Bookies were tipping Russia to win last night’s Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, with hopes pinned on a former child star who has spoken out against his nation’s climate of homophobia.
With US pop star Justin Timberlake making a guest appearance, this year’s edition of the love-it-or-hate-it kitsch fest was slated to be the most-watched in the show’s history. Promising its usual potpourri of bizarre performance antics, special effects and cheese, the contest was being hosted by Swedish public television for the second time in four years.
Throw into the mix a good shot of politics — Russia and Ukraine were both finalists — and rest assured, the show was bound to have die-hard fans and political analysts with a soft spot for pop on the edge of their seats.
Photo: EPA
For the first time, Eurovision was to be broadcast live in the US on the Logo channel, which is aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
“The Eurovision Song Contest is now a truly global phenomenon,” producer Jon Ola Sand said, amid expectations that the show would push last year’s record of 197 million viewers worldwide.
Pop heartthrob Timberlake was expected to perform his new single Can’t Stop the Feeling. Bookies were betting on a star who came in from the cold to win the contest between 26 finalists — 25 Europeans and one Australian.
Russian performer Sergey Lazarev, popular in his own nation and eastern European nations, has built an eventful career as a singer, actor and TV host.
The 33-year-old was said to have all it takes to go down in Eurovision history with his catchy You Are the Only One.
On a more serious note, his sympathy for the LGBT cause has drawn admiration from gay rights campaigners. This month he told Sweden’s QX gay magazine that he was happy for fans to wave rainbow flags at his performance, saying he respects his gay fans and they respect him.
He appeared at a British gay pride event in 2008, at a time when Moscow’s then-mayor openly called such demonstrations “Satanic.”
His main competition was to come from Australia, France and Russia’s archrival Ukraine, whose entry took a decidedly political turn this year.
Kiev was to be represented by Jamala, who was to sing 1944, a song inspired by her great-grandmother’s story. It recounts the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by former Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin, and she was to sing partly in the Tatar language, because “it is in my blood,” she said.
The song has resonance for contemporary Ukraine, where memories of that horror were revived by Russia’s seizure of Crimea and Jamala’s poignant lyrics tell the story of a people with a history of persecution that continues to this day.
Political leaders in Moscow and Crimea protested against the song for, they say, criticizing Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014. However, the jury approved the lyrics nonetheless, setting the stage for a monumental confrontation.
Australia was to take the stage full of ambition in its second year of competition, with a performance by 27-year-old Dami Im, who was born in South Korea. Once a talented pianist, she entered the spotlight in 2013 when she took the Australian X-Factor crown.
France, which has not won for almost four decades, tried to boost its chances by following the Australian formula: pick an artist with a proven record on the small screen.
The nation groomed 31-year-old French-Israeli Amir Haddad, a 2014 finalist in the French version of The Voice singing competition, who also appeared on Israel’s Pop Idol.
However, gone are the days when the antiquated voting system made it obvious who would win long before the show ended.
That was “not good TV,” organizers said.
This year, scores were to be decided by both national juries, who were to speak first, and viewers. The new system was to be implemented to feel more democratic as it gives fans the final say.
People did not need a TV to watch the grand final, as the show was to be streamed live on YouTube, giving Google a piece of a pie once reserved for European public broadcasters.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not