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Eurovision Song Contest 2022: What the Kalush Orchestra's ESC victory means

2022-05-15T05:25:26.250Z


The Kalush Orchestra is asking for help for their own country, the Ukrainian TV presenter is struggling to keep his composure in a makeshift studio and President Selenkskyj is celebrating the courage of his people – the Eurovision Song Contest has never been so political.


Enlarge image

ESC winner 2022: Kalush Orchestra celebrates with the Ukrainian flag

Photo: Luca Bruno/AP

Ukraine won an important victory this Saturday evening in Turin, 2234 kilometers by road from Kyiv.

At present, the military level and thus the resistance against the Russian invaders may be paramount.

But the »public vote« at this Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was a triumph on several levels, symbolically and ideologically.

And that's not a little.

Incidentally, it was also a triumph for the ESC.

The European singing competition has never been so political, because politics has never been so brutal and close to the Europeans since the existence of the ESC as it is today.

Although the national juries rated the song "Stefania" favorably, the mixture of hip hop, eurodance and folkloric elements alone did not select the winner.

It was the overwhelming 220 votes from the free, democratic and Europe-wide vote of the audience, to which the Kalush Orchestra owed the final score of 631 points.

In the Ukrainian preliminary round it was the other way around.

The Kalush Orchestra was ahead in the public vote with "Stefania", but the jury voted in favor of the competitor Alina Pash.

However, she withdrew her ESC participation after disagreements about a trip to the Crimea - Kalush Orchestra moved up.

Originally an ode to the mother

Kalush Orchestra is the version of the hip-hop trio Kalush, which the rapper Oleh Psiuk named after his hometown in western Ukraine in 2019, has been expanded with traditional folk instruments.

After the second music video, they signed a contract with the Polish branch of the legendary US hip-hop record label Def Jam.

Today, the Kalush Orchestra is managed internationally by Sony Music.

Psiuk originally wrote »Stefania« as an ode to his mother.

Even a lyric like "I'll always find my way home / even if all roads are destroyed" gave the song a different, up-to-date spin.

Now Ukraine's victory at the 66th ESC is anything but a surprise, it was previously expected by bookmakers with a probability of 40 percent.

The difference between the votes of the experts and that of the masses clearly showed where the sympathies lay - and made the vote according to inclination, otherwise an ESC annoyance, a political statement.

"I beg you all"

The group performed in Italy with conspicuous seriousness.

The musicians were on a mission that transcended the usual »peace, joy, pancakes« of the event.

"I beg of you all," said the singer after the performance on stage: "Please help Ukraine, Mariupol and the people of the Azov steelworks - now!".

Thoughtful faces could also be seen while listening to the results of the voting.

No sipping champagne, no heart-shaped hands, no flying kisses for the camera.

For these people, only victory counted that evening.

In view of the competing tearjerkers from Italy and Sweden, the Ukrainian music journalist Phill Pukharev had already asked himself in a text for his country's public broadcaster: »What can a peaceful Europe cry about when Ukraine is worried about Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin , Kharkiv, Mykolayiv and other places, the list of which, unfortunately, is constantly updated?”.

In addition to the words of President Volodymyr Zelenskyj ("Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe"), the reaction of Timur Miroshnychenko makes it clear how high this victory is estimated in Ukraine.

The journalist from Ukrainian television commented on the ESC in a makeshift studio in an air raid shelter and then said: »This is our common victory for our Ukraine.

This is a victory in memory of all who perished.

We win on the musical front and . . .' and then his voice broke.

Tears came to his eyes.

Of course, the success in Turin is a success of Ukrainian propaganda.

With the victory of the Kalush Orchestra, this coming year's carnival will move closer to the Russian borders

When the Ministry of Defense publishes video recordings of warlike scenarios, they are usually accompanied by lively pop songs or patriotic folk songs.

A song that Pink Floyd composed on the basis of a vocal sample by Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk ("Hey Hey Rise Up") is now used as the official soundtrack for an air raid on Russian positions on Snake Island.

"Stefania" will also soon be fed into the ongoing production of horrific images with which the Ukrainian army documents its successes on TikTok or Instagram.

So, whether they like it or not, the motley nonsense culture of the ESC is drawn into this war.

A war, however, whose ideological goals explicitly include the destruction of this motley nonsense culture in the Russian sphere of influence.

Taking Patriarch Cyril I at his word, Deniz Yücel recognized "a kind of armed identity politics" in this armed conflict.

A violence with which, as President Putin put it, "traditional values ​​against pseudo-values ​​that would destroy our people from the inside out" to the final battle.

Officially - and according to its regulations - the ESC is as neutral as the Olympics or a major sporting event, where political statements are also not welcomed.

As a Europe-wide television festival of tolerance, harmony, the queer and colorful, it has an ideological effect at its core.

It's a carnival of progressive liberalism.

And with it a red rag for people who reject such things.

With the victory of the Kalush Orchestra, this coming year's carnival will move closer to the Russian borders.

It could take place in Kyiv, maybe also in Lviv.

Currently, martial law does not allow such events.

Depending on the situation, it could be canceled altogether.

Or become the most bizarre victory celebration the world has ever seen.

Collaboration: Felix Bayer

Source: spiegel

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