The road to Turin: a house invaded
The EBU’s reaction: politics or disrepute?
With the war came the question of Russia’s participation. Russia was indeed among the 41 countries announced for Turin 2022, but their act of aggression against a fellow competitor could not be ignored in the context of the contest.
At first though, in the hours that followed the beginning of the invasion, the EBU stated that Russia would still be allowed to participate, citing the apolitical nature of the contest.
The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political cultural event which unites nations and celebrates diversity through music. The EBU’s public broadcaster members in both Russia and Ukraine have committed to participating in this year’s event in Turin and we are currently planning to welcome artists from both countries to perform in May.
EBU statement on February 24, 2022
This answer was not accepted by a number of European broadcasters, especially in Northern and Eastern Europe. UA:PBC immediately sent a letter asking the EBU to remove the membership of Russian broadcasters, and to exclude Russia from the contest. Statements from broadcasters NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), LRT (Lithuania), TVP (Poland), RÚV (Iceland) and AVROTROS (The Netherlands) supported UA:PBC’s demands and asked that the EBU exclude Russia from the contest. ERR (Estonia) and YLE (Finland) even publicly stated that they would withdraw from Eurovision 2022 if Russia was allowed to compete.
In the end, the Eurovision Reference Group asked the EBU’s Executive Board to exclude Russia, and while repeating that the organisation was apolitical, their statement recognised that a Russian participation would “bring the competition into disrepute”. The decision was published on February 25th, 36 hours after the beginning of the invasion.
A war anthem and an altered band
Russia was out of the contest, and remains out to this day, with little hope of coming back any time soon. But this did not mean that Ukraine would be able to participate. At the time, US intelligence expected Ukraine to fall within 4 days, with Russian operations aimed towards the capital Kyiv, in an attempt to take control of the country and eliminate its legitimate government.
Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine still stands today, although diminished.
At first, though, Eurovision was not a priority. Ukrainian authorities only allowed Kalush Orchestra (a band of able-bodied men eligible to military conscription) to leave the country for Eurovision and for promoting the song in preparties at the beginning of April. At the time, Ukraine was already the clear favourite, and authorities realised the cultural and political impact that would come with not only a Eurovision participation, but a Eurovision victory.
A few days after, it was announced that Dzhonni Dyvnyy (Johnny Strange) would be replaced by Oleksandr Slobodianyk (aka Sasha Tab). He had already joined them for a performance in Lviv, a Ukrainian city near the Polish border. That performance also saw the return of camouflage-like hoodies for some members, including Tymofii (the singer of the chorus), whose face was now hidden, in contrast with the Vidbir performance where he was the face of the song. These were already used in the videoclips and performances of other songs by the band.
With Ukraine facing an existential crisis and full-scale-war returning to large parts of its territory, the song “Stefania” took another meaning inside the country too. “I will always come to you[, even] on broken roads“, said the song. “She rocked my craddle, gave me a rythm ; my willpower could probably not be taken away from me, because she gave it to me.” It was easy to see the parallel between the mother of the song, and the homeland. With social media taking a big role in documenting the war, as well as being used for official communication and propaganda, the song was present in many videos, reels and stories about the conflict.
The song also grew through Kalush Orchestra’s promotional tour, which included preparties such as Israel Calling or Eurovision in Concert. The tour was also the occasion to raise funds to help Ukraine in its fight.
A clear favourite
Right after the invasion, Ukraine became the favourite to win the contest: a strong support from other countries was expected to flow to “Stefania” and bring it victory. Most odds during the promotion season were at around 1/1, either slightly above (6/5 for many bookmakers) or shorter (4/5, even 5/7).
We once again checked the rankings of bookmakers at four different moments of the 2022 season:
- On February 23, a day after Kalush Orchestra accepted the offer to represent Ukraine
- On March 22, a day after the last 2022 song was released
- On April 10, a day after Eurovision in Concert 2022
- On April 30, a day before the beginning of rehearsals
| Position | February 23 | March 22 | April 10 | April 30 |
| 1st | 🇮🇹 Italy | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 🇺🇦 Ukraine |
| 2nd | 🇦🇺 Australia | 🇮🇹 Italy | 🇮🇹 Italy | 🇮🇹 Italy |
| 3rd | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
| 4th | 🇵🇱 Poland | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| 5th | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 🇬🇷 Greece | 🇵🇱 Poland | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 5th | 1st | 1st | 1st |
Not only was Ukraine a clear favourite, but it faced three clear rivals for the trophy.
Let us examine these contenders, as well as an extra country with Spain, which had arisen to the top 5 by the end of the promotion season.
🇮🇹 Italy — The chill of back-to-back victories
In 2021, the host entry “Rise of a new age” was never going to be strong in the final results, and ended up fourth to last, with no points from the televote. 2022 was looking like a very different picture.
The winners of the 72nd edition of Sanremo were Mahmood and Blanco, and they had sailed to victory with very little to stop them. They were the first winners of the festival since Stadio (in 2016) to be the favourite in all three voting components of the superfinal. Their song “Brividi” (“Chills”) topped the Italian charts, and the song had everything to work: the Italian language, beautiful vocals (in Sanremo), beautiful music, and a charismatic duo to defend it.
The idea of a country winning two years in a row was unusual, especially after a series of badly-placing host entries between 2017 and 2021. But Italy remained in second place with the bookmakers for a long time, even in the absence of preparties performance. Instead, both artists went on tours, and performed in concerts well into the Eurovision first week.
🇸🇪 Sweden — The right one at the wrong time?
Sanremo and its consensual winner was not the only selection to do something slightly different in 2022. In Sweden, a favourite emerged in the first heat of Melodifestivalen: Cornelia Jakobs and her song “Hold Me Closer”. She ended up winning the selection (although, in true Swedish fashion, not the Swedish televote), and immediately reached the third place for most bookmakers.
“Hold Me Closer”, cowritten by Cornelia, Isa Molin (composer of “Torn” by Lisa Ajax in Melodifestivalen 2019) and David Zandén, was not your usual Swedish entry. It was sung by a woman, it was a ballad. But above all, it felt authentic. Since its revamp in 2011, Melodifestivalen had been seen by many as a pop song factory, sending polished, slightly overproduced songs ready to top the jury votes. Although Tusse actually received more points from the televote than from the public in 2021, the precedents of John Lundvik (2019), Benjamin Ingrosso (2018) or even Måns Zelmerlöw (2015) remained very present in the minds of the fan community.
“Hold Me Closer” appeared as a breath of fresh air: it was polished, to be sure. But it felt more sincere, less grandiose. Cornelia’s performance and voice showed vulnerability, humanity. And the songs’ lyrics spoke to people: after the bitter “Dance you off” of 2018 and the hopeful “Is it Too Late for Love?” of 2019, Sweden had a breakup song people could relate to, authentic, full of resignation and respect.
Sweden being Sweden, it was also certain that the final staging would not differ too much in Turin, making it a safe package for a good bet.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Spaceman to the rescue
In the late 2010’s, hosts nations had suffered from very poor results. So did the United Kingdom. 2021 was the last straw, when James Newman had the sad honour of becoming the first entry to receive points from neither the juries nor the public.
After years of working with the BMG record label, the BBC opted to collaborate with TaP Music, the company managing Dua Lipa and Lana del Rey, to find their 2022 Eurovision entry. BBC Radio 1 and Scott Mills were also part of the process, which ended up choosing Sam Ryder.
Until 2020, Sam Ryder had been singing at weddings and managing his own vegan café in Essex. With the pandemic, both careers came to a halt. So he started singing on Tiktok, where he gained more and more recognition. By the end of 2020, he was allegedly the most followed British artist on the social media platform.
Sam Ryder was announced as the British Eurovision representative on March 10, but his song Spaceman had been released more than two weeks earlier, on February 22 (the day “Stefania” was confirmed as the Ukrainian entry).
“Space Man” was the gift British fans had been asking for for years. The song itself was of a higher quality than the previous attempts by the UK, with an anthemic feel, and showcased Sam Ryder’s voice in all its variations. The whole vibe of the song was also reminding people of David Bowie and Queen’s music. And Sam Ryder himself was the “golden labrador” of goodwill and enthusiasm the Eurovision brand needed in the United Kingdom, after years of bad results polluted by allegations of political voting against Britain (simply put, “they hate us because of Brexit”, a narrative that had come back after every Eurovision final since 2017).
Ryder performed “Space Man” on March 10 on “The One Show”, with very impressive live vocals. But the trauma of Britain’s giant trumpets from Rotterdam was never far: a bad staging could break the song. It remained 4th in the odds, as we waited for the rehearsals to start.
🇪🇸 Spain — Everyone crazy about this party?
The last contender of the season was another automatic qualifier, Spain.
2022 was the first edition of the Benidorm Festival national selection, and RTVE started with a bang. With several great entries in contention, the criticised voting system ended up giving the bronze trophy to Chanel and her song “Slomo”. That system only gave 25% of the votes to the public, with another 25% given to a demoscopic jury, and the remaining 50% to a more classic jury. Additionally, while the jury votes were built from the votes of individual jurors, both “public” votes had a fixed amont of points for each position: the public’s favourite would only get 30 points, regardless of the number of actual votes.
“Slomo” won the jury vote, was second in the demoscopic panel, and third with the public. It later appeared that the televote’s winners, Tanxugueiras, had gathered more than 70% of the votes, with Chanel only at 3.97%. Some Spanish fans were angry and have kept a grudge against the voting system ever since. But “Slomo”, as a package, was the most impressive one in the selection.
The heavily choreographed staging of “Slomo” had been a strong surprise and a “glow-up” from a studio version that was not seen as a favourite when the songs were released for Benidorm. The choreography, which included slo-mo movements, a Fuego-like dance break, and many, many marks to meet, was the brainchild of American choreographer Kyle Hanagami.
Spain first drifted in the odds after Benidorm, and went as low as 15th in the rankings of bookmakers. But throughout the promotion season – during which the song was performed in a few pre-parties, with the same choreography –, it rose through the ranks, through a combination of slight shortening, and of drifting from other songs (such as Greece and Poland), making it enter the Top 5 when rehearsals started.
The finish line: A done deal?
Was it a done deal?
Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022: in case you did not already know that, it is in the title of this article. With the war raging on, and with a knowledge of the final results, that victory seems obvious, in hindsight. And during the 2022 seasons, many fans were convinced of this scenario. But not all of them.
It was clear that there would be some form of support for Ukraine, regardless of the entry’s quality, in the televote. The strength of that support was not easy to determine in advance. The importance of the jury vote was not to be forgotten either: a bad result there could put an end to Ukraine’s chances. As such, rehearsals and live performances remained important.
Another element that could play a role was the infamous “kinetic sun of darkness“. The main feature of the Eurovision stage in Turin’s Pala Olimpico was a large prop in the form of a half-sun made of six concentric arches, which was described as “kinetic” because each arch could be moved around its axis to change the sun. One face had light projectors, the other was covered with LED screens. But after the stand-in rehearsals, an issue arose: the arches could not be moved fast enough to go from one side to the other in time for the postcards. It took 50 to 60 seconds to do a complete 180 degrees rotation, with postcards taking about half of that time.
RAI, the host broadcaster, suggested lengthening the time between each song, but the EBU refused. Because of this situation, all the entries had to use the same stage configuration and had to change their plans at the last minute. To make it easy enough for them, the six arches were put in “projector” mode, with only the small semi-circle in the middle (apparently non-moving) facing the public with its LED screens: reprogramming lights was easier and less expensive than creating new LED effects. But with plans changing for several broadcasters (with the Lithuanian delegation being very open about how the situation was not ideal for them), some staging would possibly have been impacted negatively.
Closed and open rehearsals
2022 brought an important change in the coverage of rehearsals, by closing the first rehearsals (which started on April 30) to the press. As such, the only elements that transpired from these were the short TikTok clips published by the official channel.
Press were allowed to watch the second rehearsals, though, from the press centre. These started on May 4, and the first day included Ukraine.
The Turin staging was close to the Vidbir one, and Tymofii was back to his Vidbir outfit, with his face fully visible. The vocals were better, the package was good, and the context around the song had not changed: there was no faux-pas, no big mistake. Victory was still a likely outcome.
Two days later came Sweden’s second rehearsal, and journalists could confirm that the staging was very similar to the Melodifestivalen one, but elevated to the scale of a larger stage. With no big surprises, though, Sweden’s odds started drifting.
The day after, the Big Five (which included the host) also had their second rehearsal. The three contenders among them followed eachother. First were the hosts, Italy, which started to show some signs of vocal febrility, a consequence of the hectic planning of touring and concerts both Mahmood and Blanco had gone through in the previous weeks.
Then came Sam Ryder, for the United Kingdom. Our very own Nick Van Lith summarised the reaction of the press very well in our review:
Whatever it is that you expected to see from the United Kingdom, discard it. Any expectations from the last few years are incorrect. This is a new approach to the Eurovision Song Contest by the BBC.
Nick Van Lith in the ESCXTRA review of Sam Ryder’s second rehearsal in 2022
This entry is incredibly classy with smart camerawork, clever props, beautiful lighting… and a performer who looks truly at home on the Eurovision stage. We expect to see the odds on the United Kingdom be shortened by bookmakers over the coming hours as this looks an extremely competitive entry that has the potential to perform very well with jurors and Sam himself could charm televoters across the continent.
After his rehearsal, Sam Ryder “drew his half” for the Grand Final and was placed in the second half, which was also in his favour. Odds shortened accordingly.
Finally came Spain, and the Benidorm Fest choreography was back, as we had seen it in pre-parties. But while pre-parties had smaller stages, the Pala Olimpico was bigger. And the performance was upgraded to fill that stage, with a good use of lightning, camera angles, and a very good vocals considering the physical demands of the act.
Even though the performance had managed to raise “Slomo” at an even higher level, a draw to perform in the first half of the Grand Final reduced its chances to win, with such uptempo entries being generally better-off in the last few entries of the evening.
Semi-finals and easy qualifications
The first semi-final took place on May 10, and Ukraine performed in sixth position. The running order was perfect for a favourite: sandwiched between two “weaker songs” which had very little chance of qualifying (Slovenia and Bulgaria), with a small ad-break before the next song.
The performance started with a shot of the stage bathed in orange light, with the waterfall under the main stage, as the camera moved up and zoomed in on Kalush Orchestra. The podium from Vidbir was gone, and the band was, at first, perfectly aligned on the stage, in front of the sun. A very efficient “swinging animation” with traditional carpet motives was used for each “Luli, Luli, Luli”, mirroring the way the band members balanced their body from left to right.
In the end, the band walked towards the public, clapping hands with the music and the crowd, before the conclusion of the song in music, played with the sopilka, with some breaking from CarpetMan. The last image used the screen and the projectors to reproduce the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
Obviously, Ukraine qualified. In the “random” order of reveal, Kalush Orchestra was the eighth country to be announced, although they were, in everyone’s minds, the safest qualifiers.
We later learnt that Ukraine had won the semi-final, and the televote, earning the “douze points” from twelve different countries’ televote, out of a possible eighteen.
The first semi-final was also the occasion for the EBU to publish the performances of the two Big Five countries that had voted in the show: France and Italy. And the semi-final version of “Brividi” was confirming the fears born in the rehearsals: the beautiful Sanremo vocals were gone, and the harmonies between Mahmood’s and Blanco’s voices were off during the choruses. Italy kept drifting in the odds, going from 4/1 to 8/1 in one day, and drifted further and further, ending up in the fifth position before the final.
In the second semi-final, the last contender, Sweden, performed in position #17. Barefoot on the dirty and dusty LED floor of the Pala Olimpico, holding her old-fashioned microphone, wearing her glittery outfit, Cornelia Jakobs did elevate the performance from Melodifestivalen. With many close-ups on her face, and with perfect vocals, she made enough of an impact to not only qualify, but also to win the semi-final. And in true Swedish fashion, she had nullified the kinetic sun issue by bringing her own prop which took centre-stage.
Sweden had won the jury vote, and tied for first place in the televote with Serbia, with the tiebreaking rules in Cornelia’s favour (she had received points from more countries than Konstrakta). Her jury score of 222 out of a possible 240 (92,5%) was the highest share ever in a semi-final, and with the 174 points from the televote, she totalled 396 points, which was more than Ukraine two days earlier, also making it the highest score in total in semi-finals. Granted, the second show had two more countries taking part in the vote (an additional participant and an additional Big Five voter), but even in relative terms, “Hold Me Closer” had earned 82,5% of the maximum score it could get, against 78% for “Stefania”.
With no other context, and with the knowledge of these detailed results, the Grand Final could have looked like a battle of jury’s favourite against people’s favourite. It sort of was, but not with Sweden, and not with a jury victory.
Because the Big Five was there: Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain had voted in the second semi-final, and their performances were published on the Eurovision Youtube channel after the show. Less than a day later, on the Friday, the semi-final performance of “Slomo” had reached more than 1,2 million views on Youtube, second only to Serbia from the same semi-final. This was more than Italy, the host country, whose video had been published two days earlier. And although the British entry had not reached these levels of popularity, the full video showcased an extremely promising package that would easily grab jury votes and could even touch the public.
An original running order
The Grand Final’s running order was released after the second semi-final, and raised some questions.
After years of the #2 slot being occupied by slow songs, the final (and both semis) had an uptempo entry with Romania in the so-called “death slot”. Italy had drawn position #9 months in advance, but was put head-to-head with Spain, meaning two very contrasting favourites were next to each other, with no song to separate them.
Ukraine itself was pushed almost as far as possible in the first half, and all sorts of speculations arose from that: did the producers know the detailed results of the semi-finals? If so, could conclusions be drawn from the positions of some entries? Opposite ideas could justify Ukraine’s late placement: it was either the clear winner and there was no point in “sabotaging” it by putting it earlier, or it was clearly never going to win so there was no hurt in putting it in a good position. Eventually, these speculations were pointless, but Ukraine had a very good spot in the show.
The second half was also, “unluckily”, extremely unbalanced and full of ballads. The energy would remain relatively the same between Lithuania and Iceland, before a sudden jump in tempo with Moldova. Then would follow Sweden and a set of powerful, hard-hitting male ballads with the UK sandwiched between Australia and Poland. The addition of similar songs next to each other could bore the public, but also make the better entries of each category stand out, which was probably the point for Sam Ryder’s placement.
The 2022 Grand Final
From the contenders, the hosts Italy performed the earliest, but by that point they had dropped in fifth position with the bookmakers.
Despite a performance described by many as “nearly flawless” during the jury show, the public performance still lacked the harmonies of Sanremo. Visually, though, it was stunning. Mahmood’s smooth, dark suit contrasted with Blanco’s rugged, glittery, white-grey outfit. The audience sang along and could be clearly heard at several moments. And through a massive use of projectors, the act looked much bigger than two men and a pianist alone on stage.
Then, with no transition except for a postcard, Spain arrived. And it rocked the arena. After a strong local support for Italy, the crowd went wild for Spain, and people that were at the Pala Olimpico have said that the stands were shaking during these three minutes: it was, in so many ways, an earthquake at Eurovision.
Everything worked with this performance: the mysterious introduction, the dance moves, the slow motion choreographies, the gymnastics, the dance-break, and the vocals. Coming from musical theatre, Chanel knew how to perform physically and vocally at the same time. And with arena microphones set to capture the crowd’s reaction with more volume than in previous years, the live atmosphere translated as faithfully as possible on TV.
In our 2018 article, I wrote that “Fuego” had set a standard in the “Eurovision girl pop dance act” category, with songs after it being described as “Fuego-like”. With Chanel, Eurovision had a new standard: “Slomo” was not “Fuego-like”, it was seen by most fans as better than that, and future songs would almost be called “Slomo-like”. Months later, Chanel even dethroned Loreen by winning the 2022 ESC250 end-of-year fan competition, which “Euphoria” had topped every year since 2002.
After this storm of energy, The Netherlands calmed the atmosphere down with a heartfelt performance of “De Diepte” by S10, which was followed by the favourites, Ukraine.
The performance was similar to that of the semi-final, but as the song ended, Oleh took the mic to ask for support in the war.
I ask all of you. Please help Ukraine, Mariupol!
Oleh Psiuk after Kalush Orchestra’s Grand Final performance
Help Azovstal, right now!
This was a reference to the Azovstal factory in Mariupol, which was the last part of the Ukrainian city not to have fallen under Russian control at the time. The facility was under siege, with the last remnants of armed resistance confined there. Some fans feared this call for support could have been ground for disqualification, or some sort of penalty. In the end, the EBU took no action and clarified that they believed “the comments of the Kalush Orchestra and [of] other artists expressing support for the Ukrainian people to be humanitarian rather than political in nature.“
In the second-half, Sweden performed in 20th, right after Moldova, in a move that was very similar to the 2021 sequence of Ukraine (very much going for the televote) and France (a female-led heartfelt ballad with impact, more aimed at the juries). Then, after a little visit down under, it was time for the United Kingdom.
The song started with a camera shot filmed from a distance, with the dark silhouette of Sam Ryder on top of a white circle. After 10 seconds, the shot changed to a closer look of Ryder, wearing a space-themed black outfit covered in stars and moons. As the chorus hit, three structures around him lit up, in a light, white and blueish atmosphere. Ryder was standing on a small circular platform, elevating him slightly above a smoke of dry ice covering the entire floor around him. Before the third chorus, the lights turned to warmer shades of yellow and orange, the structures “collapsed” or opened around him, and a guitar materialised in his hands. A guitar solo later, the song closed on a much more intimate version of the chorus, with the audience singing along, caught on the mic at the “There’s nothing but space, man” line.
Poland, Serbia (a crowd pleaser) and Estonia closed the show, and after some interval acts (including an incredible medley by host Mika), it was time for the votes to come in.
The jury votes — Everything still possible
The jury votes started, and with them came a first surprise: Spain was appreciated by the juries. After the first few countries had given their votes, two consecutive sets of “12 points” from North Macedonia and Malta even put it on top. After seven countries, though, the UK had replaced them, with Sweden and Spain a few points behind, tied for second place.
Then came the 8th jury, Azerbaijan. And Mika, announcing the votes, turned to Martin Österdahl, the Executive Supervisor of the contest. Österdahl said that there was an issue and that he would announce the votes from Azerbaijan, giving 12 points to the United Kingdom.
We later learned that these were not the points of the Azeri jury, but a replacement set of aggregated results, as the Azeri jury had been disqualified during the week, along with five others. The EBU had detected an anomaly in the semi-final jury votes of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, Montenegro, Poland and San Marino. A pattern was detected, in which these six countries had put the five others in their top 5, 6, or 7, in a way that deviated far too suspiciously from the rest of the jury votes, and in a way that was automatically beneficial to each other.
The jury votes were thus replaced in the second semi-final and in the final. It appears that three broadcasters (Georgia, Romania and Azerbaijan) refused to announce their “replacement results”, forcing Österdahl to announce their points instead.
After 20 juries, the United Kingdom was still in the lead, and remained there until the end. The full results were once again close to those of 2018 and 2021: a jury winner in the 260-280 points, with the runner-up some 20-30 points behind an the third-place country another 20-30 points behind the runner-up. This time, the United Kingdom was on top with 283 points, with Sweden at 258 and Spain at 231. Ukraine was “only” at number four, with 192 points.
With these 2018 and 2021 precedents, it was clear that the televote would decide the winner. The top four countries had, in theory, a road to victory. In practice, however, there was only one realistic winner.
The televote results — a landslide to victory
For the third year, the televote was announced in the order of the jury ranking. Germany were the first to be called, and thankfully their jury “nul points” were completed by six televote points. The points continued to drop, with some very large scores for entries ranked low by the juries, like Moldova and Serbia.
These contrasts hid another phenomenon that was partially announcing what was to come: very low scores at the bottom. Switzerland got no points from the public, but there were 2 points for Australia, 3 for Azerbaijan, 5 for Czechia and Belgium, etc. In the televote rankings, the first double-figure came for Iceland, ranked 18th, with 10 points. The seven entries under that totalled barely 29 points together. In 2021, despite four “nul points“, the bottom seven had gathered 36 points. In 2019, it was 99 points. In 2018, 137 points. Of course, the number of voting countries had dwindled, but this was still an exceptionally unbalanced distribution.
Where did these points go? To Ukraine, of course. With only four countries left to be announced after Portugal, it was Mika’s turn to reveal the televote points for Ukraine. The announcement took more than 30 seconds, creating suspense for a historic moment.
We’re now going to move on to Ukraine….
Mika announcing the televote points of Ukraine
And Ukraine, the public has given you…
Four hundred and thirty-nine points!
As soon as we fans heard the “Four hundred….”, we knew it was over. Any doubts about Ukraine’s televote support were cleared. Victory was theirs, and no one else’s. Most fans don’t particularly remember the next three announcements, or the last split screen between Kalush Orchestra and Sam Ryder. You can find it below, if you want to remember it.
Statistically-speaking, Ukraine landslided the televote with 439 points. This remains the largest score ever achieved in any “single-vote” system: jury vote, televote, or the merged systems used before 2016 (basically, any system where countries gave their points only once). 29 countries gave Ukraine their televote’s 12 points, with only Serbia not putting Ukraine in its top 3, by “only” giving it 7 points. This was not, however, the biggest total score, a record that still belonged to the Sobrals in 2017, when Portugal received a double landslide and reached the record score of 758 points. “Stefania” got the second highest score, still 127 points behind with 631 points.
Sweden and the United Kingdom received almost the same amounts of televoting points, 180 and 183 respectively, being ranked 6th and 5th. This put the UK slightly above Spain in the general ranking, making Sam Ryder the runner-up, a result that later meant the BBC would host the 2023 contest.
Spain, to nobody’s surprise, also reached a high televote score, with 228 points, almost as much as they had earned from the juries (231). This meant “Slomo” ranked third with the juries, the public, and the general score too.
Trophy, and glory, to Ukraine
Kalush Orchestra joined the hosts on the satellite stage to receive their trophy. For the second edition in a row, it was the host instead of the previous winner who gave the glass microphone to the champions. Måneskin’s absence was never explained, but it is likely that Damiano David’s leg injury, which already made his guest performance difficult during the final, played a role. Instead, Alessandro Catelan gave the trophy to Oleh Psiuk, who pronounced the victory words for the whole band.
Thank you so much. Thank you for supporting Ukraine. This victory is for every Ukrainian.
Oleh Psiuk’s victory words for Kalush Orchestra, after receiving the 2022 Eurovision Trophy
Slava Ukraini!
The band left to prepare for their winners’ performance, and let the hosts conclude the evening with the usual thanks. Finally, Kalush Orchestra was ready to sing again, and did so as the credits rolled, singing their last chorus inside a sea of confettis.
And that was the road to victory for “Stefania”: a clear season favourite who was, in hindsight, always going to win the contest. For some fans, however, support for Ukraine in its war against Russia should not have translated as much into the contest. It is useless to deny that the situation played a huge part in Ukraine’s televote victory: some call it a sympathy or support vote, others call it politics. It became clear that the televote could still be swayed by these matters, and similar things happened in 2024, in a very different context, although with weaker effects on the eventual results.
Many still wonder about who would have won without this context. Would Ukraine still have had enough televote appeal? Would it naturally fall to the runner-up, the United Kingdom? Or would Spain, already above the United Kingdom in the televote, have risen on top to break its record of winless years? Would the jury votes be exactly the same too? It seems likely that only a song from the actual top 3 would have won, but this is simple speculation. Ukraine won, fair and square. But Ukraine could not host the contest: so, for the first time in more than fourty years, a non-winner would have to step in. Eurovision was headed to the United Kingdom, to Liverpool, for an intense competition between two neighbours: Sweden, and Finland.
My memories of this victory
Ah, 2022… I was among those, that year, who had doubts about Ukraine’s victory chances. It seemed likely, but the mystery was still there. And perhaps there was a bit of a desire to have some form of suspense or uncertainty to completely appreciate the contest.
My favourites were Italy, Spain, and Sweden. I also had a guilty pleasure for Croatia (no pun intended) but the less said about that the better, it seems.
I cannot ignore how the geopolitical situation shaped this edition of the contest, and my experience of it. I have always told non-fans that, through the Eurovision community, I felt a sense of belonging to something truly European: something more cultural, more tangible, than the political version of the EU. Basically, “you feel more European as a Eurofan than as a European citizen” (when you can be both). 2022 truly made it feel this way. When people talked about Ukraine’s possible fall in days, when people talked about “who could be next”, I felt a strong sense of kinship to these countries. Ukraine, the Baltics, Moldova, etc. We share cultural references which others do not, “united by music” (truly), and through this means I felt that support for the eastern flank of Europe should not falter. Under no circumstances.
Enough with the politics, though.
2022 was also the first (and so far only) year in which I was alone to watch the final. Although that was not completely true: I had the honour of hosting the Xtra Livestream of the final, with a dozen people watching me along with the actual broadcast. I remember wondering about Kalush Orchestra’s comments after their performance, and I remember my happy surprise to see Spain so high in the jury votes. I remember also my disappointment at Ukraine’s victory, because even though it was obvious in hindsight, and even though it was a beautiful moment of solidarity from the peoples of Europe, as a fan of the contest you could only feel that it was “the right one at the wrong time” for other countries. It remains a good song, and a good year.
Did you follow the contest back in 2022? What are your memories of this experience, and of Kalush Orchestra’s path to Eurovision victory? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media, at @escxtra! And be sure to check us again next week, to read about the victory of “Tattoo” in Liverpool, and on the legendary battle between Sweden and Finland to take the trophy home.
