Picking themselves up after the result, Joe and Jake said they were “thrilled” for Ukraine’s win and congratulated Jamala on her performance, adding they were looking forward to getting home and back into the studio.
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“This year, from my interpretation, that rule was not enforced”, he said.
“The song refers to a historical fact and Jamala makes reference to a story that happened in her family”, EBU director general Ingrid Deltenre said after the show. Coming 2nd in Eurovision is by far the MOST fantastic achievement for me and for Australia and I'll never forget the last two weeks.
She sang “1944”, a song about the deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union on orders of Josef Stalin.
Ukrainian member of parliament Anton Geraschenko told the Govorit Moskva radio station that Russian singers who vocalize their support “for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine” will not be able to perform in 2017, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
Ukraine last week held its annual Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, honoring its World War II dead.
Where is your mind? / Humanity cries / You think you are gods / But everyone dies / Don’t swallow my soul / There is no specific mention of Russian Federation or its rulers.
Im, who shot to fame after winning X-Factor in 2013, told Eurovision hosts she moved to Australia from South Korea when she was nine years old and learned English by listening to the Spice Girls.
Jamala simply said after her win: “I want peace and love for everyone”, adding at the press conference: “I was sure that if you talk about truth it really can touch people”.
Victor Jamala pushed Russia’s Sergey Lazarev, who had been favourite, into third place with track 1944, also believed to be a pop at President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea two years ago. What am I supposed to do: just sing nice songs and forget about it? “And I was right”, she revealed.
Tributes for the singer’s gutsy performance came flooding in. The performance (which aired during the US broadcast between a Justin Timberlake interview and a spoof rendition of a ideal Eurovision act) shows the dancers apparently going through traumatic events before they are eventually presented with water to wash their ash-covered faces.
The song references the year when Stalin deported nearly all of the ethnic group from its native region of Crimea in what was then Soviet Russia (later to become part of Ukraine).
Eurovision is the longest-running worldwide TV song contest.
Hosts Petra Mede and Mans Zelmerlow introduced a sombre mood to the contest by suggesting it would allow countries to “set aside any differences we have” as Europe faces “darker times”.
Since its first broadcast in 1956, Eurivision has been known its unique blend of ballads and big hair, politics, patriotism and Europop.
Past winners included Lordi, a Finnish metal band dressed as Orcs and Conchita Wurst, a glamorous bearded lady from Austria.
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But O’Connor added: “The fact that their single is not in the United Kingdom top 100 after a month [plus] since its release says it all really”. Jamala saw off stiff competition not just from Russian Federation, whose Sergey Lazarev put on a very impressive levitating trick but also Australia’s Dami Im, with a huge dress and even bigger pair of lungs. “All of Ukraine gives you its heartfelt thanks, Jamala”.
