Sweden rocks Eurovision as Israel places ninth
Mans Zelmerlow wins 60th anniversary song contest; French-Israeli teen Nadav Guedj’s ‘Golden Boy’ makes the top 10
Swedish singer Mans Zelmerlow won Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest, Europe’s annual pop extravaganza in its 60th anniversary edition.
In Sweden’s seventh victory and its first since 2012, Zelmerlow narrowly beat Russia’s Polina Gagarina and Italian pop opera trio Il Volo.
Russia’s contestant received some boos as the Ukraine conflict spilled over into the continent’s largest songfest.
Australia, which was given a wild-card entry for this year due to its enthusiastic fan base and took part for the first time, was a dark horse, with many hoping candidate Guy Sebastian would triumph and secure a place for the country next year. His failure to do so, placing fifth, means Australia will probably not be back next year.
The race between Russia and Sweden went back and forth for most of the evening as jurors from 40 countries cast their ballots, along a worldwide audience voting by phone and app.
The win by Zelmerlow and his song “Heroes” comes 41 years after that of Swedish group Abba, whose triumph in 1974 with “Waterloo” launched their world career.
About 200 million people watched on TV Saturday as the 27 finalists battled it out musically. Approximately 10,000 people followed the contest live in Vienna’s mammoth Stadthalle.
Last year’s win by bearded cross-dresser Conchita Wurst vaulted the contest into even greater worldwide popularity.
Wurst, who co-hosted the show, was critical of the scattered boos that met Russian contestant Polina Gagarina and her pacifist-themed song “A Million Voices,” calling the reaction “incomprehensible.”
Israel placed ninth with a final score of 97 points. Sweden took 365 and Russia 303.
The Israeli delegation said the ninth place finish was an “amazing achievement.”
Representing Israel was 16-year-old Nadav Guedj, who had also performed his pop song “Golden Boy” in front of a rather exuberant audience at the semi-finals on Thursday night.
“We are satisfied with ninth place,” the Israelis told Ynet. “Nadav’s performance was excellent. It’s a great success for the state of Israel.”
Guedj was the winner of the second season of the Israeli reality TV show “The Next Star.”
The song was released in March and is sung entirely in English.
Israel had failed to qualify for the finals since 2010, but still competes every year despite facing tough odds in the contest seemingly tied to its geopolitical standing.
In recent years, Israeli performers have also had more to worry about than being snubbed.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that Israeli singer Moran Mazor was under heavy guard when she performed Israel’s Eurovision entry in Malmo in August 2013, and Israeli journalists who went to cover the contest found themselves under threat as well, according to Haaretz.
This year Ilan Mor, Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, protested Hungary’s entry into the contest, which contains text shown on a screen behind the singer criticizing last summer’s military campaign in Gaza and accusing Israel of having killed hundreds of Palestinian children during the operation.
A senior official of Hungary’s broadcasting authority told Mor that the Eurovision rules banning political content would be upheld, and that the sentence about Operation Protective Edge would be erased, the European Jewish Congress’s website reported in March.
Israel first entered the Eurovision in 1973 and has won the contest three times — the first in 1978 with Izhar Cohen’s “A-ba-ni-bi”; then in 1979 with “Hallelujah,” performed by Gali Atari; and in 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva.”
