TURIN, Italy (AP) — Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest in the early hours of Sunday in a clear show of popular support for the war-ravaged nation that went beyond the music.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the victory, Ukraine’s third since its 2003 Eurovision debut, and said “we will do our best” to host next year’s contest in the hotly contested port city of Mariupol. He underlined “Ukrainian Mariupol,” adding: “free, peaceful, rebuilt!”
“Thank you for the victory, Kalush Orchestra and everyone who voted for us!,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram messaging app. “I am sure our victorious chord in the battle with the enemy is not far off.”
Kalush Orchestra’s front man, Oleg Psiuk, took advantage of the enormous global audience, last year numbering more than 180 million, to make impassioned plea to free fighters still trapped beneath a sprawling steel plant in Mariupol following their performance.
Kalush Orchestra’s song, “Stefania,” was the sentimental and bookmakers’ favorite among the 25 competing performers in the grand finale. The public vote from home, via text message or the Eurovision app, proved decisive, lifting them above British Tik Tok star Sam Ryder, who led after the national juries in 40 countries cast their votes.
“Stefania” was penned by Psiuk as a tribute to his mother, but since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion it has become an anthem to the motherland, with lyrics that pledge: “I’ll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed.”
Kalush Orchestra itself is a cultural project that includes folklore experts and mixes traditional folk melodies and contemporary hip hop in a purposeful defense of Ukrainian culture. That has become an even more salient point as Russia through its invasion has sought falsely to assert that Ukraine does not have its own unique culture.
The plea to free the remaining Ukrainian fighters trapped beneath the Azovstal plant by Russians served as a somber reminder that the hugely popular and at times flamboyant Eurovision song contest was being played out against the backdrop of a war on Europe’s eastern flank.
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Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra wins Eurovision amid war https://t.co/GWs1Cdwh7w pic.twitter.com/GcW5TEA7SD
— The Hill (@thehill) May 15, 2022
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