Emily Bell

Welcome back to the Opinion Section’s contributors react! We will be taking top news stories and getting our contributors reactions and opinions on it. This time the topic is the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, which saw Ukraine take the winner’s title after the brilliant Kalush Orchestra’s performance of Stefania.

On Saturday 14 May 2022, the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held in Turin, Italy following Italy’s glam rock band Måneskin’s 2021 victory with the song Zitti e buoni. 40 countries took part in the contest this year. Armenia and Montenegro returned to the stage after their absences in 2021 and, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia were excluded from partaking in the contest.

Ukraine received a whopping total of 631 points; the initial jury votes positioned them in fourth place with 192 points, but it was the televote that pushed them into the top spot. They received 439 televote points, which is the most televoting points a country has been given in the contest’s history.

The United Kingdom, shockingly, given our track record in the contest, also did a fantastic job. TikTok star Sam Ryder took to the stage with his original song SPACE MAN, and pushed the UK into second place overall. The UK received the most jury votes in the 2022 contest, with a total of 283 points. Sam Ryder’s success is profound; he is now officially the highest scoring entrant in the history of the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, surpassing Katrina & The Waves’s 227 points in 1997.

Lots of debates have arisen since the conclusion of the contest. Was the outcome of the contest justified, in light of the situation in Ukraine at present? Will Sam Ryder’s success change the scope of the UK’s future on the contest? Should Russia have been allowed to compete this year? Has the contest always been inherently political, and not about talent? Does the result of the contest this year illustrate this? Here’s what our contributors had to say:

A Perfect Culmination

“The entire evening was a great event, culminating in both the success of the United Kingdom, and a brilliant win from Ukraine.”

Eurovision is the perfect culmination of culture, politics, craziness and togetherness – so for Ukraine to have such a phenomenal victory last night just added to the classic poetic justice of the competition. It is so refreshing to see the United Kingdom on the complete opposite side of the scoreboard, and most likely, had the war in Ukraine not took place, TikTok sensation Sam Ryder would have won! Nevertheless, the performance delivered by Kalush Orchestra was beautiful, and every point they received was more than deserved. Sam Ryder should be proud of himself, this is an incredible achievement and hopefully the UK will be back again fighting for victory next year in Ukraine. Lexie Boardman Tweet to @lexiejourno

The recent success of the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest was a pleasant surprise that certainly made the evening a night to remember. Having seen Sam Ryder’s TikToks before his appearance on Eurovision, it was extremely inspiring to see him perform SPACE MAN in one of the most highly anticipated live shows across the world with such enthusiasm. As someone who hopes to enter the creative industry, seeing Sam’s progression was uplifting and motivational. The positive response across social media as the United Kingdom gained points was something brilliant to watch, and the excitement was genuinely infectious as the anticipation built. The entire evening was a great event, culminating in both the success of the United Kingdom, and a brilliant win from Ukraine. Victoria Heath DM @victoriacheath on Instagram

Widespread Appeal

I did not follow Eurovision at all this year, yet I ended up watching the votes come in when I got home from work, After not watching a single performance, I had no idea what was going on! Seeing the United Kingdom do so well after years of being treated as the joke act was such a nice surprise! Sam Ryder seems like such a down to earth person, and he is definitely going to be one to watch. Above all, seeing the United Kingdom’s success makes me wonder if we are going to begin to take the contest more seriously going forward. Sarah Storer Tweet to @sarahevexo

“Sam Ryder and the team behind him seemed deserving of their success. And their mission to keep up this attitude and momentum seems admirable.”

Changing The Game

Watching Eurovision this year was a strange experience, coming from a household where we might have it on in the background and walk in and out catching glimpses here and there and probably turn it off before the final results, in favour of going to sleep. This year I was at uni with about 20 people in one room, with the whole show projected onto the wall and the music playing at maximum volume on a Bluetooth speaker. It was an experience in itself. An even stranger one when the UK started winning? Europe liked us? What was this political game? We’d personally backed Spain, Moldavia,  Norway, and obviously Ukraine, and I was honestly disgruntled to see how unfavourably the jury treated them.  As the unpatriotic often do, we ended up cheering for every country which failed to award the UK any points, and when those instances, where few and far between, just cheering whenever we weren’t given the big 12.
Maybe this sounds traitorous but that evening I’d sat down with friends from the UK but also from the US and Singapore who’d never seen Eurovision before. I’d reliably informed them how the evening would pan out; some crazy performances, a few ballads, and then watch as the UK – the disgrace of Europe – is punished by every country, and we end the evening with a nice fat 0. What made this such a strange occasion is that as the night progressed, no matter if you’d seen Eurovision before or not, we all suddenly entered the same boat, unable to predict or even fathom how what was playing out was really happening.
In retrospect, coming out of that incredibly humid room and into a clearer state of mind, I can appreciate that the UK changed its game this time, and it paid off. Sam Ryder and the team behind him seemed deserving of their success. And their mission to keep up this attitude and momentum seems admirable.
As a football fan who does (unfortunately) cheer when England wins, maybe it was hypocritical of me not to this time. I’d always written off Eurovision as something silly in the background, but like football, it’s something silly that doesn’t matter until you care about it. I didn’t care about us because I didn’t expect we’d do well in any sense. I’d decided it was a political game dressed in some crazy outfits. I will not be making the same mistake in 2023. Aarthee Parimelalaghan Tweet to @aarthee023

Featured image courtesy of Diana Vyshniakova on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. The image license can be found here. 

Emily is a Law student at the University of Bristol. Outside of her time at Empoword Journalism, she can be found reading, drinking wine or playing the piano.

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