Eurovision 2023 should be hosted in Ukraine says Kwarteng
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The 2022 Eurovision Song Contest saw the UK pipped to the post by Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra who were awarded a total of 631 points for their single Stefania. Just hours after the result was announced, it was revealed there were “irregular voting patterns” and aggregate votes were used instead. Amid a backlash from fans of the competition, the EBU has issued the controversy.
They stated: “In the analysis of jury voting by the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) pan-European voting partner after the Second Dress Rehearsal of the Second Semi-Final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, certain irregular voting patterns were identified in the results of six countries.
“In order to comply with the Contest’s Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregated result for each country concerned for both the Second-Semi Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records).
“This process was acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor.”
The statement continued: “The EBU takes any suspected attempts to manipulate the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest extremely seriously and has the right to remove such votes in accordance with the Official Voting Instructions, irrespective of whether or not such votes are likely to influence the results and/or outcome of the voting.”
The UK topped the leaderboard following the jury vote before the public votes changed everything and Ukraine became the winners.
Those tuning in at home demanded there be a change to the voting system, with Tucker Jones commenting on Twitter: “Serbia’s entry demonstrated that audiences have audiences have more complex artistic tastes than nearly all national juries.”
Finnix Montana shared: “Latvia actually scored more points with the juries than televotes.”
“Abolish the juries. At least reform them?” Aoife Devigo posted.
“They’re obviously out of touch. Ireland & San Marino were fantastic (in the semi final) and only beccause they’re not ‘typical jury favorites’ ……they didn’t get through.
“They 100 percent did so well with televotes. I’m furious.”
The BBC threw their support behind UK entry Sam Ryder and praised Ukraine’s winning performance.
They said in a statement: “Sam’s performance was simply out of this world and we couldn’t be prouder of him, achieving the best result in 20 years for the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest, including the jury vote.
“Klaus Orchestra’s performance was incredible and generated a reaction both in the arena and around the globe like no other – we offer huge congratulations to Ukraine on their win.”
While Sam may not have won the Song Contest, he did win an award.
Taking to his Instagram page ahead of the Grand Finale, he revealed Space Man was given the Marcel Bezençon Press Award for best song.
In a snap uploaded to the social media site, Sam could be seen smiling as he gripped onto the gong.
He captioned the shot: “WE’RE ALREADY OFF TO A WILD START!!! ‘Space Man’ just won the Marcel Bezençon Press award for BEST SONG at Eurovision 2022…and we haven’t even got on the stage yet.
“So if you’re at home and want a little spark of hope – The UK have never won this award!!!
“Whatever happens later on I just wanna celebrate this little moment with you all! Thank you, LOVE U!!!
“IF YOU LIVE IN AUSTRALIA OR EUROPE YOU CAN VOTE! Download the Eurovision app at the link in my bio and get ready to vote at the end of the show! Remember you can vote 20 times each!!!”
Despite placing second, the singer was still thrilled with his win, and later told fans: “COULDN’T BE HAPPIER RIGHT NOW AND I CAN’T WAIT TO HUG MY GRANDAD!!!”
Eurovision Song Contest is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
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