Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra and their song “Stefania” captured the public vote during the Eurovision final in Turin (Italy) on May 14, 2022. LUCA BRUNO / AP
Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy on Saturday night, ahead of Britain and Spain, thanks to the votes of viewers who voted for the group representing the country occupied by Russian troops at the end of February.
The group Kalush Orchestra, whose song Stefania mixes rap and traditional music, collected 631 points, ahead of the British Sam Ryder and his track Space Man (466 points) and the Spanish singer Chanel with Slo Mo (459 points). France, represented by the Breton group Alven & Ahez, came second to last in the ranking, ahead of Germany.
To relive: The final of Eurovision 2022 under the sign of the war in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed his country’s Eurovision victory on Saturday and linked it with the Russian invasion: “Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe,” he commented on his Facebook page.
The lyrics of the song Stefania, written before the war, resonates strongly with current events (“I will always find my way home, even if all the roads are destroyed”). Six on stage, the members of the Kalush Orchestra group, all of fighting age, benefited from a temporary exemption issued by the Kyiv government. But they must return home to take up arms once 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 Agence France-Presse (AFP) ahead of Saturday night’s final. We are very concerned for him and hope to find him safe and sound when we return. »
The next edition in Ukraine?
The gala evening, which was watched by almost 200 million viewers every year, was marked by several appeals in favor of Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion. At the end of the Ukrainian performance, which was greeted with great applause by the 7,000 spectators gathered in Turin, the singer of the group Kalush Orchestra, Oleh Psiuk, entered the crowd: “I beg you all, please help Ukraine, Mariupol, help Azovstal right now! (“I beg you all, please help Ukraine, Mariupol, help Azovstal [l’usine qui sert de dernière poche de résistance face aux forces russes à Marioupol] now ! “). Words that, on paper, represent a departure from the apoliticalism advocated by Eurovision.
“We understand the deep feelings surrounding Ukraine in this context and believe that the comments made by the Kalush Orchestra and other artists expressing their support for the Ukrainian people are more humanitarian than political,” she said European Union. , organizer of the event. The EBU banned Russia from the competition a day after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24.
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Ukraine received the highest score – 12 points – from several former republics or satellite countries of the Soviet Union: Poland, the country in Europe that has taken in the most Ukrainian refugees since the war began, Moldova, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania.
Therefore, the next edition of the competition will, at least theoretically, take place in Ukraine, which, in the words of Oleh Psiuk, will be “a new, integrated, developed and prosperous Ukraine”.
It is Ukraine’s second victory in this competition after 2016 – two years after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula – with Jamala and the title 1944, a song that tells of Stalin’s deportation of Tatars.