“Sweden’s Loreen wins Eurovision 2012, Czech Republic’s Vesna places 10th: Recap of the 67th edition”

Loreen already won the watched competition in 2012 with the song Euphoria, and according to the AP agency, she became only the second Eurovision participant to do so. Only Irish singer Johnny Logan won twice before her, in the 1980s.

At the same time, thanks to the success of the thirty-nine-year-old singer, whose parents come from Morocco, Sweden caught up with Ireland in the historical charts. Artists from both countries have already won Eurovision seven times.

For the Czech Republic, Vesna’s tenth place with the song My Sister’s Crown is the second best placement. The best so far – sixth place – was won by singer Mikolas Josef in 2018. The group Vesna consists of musicians from the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague, in addition to three Czech women, its members also include a Slovak, a Russian and a Bulgarian.

Although the final of the 67th edition of the competition could not take place in Ukraine, what the country, which has been facing a Russian invasion for more than 14 months, is going through, resonated in Liverpool, England. The opening film showed the Kalush Orchestra singing and dancing in the Kyiv subway, where people routinely hide from Russian attacks. Last year’s winners also performed directly at the venue of Eurovision, which this year was held under the slogan “united by music”.

While tens of thousands of people were entertained in Liverpool and an estimated 160 million in front of the screens, Ukraine faced further Russian airstrikes. According to the agencies, some of them were directed against the city of Ternopil in the west of the country, where the electronic duo Tvorchi, which represented Ukraine this year, comes from. Finally finished sixth.

Italian singer Marco Mengoni was in fourth place among the 26 finalists, Norwegian singer Alessandra finished fifth. Representatives of Belgium, Estonia and Australia also reached the top ten.

The first year of Eurovision took place in May 1956, and the most famous winner in the history of the ESC is considered to be the Swedish band ABBA, who broke through in 1974 with the hit Waterloo. Other famous faces who have succeeded in the competition include the Canadian Céline Dion, who represented Switzerland in 1988. The Czech Republic participated for the first time in 2007. Already in 1968, Karel Gott performed in the contest, which was then called the Eurovision Grand Prize, but as a representative of Austria.