Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Ukraine band wins Eurovision Song Contest
Amid war, tune takes on more significance
TURIN, Italy — Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest early Sunday in a clear show of support for the war-ravaged nation.
The six-man band that mixes traditional folk melodies and contemporary hip-hop in a purposeful defense of Ukrainian culture was the sentimental and bookmakers’ favorite among the 25 bands and performers competing in the grand finale. The public vote from home was decisive in securing the victory.
The band’s frontman, Oleh Psiuk, took advantage of the enormous global audience to make an impassioned plea to free fighters still trapped beneath a sprawling steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol following the six-man band’s performance.
“I ask all of you: Please help Ukraine, Mariupol. Help Azovstal right now,” Psiuk said to the live crowd of some 7,500, many of whom gave a standing ovation, and a global television audience of millions.
The plea to free the remaining Ukrainian fighters trapped by Russian forces beneath the Azovstal plant served as a somber reminder that the hugely popular and at times flamboyant Eurovision Song Contest was playing out against the backdrop of a war on Europe’s eastern flank.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave signs that he was watching from Kyiv, and rooting for the Ukrainian band.
“Indeed, this is not a war, but nevertheless, for us today, any victory is very important,” Zelenskyy said, according to a presidential statement. “So, let’s cheer for ours. Glory be to Ukraine!”
Kalush Orchestra was among 25 bands performing in the Eurovision Song Contest final in front of a live audience in the industrial northern city of Turin, while millions more watched on television or via streaming around the world.
After its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russia was excluded from the competition, a move that organizers said was meant to keep politics out of the contest.
Ukraine’s song, “Stefania,” was written as a tribute to the frontman’s mother but, since the war, has transformed into an anthem to the beleaguered nation, as its lyrics take on new meaning: “I’ll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed.”