The Grand Final, held in Torino, on May 14 brought together 25 songs, fighting a fierce battle for the trophy. The list is below, shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia. Romania is participating today as well, so I want to apologize again for their performance (:
Before saying more about the contestants, I have to give mad props for the rendition of the medley performed by Mika and Laura Pausini, including Sting’s Fragile,
If you want to listen to the songs, you can check them in my previous article, along with my opinion about the best and worst of them.
Below, you’ll see how my favourites fared.
Entries
| Country | Artist | Song | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Czech Republic
|
We Are Domi | "Lights Off" |
| 02 |  Romania
|
Wrs | "Llámame" |
| 03 |  Portugal
|
Maro | "Saudade, saudade" |
| 04 |  Finland
|
The Rasmus | "Jezebel" |
| 05 |  Switzerland
|
Marius Bear | "Boys Do Cry" |
| 06 |  France
|
Alvan and Ahez | "Fulenn" |
| 07 |  Norway
|
Subwoolfer | "Give That Wolf a Banana" |
| 08 |  Armenia
|
Rosa Linn | "Snap" |
| 09 |  Italy
|
Mahmood and Blanco | "Brividi" |
| 10 |  Spain
|
Chanel | "SloMo" |
| 11 |  Netherlands
|
S10 | "De diepte" |
| 12 |  Ukraine
|
Kalush Orchestra | "Stefania" (Стефанія) |
| 13 |  Germany
|
Malik Harris | "Rockstars" |
| 14 |  Lithuania
|
Monika Liu | "Sentimentai" |
| 15 |  Azerbaijan
|
Nadir Rustamli | "Fade to Black" |
| 16 |  Belgium
|
Jérémie Makiese | "Miss You" |
| 17 |  Greece
|
Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord | "Die Together" |
| 18 |  Iceland
|
Systur | "Með hækkandi sól" |
| 19 |  Moldova
|
Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers | "Trenulețul" |
| 20 |  Sweden
|
Cornelia Jakobs | "Hold Me Closer" |
| 21 |  Australia
|
Sheldon Riley | "Not the Same" |
| 22 |  United Kingdom
|
Sam Ryder | "Space Man" |
| 23 |  Poland
|
Ochman | "River" |
| 24 |  Serbia
|
Konstrakta | "In corpore sano" |
| 25 |  Estonia
|
Stefan | "Hope" |
Results
The winner was no surprise, Ukraine being heralded as winners by most bookies and specialty websites. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine made people have a soft spot for the Ukrainians, their song was a very strong one. Maybe not the best, but one of the catchiest. I observed that the crowd was really mesmerized by the song, clapping and cheering, so I guess it touched the right spots with the viewers. This thing was also seen in the televoting score, where Ukraine got a whopping 439 points (out of 480 possible). This means that on average, 36 of the 40 countries that voted gave them 12 points. Bonkers.
Besides the winners, I’m happy that Moldova managed a 7th position (with almost 250 points from televoting, one of the top countries in popular opinion). Romania did an honorable 18th place, considering the random song we sent. As a sidenote, EBU released an official statement stating that 6 countries with irregular voting patterns had their votes recalculated based “on the results of other countries with similar voting records”. In other words, the juries in 6 countries (Romania being one of them, tried some shit vote manipulation). Fucking disgrace.
The biggest disappointments were Norway’s “Give That Wolf a Banana” that couldn’t land further than tenth place, and Germany’s “Rockstars” which finished last. Sad, considering these were two very goof songs. Also Finland’s The Rasmus were pretty down, 21 out of 25, which is weird, considering their song was strong.
By Eurovision rules, next year’s contest is hosted by the winning country. Let’s hope to see it happen in a peaceful land of Ukraine, away from foreign invaders.
