush Orchestra has won the Eurovision Song Contest with the title “Stefania”. It’s a win that comes as no surprise. The hip-hop formation founded in 2019 proves that solidarity beats neutrality.
The Kalush Orchestra performing at the ESC in Turin.
The 66th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Turin gathered thousands of people celebrating on Saturday evening, the pandemic seemed far away. “The Sound of Beauty”, this year’s motto, for obvious reasons did not reflect the beauty in the eyes of the audience, it murmured around the auditory convolutions. Although hardly anyone at the song contest – unless their name is Vladimir Putin – closes their ears and eyes. The cardinal question was already in the run-up to the final: Would Ukraine not only write Eurovision history as the winner of the hearts, but would they also garner the most votes and win regularly?
The Voting Procedure
After all 25 finalists have completed their performance, it is the turn of the expert juries of the 40 participating countries. You contribute half of the points. The Ukrainian gives the maximum score to the United Kingdom because the British provided arms early on to the country attacked by Russia. The Ukraine, on the other hand, is not given “twelve points” from the United Kingdom, rather the Swedish singer Cornelia Jakobs can be happy about it. At half-time, the Briton Sam Ryder leads ahead of the Swede and the group Chanel from Spain; Ukraine is fourth, Switzerland’s Marius Bear is twelfth.
As in the previous year, however, the public voting turned the intermediate standings upside down, which sadly Marius Bear also felt painfully. For “Boys Do Cry” the Appenzeller didn’t get a single measly point from the audience – he fell back to 17th place. It’s definitely not the evening of soulful ballads. The German Malik Harris was relegated to 25th place with “Rockstars”. But whether “Stefania”, the winning title of the Kalush Orchestra, will make it to the top of the international charts is not guaranteed either.
A shining loser
Actually, all other participants have no chance against the winners of the hearts, only Great Britain’s new “Space Man” can calculate a tiny chance towards the end of the voting procedure. Tiktok sensation Sam Ryder looks like the main character in Jesus Christ Superstar or Thor, who wields thunder and lightning, and has a voice that doesn’t shy away from the Italian falsetto. In the end, Ryder turns out to be a good loser, he knows that in the year the war broke out, Ukraine is the logical winner on the stage, whose boards are said to mean the world. In truth, that only applies to the artists, the managers and impresarios and the most loyal fans.
After all, almost 200 million watched the competition in Turin, in which the winner was chosen from among five seeds, the Big Five, and twenty for the final qualifier. There is no need to take a look into the crystal ball where the next Eurovision Song Contest will take place: it is an illusion that Ukraine will be the host country and venue in one in 2023.
Solidarity beats neutrality
It is said that the ESC is not a political event. And yet there is the assumption that without the war of aggression, a country other than Ukraine would probably have won. The Kalush Orchestra doesn’t need to worry about that. For three minutes, the boards of the concert stage actually meant the world to the hip-hop peace troop. She represented her country with dignity and the world thanked the Kalush Orchestra for it.
A certain Manizha barely made it into the top ten in 2021 with the emancipation rap “Russian Woman”, taking ninth place. Tempi passati. Today the question arises, will Mother Russia ever sing in a Eurovision Song Contest again?