Greetings From Europe, We're Kinda Not Okay 😅

For all those around the world waking up to an angry Europe and not knowing why, Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest by performing a song that is blatantly identical to, and plagiarising of, Abba’s ‘Winner Takes It All’, just remixed as a dance track. They lost the public vote, robbing Finland of what was seen as a well-deserved and well-earned victory, to the point that people are calling for the annexation of the professional jury and calling the contest rigged and paid for in order to tie in to Abba’s 50 year anniversary next year when the contest will be hosted in Sweden.  

Do you think the professional jury should be abolished?  

Swedish Performance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2Fj0W4jP4

Winner Takes It All - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92cwKCU8Z5c

Finish Performance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8

Yeah, so overall I have mixed - mostly annoyed - feelings about how the UK’s been handling this Eurovision.

On the one hand we have some positives: They acknowledged Ukraine’s win several times, they let Julia Sanina (the only Ukrainian host) do the opening speech almost by herself, she and the others said the word “war” several times and they explicitly stated that Eurovision’s not being hosted in Ukraine because of the war. No sugarcoating there, no calling it a “conflict” instead of a war, no making Eurovision having to be held in the UK sound like a good thing. Also that intervall performance with Alyosha (Ukraine’s ESC contestant from 2010) was a well-done, heartbreaking reminder of why we’re in Liverpool and not in Ukraine.

But then there are the negatives, mainly that I’m not sold on this whole concept of the UK hosting “on behalf” of Ukraine. I really think it should have been “Ukraine hosts in the UK” instead. The UK should have just provided the venue (and the technology, security etc. that comes with it) and then taken a backseat and let Ukraine do their thing. Don’t host it for them, just give them a safe place to do so themselves and then be quiet.

I get that stuff like that opening clip or the postcards switching between locations in Ukraine and the UK are meant to be sweet, but honestly... could have just cut the UK out of those alltogether. And it’s so freaking cringe to hear Graham Norton do what’s supposed to be a summary of Ukraine’s (remarkable!) Eurovision history, only for him to go on about the UK’s failures and Sam Ryder’s 5th 2nd place instead. Shut uppp no one cares!!! You didn’t win, this isn’t your party!!

All of that being said, I’m not Ukrainian and I don’t want to speak over Ukrainian people on this or decide for them whether the UK’s doing a good job here or not. (For example, I was going to severely roll my eyes at that opening clip until I saw a bunch of Ukrainian people on Youtube comment that they loved it and found it touching and sweet. So, you know - in my opinion the UK is making this way too much about themselves, but at the end of the day, that’s up for Ukrainian people to decide.)

And for Ukrainians, if it’s any consolation at all: Knowing you guys’ amazing Eurovision track record (3 wins in 20 years! never failed to qualify for the final!), you will win again in the future and we will one day have Eurovision hosted in a peaceful, free, sovereign Ukraine. That I believe. Слава Україні.