The representative of Sweden, Loreen, won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the final of which took place on Saturday evening in Liverpool. Polish singer Blanka took 19th place.
Loreen, who already won Eurovision once in 2012, was indicated as the favorite of this year’s contest and the results confirmed it. Her song “Tattoo” received 583 points, 57 more than “Cha Cha Cha” by runners-up Käärijä from Finland. Loreen secured her victory primarily thanks to the votes of the jurors, because in the audience vote the Finn won, who was also among the favourites.
The next places – but with a large loss of points – were taken by performers from Israel, Italy, Norway and Ukraine.
This is Sweden’s seventh victory in the history of the country’s starts in the Eurovision Song Contest, as a result of which it tied with the leading country Ireland so far. This means that it will host next year’s Eurovision. It will take place on the 50th anniversary of the first Swedish win, which was given to the country by the most famous of all Eurovision winners, ABBA.
Blanka with the song “Solo” scored 93 points. Her performance was more liked by the viewers than the jurors, because after the vote of the jurors she was ranked only 24th with 12 points.
The British, who expected their representative Mae Muller to be at least in the top ten, may also be disappointed, but in the finals she took the penultimate place, ahead only of the German team Lord of the Lost.
In Saturday’s final, performers from 26 countries performed – twenty that qualified from the two semi-finals and six – Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Ukraine, which did not have to take part in them. The representatives of 11 countries were eliminated in the semi-finals.
The UK hosted this year’s Eurovision as a replacement for Ukraine, which was unable to hold the contest due to Russian aggression.
From London Bartłomiej Niedziński (PAP)
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