TURIN — The result was expected, and no less moving for it. Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine on Saturday night with “Stefania”, a rap-folk tribute to the lead singer’s mother that has become, since February, something closer to an anthem for a country at war.
The numbers tell their own story. After the jury vote, Britain’s Sam Ryder led; then came the public. Ukraine received 439 points from the viewers — the highest televote in the contest’s history — from almost every participating country, vaulting past Britain and Spain to win on 631 points.
The band performed in traditional dress, including frontman Oleh Psiuk’s pink bucket hat, and ended with a plea from the stage: “Please help Ukraine, help Mariupol, help Azovstal right now.” The European Broadcasting Union later ruled the appeal humanitarian rather than political and took no action.
Ukraine’s third Eurovision win arrives twelve weeks into the Russian invasion. The band needed special permission to leave the country, as men of fighting age, and return home immediately after the final. President Zelensky said Ukraine would do everything to host next year’s contest in Mariupol.
Whether that is possible is another matter: tradition grants hosting rights to the winner, but staging a show for 180 million viewers in a war zone may prove impossible, and the EBU is already in talks. For one night, though, Europe’s vote was a message, and everyone in the arena understood it.
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