If last year’s Eurovision was unprecedented for the UK, this one is extensively unusual for far more countries. This is the first time a country has hosted Eurovision on the behalf of the winner – the UK has graciously offered to host Eurovision in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine, for quite obvious reasons. This was also the first time that someone has won twice in the 21st century, as the last time that happened was back in 1987 when Johny Logan made history. Swedish Eurovision returner Loreen is the second person to win Eurovision twice and the first woman ever to do so. Let’s just say she knew what she was doing when she came back and wasn’t going to settle for anything less than last time.
Swedish Eurovision returner Loreen is the second person to win Eurovision twice and the first woman ever to do so
Sweden also evened the score with Ireland for most wins ever. I personally recommend you really take this information in as it’s going to be one of those trick questions in the upcoming pub quizzes for years until someone overcomes these two Eurovision giants.
The 67th Eurovision also saw a multitude of performances from British and Ukrainian past Eurovision attendees and winners as well as other well-known faces that created the festive atmosphere in Liverpool. The beloved Icelandic Dadi Freyr, 2019 winner Duncan Laurence, 2018 winner Netta with a rather interesting cover of Dead Or Alive’s You spin me round, and the performance that could have been predicted once the location was announced – Imagine by John Lennon that was covered by Mahmoot, the runner-up of ESC 2019.
Seems like the UK is back to its roots occupying the second to last place followed by none other than Germany. While excluding last year, this is standard practice, as a self-acclaimed Eurovision expert (my credentials being a European passport and 15 years of annual watching parties), I can say that neither of the countries deserved to be that low on the score table. While Mae Muller’s (UK) music video was significantly better than the performance on the big stage, the song is catchy and radio-friendly to say the least, while Germany’s performance is definitively something that belongs only on Eurovision stage. Adding to that, some of the songs who finished above (cough cough Albania, Moldova, and controversially, I’d say Italy and Czechia) definitely deserved to be lower than the two serial bottom-takers.
Second place went to audience-favourite Finland, which the song 'Cha Cha Cha', that had it all – performance, memorable song, shock-factor, and a likeable person to represent the country. Any other year, it might have been the winner but who can really stand up to queen of Eurovision herself?
The top 11 countries (in descending order) were Sweden, Finland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Ukraine, Belgium, Estonia, Australia, Czechia, and Lithuania. Who puts top 11 and not 10, you ask? A Lithuanian writing the article.
