TURIN, Italy (Fwrd Axis) – In emotional scenes, and after a passionate night, Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song Stefania resonated with juries and the audience to claim Ukraine’s third Eurovision Victory.
Ukraine’s victory was expected but the margin was not. Ukraine finished with 631 points, ahead of the United Kingdom with 466 points. It was the second-highest score in Eurovision history. It was a closer than anticipated 165 point win.
It would be easy to say that the victory was due to a sympathy vote from Europe and Australian voters. There was sympathy for Ukraine but the song was also very strong.
There was an amazing crowd in Turin. The audience sang along with every song, but Ukraine got the biggest cheers of the night.
All countries have voted! And the scoreboard with the full Jury Results looks like this! 🇬🇧🇸🇪🇪🇸🇺🇦🇵🇹 on the lead! #Eurovision #ESC2022 pic.twitter.com/Kc4Or4wlq6
— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 14, 2022
The United Kingdom won the jury vote with 283 points. But at that stage, Ukraine was only 91 points behind in fourth place. Using an impressive televote of 439 points, Ukraine managed the victory.
Moldova managed a massive jump getting 239 points from the televote after coming 19th in the jury vote. Serbia got 225 points to join Moldova in the 200 club and temporarily take the lead.
THAT winning moment! 🇺🇦🏆 #Eurovision #ESC2022 pic.twitter.com/s4JsQkFJGy
— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 14, 2022
Traditionally the winner would host the following year’s contest. That won’t be the case in 2023 after Ukraine announced it won’t be able to host. That could leave the United Kingdom as the second-place finisher hosting.
Spain and the UK will be delighted with their results after historically bad results in prior years. This is especially true of the UK, which was losing faith in the competition.
Unfortunately, one song had to come last, which fell to Germany, which bookies had predicted before the show. It wasn’t zero as Germany received six from the public.
Ukraine finished the show, ramping up the emotion as Kalush Orchestra performed the winner’s reprise of Stefania. The whole crowd sang along, with the band barely able to hold in their feelings.
