“I sung for peace and love”, she said in a news conference following the competition.
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Jamala said Europe had voted for her song as “they understood and felt me”.
Australia finished a close second with 511 points after being pushed out of the lead in the final minutes of voting. And following his defeat, he congratulated Jamala on her act. “May 2017 the Eurovision will be in Ukraine!” .
This year’s contest was held at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Russian Federation had earlier protested Ukraine’s entry in the contest because of its “political” subtext – a violation of the contest’s rules.
Despite Russia being the bookies’ favourite to win with Sergey Lazarev’s You Are The Only One, Jamala proved hugely popular in the phone vote dashing ahead at the last moment to claim the top spot. But the organizers ruled that “1944” wasn’t a political song.
“I would prefer that all these bad things did not happen to my great-grandmother, and I would even prefer if this song did not exist”, the tearful competitor told reporters after the competition.
Ukrainian singer Jamala snatched victory from arch-rival Russian Federation to win the Eurovision song contest, adding a touch of political drama to the annual kitsch extravaganza.
Ukraine’s victory, 12 years after it last won the Eurovision title, lifted the mood of people worn down by two years of conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the east as well as political crises, corruption and poverty nationwide. In 2008, just a few months before a brief military clash between Georgia and Russia, Georgia submitted a song called We Don’t Wanna Put In, an intended pun on the name of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
It’s one of the longest-running TV shows in the world – and with estimated annual audiences of 180 million, according to broadcaster the European Broadcasting Union, arguably one of the best loved.
Graham Norton, who provided the commentary for United Kingdom viewers, paid tribute to his predecessor Sir Terry Wogan during the contest, and asked viewers to raise a glass to the late TV host, who died in January (16).
Eurovision 2016 had everything: A politically-charged battle for first place, a near-upset by Australia (which is in Europe now?) and then a surprise half-time show by Justin Timberlake.
And Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko – a former boxer who strongly backs Ukraine’s new shift toward the West – said he never doubted Jamala’s victory because she was “genuine”.
The 32-year-old singer made a plea for “peace and love” as she collected her trophy after beating Australia – which competed for the second time after appearing as a guest last year – into second place and Russian Federation into third.
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“I am trying to think that it is all about music and not about politics. We really deserved that victory because we experienced too much pain”, she said, adding that Europe and the world had heard of the “stored history”, a reference to the Crimean Tatars’ deportation in 1944.
