After a breathless suspense on Saturday, Ukraine beat 25 other countries to win the 2016 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest — incidentally, the first time it was broadcast in the US, on Logo, since the singing competition’s creation back in 1956.
Logo commentators Carson Kressley and Michelle Collins were a little out of their Europop depth and mostly talked about the contestants’ outfits. Which is why they didn’t remark on the key fact that Ukraine had sent not one of their usual buxom disco sirens but a somber ballad, “1944,” about the oppression of Crimean Tatars by the Soviets during WWII. Hauntingly delivered by its writer, Jamala, that unlikely entry won.
And the best part is that it beat Russia by a hair as that country finished third with Sergey Lazarev’s “You Are the Only One.”
Sandwiched between the two enemies was sweet, innocent Australia — yes, Australia, which is nowhere near Europe. Oz is so obsessed with Eurovision that it landed a one-off invitation to participate last year, an invite that was then mysteriously extended. Dami Im’s “Sound of Silence,” which she performed while sitting on a box almost the entire time, actually held the lead for most of the voting, only to be passed at the very end by “1944.”
While Ukraine detoured from its usual playbook, Armenia picked up the baton with a belty diva in a skimpy outfit, because that’s what Eurovision means to many of us fans.
The staging of the songs was fairly conservative this year, but the costumes picked up some of the slack, with special props to Bulgaria’s Poli Genova‘s lit-up dress and Croatia’s Nina Kraljic, with her Frank Gehry construction.
Despite the fact that it ran for nearly four hours, the contest, which was held in Stockholm, felt like a breeze thanks a superb show . The highlight was a fantastically funny skit that explained what makes up a winning Eurovision song. Ironically “1944” didn’t fulfill any of those criteria.
Oh, almost forgot: In the midst of all this craziness, Justin Timberlake also performed. Yeah, he was there too — except people watching Logo didn’t see him because of a rights issue in America.
But then Eurovision is the only place where JT’s almost an afterthought.
His presence also doesn’t mean we’ll see an American contestant anytime soon.
“They need to build an audience in the US,” explains Jon Ola Sand of the organizing European Broadcasting Union. “If you remember Australia and the arguments we had when we invited them — they have broadcast the show for more than 30 years, they have a huge fan base. So no, there is for the time being no discussions of bringing other countries to the contest. But this could change.”
Uh-oh.