Singer-songwriter Jamala was crowned the victor for her haunting rendition of the ballad 1944, which evoked the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Josef Stalin and has been interpreted as a criticism of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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“I really want peace and love to everyone”, Jamala said as she accepted the winner’s trophy. Many died during the deportations or starved to death on the barren steppes of central Asia.
Russian Federation ended up in third, and Australia took the second-place spot.
Meanwhile, Australia’s favourite among the Eurovision Song Contest competitors this year is Belgium, SBS reports.
Ukraine came first in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, in a defeat for Russian Federation that many in Moscow claim has more connection to geopolitics than their candidate’s performance.
The singing duo, who met on The Voice UK, received 54 points from the jury, and an additional 8 points from the phone vote, for an overall score of 62.
Jamala got the maximum 12 points from the viewers in Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, San Marino, and the second maximum number of points from the jury.
The crisis in Ukraine has pushed ties between Russian Federation and the West to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.
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.
Speaking to the state news agency Ria Novosti, Franz Klintsevich, the deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security, said: “It was not the Ukrainian singer Jamala and her song 1944 that won the Eurovision 2016, it was politics that beat art”.
Political songs are not allowed at Eurovision but 1944 was permitted because it was based on historic fact. In a Facebook post expressing confidence that Crimea would be returned to Ukraine, he stated: “Ukraine will win and win”.
The singer had dedicated the song to her great grandmother who was forced to leave along with a quarter of a million Tatars, as a collective punishment for those who had collaborated during the Nazi occupation.
Did Ukraine deserve to win?
Last year, Guy Sebastian – the first “Australian Idol” victor – made history when he became the first-ever Australian contestant in Eurovision.
“I think politics did play a part in the voting this year”, she said.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman joked sarcastically that to win next year’s contest a song will need to denounce “bloody” Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is supported by Moscow but blamed in the West for Syria’s 5-year civil war.
Tatars, a Muslim people from the Black Sea peninsula, opposed the 2014 annexation of Crimea, which followed the overthrow of a Moscow-backed president in Kiev.
The singer took the stage after the final act, and completely stole the show with his performance of Rock Your Body.
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But the hosts of the contests, last year’s victor Mans Zelmerlow and comedian Petra Mede, also struck a serious chord.
