14/05/2023
Sweden have won the sixty seventh Eurovision Song Contest. Singer Loreen, who last won in 2012, has now become the first female to win Eurovision twice. (The first male to win twice was Ireland's Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 and 1987). Sweden scored a total of 583 points against Finland in second place on 526. Loreen told BBC Radio Merseyside that it was fitting that the 2024 contest would now be in Stockholm or another major Swedish city like Malmo, since it will be the half century of ABBA's Eurovision victory for Sweden which kick started the stellar career of one of the greatest pop groups of all time. Although the UK's hosting the event, on behalf of war torn Ukraine, was praised, the country itself did not perform terribly well, with Mae Muller's track coming second from last. It seems that, for the time being at least, the United Kingdom is back in the Eurovision wilderness.
The event was, of course, very gay, with television co-host Graham Norton being beamed into millions of homes across Europe and the world. Rylan Clark-Neal and Scott Mills also handled commentary for the coverage of BBC Radio Two. And Diarmuid O'Brien hosted the club music after party on Irish national channel RTE radio 2FM. The camp spectacle of Eurovision belies its history of promoting peace, unity and tolerance across Europe - the first contest was, after all, held just over a decade from the end of the carnage of World War II, when the continent nearly tore itself to pieces and during which right wing powers indulged in vast orgies of violence and hatred that cost the lives of around fifty million people. That is why, to this day, Eurovision is a celebration of "Unity Through Music" which gets up the noses of puritanical bigots everywhere. As 2014 winner, the Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst remarked "This is for everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who are you are. We are Unity and We are unstoppable".
