Swedish singer Loreen has won the Eurovision Song Contest for the second time with her power ballad "Tattoo" beating acts from 25 other countries at the final of the competition in Liverpool. She is only the second performer to take the prize twice, after Ireland's Johnny Logan in the 1980s. It’s Sweden’s seventh Eurovision victory, matching Ireland's record. Loreen's anthem of intense love had been the bookies' favorite and won by far the most votes from professional juries in Eurovision's complex voting system. She faced a strong challenge from Finnish singer Käärijä, a wildly energetic performer whose rap-pop party anthem “Cha Cha Cha” won the public vote. Israel’s Noa Kirel came in third with power-pop anthem “Unicorn,” while Italy’s Marco Mengoni was fourth with his ballad “Due Vite” (Two Lives).
The varied tastes of the continent were on display in a contest that took in the cabaret-style singing of Portugal's Mimicat, the Britney-esque power pop of Poland's Blanka, echoes of Edith Piaf from La Zarra for France, and smoldering balladry from Cyprus' entry, Andrew Lambrou. From Australia, Eurovision contender despite its far-away location, guitar band Voyager evoked head-banging '80s stadium rock. Croatia’s Let 3 offered a surreal antiwar rock opera, and Austrian duo Teya & Salena sent up the music industry in Poe-referencing song “Who the Hell is Edgar?”
Under the slogan “united by music,” Eurovision final fused the soul of the English port city that birthed The Beatles with the spirit of war-battered Ukraine. The sights and sounds of Ukraine ran through the show, starting with an opening film that showed 2022 Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra singing and dancing in the Kyiv subway, with the tune picked up by musicians in the U.K. — including Kate, Princess of Wales, shown playing the piano. The folk-rap band itself then emerged onstage in the Liverpool Arena on a giant pair of outstretched hands, accompanied by massed drummers.
Britain hosted Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine, which won last year but couldn’t take up its right to hold the contest because of the war. Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as the contest was underway, and Ukrainian media reported a strike in Ternopil, home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision entry, Tvorchi.
About 6,000 fans watched the show inside the arena, and tens of thousands more at a Liverpool fan zone and at big-screen events across the U.K. The global television audience has been estimated at 160 million.
Founded in 1956, Eurovision is a European cultural institution that has produced breakout stars — ABBA and Celine Dion are both past winners — alongside performers whose careers sank without a trace. In recent years, it has once again become a platform that can launch stars.