The grand final of the pan-continental pop music competition
takes place Saturday in Liverpool. This year’s theme is “united by music,” and
the event fuses the soul of English port city that birthed The Beatles with the
spirit of war-battered Ukraine.
“I’ve never seen a city embrace Eurovision as much as
Liverpool,” said Steve Holden, host of the official Eurovision Song Contest
podcast. “It runs through the whole of the city. Every pub, every shop, every
bar has the Ukrainian flag. … There’s a buzz, there’s a party atmosphere. ”
Britain is hosting the event on behalf of Ukraine, which won
last year’s competition, and the show is set to open with a performance by
Kalush Orchestra, the Ukrainian folk-rap band that took the 2022 trophy with
its lyrical and defiant song “Stefania.”
As contestants from finalist nations enter in an
Olympics-style flag parade there will be live performances from Ukrainian acts
including Jamala, Tina Karol and Verka Serduchka — all past Eurovision
competitors. Britain’s Sam Ryder, who came in second place last year, is also
scheduled to perform, and a clutch of past Eurovision greats will perform a set
of classic Liverpool songs.
Then, 26 acts will have three minutes each to fuse catchy
tunes and eye-popping spectacle into performances capable of winning the hearts
of millions of viewers. The favorites include Swedish singer Loreen – the 2012
Eurovision winner, tipped by the bookies to take the title again with her power
ballad “Tattoo” – and Finland’s Käärijä, a performer with Energizer bunny
energy and a lurid green bolero top who goes from metal growler to sweet
crooner on party anthem “Cha Cha Cha.”
At the offbeat end of the scale are antiwar rock opera “Mama
Å ÄŒ!” by Croatia’s Let 3, who have a penchant for stripping down to their
underwear onstage, and Austrian duo Teya & Salena’s “Who the Hell is
Edgar?” — an ode to Edgar Allen Poe that also slams the meagre royalties
musicians earn from streaming services.
Rock is unusually well represented at a contest that tends
to favor perky pop. Slovenia’s Joker Out, Germany’s Lord of the Lost and
Australia’s Voyager are all guitar-crunching entries.
Reigning champion Ukraine is represented by Tvorchi, an
electronica duo who may tribute to the country’s resilience on “Heart of
Steel.” Britain’s entrant is Mae Muller, with her breakup anthem “I Wrote a
Song.”
About 6,000 fans will watch the show inside the arena, and
tens of thousands more at a Eurovision fan zone beside Liverpool’s docks and at
big-screen events across the U.K. The global television audience has been
estimated at 160 million.
Amid the musical celebration, viewers will be reminded of
the brutal cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though organizers say they
turned down a request by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a video address.
The European Broadcasting Union said that would breach “the nonpolitical nature
of the event.”
The winner will be decided by Eurovision’s famously complex
system of jury and public votes, with each act hoping to escape the humiliation
of getting “nul points” -- zero points.
Founded in 1956, Eurovision is a European cultural
institution that has produced breakout stars — ABBA and Celine Dion are both
past winners – alongside performers whose careers sank without a trace.
In recent years, it has once again become a platform that
can launch stars. Italian rock band MÃ¥neskin, which won in 2021, have played
major U.S. festivals and opened for the Rolling Stones on tour. Ryder has had a
No. 1 album and played the Glastonbury festival.
“People know the value of stepping on that stage to 160
million people, knowing that they could go huge,” Holden said. “ABBA did it in
the 1970s, then it went quiet and it wasn’t quite seen as the launchpad it is
now. Now, the music industry, the world, knows that if you appear at
Eurovision, you could be in for a great thing.”
For many, Eurovision was long viewed as a guilty pleasure —
especially in the U.K., where years of bad results were blamed on geopolitics
and Brexit, rather than the poor quality of the British contenders.
But Ryder’s second-place finish in 2022 has helped restore
Eurovision’s credibility in Britain.
BBC Eurovision host Graham Norton, who will present the
final alongside “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham, British singer Alesha Dixon
and Ukrainian rock star Julia Sanina, said the days of poking fun at Eurovision
are over.
“There was always kind of a nostalgic thing and a kitschy
thing and a campy thing — and there’s a little bit of that left but, actually,
now it’s just a bunch of great pop songs,” he told reporters.
“You can’t laugh at the acts anymore, because they’re so
good.”
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