With a political performance pointed squarely at Russia, Ukraine has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
It was a nail biter to the end, with a country outside of Europe in the lead for much of the vote counting. While the juries overwhelmingly backed Australia, it was the audience vote that brought gold home for Ukraine Saturday.
Ukraine’s Jamala sang her ballad “1944,” which was partly about Russia’s forceful annexation of Crimea, a peninsula that once belonged to Ukraine. Jamala, whose real name is Susana Jamaladynova, is a Crimean Tatar, a population that experienced deportation and great devastation under Joseph Stalin during World War II. “1944” references that dark part of history as well and calls for peace. Read more…
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