“While the eyes of the world will be fixed this weekend on Liverpool for Eurovision, our hearts will be with the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their sovereignty and resilience,” said British Culture Secretary Lucy Fraser.
The 26 finalists of the Eurovision Song Contest, on Saturday evening, will do their best to impress the jury and the audience at the highly anticipated concert hosted by the city of Liverpool in northern England on behalf of Ukraine.
After a series of performances that promise a large dose of visual dazzle, it is expected to know the identity of the winner of the competition, succeeding the “Kalosh Orchestra” that won Eurovision last year thanks to the song “Stefania”, which combines hip-hop and traditional music.
But due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and instead of holding the competition this year in the winning country of the previous edition, as usual, Eurovision is organized in the cradle of the Beatles.
British Culture Secretary Lucy Fraser said: “While the eyes of the world will be fixed this weekend on Liverpool for Eurovision, our hearts will be with the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their sovereignty and resilience.”
Reflecting the difficulty of reconciling the requirements of political neutrality under the terms of the contest with the need to uphold the flag of a war-torn country, Eurovision organizers stirred up controversy in the final hours by refusing to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to deliver a video address during the final party.
The European Broadcasting Union, which is responsible for organizing the competition, indicated that “Zelinski’s request to address the audience of the Eurovision Song Contest, although it involves good intentions, unfortunately cannot be approved because it contravenes the rules for the musical event,” which stipulates that it is forbidden to “make any political statements.” or something like that during the event.
However, the federation stressed that the competition will send strong messages of support to Ukraine during the closing ceremony on Saturday evening, with the presence of eleven Ukrainian artists on stage, including Kalush Orchestra.
Video clips will be shown during the evening, different regions of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian flag will be strongly present in the hall. Russia was excluded from the competition this year, as last year, due to its invasion of Ukraine.
The war will be present in several songs during the party.
Kiev this year is represented by the electro-music duo “Tvorchy” with the song “Heart of Steel” or “Heart of Steel”, which was nominated by the band, and is inspired by the steadfastness of the Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal Steel Factory in Mariupol throughout the siege imposed by the Russian forces on the city for a month. It thus symbolizes “strength and courage,” according to the band’s lead singer, Jeffrey Kinney.
The process of selecting Ukraine’s representatives for Eurovision took place in a bunker in Kiev.
“We saw a lot of flags” of Ukraine, said Andrei Hutsuliak, a member of the band “Tvorchy”, noting during a press conference Friday on the eve of the final concert that “Britain made a great effort to represent Ukraine here.”
As for the representative of Switzerland, the young singer, Remo Forer, he chose to participate with a more traditional message of peace through the song “Watergan”.
On the other hand, under the flag of Croatia, the band “Let 3” competed with the song “Mama SC”, which carries in a hidden way on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the band described it as a “weapon” in confronting “human stupidity” and “wars”.
According to bettors, this band has little chance of winning despite the uproar it has caused.
Projections in this context indicate that Ukraine ranks third among the countries most likely to win this party, behind two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Finland.
And at the top of the list of favorite countries in this competition, according to bettors, Sweden is represented by singer Lauren, who previously won Eurovision in 2012 with the emotional song “Tatto”. If she wins, Lauren will be the second person to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, after Irishman Johnny Logan.
Finland, for its part, is represented by “Cha Cha Cha” by singer Kariya, who performs it in a puffy fluorescent green bolero.
France is represented by Canadian-Moroccan Fatima Zahraa Hafizi, better known as La Zara, who has not won the competition since Marie-Miriam won her title in 1977. The Quebec singer is considered one of the front-runners with her electro-disco song “Evidaman”.
