( ) – It’s not déjà vu: Loreen, from Sweden, is the brand new winner of Eurovision 2023 with “Tattoo”. The Swedish singer, who also won 11 years ago, is the first woman to lift the contest’s trophy twice.
Loreen arrived at the event as one of the big favorites, not only from social networks, but also from betting. Although she led the jury vote, with 340 points, the audience gave her a scare when Finland came in first place with 376 audience votes.
However, viewers sealed Sweden’s victory by awarding them 243 points.
Sweden also tie with Ireland and with seven awards they are the countries with the most Eurovision victories. They are followed by France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom with five and Israel with four.
This is only the second time that the same artist has won the event twice. He Irish singer Johnny Logan was until this Saturday the only artist who had won Eurovision twice, 1980 and 1987.
Loreen, meanwhile, won the edition 2012 Eurovision with the theme “Euphoria”.
Of course, the vote of the teleaudience always generates discomfort and this year it was the followers of Blanca Paloma, from Spain, who protested the five points she received from the viewers.
Liverpool and Ukraine, united
Although Ukraine, led by the Kalush Orchestra, won the 2022 edition of Eurovision, the country was unable to perform this year at the event due to Russia’s ongoing war.
In October, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that Liverpool would be the venue Eurovision 2023.
“It was concluded that the event could not be held in the winning country for security reasons,” the EBU said in a statement. Press release.
Despite not being physically in the country, Ukraine was present throughout the televised gala. From the audiovisuals prior to each presentation, which highlighted Ukrainian cities, to the event’s motto: United for music.
Also, the delegations of each of the voting countries repeated messages of support for Ukraine.
Käärijä, from Finland, performs the catchy “Cha Cha Cha” during the Eurovision 2023 grand final. (Credit: Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images)
The “bizarre” moments and other highlights of Eurovision 2023
Every year, Eurovision leaves viewers with meme-worthy moments and comments like “what just happened?”.
And although some presentations generate confusion for some, for the fans of the event, that is what Eurovision is all about: a show.
This year, the appearance of the British actress and presenter Mel Giedroyc (if you watched The Great British Bake Off on Netflix you will remember her) was the cause of a great laugh on social networks. Giedroyc appeared behind the also actress Hannah Waddingham doing…whipped butter? It is a moment that stole viewers’ tweets.
Finland’s performance stood out for its music and staging, so much so that it was a trend on Twitter in several countries.
Germany, Croatia and moldova They also stood out for the peculiarity of their actions.
He British singer Sam Ryder, who reached second place last year, performed her new single, “Mountain,” with a stellar performance. Roger Taylor, the iconic drummer for the British band Queen, was also in charge of downloading the percussion for Ryder.
Political messages (from the audience) at Eurovision 2023
Although Eurovision is a platform in which politics has no place, there was a performance – out of competition – that ignited social networks, that of the Italian Alessandro Mahmoud interpreting “Imagine”, by John Lennon.
On Twitter, users criticized the song choice considering Israel’s participation in the contest.
A user said “play the song of imagine It’s beautiful, the message is great, but you can’t try to send it after letting Israel present itself, at the same time that the country bombs Gaza.
Comments about the Israel-Gaza crisis grew during the performance of Israeli singer Noa Kirel, who performed “Unicorn.”
Israel and Gaza have experienced a week of violence with an exchange of airstrikes that left at least 33 Palestinians dead in Gaza and at least two people in Israel. On Saturday, Israel and Islamic Jihad reached a ceasefire agreement, according to Egyptian officials.
The Ukrainian delegation appeared during the gala with a sign that said Ternopil. The region, in western Ukraine, saw Russian airstrikes.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine tweeted that “at the exact same time that Europe celebrates music, unity and light in the Eurovision Song Contest, Russia launches cruise missiles at Ukraine, which is facing the darkness”.
Eurovision too denied participation of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in a televised message, indicating that “one of the pillars of the contest is the apolitical nature of the event. This principle prohibits the possibility of making political or similar statements.
