For the fourth time since the Russian invasion, Ukraine participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. And for the fifth time in a row, the country ended in the top 10 with Ziferblat placing ninth on the scoreboard.
Tension remains high after Eurovision 2025 and multiple calls for debates on the apolitical aspect of the contest from broadcasters. It’s new that these are starting to slowly include Ukraine as well. Let us dissect what the people are saying and how truthful their claims are.
Summary: what are the people saying?
To start: one of the contestants of the first semi-final shared a set of Instagram stories in which he called Ukraine to be disqualified from the contest. It’s striking because this comes three years after many contestants brought Ukrainian flags to the arena to support the country.
Anyone on social media has seen the arguments swung around to get rid of Ukraine. Some people say the country takes too many televoting points away from other countries. But what influence does the Ukrainian community and the war really have?
Next to that, some commenters have claimed that Ukraine also politicises the contest as it’s a country at war. There’s very little explanation needed to prove Ziferblat themselves definitely did not politicise the event. In an interview to Wiwibloggs during rehearsal week, they even hinted they detested speaking of the war. Simply because they wish there was no war and they want peace.
To discuss all assumptions and claims made on social media, let’s dissect Ukraine’s jury results in comparison to others, their diaspora voting compared to other diasporas and their semi-final one victory.
Ukraine’s jury results discussed
The juries were partially introduced in 2009 to combat diaspora voting. This came after complaints from Western European countries. They saw their top points going to countries as Turkey and Armenia each year. The 2016 voting system change sought to decrease the influence of one jury member compared to the televoting public. After seven years of combined jury and televoting, we knew that a single jury member had too much influence over a country’s final result.
During the new Melodifestivalen-style results reveal in 2016, Graham Norton jokingly said “Eurovision nerds are going to have a field day analysing these results”. At the time, Wiwibloggs quickly analysed that especially Serbia, Lithuania and Poland benefited from the system change in its first year. Those who watched the 2016 contest can remember how Poland suddenly jumped up from almost last to eighth place after receiving the third largest amount of televoting points with 222 points in total.
However, Eurovision is still in part decided by a jury that votes for different entries than a televoting audience. The juries have had their influence in letting entries as “The Code”, “Tattoo” and “Wasted Love” win the contest.
In 2022, Ukraine won the contest after receiving 439 points from the televoting. Back then, Ukraine’s victory was seen as a symbol of Europe uniting to a song about the relationship between a son and a mother in difficult times. A fitting song to the war, but also a modern rap song appreciated by juries.
All in all, Ukraine has actually received the lowest amount of televotes this year since 2018, but still a decent jury result. And in general, the jury has never been on Ukraine’s side. In Lisbon, Mélovin finished last – yes, last – with the professional juries, but finished seventh with the televoters. This year, Ukraine finished sixth with the televoters and fourteenth with the juries. That’s a smaller discrepancy between jury and televoters than many other countries this year.
In 2025, Ukraine, interestingly, received 60 points from sixteen different juries – with many jurors across the continent ranking the entry in their top 10. They received points from six more juries than Tvorchi in 2023 – who also received a mid-table jury score. Which isn’t as strange as “Bird of Pray” contained one of the more complex song structures in this year’s contest. Its progressive rock influences must have struck a chord with some musicians on the jury. With this, Ukraine got points from more juries than the entries from Finland and Albania – and they did not receive any jury points from Lithuania, Czechia or Poland this year.
Ukrainian diaspora voting vs other diasporas in Europe
Since the 2016 voting system change, diasporas have gained more influence again. One thing we should point out first is that other countries with diasporas across Europe scored almost as many televoting points as Ukraine if not more. While Ukraine received 158 points, Poland received 139 and Albania scored 173 points.
Let’s start with Albania. Shkodra Elektronike received points from 25 participating countries and the Rest of World vote. The country received top scores from Montenegro and Greece, two countries with big Albanian diasporas and 10 points from Croatia, France, Italy and Switzerland – including some countries with a sizable Albanian diaspora.
But then people would throw up the question: but if this were the case, why are these countries not going top 10 each year? Well, diasporas are also not tasteless people either.
The Polish diaspora is a great example of this. It’s noticable that countries with Polish diasporas only give statistically more televoting points in years that the Polish act is actually popular with the Polish audience. Michał Szpak was already an insanely liked singer in Poland when he graced the stage in Stockholm in 2016. Justyna Steczkowska racked up millions of views from Poland before the contest. So another similar televoting score for her was inevitable.
Poland received points from twenty-one countries in 2025. The country received 12 points from Ireland and Iceland – where they make up the country’s biggest minority. Poland received 10 points from Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom – countries with big diasporas as well.
Returning to Ukraine, we see a similar pattern as to Albania and Poland. The country received points from 24 countries. Ukraine received top points from Poland, Czechia and Israel, and 10 points from Portugal, Spain and Georgia. It’s worth noting here that Poland and Czechia have been long-term top points givers to Ukraine, due to their pre-2022 existent Ukrainian diaspora.
But one important thing that many people forget is that entries receive far more support than that of their diaspora. We all know someone who voted for Poland, Albania or Ukraine, don’t we? Because we like different music and have different tastes across Europe. Why is Ukraine then a larger problem than other countries with diasporas?
Ukraine’s semi-final result analysed: how they won
The argument against Ukraine seems mostly driven by their semi-final result rather than the final result. Although regarded a safe qualifier by many, the comment sections of Instagram and TikTok were filled with comments from people who called Ziferblat’s entry “Ukraine’s first NQ” or “last place”. These comments already started before Ziferblat won Vidbir. Some people already hoped and thought then that this year could be the year that all-time-qualifier Ukraine would not qualify for the first time. These comments snowballed after Vidbir and even more so during the rehearsal week.
It’s reminiscent of the situation the Netherlands were in in 2023, when Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper‘s hate intensified during the pre-party season. So much so, that it became a trend in the Dutch media to write badly about the duo. Back then, we wrote an editorial about this phenomenon in which people say something is bad because others say it’s bad without giving it a proper chance.
“Bird of Pray” is a good example of this too. It also clearly had more appeal to a “local” audience than to the Eurovision fan audience. This was visible in the pre-contest preview shows, where the entry received high marks. Ukraine won Estonia’s first preview show and did well in the Norwegian preview show Adresse Basel. In the Netherlands, Ziferblat received their own editorial in the prestigeous news magazine De Groene Amsterdammer in April – which generally does not publish on Eurovision – and subsequently received rather favourable reviews from Dutch outlets such as AD, Het Parool and VARAgids.
Ukraine’s semi-final victory is a mystic mix of several elements. First and foremost, the Ukrainian diaspora definitely gave them some votes. Let’s not deny the stats on that. But the Netherlands, a country with a rather small Ukrainian diaspora, gave the country eight points in the semi-final and four points in the final. That, while, in 2023, the Netherlands gave 0 televoting points to Ukraine. The Netherlands is therefore a pretty unique example of a country that gave Ziferblat way more points than Tvorchi – but the pre-contest media attention probably worked out in their favour there too.
Anyone on YouTube on the day after the semi-final, could see that Poland, Estonia and Ukraine were leading in terms of views. Yes, ahead of pre-contest favourites Sweden and the Netherlands. Instead of hate, Ukraine’s performance was flooded with positive comments of people who admit to rarely watching Eurovision but liking the performance. On Spotify, Ziferblat quickly attracted more new listeners from third countries than other acts in the semi-final and notably from those countries performing semi-final one. The locals really did add to the vote tally for this song.
What might have helped Ziferblat slightly as well is “panic voting”. During last year’s final, many Eurovision fans voted for Croatia’s Baby Lasagna in a frenzy, hoping he would therefore win the contest. On the eve of the first semi-final, within the Eurovision community, there was a panic that Ziferblat would NQ over the results of the Audience Poll and Press Poll. As a result, several Eurovision fans campaigned to vote for Ukraine instead of their personal favourites.
Adding everything up, Ukraine topped the semi-final as it gathered enough support from others – not because of a war. Let’s remember that the Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne had no money to promote itself this year due to the war. It all depended on the performance Ziferblat gave on the night and people’s willingness to vote. A performance staged with a small budget, which was definitely way less than €125,000 – a tally taken out of context from an earlier interview.
But most importantly is just to remember that Ukraine came out with an entry for once that was not everyone’s cup of tea. After all, it was the first song in its genre in Eurovision since 1974. But it has its fans. 2024 winner Nemo shared that “Bird of Pray” is one of their favourite songs this contest. Someone else might find it was Ukraine’s worst entry, because they dislike the song. That’s also okay.
But any fear that Ukraine’s participation in the contest is unfair because of the war and their diaspora is ungrounded. Ukraine has been a powerhouse at Eurovision with a staggering record of top 10 entries for various reasons. “Bird of Pray” just became one of them.
What are your thoughts on this analysis? Do you agree with the points that are made? Or what are your findings? Let us know in the comments down below!
People tend to forget that a). Ukraine tends to do pretty good with juries, and b). they’ve consistently done well for years.
And honestly? I like what Ukraine’s sent the last few years:
Excellent analysis.
People forget that Ukraine’s been consistently doing well for years before the war. And that Ukraine post-2022 has been doing pretty good with juries as well.
I’m not saying that the strong televote scores Ukraine gets are ideal – it kind of removes the excitement of the final tally – but I think people overreact about it.
And, you know what? I like Ukraine’s recent songs:
Com’on Renske.
It’s diaspora voting (with some non-Ukrainians who liked the style). Everyone knows that. Without the war and diaspora, Ukrainians wouldn’t vote so hard in the Semi to get to the Final.
Only this year Ukrainians voted less for Ziferblat than for Jerry Heil and Alyona alyona in the Final.
Next year hopefully higher than 9th place.
Ziferblat literally said, and it’s known, that the song is about the war. The part with the breaks, and flashes and black parts is about the electricity black-outs during the war. And the bird that brings messages during the war. The reference to the war is in the song title itself.
Nothing wrong with singing about things that hapoen in your country.
Also Kladvia sings about the consequences of the T urks.
Ukraine is the country that oftens deliver but there is also the controversy of politics and virtue signalling from the audience.
Is it me or Bird of Prey sounds like an anime OP/ED song? Some j-rock band should do an adaptation in Japanese, it would be kickass.
As a weeb, no, Bird of Pray does not sound like an anime OP/ED.
Thank you for the analysis. Very well written indeed. I am so glad you took the time making your knowledge known to us. Considering the cryptic non-apology by the Croatian contestants this year, of him gossiping about Ukraine receiving votes because of the war, I guess the issue must have been stronger amongst certain fan communities than previous years. In the eurovision fan community at reddit were I participated criticism like this rarely appeared, and without a large appeal amongst the users. Ukraine had an unusual song of high artistic quality this year that was challenging for a broad audience.… Read more »
Good analysis. People need to calm down.
There are hundreds and thousands of Ukrainans refugees across Europe, of course it’s convenient for them to vote each year from basically…each and every participating country… This will happen’ in the following years, as well. At least, as long as the war is not over…
Not hundreds of thousands.
10 million.
If a person could only vote once, diaspora voting would have lost its power.
Last year all those kids (young and old) said they voted 20 times for Joost and later Baby Lasagna.
But that would mean less money for ESC. 20 votes is 20 Euros. 1 vote is 1 Euro. They definitely aren’t going to reduce voting as that reduces $$$$
I’m not sure why Ukraine is even in this conversation. They have pretty much ALWAYS done well at ESC. Let’s not forget that they’re the only country that has a 100% qualification rate. Now sympathy might have got them to a win in 2021, but they’ve been a favorite of the contest for a very long time.
a win in 2022 in 2021 Italy won the contest
You don’t even know when the war started.. It’s just something far away and irrelevant for you.
Great article. Diaspora distortion is greater than it was before 2009. Even more people in countries other than their own can vote for their own country, as much as 20 times. So I feel that the televote is no longer fit for purpose. The contest would be much more exciting without it.
I like how Ukraine is increasing its power and influence on Eurovision, when other countries buy ukrainian costumes, production, and are inspired by the visuals and symbols to make their performance better. I think creativity is a strong point of Ukrainians. Not everyone in Ukraine watches Eurovision, but those who do understand how important its that we arent forgotten, Russia pours a lot of money into propaganda, so we need to use every opportunity to be heard in the media Don’t be afraid of the word politics, it’s everywhere, most songs from all countries have political backgrounds, and thank God… Read more »
I’m more concerned about the nordics. This year (in the semi and the final, télé and jury) Sweden and Iceland were very friendly
That one’s easy – that kind of song is popular out here. Just the old truism of “people in a small geographic area with similar languages and cultures have similar tastes in music.”
Also Iceland got 0 from the jury, so c’mon.
The hard thing about Uk raine and Is rael is the fact, that theor songs are actually good since the w4rs started. Retrospectively I couldnt imagine Spaceman or Slomo winning instead.
Crazy that we are speaking of Ukraine while the usual vote exchange between the Nordics is never addressed.
The crime Ukraine commit : sending high quality song year after year.
And some “people” work really hard to make them look bad.
Sweden, another successful country in ESC doesn’t receive so much hostility.
Great analysis. Give the author a raise!
Where do those quality acts end up in charts? They are truly good acts, but most of the votes during the final come from diaspora.
Congratulations, you did not read an article
That’s a bit outrageous to analyze placing rather than given points. We sure know well that, for instance, 90 points in 2025 and 90 points in 2021 can mean completely different placing. Thus, this analysis should have been about received points and not about the actual placing.
Russian propaganda is rampant.
Marko is wrong. The end.
if another country sent such songs
2022 – max 20
2023 – NQ
2024 – max 8
2025 – NQ
but let’s keep pretending that they are not voices of sympathy
If you think ‘Teresa & Maria’ would have got eight points, we can’t help you.
eighth place
Stefania was 5th in the odds before the war broke out and was wildly popular before the contest even started, what are you smoking?
Chanel didn’t win, get over it.
Stefania was 5th because Alina Pash was 2nd and they were riding her coattails but definitely were on downwards trajectory after she was disqualified (were as low as 7th before the war broke out).
Pash would probably have won by a bigger margin, though I have no issues with Stefania
Estefanía was the winner because the war.Everibody knows that.And you too.
Great analysis. This was just another GREAT song, different to the previous ones, but of a stunning quality. And when people hear quality, they vote. I might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there were enough for whom it was. A deserved top-10 finish.
At my Eurovision party in Seattle, Ukraine was the only entry where everyone stopped chatting and focused on the performance. We all had different tastes, but we all agreed that the performance was stunning. I get that it is musically and politically polarizing, but it’s still a well-executed and ambitious piece of art.
Exactly, thank you.
Ukraine simply keeps putting out amazing music year after year. That’s all. Sympathy surely does have an effect but they’re consistently so good that they don’t even need campaigning or solidarity votes. Assuming or suggesting that their participation is unfair or the voting is biased is honestly just insulting, considering the level or artistry the Ukrainian artists have shown throughout the years.
One must remember that Ukraine usually brings quality entries with amazing performances. As for sympathy and diaspora votes, one can be certain that all Ukrainians themselves would be happy if they never existed – as these all have come as the result of the Russian invasion.
Very flatteted that my (un)published comments from another thread served as an inspiration for this excellent analysis. 😮 haha Seriously tho, I find it very disappointing that victims or war crimes and crimes against humanity are put in such context. What is happening to the world? I am not biased towards any country in the ESC and Ukraine, like most countries, is very hit and miss. Their song this year, altho not among ny 6 or 7 favs, was one of the best constructed and performed pieces and I think that’s why people responded to it well. Ukraine’s biggest crime… Read more »
Name that contestant from semi 1 – Croatia’s Marko Bosnjak. The biggest shame and mistake we ever sent to eurovision. Most hated person in Croatia currently. He and his team will say because he is gay, croatians don’t give a F he’s gay. He is hated because of his disgusting behavior and rude comments. After embarrassing croatia with the worst song we ever sent (even worse than celebrate) and winning the national selection thanks to corruption and nepo ties on HRT, not to mention painting croatia as a homophobic hell hole (which is not) he burned every bridge in croatia… Read more »
Hear, hear!
He is beyond cringe, to say it mildly, but Celebrate and The Dream are untouchable when it comes to shameful.
I loved Celebrate and still listen to it
Oh… No offence, but I thought I’d never hear such words.
I am sorry we never got to hear its first English version titled Break A Leg. Sounds like an even grander mess.
I am Dutch and have never voted for Ukraine before, but this year I did. I think the song is amazing and I really really love it. I think that you either hate it or love it and when you do love it, you love it so much that you will vote. That it probably why people voted for this instead of other songs that are okay-ish.
Renske, thank you for your on-point analysis. The effect of diaspora voting is not unique to post-2022 Ukraine, and a less mainstream entry like Bird of Pray shows that the majority of their previous big televote scores come from non-Ukrainians liking the song (and likely some sympathy skew in 2022). In addition, Ukraine was not the only country this year to lose televote points between the SF and GF, Latvia received a similar amount of points while they were predicted to NQ by the bookmakers, suggesting another case of panic voting.
tbh, being ukraine and “only” getting 150 pts, it means that it’s a really weak entry
Exactly. And my family is from Ukraine. Many voted as support to get them to the Final, but many didn’t even bother this year.
I for once actually like the song this year, but so many didn’t.
I heard it first at the semis final and wasn’t keen (like a lot of the songs to be honest, but I was distracted by the blurry, trippy colors I think, and didn’t focus on the song itself. Hearing it again on Saturday, I did like it and think it’s general position on the scoreboard was about right. Who wins the trophy is not very important to me personally We all like different things, genres, and have different tastes, so a ‘winner’ is always go-to be subjective. What’s more important is that they come and present their craft with respect… Read more »
Ukraine shouldn’t be disqualified as they are not doing anything wrong technically. But then again Slava Ukraine is kinda political as if a participant said Glory to Germany (or the one who must not be named) they would probably be cancelled already. If you can say it for one country but not for the other it is political. But Ukraine diaspora is ruining the show. This year they had a song I liked (not enough to vote) but watched every people around me or online criticize and put bottom 5 to. That song somehow ended up in top 10 and… Read more »
So you’re just restating an argument that was looked at and clearly rebuked with a clear and logical analysis in the article you’re commenting on…
Two honest questions:
1. Did you read the article?
2. Were there any parts in it you didn’t understand?
An article writer is not always right.
And my family is from Ukraine.
Ukraine sends very good songs almost every year, last 5 years their songs have bonus with diversity and originality. Their entries are very refreshing in typical Eurovision line-up. Ukrainian songs are maybe hated by fans from Eurovision bubble, because they want only screaming divas, but other viewers have different taste. Thanks god!
Too much discussion going on with Ukraine tbh, that’s the wrong country to point at in that moment.
Yes, Ukraine wasn’t that good as in previous years, but still has it’s audience (and the widespread of Ukrainians all over Europe as well). But I don’t see them as a threat to the voting.
In all that sea of negativity, can we just point out that Latvia, the former punching bag of Eurovision, finished second in the second semifinal? Much more worthy to speak about this than Ukraine.
First, don’t release the songs beforehand, so no-one will be influenced by fanmedia etcetera.
Second, replace the televote-jury by a public voting panel in each country, consisting of about 150 randomly selected people who judge each song individually, which together will lead to the (now ) televote-score, to reduce the influence of voting-campaigns by individual politicians and governments, and diaspora- votes.
‘Randomly selected people’?
Are they picked from a phone book, or are they randomly picked from the Eurovision fandom?
For me Ukraine always bring high quality entries. Even this year. Yes it was more divisive than usual and not what Ukraine usually sends but still quality. Even without sympathy votes as you call it, it still would have done well. Because they always do and right fullt so
To end the politicisation of the contest the EBU should create a rule where if any country is involved in an armed conflict, regardless of whether they are the aggressor or the one being attacked, they can’t participate. That would exclude both Ukraine and Israel at the moment. End of.
That simple suggestion doesn’t take into account the difference between equality and equity.
You can treat everyone equally, but that does not mean you treat everyone correctly from a moral standpoint.
You cannot deny that there are some double standards nowadays, otherwise there would have been a Bosnian or Croatian victory back in the first half of the 1990s.
I am not against Ukrainian participation in Eurovision at all: Ukraine is not an aggressor country, which is the most important reason Ukraine delegation has never harrased or bullied the rest of the delegations Ukraine has not fraudulently bought votes or asked to be voted But, having said that, we have to admit that a good quantity of Ukraine voting is not for musical reasons. No problem here, this has previously happened many times in Eurovision. There are other countries that have extramusical votes every year (less than Ukraine in the last few years, but still). This extramusical votes may… Read more »
Great job with this article. This tendency to put Ukraine in the same box with Israel by some fans, singers and public is embarrassing.
I am confused why people who liked Ukraine, did not like Luxembourg because it feels like they came from the decade
One more thought: I’m not sure I like a concerted effort to vote strategically for Croatia 2024 any better than what Israel is doing. Actually I’m sure: I hate it. BOTH Croatia 2024 and Israel 2025 winning the televote is what convinced me that juries are essential for the survival of the contest. Both terrible songs and acts imo. Sure, only one of them is on a propaganda war but neither is a good winner. I’m still convinced the way juries are currently voting is bad too (5 people, often less than qualified for anything) but obviously, the televote is… Read more »
Ukraine should not be disqualified, not saying this. But it is hard to disagree that this year’s entry should not be top 10 material, even not be in the final. Song was not good, with the classical terrible English text they usually have in ukr entries, and performance was simply outrageous. Same song from other country will get no more than 10 points overall. Reality is that we are right now in a de facto big 7 schema, where two countries can bring somebody farting for 3 min and get a top 10 result. Unfair for the competition, irrespective of… Read more »
They shouldn’t, for the simple reason their government is not investing money in voting campaigns. But the EBU needs to find a solution to reduce the influence of diaspora-voters.
Maybe Eurofans just need to step out of their bubble and realize that 170 million people watched the final, while there are fewer than a million Eurofans. Regular viewers don’t analyze things the way Eurofans do — they vote because they like the song, the artist, the country, or out of sympathy. And there’s nothing you can do about it, because it’s up to the people to decide who they want to vote for
Just introduce a certified electronic signature voting with the face recognition mechanism and passport number verification, so that voting for a country of which one holds citizenship is disabled. Easy peasy, especially for the EU/EBU who love regulations and specialise in producing tones of them every month.
Some people have two nationalities, especially the ones who live in diasporas.
I’m sure there will be many who would consider such a plan to be to intrusive to their privacy. Many countries in the EBU probably have laws making such a voting system illegal in their countries.It may very well drive more people away from the ESC, not a good thing for something that is intended to primarily be entertainment.
Just introduce a certified electronic signature voting with the face recognition mechanism and passport number verification, so that voting for a country of which one holds citizenship is disabled. Easy peasy, especially for the EU/EBU who love regulations and specialise in producing tones of them every month.
This debate can easily be settled by implementing the changes in voting suggested to combat Israel’s political televote results. People mobilising and mass voting for a single country is a problem political or not, as it doesnt reflect reality. When the EBU makes it impossible to exploit the system and mass vote for one country, people will stop questioning Ukraine’s televotes. Everybody wins, nobody loses.
Then Ukraine would be 20th place this year.
All for Ukraine being in Eurovision, but why are you guys suddenly so vocal about this and feel the need to “dissect the truth” or “set the record straight” as if you guys are the be all end all of unbiased reporting. You guys have literally not condemned an actual threat to the competition… so maybe if you want to set the record straight, also post how that particular country (starting with I, ending with srael) should be banned from competing
They’re dissecting it because people online keep mentioning them in the same breath. This allows pro-Israel supporters to position Israel as “like Ukraine” and therefore should be included just as Ukraine is (forgetting that Ukraine is victim not aggressor). On the other hand, it allows those who want Ukraine thrown out of the competition (i.e: Putinas) to use opposition to Israel to call for Ukraine to be excluded. In both cases, it’s disingenuous. There are things wiwibloggs have got wrong in the past I feel but I think they’ve handled the Israel situation well this year. Nothing preformative or “look… Read more »
Who are you to establish what poses a ‘threat’ or who to condemn? Do you wanna take over Wiwi’s editorial stance? Let the EBU in discussion with its members make the best decision regarding KAN. I’m sure they read the map just like sensible and responsible people do.
So you’re gonna dictate to them what editorial stance to take? Slay Queen…
I mean, they literally just reported about Isreal’s televising concerns this year. Hell, maybe this is trying to have them dial up to doing more reporting like thoughts on Israel.
Personally I appreciated a genuine analysis with facts based conclusions on a topic of interest to me.
I don’t really understand the point of your criticism here. It’s something like: “Great work guys, I agree! But how come you didn’t do the same good work on a different topic?”
This question is also driven online by people trying to spread division between Ukraine and Europe. ‘Bird of Prey’ wasn’t my favourite song this year but, as a kind of 60s Brit-pop type song, it was high quality and it was sung well. Go-A wasn’t my favourite thing ever either but, again, it was done well and I can see why people would like it. Ukraine *always* bring high quality entries. That’s why they’ve qualified for years now, long before they were invaded.
Sung well? Seriously?
i thought the performance was magical, I LOVED the staging and the song, it was utterly brilliant. I certainly did not vote for them out of sympathy. People just can’t accept that other people have different tastes and it shows how thick they are
For me, all Ukraine entries from the get go were worthy qualifiers, invasion or not. They were among my favourites this year and in 2023. So nothing to see here.
Also, I’m given to understand the artist mentioned in the article is the Croatian guy who is going ballistic online. Can I just say that I would love to have the “news with attitude” back on this site. I learned so much here. I learned how Anouk is a terrible person, how Ilse and Waylon hated each other… I loved this articles! Why am I not learning about the meltdown of Mr Poison Cake or Mr Clean’s (Mans) drug confessions? Bring back the gossip please, I really don’t wanna use Twitter.
Mr Poison Cake (what a dreadful song!) is awful but I’m also kind of living for the meltdown
Whaaat? I am hearing those from you!
Preach. I don’t use things like twitter. I get my news from fansites. I’m not interested in trawling through twitter trends to find out what’s happening in the world.
M.B. really is in a downward spiral, and not even his young age can be used as excuse.
Simply not worth it.
Ukraine did not win their semi based on merit. Yes, I ended up enjoying their performance, it was lovely it we all know that entry would never place that well under normal circumstances and to deny that is simply dishonest. Of course, it’s also dishonest to compare Ukraine to the despicable actions of the country that won semi 2. However, the real semi winners are both Albania and Latvia and it’s a shame they were denied that.
Who wanted them to be disqualified may I ask?
Me. Not against ukrainian people of course, just because it is obvious that the competition is not fair this way. But Ukraine is definitely less of a problem than Israel is because Ukraine didn’t try to buy votes or organize a massive campaign.