Ukraine has won this year’s Eurovision Song contest with their controversial entry ‘1944’.
The song, written and performed by Crimean Tatar, Jamala, scored 534 points after the Jury and Public votes were combined. Australia came in second with 511 points, while Russia – which was the favourite going into the competition – came third with 491.
The song has garnered a fair amount of controversy, because of it’s alleged political overtones. The title, ‘1944’, references the year when Stalin deported almost all of the Tatar ethnic group from its native region of Crimea in what was then the Soviet Union.
A new scoring system was introduced this year, providing separate scores for each country’s jury and public votes, rather than combining them as in previous years.
The UK’s entry – ‘You’re Not Alone’ by Joe and Jake – finished in 24th place with 62 points.
Watch Jamala’s grand final performance of ‘1944’ below.
