Grazie Mille, Torino

Hello! Last weekend was a strange one for me, as someone who’s spent most of the last decade trying to argue against Britain’s two biggest Eurovision myths: that the rest of Europe hates us, and that it’s purely a political contest.

Let’s start with that first one, because my goodness, what a result for the United Kingdom. To go from being the first country under the post-2016 voting system to win zero points from both the national juries and the televote to winning the former outright and coming fifth in the latter is no mean feat. Britain’s joint-best result since 1998 is the result of a lot of hard work from TaP Music and Sam Ryder, of course, but it’s also the result of the BBC finally bothering to show up and take the show seriously. That was the real barrier to British success, not some pretended frustration with Brexit.

Everything came together; a fantastic, humble act, performing a good song with incredible vocal range and striking staging, placed towards the end of the second half of the contest (generally the best place to be in the running order). If this is the foundation of a new British attitude to Eurovision, then it can really only be a matter of time until the juries and public decide it’s time to give the UK the winner’s trophy for the first time since I was in nappies.

But of course, it was never going to be anyone other than Ukraine’s night. The juries were pretty lukewarm on it, but the people of Europe were not: every participating nation gave Kalush Orchestra at least 7 televote points, with an unprecedented 29 countries giving them their 12 points. While I disagree that Eurovision is a purely political contest, it’s clear that the voting public wanted to show solidarity with Ukraine, and that is inherently a political statement. At the same time, though, Stefania was an incredible song, one that took on greater meaning with the advent of the war, and it’s a deserved winner.

Ukraine’s win is a complex thing, though. The EBU and Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcaster, have to be clear-eyed about the next 12 months; it’s entirely possible that the country won’t be at peace next May, or will have peace but severely damaged infrastructure. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remark that Eurovision would be hosted in a liberated Mariupol was carefully prefaced with “one day”, a nod to the logistical challenges that lie ahead.

It’s likely that Ukraine will either need to host the contest abroad or pass on the chance to host altogether, and countries across the continent are already scrambling to offer their help. When the plan will come together is anyone’s guess; I imagine we’ll know a lot more by the time Autumn comes our way.

This uncertainty for those in Ukraine is really underlined by the plans the runner-up and the winner have for summer. Sam Ryder is going to ride his impressive second place finish by hitting festivals and going on tour; Kalush Orchestra, though, are back in Ukraine, likely to take part once more in the war effort that has consumed and displaced so many lives. Despite the message of love and peace from the voting public, now the confetti’s been cleared the grim reality is all that’s left. We can only hope that the next Eurovision is in a Kyiv that’s free from fear next May.

Good Content

Watch: The BBC did a great behind-the-scenes video with Sam Ryder as he made his way to Turin, and it’s worth a watch if only for the man’s boundless enthusiasm for music and Eurovision.

Also Watch: A solid compilation of Graham Norton’s commentary during the final. He was solid this year! I’ve been a bit lukewarm about his more recent appearance, but it turns out Britain doing well makes snarky commentary a bit more appealing. Who knew?

Until next time!