Eurovision 2016: Ukraine’s Jamala wins ahead of favourites Russia and Australia

The new voting system saw a tense victory as Australia lost out at the last minute
Ben Travis15 May 2016

Ukraine have won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in a surprise last-minute victory.

The country came out on top with its contestant Jamala and her song 1944, edging ahead of the competition.

Despite Russia being the bookies’ favourite to win with Sergey Lazarev’s You Are The Only One, Jamala proved hugely popular in the phone vote, dashing ahead at the last moment to claim the top spot.

With a new judging system splitting the announcement of the jury vote and the public vote, Australia’s Dami Im seemed an initial favourite, receiving 320 points from the jury to take the lead.

But the addition of the public vote moved Ukraine to the #1 spot with an overall score of 534 points, with Australia coming second, and Russia coming third.

Victorious: Ukraine's Jamala celebrates with the trophy after winning the Eurovision Song Contest final with the song '1944' in Stockholm
AP Photo/Martin Meissner

Jamala said her song 1944 is dedicated to her great-grandmother and is reportedly about Stalin, Crimea and claims of ethnic cleansing.

After accepting the Eurovision trophy, she said: "I know that you sing a song about peace and love, but actually, I really want peace and love to everyone."

Thrusting the glass microphone in the air she yelled: "Thank you Europe - welcome to Ukraine."

While it wasn’t enough to come anywhere near winning the show, Great Britain’s act Joe and Jake enjoyed some success, earning far more than the ‘nul points’ that viewers have come to expect.

The singing duo, who met on The Voice UK, received 54 points from the jury, and an additional 8 points from the phone vote, for an overall score of 62. They even received a full 12 points from Malta.

While Australia’s entry proved popular, Graham Norton spoke out against the country entering the show earlier this week, saying the contest should “get rid” of them.

How to throw the ultimate Eurovision party at home

1/9

“I just do not understand why they are in the Eurovision Song Contest. Get rid of Australia,” Norton said to The Sun.

“I know some countries aren’t technically in Europe but, come on — Australia is on the other side of world.

“People go, ‘Oh you are so anti-Australia’. I’ve got nothing against Australia. I just think it is kind of stupid.”

With Ukraine’s victory, it seems Kiev will be the next city to host the contest.

BBC One, Saturday

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in