Predictably, Europe rallied around war-torn Ukraine catapulting Kalush Orchestra and their song “Stefania” to the top of the Eurovision Song Contest leaderboard.
After the jury scores were tabulated, the United Kingdom’s entry “Space Man” by Sam Ryder was leading the pack with 283 points, with Sweden and Spain close behind with 258 and 231 points, but once the audience votes were added, everything changed. Jury votes count for only 50 percent of the total score.
After a tension-packed vote announcement, Ukraine claimed top marks with the public from throughout Europe and Australia after garnering a whopping 439 points.
With those numbers added in to the total, Ukraine reigned victorious with 631 overall points. This is the nation’s third win, following victories in 2004 and 2016.
American’s are geo-banned from watching Eurovision videos. Here’s the official music video instead. Turn on the captions for an English translation. The song is about a mother’s love and has come to celebrate all mothers in Ukraine who suffer.
Kalush Orchestra formed as an offshoot of the rap group Kalush, focused on blending modern hip-hop sounds with the motifs found in the traditional music and art of Ukraine. Members of the group include Oleh Psiuk, Ihor Didenchuk, MC KylymMen, Tymofii Muzychuk, Vitalii Duzhyk.
One interesting aspect of the Eurovision Song Contest that sets it apart from its counterpart, American Song Contest, in America is that neither the Jury OR the viewing public can vote for their own countries. In America, fans were encouraged to vote early and often for their own states. Plus, the Jury votes had less weight than viewer votes rather than 50/50 split.
Also, this year’s contest was about Europe rallying around Ukraine. The end. For instance, a journalist on Twitter accused the Jury of being “elitist” for ranking Ukraine fifth instead of first. Maybe the jury ranked the songs by quality and tried to keep politics out of it? It’s a SONG contest afterall?
Eurovision Song Contest 2021 – The Results:
- ?? Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – Stefania(631 points)
- ??United Kingdom: Sam Ryder –Spaceman(466 points)
- ?? Spain: Chanel –SloMo(459 points)
- ?? Sweden: Cornelia Jakobs –Hold Me Closer (438 points)
- ?? Serbia: Konstrakta –In Corpore Sano (312 points)
- ?? Italy: Mahmood & BLANCO –Brividi (268 points)
- ?? Moldova: Zdob ?i Zdub & Advahov Brothers –Trenule?ul(253 points)
- ?? Greece: Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord – Die Together (215 points)
- ?? Portugal: MARO –Saudade Saudade(207 points)
- ?? Norway: Subwoolfer –Give That Wolf A Banana (182 points)
- ?? Netherlands: S10 – De Diepte (171 points)
- ?? Poland: Ochman – River (151 points)
- ?? Estonia: Stefan –Hope (141 points)
- ?? Lithuania: Monika Lui – Sentimentai(128 points)
- ?? Australia: Sheldon Riley –Not The Same (126 points)
- ?? Azerbaijan: Nadir Rustamli –Fade To Black (106 points)
- ?? Switzerland: Marius Bear –Boys Do Cry(78 points)
- ?? Romania: WRS –Llámame (65 points)
- ?? Belgium: Jérémie Makiese –Miss You(64 points)
- ?? Armenia: Rosa Linn – Snap (61 points)
- ?? Finland: The Rasmus –Jezebel(38 points)
- ?? Czech Republic: We Are Domi –Lights Off (38 points)
- ?? Iceland: Systur – Með Hækkandi So?l (20 points)
- ?? France: Alvan & Ahez –Fulenn (17 points)
- ??Germany: Malik Harris –Rockstars (6 points)
