Eurovision: a double victory
For years, sceptics have predicted Eurovision’s imminent demise, said The Sunday Times. In Britain especially, it has been dismissed as an outdated festival of camp, as silly as it is glitzy. But this year the song contest, with its many ballads and daft costumes, not only “vigorously reasserted life after the pandemic”, but was more than usually freighted with political drama. Representing Ukraine, the members of the folk-rap Kalush Orchestra – who’d received special permission to leave the country for the event in Turin – put on a spirited performance which they ended with a plea to “help Ukraine, help Mariupol, help Azovstal”. This moved so many TV voters that the band rose in the rankings from fifth place, based on national jury scores, to a “resounding first”. The win, though widely predicted, provided a joyous boost to Ukrainian morale. But the night was the UK’s too: its entry came first in the juries’ vote, and second overall.
Sam Ryder’s near victory was quite a turnaround for the UK, said Mark Brown in The Guardian. For the past 20 years, we’d languished in the lower half of the table, and twice the UK entry has won the dread nul points. This was widely blamed on everyone hating us: in 2003, the UK’s zero score was put down to anger about its role in the war in Iraq; in 2021, there was talk of the Brexit effect. But Eurovision watchers say that Ryder’s score shows that it was never about the politics; we just needed a decent song.
Well, up to a point, said James Hall in The Daily Telegraph. Even this year, politics played a part: the Ukraine jury gave us douze points; Boris Johnson “must have been punching the air”. However, it is true that the British entrant was well chosen. Ryder was already a huge star on TikTok, with 12 million followers, and his “elastic vocals” and charismatic performance style made him a good fit for Eurovision, too. His song, Space Man, co-written by Grammy Award-winner Amy Wadge, sounded like a hit; and before the event, the Essex-born former juice bar owner had spent weeks performing “street sessions” in European cities to promote it. It paid off: even France gave it full marks. Eurovision may be a cheesy contest, but Sam Ryder has demonstrated that if you want to win it, you have to take it seriously.