Ukraine’s Jamala struck a surprise gold in the glitzy Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with her ballad 1944 about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by Soviet authorities during the Second World War.
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The singer, who is of Crimean Tatar descent, had drawn parallels in interviews to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, which provoked Western condemnation of the Kremlin and was opposed by many in the region’s Tatar minority.
Jamala’s song, “1944”, recalls how Crimean Tatars, including her great-grandmother, were deported during World War II.
“I was sure that if you sing, if you talk about truth, it really can touch people”, she told reporters after the competition.
“Music lost, because victory clearly did not go to the best song, and the contest lost because political attitudes prevailed over fair competition”, said Konstantin Kosachev, the top foreign policy official of Russia’s upper house of parliament.
Jamala, herself a Tatar, called for “peace and love to everyone” when collecting the the trophy ahead of Australia in second place and Russian Federation in third.
Jamala’s winning song “1944” is officially about the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars under Stalin.
Russian Federation was supposedly the favorite to win this years Eurovision but they surprisingly places third with 491 points. It said Armenia’s public broadcaster would face “yet-to-be-determined” sanctions and warned that “any further breach of the rules of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest could lead to [Armenia’s] disqualification from this year’s event or any successive editions”.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko). People cheer for success for Sergey Lazarev of Russia while watching TV as he performs during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, in a restaurant in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 15, 2016.
But the memories of that horror have been revived by Russia’s seizure of Crimea several weeks after a pro-EU revolt ousted Ukraine’s Moscow-backed president in February 2014.
“Ukraine is celebrating, 12 years (since the country’s last victory) Eurovision will be coming back to Kyiv”.
“Eurovision is an worldwide contest and the hosting side should follow the Eurovision rules”.
His coach, Filip Kirkorov, was quick to point out that Lazarev and his performance of “You Are The Only One” had won the popular vote – which constitutes 50 percent of the total score.
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At a news conference, Jamala said the experiences of her great-grandmother had inspired song. It was held this year in Stockholm, Sweden, after Mans Zelmerlow, a 29-year-old from the Swedish capital, won the 2015 competition.
