Eurovision: Sweden’s Lorin wins again, Britain’s May Muller second from bottom

Sweden’s Loreen has won the Eurovision Song Contest for the second time with her uplifting pop anthem “Tattoo”.

The star, who last won the tournament in 2012, was eliminated from competing with Finnish Karliah in a narrow vote.

Britain’s May Muller failed to replicate Sam Ryder’s success last year, finishing one place above last in 25th place.

And the Princess of Wales made a surprise cameo, playing piano with last year’s winners, the Karush Orchestra.

Lorene is the second only woman to win Eurovision twice, after Ireland’s Johnny Logan, and the first woman to do so.

“This is absolutely spectacular,” she said as she accepted the trophy. “I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it.”

“I never dreamed it would happen, but I never thought it would happen.”

Sweden’s win means Sweden will host the event next year, which marks the 50th anniversary of Abba’s historic victory at Waterloo in 1974.

However, Ireland were eliminated in the semi-finals of this year’s competition for the fifth straight year in what the head of delegation described as “devastating”.

Here are this year’s top three acts:

May Mueller only scored 24 points, leaving Great Britain near the bottom of the leaderboard. “Not what I expected” she tweeted after the show.

“I know it’s a lot of jokes, but we’ve been really giving it our all over the last few months,” she said. “Congratulations to all the nations. I will never forget this trip and I love you all.”

Liverpool hosted this year’s contest on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, which won in 2022.

Fittingly, the show began with last year’s winners, the Karush Orchestra, performing an extended version of their song “Stephania” with a pre-recorded portion from Kiev.

Stars such as Joss Stone, Sam Ryder and Andrew Lloyd Webber gave the song a British sound as the band boarded a train from Kiev’s iconic Maidan Nezarezhnosti subway station and arrived on stage at the Liverpool Arena. Added flavor.

The Princess of Wales accompanied her on piano in a short segment recorded in Windsor Castle’s Crimson Drawing Room earlier this month.

Karush returned to the arena to perform a new single, “Changes,” with a message of defiance against Russia: “Do your best/Set me free.”

It was the first of many mentions of war in a show with a more political overtone than most editions of Eurovision.

Croatia’s Let 3! performed a song calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘crocodile psychopath’ while Czech band Vesna sang ‘We are with you in our hearts’ in Ukrainian. .

Coming from Ukraine, Tvorch performed a powerful song inspired by the Siege of Mariupol.

In the end, he finished 6th with a total of 243 points.

Russia has been suspended from participating in the contest because of its aggression, but organizers refused to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak during the show.

Elsewhere, Eurovision was Eurovision. There were ’80s-inspired homages to Miami Vice, Edgar Allen Poe ghost stories and, of course, tear-down dresses.

However, the musical component of the contest continues to improve.

Spain’s Blanca Paloma combined traditional flamenco rhythms with a throbbing electro pulse to perform at the vibrant and urgent EAEA. And France’s La Zara united decades of Gallic music history in the form of a meeting between Piaf and Daft Punk.

Armenian, Polish and Israeli artists, especially Israeli artists, incorporated sophisticated dance breaks into their performances. Meanwhile, Italy’s Marco Mengoni accompanied two gymnasts on the trampoline.

Also, as usual, there were a lot of both good ballads (Lithuania) and boring ballads (Albania). And a never-ending parade of lyrics about uniting and being kind to your neighbors (Belgium, Switzerland, Australia).

Finnish rapper Karliah was overwhelmingly popular, surpassing Loreen’s tally in a phone poll. However, his chaotic mix of thrash metal, hardcore techno and K-pop melodies failed to impress a jury of music experts.

With a postmodern twist, the contest ended with two songs about the process of composition.

Austrian duo Teja & Salena kicked off the show with the quirky pop anthem “Who the Hell is Edgar.” In this song, they are haunted by the spirit of American poet Edgar Allen Poe and forced to write a song.

An hour and a half later, May Muller closed out the contest with “I Wrote A Song.” In this work, she writes a song listing her ex-boyfriend’s petty crimes to get revenge on him.

That meant that the contest began with the lyric “Oh my god, you’re such a good writer” and ended with Muller singing “Instead, I wrote the song.”

And if it’s not synchronicity, I don’t know what synchronicity is.

The contest was presented by Alisha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham, Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, and Graham Norton participated in the voting phase.

During the intermission, the ‘Liverpool Songbook’ was performed by former Eurovision contestants, with songs by John Lennon, Melanie C and Jerry and the Pacemakers.

And Sam Ryder, who finished second in the UK last year, performed an emotional version of his new single ‘Mountains’ with Queen’s Roger Taylor on drums.

Amputee dancers accompanied Ryder on stage as she sang about overcoming adversity.

Laurene easily won the jury vote, scoring up to 12 points from Ireland, Estonia, Spain, Albania, Cyprus, Ukraine and others.

She finished the jury series with 340 points, 163 ahead of Italy’s Marco Mengoni.

The public favored Finnish rapper Karliah, who provisionally took the lead with a total of 526 points.

After a tense pause, Loreen regained the throne at the last minute and returned to the top with a public score of 243.

Great Britain languished at the bottom of the standings, scoring just 9 points from the public and 15 points from the jury.

Only Germany was worse. Their glam rock song “Blood And Glitter” scored only 18 points.

The BBC, which organized the contest in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union, also voiced its support.

“May, we are so proud of you and all you have achieved in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest,” the station’s official Twitter account said.