Sweden wins the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, as widely announced.
Even if its excellent representative, Loreen with the song Tatoo (already winner of the Esc in 2012), solidly at the top of the ranking of the national juries, had a bad time on televoting, with Finland (Käärijä and the song Cha Cha Cha) who broke the bank.
But the 39-year-old Swede finally pulled it off, becoming the first woman and second artist (after Johnny Logan in the 1980s) to win for the second time in the world's most watched non-sporting event , this year hosted by the actress of Ted Lasso and Sex Education Hannah Waddingham, by the English singers Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian singer Julija Sanina and by the Irish Graham Norton, historic TV commentator for the United Kingdom.
In third place Israel with Noa Kirel and Unicorn. Our Marco Mengoni took fourth place, three more than when he participated for the first time in 2013 with L'essenziale. But he was still the star of the evening.
Not only did he thrill the 12,000 at the Liverpool Arena with his intense and powerful performance of Due Vite, the song with which he won the Sanremo festival, but he took home the Marcel Bezençon Composer Award for the best composition assigned by the composers of the songs in competition.
THE FLAG – The 34-year-old from Ronciglione also wanted to bring the LGBTQI flag designed by graphic designer Daniel Quasar to the stage to make the famous Rainbow Flag even more inclusive.
Five more colours, white, pink, blue, brown and black, positioned to the side. The new colored strips are dedicated to the black community, to the transgender community, to HIV patients and to those who died carrying on the battle for rights.
MAHMOOD – Shivering also for Mahmood , guest of the final medley of ESC glories in the tribute to Liverpool, the city of the Beatles, with a dreamlike Imagine, the great classic by John Lennon.
The artist originally from Orosei, in his third Eurovision appearance after representing Italy in Tel Aviv 2019, finishing second with Soldi and in Turin last year together with Blanco with a sixth place with Brividi, was the first Italian to be invited as a guest out of competition in an edition abroad.
UKRAINE – The common thread throughout the final evening was naturally Ukraine which, after the victory of the Kalusch Orchestra last year in Turin, should have hosted the event. But the current situation of the country, still at war, has not allowed it.
And so, in an ideal connection between Kiev and Liverpool, chosen as an alternative venue for the event, the Kalush Orchestra, spokesperson for the Ukrainian drama, opened the final with Stefania, the piece that led them to victory a year ago, and with a film in which British artists such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joss Stone participated. Princess of Wales Kate Middleton also cameos on piano.
In support of Ukraine also the Czech Republic with Vesna, with the song My sister's crown, a feminist anthem that invites you to never give up, but also a song with a political background with a humanitarian message of support for the Ukrainian population, underlined by the refrain sung in Ukrainian. Let3 Croatians also say no to dictatorships and war, remaining in their underwear and with fake missiles on stage.
(Unioneonline/D)