Ukraine favourites for their third Eurovision with emotive entry
UKRAINE could secure its third Eurovision victory at this year’s competition after its entry Kalush Orchestra qualified as favourites for Saturday’s final.
The folk-rap band gave an energetic performance in Tuesday night’s semi-final to take their place in Saturday’s final in Turin, Italy. Kalush Orchestra’s song Stefania, earmarked to be a winning tune, was written as a tribute to founding member Oleh Psiuk’s mother. But Mr Psiuk has spoken of the resonance that its emotive lyrics, such as ‘I will always walk to you by broken roads’, have had with the people of
Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
‘The song was dedicated to my mother, but after the war the song has acquired lots of nuances because a lot of people are perceiving it as if Ukraine is my mother,’ the band’s founder told NME.
Armenia, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland also progressed to Saturday’s final. Tonight’s semi-final will see Ireland’s Brooke Scullion battle it out with countries like Sweden and Belgium.