Swedish singer Loreen won the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool (UK) on May 14, 2023. OLI SCARFF / AFP
A victory without much excitement. Sweden’s Loreen, one of the most popular bettors, won by far the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday 14th May in Liverpool (UK). The competition was organized jointly with Ukraine this year. The latter, winner of 2022, could not host the competition due to the war on its territory; The UK that applied chose City of The Beatles, A Flock of Seagulls and Frankie Goes To Hollywood to replace Kiev. Politics was also not discussed on this evening, which, as usual, was characterized by a certain conception of cultural ecumenism and musical lightness.
Loreen, who has a total of 583 points, is the second artist to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice – the previous record was held by Irishman Johnny Logan, winner in 1980 and 1987. In doing so, she allows Sweden to join Ireland for the record for the number of wins by country, seven.
With her song “Tattoo” the Scandinavian singer tells of unforgettable love to electro rhythms. In English, we like to refer to the track as “banger”: music so captivating it’s hard to resist the urge to dance. The staging – the artist wedged between two large cubes, which she manages to separate – can be read as a metaphor for female emancipation. A very present theme this year with Norway (Alessandra, 5th place) and the Czech Republic (the sextet Vesna, 10th).
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There is also a long love story between Sweden and Eurovision, which began in 1974 with ABBA’s unforgettable Waterloo. Since then, the group has built a hugely lucrative pop empire with more than 400 million albums sold, musicals, a virtual tour called Voyage and a museum in Stockholm. They will be able to celebrate fifty years of their coronation in their kingdom with dignity, with Loreen’s victory guaranteeing Sweden to host the competition in 2024.
The terrible and sublime Globi-Boulga of the Croats
Known for being a compendium of all that Europe (which this year added Israel and Australia) can come up with at its most kitschy musically, the song’s huge success once again proved it lived up to its reputation. Finland’s Käärijä, second in the ranking, was certainly the wildest expression of this edition. Dressed in a puffy neon green bolero to the prettiest effect, the singer performed on set Cha Cha Cha, a sort of unlikely Rammstein-style hybrid of rap, metal and electro. His performance, which was not lacking in humor, earned him 526 points and took first place in the audience votes (which count equally with the votes of the national juries), ahead of Loreen.
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