In these weeks between the selection season and Eurovision itself, in Basel, artists and delegations are preparing to tour Europe through pre-parties and other occasions to showcase their entries, trying to get closer to victory. But what is the road to Eurovision victory? As we wait for the first rehearsals, we at ESCXTRA look back at the last eight winners of the contest, and at their own road to victory. This week, we start with the 2016 winner, Jamala from Ukraine, with “1944”.
Genesis of a song: From “Bizim Qirim” to “1944”
“Bizim Qirim” and Jamala’s story
“1944” was not born “1944”. Originally, the song was called “Bizim Qirim” (“Our Crimea”). It had Ukrainian verses and a chorus in Crimean Tatar, and was composed and written by Jamala. “Bizim Qirim” was a poetic ballad recounting the tragedy of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, which took place in May 1944. Soviet leader Josef Stalin had ordered the deportation of all the Tatars of Crimea from their homeland to the Soviet republics of central Asia. Hundred of thousands were forced to leave their home: many died, and the survivors were only allowed to come back to Crimea at the very end of the 1980’s, more than fourty years after the events. The story was very personal for Jamala, as her grandmother had been deported.
This original version, “Bizim Qirim”, was performed a few times only, including once before Eurovision, something that will come up later… You can hear a live version in the video below:
“1944”, a song for international audiences
Although she alone was credited for writing “1944” at Eurovision, that final product was the result of at least three different people. The composition remained Jamala’s, but she was not the actual author of any of the lyrics she ended up singing in Stockholm.
The English lyrics were written by Art Antonyan. Antonyan is a Ukrainian journalist, writer and media host, who has worked for several media outlets in Ukraine, but also for some American institutions, including the Peace Corps and the press office of the US Embassy in Moscow. Jamala came to him with a demo of the “Bizim Girim”, and asked him to write English lyrics instead, to give an “international level” to the message.
(the following quote contains disturbing details on the deportation of Crimean Tatars in its first paragraph)
Jamala told me about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. In what terrible conditions people were transported. How cruel the treatment was. And those who could not stand it and died were simply thrown out of the trains. Even the smallest ones were not spared. Jamala’s great-grandmother lost her baby daughter. They did not allow her to be buried. They simply threw her out.
Art Antonyan on the writing of the “1944” English lyrics
[…]
Dja’ sent me a rough demo — one Ukrainian verse, which was repeated twice, and a chorus consisting of two lines in Crimean Tatar. And she asked me to write the English lyrics. Impressed by her stories, that same evening, when I came home from work, I sat down to write a poem in English.
I immersed myself in this subject, tried to imagine all that horror… A lump in my throat began to choke me with the very first lines: When strangers are coming. They come to your house. They kill you all… I always sing when I write poetry. This time it was not easy. I worked on the text until the morning. Commuting to work after a sleepless night, in the subway, squeezed on all sides in a crowded train car, I sang what had already been composed, and finished writing the last lines. This is how the song in English with a Crimean Tatar chorus was born.
As for the lines in Crimean Tatar, which make up the chorus, they were not Jamala’s either. They were taken from a Crimean Tatar folklore song, anonymously written in the aftermath of the deportation, “Ey, güzel Qırım” (“Oh, beautiful Crimea!”). Some sources credit it to Fatma Halilova and Shurki Osmanov, two Tatars deported in Uzbekistan. For Jamala, it was a song that her deported grandmother sang to her when she was a child.
| “Ey, güzel Qırım” | English translation | “1944” chorus |
| Men bu yerde yaşalmadım, Yaşlığıma toyalmadım, Vatanıma asret oldım, Ey, güzel Qırım. | I could not live in this land, I could not enjoy my youth, I’m longing for my homeland, Oh, beautiful Crimea! | Yaşlığıma toyalmadım, Men bu yerde yaşalmadım, Yaşlığıma toyalmadım, Men bu yerde yaşalmadım, |
The first two lines were simply inverted and repeated once to form the chorus.
Earning the ticket: Tiebreak in Vidbir
Ukraine’s return
After a politically heated 2014 contest, where Ukraine and Russia both competed only a few months after Russia’s forceful and illegal annexation of Crimea, Ukraine decided to withdraw from Eurovision before the 2015 edition, due to the domestic economic and political situation.
While they were away, their aggressor, Russia, finished in 2nd place in Vienna, singing a song about peace. There starts the symbolic road to Ukraine’s return and eventual Eurovision victory, which you could say was, in many ways, a victory over Russia.
At the end of 2015, Ukraine announced it would return to the contest. Once again, the broadcaster (called NTU at the time) organised a national selection, Vidbir, to choose the Ukrainian entry. Eighteen acts were shortlisted from a pool of submissions, including Jamala’s “1944”, and were announced in January 2016.
First international coverage
Jamala performed in the first semi-final, on February 6, in the sixth spot, and won the show with top points from both the jury and the televote, nine from each, thus qualifying for the final. Her semi-final performance, the first competitive performance of “1944” in the Eurovision season, can be found below. This was, for the Eurovision community, the first live version of the entry, and the first step towards eventual victory in Stockholm.
The song was already making some (small) headlines internationally, with The Guardian reporting on Jamala’s qualification. Their article more than hinted at the potential politicization of the song, which was already apparent through another spectrum: Crimean Tatars living in Crimea and attempting to vote for the song by sending texts to the Vidbir number. Texting, sadly, was in vain, after Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. But it showed the echo the song found to this specific public.
Tiebreak for the ticket
Two weeks later, on February 21, Jamala performed in the Vidbir Final, in the fourth slot this time. With only six songs performing, and a voting system that reduced the jury and televote rankings to a fixed scale of points (one point for the song coming last, six for the song leading the vote), the potential for a tie was strong.
And of course, a tie happened. Two, in fact: “We do change” and “Higher” tied for the fourth place, with 5 points each ; and “1944” tied with “Helpless” from The Hardkiss, for the first place. Both scored 11 points: 5 from the juries and 6 from the public for Jamala, and the other way around for The Hardkiss. The tiebreaking rule gave the edge to the song with the best televote: “1944” came first, having received 38% of the televote, against 21% for The Hardkiss.
Thus Jamala had a ticket for Eurovision. At the time, however, she was not a favourite to win the contest.
