The Ukrainian singer was dubbed the most controversial winner in the history of the song contest.
Ukrainian singer Jamala with the song "1944". In articles about the triumphant victory of the Ukrainian woman, Western media recall the scandals around the song, when Russia offered to disqualify her for political themes, they emphasize that the composition has a deep personal meaning for the Ukrainian singer, however, they note that "1944" tells not only about history, but also about current situation in the Crimea.
"Ukraine will win the Eurovision Song Contest with the politically tinged 1944," The Guardian reports with such a headline about Jamala's victory in Stockholm. about the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. In addition, the publication tells about the singer’s family, which was separated by the occupation of the peninsula, and cites a comment that Jamala gave to the publication on the eve of the competition: “If I win, this will mean that modern Europe is not indifferent and is ready to hear and empathize with other people's pain."
The Guardian also notes that the finals of Yorobachennya-2016 were one of the most politicized in the history of the competition. However, earlier, before the start of the final, the publication placed a photo of Jamala on the main page with the caption: "Are you listening, Putin?"
The Guardian
Jamala on the cover of The Guardian
Reuters calls Ukraine's first place unexpected, and Jamala the most controversial winner in the history of the competition. Like many media outlets, Reuters cites Jamal's call for peace and love as she took the stage to present the award.
The American edition of CBS News notes that "1944" is "... an unusual choice for a kitsch pop fest."
"Yeah! Incredible victory" - the headline quotes the words of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the Polish edition of TVP.info, emphasizing that "Russia unsuccessfully sought disqualification ..." of the victory song. But the Spanish edition of El Pais only casually mentions Russia's attempt to remove the Ukrainian song from the competition. This is perhaps the only European media that does not mention the annexation of Crimea in an article about Jamala's victory.
Mashable notes that Ukraine will win with a powerful political speech aimed directly at Russia. And at the same time, it reminds that it was the votes of the audience that brought Jamala's victory.
Recall that: 534 points - from the jury, according to the new rules and - as a result of voting by viewers from participating countries. Thus, Jamala became the second singer who brought Ukraine a victory in Eurovision: the incendiary Ruslana made her debut in this role in 2004 with her Wild Dances. Until recently, the bookmakers predicted a victory for the representative of Russia, Sergey Lazarev, and Jamala was in third place, according to their data.
Photo gallery How Jamala went to victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016: photos and videos (10 photos)
". In the final of the National Selection, according to the results of voting and jury points, the singer Jamala won. She received the highest score from the audience and 5 points from the jury members.
For the song contest, Jamala chose the song "1944", which is dedicated to the theme of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. However, immediately after the victory, the singer was at the center of the scandal. Information appeared on the Internet that the lyrics of the song will be carefully checked by the organizers of Eurovision.
By the way, Western media, such tabloids as "The Guardian" and "The Telegraph", believe that Ukrainians hear the echo of Russia's annexation of Crimea in Jamala's song: this is a sad story, a soulful ballad sung by a beautiful soprano, which is guaranteed zero points at least from some members of the jury.
However, despite the comments and opinions, Jamala categorically refused to change the title and lyrics of the song. On the question of what Europeans can regard her composition as political manipulation, the singer said that she would listen to many tips.
But never and under no circumstances will I change the name of the song. That terrible year forever changed the life of one fragile woman, my great-grandmother Nazyl Khan. Her life after that was never the same, - said Jamala.
Lyrics of Jamala's song "1944" in Russian translation
When strangers come...
They come to your house
They kill you all and say
"We are not guilty ... not guilty"
Where is your mind?
Mankind is crying
You think you are gods
but everyone dies
don't swallow my soul
our souls.
We could build the future
Where people live freely and love
Happy times...
Where are your hearts?
Humanity, prosper
you think you are gods
But people are dying
Don't swallow my soul
Our souls
I couldn't spend my youth there because you took my world
I didn't have a homeland...
Jamala also said what she thinks about the statements of Konstantin Meladze, who called the song, the production of the number and the singer's dress incompatible with each other.
I want to talk about the dress, the debate about which everyone does not subside. This is not the final dress for Stockholm, nor should it be. But each embroidered flower on the dress is a symbol of the continuity of generations: roses symbolize a mother woman. Almond is a young girl, a daughter. Carnation - an elderly woman, a grandmother, a symbol of wisdom. A branch in its structure is a feminine element with its properties: flexibility, variability, dynamism.
Photo in text: Facebook.com
On May 13, 2017, the final of Eurovision, the largest non-sporting event in the world, took place in Kyiv. The competition was held for the 62nd time, and you can remember how it was remembered for this long period.
The competition was created by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The official goals of its creation were the identification of talented performers through competition at the international level, as well as the strengthening of cultural ties between countries and friendship between peoples. Although, in fact, the EBU simply wanted to increase the interest of Europeans in television, which was then just beginning its history.
For the first time, the Eurovision Song Contest was held on May 24, 1956 in the Swiss city of Lugano, and from there the unofficial tradition of celebrating its holding with scandals originates. And sometimes the scandal is remembered longer than the winner of the contest. I will only mention the largest of them.
So, the first winner of Eurovision was Liz Assia from Switzerland. It immediately became clear that Luxembourg did not send his delegation to the jury, but delegated his rights in it to the owners of the competition. The hosts of the competition took advantage of this and gave all the Luxembourgish votes to the representative of their country. Since only seven countries participated in the first contest, and it was possible to vote for your country, this was enough for her to win.
In 1963, during the voting, the Norwegian delegation on the jury announced their results in descending order of points, and not in the order of the countries, as was then customary. The results were displayed on the scoreboard and it was decided that the Norwegian delegation would simply repeat their results in due course at the end of the vote. However, at the end of the voting, it turned out that the duet from Denmark was only two points behind the leader, the Israeli singer. Esther Ofarim representing Switzerland. Then the Norwegians simply changed their results, taking away two points from Switzerland and giving them to their Danish neighbors. As a result, the duet became the winner Greta And Jurgena Ingmann. Although this blatant scam was seen by TV viewers throughout Western Europe, the Eurovision leadership did not take any action.
The leaders of Eurovision constantly said that their contest supported the right of peoples to freedom and democracy, but this did not prevent them from allowing Spain to participate in it in 1961, and in 1964 Portugal, countries ruled by dictators Francisco Franco And António de Salazar, respectively.
It was Franco who became the author of the scandal with the election of the winner of the competition in 1968, although this became known only 40 years later, when the Spanish television channel TVE showed the documentary "I in May of that year." It turned out that the dictator, through his people, offered money to the jury members from four countries in exchange for the support of the contestant from Spain. Curiously, none of them refused. The victory of the Spanish candidate gave Franco the opportunity to hold the Eurovision Song Contest in Spain and thereby raise the country's international prestige.
As a result, the winner was the Spanish singer Massiel, despite the fact that her song was subjected to the biggest criticism in the history of Eurovision. She could not even pass the national selection - she won there Juan Manuel Serrat. But due to the fact that Serrat decided to sing a song in Catalan, Franco removed him and appointed Massiel, who did not hide her pro-fascist beliefs, as the representative of Spain. Interesting that the victory was stolen from the English singer Cliff Richard. However, he managed to become a star in the future without winning Eurovision, but who remembers Massiel?
Franco's plan worked and in 1969 Eurovision was held in his country. 15 democracies sent their performers to dictatorial Spain, only Austria refused - the first boycott in the history of Eurovision. The following year, five countries boycotted the competition in the Netherlands. The reason for the boycott was that four winners were announced at the competition in Spain, including the host country.
The 1974 contest turned out to be, obviously, the most successful in the history of Eurovision. A really worthy winner was chosen - the Swedish group ABBA.
In addition, it was not politics that influenced the performers, but vice versa. Italian singer song Gigliola Cinquetti Si ("Yes"), the runner-up, was not aired in her home country, as the song was considered to be campaigning for a referendum on divorce.
And the last place song by the Portuguese singer Paul de Carvalho E depois do adeus ("After the farewell") was the signal for a revolution that toppled the country's 40-year-old dictatorship.
However, these were rather two happy exceptions. After the capture of Northern Cyprus by Turkish troops in 1974, Greece boycotted the competition the following year, and in 1976 its participant Marisa Koch sang the song Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou ("Holy Virgin, Holy Virgin") dedicated to this event. It sang about refugee camps instead of tourist camps and burned houses on the island. Türkiye, in protest, refused to participate in the competition for two years.
In 1978, when the winner was the representative of Israel Izhar Cohen, the Eurovision broadcast was interrupted in several Arab countries at once, and in Jordan, viewers were told that Belgium had won.
France in 1982 declared that Eurovision was the epitome of "nonsense and mediocrity" and refused to participate, but returned a year later, and the competition began to broadcast on another channel of French television.
In 1986, the winner of the competition was again elected in violation of the rules. It was announced that the first-placed representative of Belgium Sandra Kim 15 years is the minimum age allowed for a participant. It was later revealed that she was only 13 years old, and that she was specially "aged" with the help of cosmetics and clothes. As usual, this revelation had no consequences. The Eurovision Organizing Committee will never admit its mistakes.
In the second (after ABBA) and, unfortunately, still the last time, in 1988, the Eurovision Song Contest did what it was officially created for - it opened a new star in pop music. Canadian singer is the winner Celine Dion representing Switzerland.
In 1990, a talented musician became the winner Toto Cutugno, but he was widely known even before his participation in Eurovision.
In 1994 Edita Gurnyak performed part of her song in English, while at that time it was allowed to perform songs only in the state language of the country you represent. Despite the demand of six countries for her disqualification, she finished in second place.
In the same year, Russia made its debut at the competition, it was represented by Maria Katz with the song "Eternal Wanderer".
The principle of free participation of any European country was abolished in 1996. The organizing committee decided to reduce the number of participants from 29 to 23 in the simplest way - by expelling representatives of six countries that he did not like after a preliminary audition. Russia was expelled first.
In 1998, the competition was again won by an Israeli representative named Yaron Cohen. In 1993, he changed gender and became a woman performing under the name Dana International. This time, not only the Arab countries were outraged, but also in Israel itself, demonstrations of Orthodox Jews took place, demanding even the resignation of the government of the country, which allowed such a representative of the country to Eurovision. Russia was again unable to participate due to a low rating.
From the same year, a boycott of the contest by Italy began. This leading musical country of the world doubted the objectivity of the evaluation of the performers, since for all the time its representatives won only twice. Italy returned to Eurovision only in 2011, but so far this competition in the country is very much inferior in popularity to the San Remo music festival: anyone will tell you the name of the last winner of the festival, and the vast majority will name the representative of Italy at the last Eurovision Italians cannot.
Revolutionary changes took place at the competition in 1999. Firstly, they were allowed to sing in any language, and almost all participants began to sing in English. Secondly, it was decided that France, Germany, Spain and Great Britain will take part in the final part of the competition, regardless of the results shown. In 2011, the same right was given to Italy in exchange for its return.
However, no logical explanation for this privilege was given. These countries are sometimes said to have the largest number of TV viewers. Then the question arises: why then is Russia not among them? But no one gives an answer to it. I involuntarily recall a phrase from the satirical story "Animal Farm" George Orwell: All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others."
And Russia was again banned from the competition that year under the pretext that its television did not broadcast Eurovision last year.
Throughout Europe in 2003, the Russian group Tatu thundered, and it was she who was considered the undisputed favorite of Eurovision. However, to the amazement of all of Europe, Tatu took only third place. The announced voting results of the TV viewers amazed even more. For example, it turned out that in the UK, where the group occupied the top lines of all the charts for three weeks, they allegedly cooled off so unexpectedly that they did not give her a single point. Ireland decided at the last moment that the scores would be given not by viewers, but by the jury, which also did not give Tatu a single point.
The representative of Turkey has become the new official star of European pop music Sertab Erener.
In 2005, two events took place in Kyiv with an interval of four months: the first Maidan and Eurovision. The delight of the democratic public from the fact that they managed to put their obedient executor at the head of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, was so great that at the Eurovision Song Contest it was decided to forget the constant assurances that it was not political, and openly demonstrate support for the new Ukrainian president. Yushchenko personally attended the final of the competition and congratulated the winners, and Ukraine was represented by the Greenjoly group with the song “We are rich together” (“Together we are many”), which was the anthem of Ukrainian nationalists at the first Maidan in Kiev. Readers Federal News Agency can enjoy this musical masterpiece where the title of the song is repeated countless times.
European viewers also “appreciated” the song, and Ukraine took 19th place that year.
At Eurovision in 2007, the representative of Ukraine Andrey Danilko, better known as Verka Serdiuchka, performing his song "Lasha Tumbai", instead of these two words, he sang "Russia, goodbye", which in English means - "Russia, goodbye." The Eurovision Organizing Committee, as usual, did not respond to the attack against the participating country, but the Ukrainian did not manage to go unpunished: his popularity in Russia fell sharply, and with it the income from concerts fell. But Ukraine admired him - there Danilko immediately received the title of "People's Artist" there, and at the last Eurovision Song Contest held in Kiev, a fragment of this song was shown again in the second semi-final - Russophobia is now at a premium there.
In the same 2007, the winner was the representative of Serbia Maria Sherifovich, who later stated that her victory is the victory of all lesbians in the world.
The following year, the already well-known Russian singer became the winner of Eurovision Dima Bilan. A scandal broke out immediately: the head of the national television and radio company of Ukraine Vasily Ilashchuk stated that the vote for the Russian contestant was rigged. Ilashchuk was immediately supported by representatives of several Western European countries. However, the slanderers could not provide any evidence, and the victory remained with Russia.
At the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010, a scandal occurred a few days before the opening of the contest. A video of a porn film appeared on the Internet, where a contestant from Germany performs sexual intercourse in the pool Lena Meyer-Landrut. It turned out that she acted in films for adults two years before her participation in the competition, when she was 17 years old. Tolerant Europe was not embarrassed, and the porn actress became the new winner of Eurovision. She represented Germany at Eurovision the following year.
The winner of the contest in Baku in 2012 is Swedish Lauryn- thanked the hosts in a very peculiar way. She met with local human rights activists and then told reporters: “Every day there is an increase in the number of human rights violations in Azerbaijan.”
The 2014 Eurovision Song Contest will no doubt be remembered forever. This is the merit of its winner - the representative of Austria Thomas Neuwirth, better known by his creative pseudonym - Conchita Wurst, and even better known as the bearded woman - the winner of Eurovision. Without any exaggeration, he became a living embodiment of European tolerance. Few people remember how he sings, but everyone remembers how he looks.
The German magazine Stern candidly admitted: "The contest song itself was mediocre and turned into a grandiose one only in combination with the performer."
And the former Prime Minister of Poland Yaroslav Kachinsky spoke even sharper: "Europe is taking away our shipyards and sugar factories, and in return palms off bearded women."
Two years later, in Sweden, the Eurovision Song Contest proved again that its main goal is not to identify musical talents, but to promote Euro-Atlantic values. It is understandable: for the first time the contest was broadcast in the USA. There were enough scandals, as always: at first, because of debts, they did not let Romania in, then they approved the provision that only the state flags of the UN member countries, as well as the flags of the European Union and the LGBT community, that is, sexual minorities, could be in the auditorium. This glorification of the LGBT community has amazed many.
The biggest scandal was the victory of the representative of Ukraine Jamals with the song "1944". Spectators of Europe gave the victory to the representative of Russia Sergey Lazarev, but few people are interested in their opinion, and after the jury voted, Jamala became the winner. Before and during the competition, she vehemently argued that her song was not political and did not violate the Eurovision rules. Of course, the organizing committee and the EBU believed her, although it is clear to anyone that a song with such a title cannot but be political. Returning with a victory to Ukraine, Jamala admitted that her song is political, dedicated to the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and is a means of pressure on Russia.
But even this did not become an obstacle for Jamala to perform this song during the first semi-final of the last Eurovision Song Contest on May 9, 2017 in Kyiv. According to Ukrainian media reports, three more scandals at this contest are connected with Jamala. For her out-of-competition participation, Jamala requested almost a million hryvnias (about two million rubles), at the opening of the competition, the organizing committee forbade her to walk the red carpet along with the participants and hosts, and in the final, the Ukrainian prankster Vitaly Sedyuk during her performance, he unexpectedly exposed his ass and showed it to viewers.
The main scandal was the refusal of Ukraine to admit a representative of Russia to the competition. Yulia Samoilova. The official reason for the refusal is her visit to Crimea in 2015. This is another proof that Eurovision is an absolutely political contest.
The Ukrainian organizers got a taste and decided to ban participation in the competition and the representative of Bulgaria to Christian Kostov, which was considered one of the favorites. They wanted to prevent a man who was born and lives in Moscow, who participated in many Russian music competitions and calls his mentor Dima Bilan.
Christian Kostov could have been banned from entering Ukraine for the same reason that Yulia Samoilova was denied entry to Crimea. However, for fear of scandal, the ban was not imposed, formally due to the fact that Kostov visited Crimea in 2014 even before Ukraine passed a law banning people from visiting the peninsula without her permission. Other sources claimed that the young Muscovite was "pardoned" due to the fact that at the time of his visit to the Crimea he was a minor. The Bulgarian media write that the reason for the lifting of the ban was the intervention of the European Union, which includes Bulgaria.
As a result, the victory was nevertheless stolen from Kostov, although the winner of Eurovision is the Portuguese Salvador Sobral really fascinated many.
In any case, this year everything was as always: the Eurovision Song Contest began - scandals also began.
In this article, I do not even mention the many other scandals that were absolutely at all competitions. For example, a lot of accusations of plagiarism - misappropriation of other people's songs. It is impossible to describe hundreds of scandals in many countries when choosing a national representative for the competition.
However, even without this, some conclusions can be drawn. With its officially announced task - to identify new talents - Eurovision clearly failed. The further, the more not talented, but, to put it mildly, original performers are revealed. The strengthening of friendship between peoples is also not going well. Those peoples who were already friends before demonstrate their friendship at the contest through the so-called “neighborhood vote”, which the EBU is unsuccessfully fighting against. So, for example, Romania and Moldova, Greece and Cyprus always give each other the highest score. And those peoples who were at enmity demonstrate their enmity at the competition. For example, Armenia boycotted Eurovision in 2012 in Azerbaijan.
One thing is indisputable: the main task of the competition now is to promote samples of a new type of culture. He copes with this task, and in the coming years, no doubt, the show will continue.
The Eurovision final took place in Stockholm last Saturday, but the scandal around it continues to flare up. Spectators from many countries did not agree with the results of judging by their own jury members. So, for example, the people of Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia gave the representative of Russia Sergey Lazarev the highest score - 12 points, and the jury of these countries actually boycotted his number with a mark of 0 points. As a result, our contestant took only the third place.
However, the winner Jamala, who represented Ukraine, also had questions. So, Internet users were able to convict the singer of violating the rules of Eurovision. According to the rules of the competition, the songs participating in the show must not be performed before the application deadline, that is, September 1, 2015. Meanwhile, a video from Jamala's concert posted on May 19, 2015 was found on YouTube. During this performance, the singer performed the song "1944", which then had a different name - "Our Crimea".
Jamala commented on this fact, having learned that the record was being discussed on the Web. “Don't worry, it was just a rehearsal,” she wrote on one of the social networks. “There was also a different text and a different interpretation.”
However, the singer's excuse seemed insufficient for outraged Internet users. Representatives of Eurovision received an official request to explain how the song was admitted to the contest. The answer came as a surprise to many.
“The rules state that a composition cannot be made public until the first of September of the year preceding the start of the competition. The EBU reference group watched the video of the concert where Jamala's song was performed. But it has been watched by only a few hundred viewers since its publication on YouTube, and the EBU concluded that the video could not be used for commercial purposes,” the organizers of the competition voiced their opinion.
The answer of the representatives of Eurovision, quoted by Life, caused disappointment among fans of the show, who insist that double standards are used in the organization of the contest.
Recall that next year Eurovision will be held in Ukraine. One of the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada has already admitted such an idea that not any representative from Russia will be able to come to the competition for political reasons. Such judgments are again against the rules of the show. Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on the words of the Ukrainian government official. Eurovision is an international competition and the host must follow the Eurovision rules. Everything else is their competence,” Peskov said.
Eurovision is a television event watched by about 125 million viewers worldwide. The 61st Eurovision Song Contest 2016 starts this year on May 10 in Stockholm. This time it is attended by representatives of 43 states. Ukraine is represented by Ukrainian singer of Crimean Tatar origin Jamala.
The International Pop Song Contest among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union has been held annually since 1956. The first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Switzerland. The Founding Fathers took a liking to the 1955 San Remo Song Festival and decided to hold the competition in their own way next year in the Swiss city of Lugano.
On the eve of Eurovision 2016, the competition received the Charlemagne medal for merits in uniting European countries and peoples. The Eurovision Song Contest is considered one of the most popular non-sporting events in the world.
Records
The most "singing" country is Ireland. She holds the record for the number of victories in the competition - 7 victories, of which three times in a row - 1992, 1993, 1994.
The country that most often hosted Eurovision is Great Britain - 8 times. Of these, 5 times after her victory and three times rescued countries that refused to accept the competition.
Performers who have become world-famous stars after participating in Eurovision: the Swedish quartet ABBA, Celine Dion, Toto Cotugno, Al Bano and Romina Power, Rafael, Julio Iglesias.
The youngest Eurovision winner is Sandra Kim from Belgium, she was 13 years old when she won the contest in 1986.
Contest rules updates
This year, changes to the competition rules regarding the format for announcing votes in the final came into force. Thus, the results of the jury voting will be announced separately from the results of the voting of the viewers. First, the countries will announce only 12 points from the jury (points from 1 to 10 will be highlighted on the screen), after which the votes of the viewers will be counted. These votes will be announced as the presenters of the contest.
Scandals at Eurovision
Over the history of its existence, Eurovision has had the status of not only a well-known, but also a scandalous music competition. One of the high-profile scandals occurred in 2014. Then a bearded transvestite from Austria, Conchita Wurst, won the competition. Many countries recognized this decision as fair, but not all. Russian politicians spoke aggressively against the organizers of the competition and the winner himself. A number of media published articles criticizing the "decay of the West." Turkish newspaper Hürriyet wrote that after Wurst's victory, Turkey will "put an end once and for all" to Eurovision. The Catholic radio station in Hungary interrupted the broadcast of Eurovision just as it became known that Conchita Wurst would be the winner.
Among the scandals at the song contest was also copyright infringement. For the first time such a conflict occurred at Eurovision 1973, when in Luxembourg the song "Eres Tu" by the Spanish group was recognized as plagiarism. In addition, over the years, contestants from Sweden, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia were charged with plagiarism.
In 2007, a scandal erupted around the song of Andriy Danilko (Verka Serdyuchka), a contestant from Ukraine. Russian viewers accused the performer of singing the phrase "Russia Goodbye" instead of the official version of "Lasha Tumbai" in the final of the competition.
There are a few days left before the Eurovision 2016 final, but the competition has already been remembered for several scandals. A list of prohibited flags was published on the official website of the song contest. Among them: the flags of the "DPR" group, which Ukraine recognized as terrorist, the Republic of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars, and, in addition, the banner of the "Islamic State" group.
The organizers then apologized and stated that they did not mean to offend anyone. They noted that only the flags of the countries-official participants can be used in the competition.
Another scandal concerns geography. A video appeared on the network with the announcement of the performances of the participants in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, where the Kuban region of Russia looks like the territory of Ukraine. The same Kuban, however, in the video with the announcement of the speech of the Russian representative Sergei Lazarev, is already listed as Russia.
Jamala at Eurovision 2016
This year, Crimean Tatar singer Jamala will represent Ukraine at the competition. In Stockholm, she will sing the song "1944", dedicated to Stalin's deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944. In 1989, the Soviet authorities officially recognized the deportation as illegal. The song is in English with a Crimean Tatar refrain. According to the singer, he was inspired to write the song by his great-grandmother's story about the deportation.
Jamala's song "1944" took first place at the European song opening-2016 festival, which is considered a kind of exit poll before Eurovision.
According to online voting on the Oddschecker.com website, Jamala may tentatively take third place at Eurovision 2016. Its main competitors are called France and Russia.
Russia opposed the performance of the Crimean Tatar performer at Eurovision. In particular, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Vadim Dengin demanded that the singer not be allowed to compete, because allegedly with this song the Ukrainian authorities once again want to "annoy Russia."
Chairman of the occupying power of Crimea Sergei Aksenov noted that it is unacceptable to send Jamala to Eurovision, as this allegedly “politicizes” the contest.
World media wrote that Jamala's performance at Eurovision would anger Russia.
In her interviews, Jamala says that she feels incredible support from Crimea. The Crimean Tatar singer believes that her visit to Crimea and Russia is now impossible.
“I’m afraid that when I arrive in Moscow, they will say “Our Jamala”. I am afraid of them, because there is already distrust, lies... I want the war to end in Donbass. I want Crimea to be Ukrainian. And then I will definitely come to Crimea, and there will be a concert that you have not heard yet,” Jamala promises.
Jamala has number 15
The first semi-final of Eurovision 2016 is scheduled for Tuesday, May 10. Jamala will compete in the second semi-final, on Thursday 12 May, with the number 15. The final of the competition will take place on Saturday, May 14, in the largest spherical structure in the world, the Ericsson Globe, which simultaneously receives up to 16,000 visitors. The contestants have already arrived in Stockholm and are actively rehearsing.
Last year, Ukraine refused to participate in Eurovision. This decision was made by the National TV Company of Ukraine together with the European Broadcasting Union. Among the reasons given were the following: the financial crisis, the political situation in the country, military aggression from the east, the annexation of Ukrainian territories.
Ukraine first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 in Riga, where Alexander Ponomarev sang Hasta la Vista. This song did not have much success, the singer then took the fourteenth place. However, the very next year, the Ukrainian singer Ruslana won in Turkey, thanks to which the Eurovision 2005 contest was held in Kyiv.
