Ukraine expected to win Eurovision as Kalush Orchestra make Mariupol appeal on stage
Voting has opened in the Eurovision song contest, with the strong favourites Ukraine expected to triumph. They appeared twelfth in the running order of the show, and lead singer Oleh Psiuk shouted: “Please help Ukraine, Mariupol. Help Azovstal right now” from the front of the stage after the band performed.
In a video address released before the event, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed the Kalush Orchestra would win. “Europe, vote for Kalush Orchestra. Let’s support our fellow countrymen! Let’s support Ukraine!” he said.
Their song, which mixes rap with elements of Ukrainian folk music, was originally written in honour of the group’s mothers. The group have subsequently rededicated it to all matriarchs in Ukraine, as lines such as “I’ll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed” found new resonance. The six men who make up the group had to receive special permits to leave Ukraine and travel to Italy during the war.
Now I am old, but I am not quite old enough to get the nostalgia vibes for Gigliola Cinquetti. Here is what she looked like doing this Eurovision song back in 1964.
Bless Måneskin, they’ve really made the most of their chance, haven’t they? You have to respect it.
OH MY GOD THAT GREEN SCREEN SUIT DOES NOT LEAVE MUCH TO THE IMAGINATION. Worse than those Spain costumes!
Over 2,000 comments on this blog! Wow, thank you. Here are a few I just spotted summing up what you have thought of the evening:
- Theibiijo: Definitely about the songs this year, some really good ones in there, didn’t have any real duds. Voting will be interesting.
- AndyPandy21: I have a feeling Spain will pick up a lots of votes, that top five is going to be a great battle.
- GreenTwilek: It’s all a bit fast for me, and I can hardly keep up with the blog and the BTL-comments.
Oh, I hear you GreenTwilek. I also enjoyed this from EssoBlue:
I preferred it when the contestants sang songs in their own languages. Now it’s mostly in English, the contest is less interesting to me and I’ve stopped watching it.
But how do they know? *Twilight Zone music plays*
You will have to excuse me as I enjoy a slight breather while the voting goes on and the TV show is mostly recaps of what we have already seen.
UNEXPECTED ELVIS COVER VERSION IN THE BAGGING AREA
I wasn’t a big fan of Måneskin myself but Angela Giuffrida in Turin interviewed them the other day and they sounded lovely. You can read that here:
Måneskin doing a George Michael at the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony here. “Yep, sure we’ll do it. We’ll play the new single nobody has heard, right?” “Oh, ok.”
That’s not strictly true, Måneskin are doing the live premier of Supermodel here, but it was actually released yesterday, so maybe 12 of you have heard it?
Let me know in the comments who you are voting for. I – the Netherlands and Sweden – have to remain strictly impartial.
Ukraine expected to win Eurovision as Kalush Orchestra make Mariupol appeal on stage
Voting has opened in the Eurovision song contest, with the strong favourites Ukraine expected to triumph. They appeared twelfth in the running order of the show, and lead singer Oleh Psiuk shouted: “Please help Ukraine, Mariupol. Help Azovstal right now” from the front of the stage after the band performed.
In a video address released before the event, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed the Kalush Orchestra would win. “Europe, vote for Kalush Orchestra. Let’s support our fellow countrymen! Let’s support Ukraine!” he said.
Their song, which mixes rap with elements of Ukrainian folk music, was originally written in honour of the group’s mothers. The group have subsequently rededicated it to all matriarchs in Ukraine, as lines such as “I’ll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed” found new resonance. The six men who make up the group had to receive special permits to leave Ukraine and travel to Italy during the war.
Bingo point for jumping off the stage there! Also maybe I was a bit harsh on this, it is quite a singalong end to the main show I guess?
25. Estonia: Stefan – Hope
The draw has done us a bit of a disservice here as our final song of the night is a somewhat dull one if you ask me. Stefan has a bit of a cowboy-Elvis thing going on, and is such a big fan of the old spaghetti westerns that they filmed the promotional video for this in the same place they filmed A Fistful of Dollars back in the day, none of which disguises that this song has very little to commend it.
I have really enjoyed tonight though. A good few tracks that will make it onto my permanent Eurovision playlist.
I am going to go out on a body-themed limb here and say I think this will be in the top five come the end of the night. It is a strong tune, memorable presentation, and will benefit from being fresh in the mind when the voting starts. It is a real art piece.
Have a Eurovision Bingo point for obsessive hand-washing. A bit later on she pleads: “God grant us health, since there’s no medical insurance for me”, which has been interpreted as a direct dig at Serbia’s healthcare. But there’s another bit of the song where she is just talking about having a lovely walk with her dog, so it is unclear just how political this actually is.
No, your ears were not hallucinating, the song does start asking about Meghan Markle. They sing “Koja li je tajna zdrave kose Megan Markl?” which roughly translates to “What could be the secret of Meghan Markle’s healthy hair?”
This is like having Laurie Anderson doing Eurovision.
24. Serbia: Konstrakta – In corpore sano
Now it is time for Konstrakta and her Call the Midwife ensemble representing Serbia. Her real name is Ana Đurić, she used to be an architect and she is a bit of a conceptual artist, as you are currently finding out. I absolutely love it.
There’s no way you can do a song about a river as good as the one Bruce Springsteen did, so why even try?
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