Updated on 05/15/2022 21:04
- The Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest by a wide margin.
- Because of the war at home, the musicians don’t feel like partying.
- But the party should be made up for.
Despite their record win at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the Ukrainian winning band Kalush Orchestra doesn’t feel like celebrating. “Maybe we will have a big celebration after the war, because the victory is great, winning the ESC is fantastic, but so much is happening right now,” said rapper Oleh Psjuk at an online press conference on Sunday evening. “I mean, people you know are getting killed in this war or fighting in it or losing their jobs in Ukraine. That’s not really the best basis for a celebration,” continued the musician, who celebrates his 28th birthday on Monday .
Kalush Orchestra won the Grand Prix in Turin on Sunday night by a wide margin. Germany was last with Malik Harris and “Rockstars”. The six-piece band from western Ukraine received 439 audience votes and overtook the competition from Great Britain, Sweden and Spain. No contribution to an ESC has received so many votes from the audience.
Music video shows consequences of the war
Kalush Orchestra sang the song “Stefania” – a tribute to Psyuk’s mother. On Sunday, the band released a music video on YouTube, which received more than three million clicks within a few hours (as of Sunday evening). The clip shows, among other things, female soldiers who carry children across rubble fields or who are standing in bombed-out high-rise buildings. According to the record company, it was also recorded in Bucha and Irpin, suburbs of Kyiv that were hit particularly hard in the Russian war of aggression.
“We decided to shoot the video in Ukraine to show everyone how Ukraine is today,” Psyuk said. In the explanatory note to the video, he wrote: “Now if Stefania is the anthem of our war, I want it to be the anthem of our victory.”
In his own words, the rapper is happy to return to Ukraine because he can see his family again there: “I really missed my home.” The band was allowed to leave the country with temporary permission, but will have to return to Ukraine in the coming days. According to their frontman, Kalush Orchestra also want to release a new song soon. (br/dpa)
The final of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest took place in Turin on May 14, 2022 at 9:00 p.m. As expected, Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine win. The German participant Malik Harris ended up in last place.
Source-web.de