Jamala wins Eurovision Song Contest with song about deportation of Crimean Tatars

Ukrainian singer Jamala has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with the song “1944.”

Jamala received the highest score of 534 points, of which 211 – jury points and 323 – TV viewer points.

Second place went to Australia, which got 511 points. Russia took the third place (491 points). The jury of 11 countries gave the highest scores to the Ukrainian singer.

Earlier, she received the 2016 Eurostory award for the best lyrics. The jury noted exactly the line “You think you are gods, but everyone dies.”

In writing the song, Jamala was inspired by her grandmother’s story about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. She dedicated the song to her grandmother, who had been also deported together with her five children. Jamala sings the song in the English and Crimean Tatar languages.

“My great-grandfather was at the front so he could not protect her and the children. All of them were loaded into the freight cars like cattle and were transported to Central Asia during few weeks. Those, who did not survive those inhuman conditions and died of hunger and thirst, were just thrown from the train on the move. My great-grandmother also lost one of her daughters there,” the singer said.

“I wish it did not happen, that horror did not happen and this song was not written, it would be better..” the singer told reporters at a press conference.

She also confessed she had been listening to the Isaac Perelman’s soundtrack to the Schindler’s List movie and would like her song “1944” had the same power.

Jamala is the first of the Crimean Tatars, who took part in the contest. Her song was accused of politicization because of indication of the year, when Stalin ordered to deport the Crimean Tatars from the Crimean peninsula.

During the Eurovision contest broadcast, the hosts gave advice to future participants of how to win the contest. Among the tips, they noted that they should sing about love and peace, not war.

“I really want peace and love,” Jamala said to the hosts, taking her award.

Meanwhile, Russian TV channel commentators described the vote as biased and said that the singer sang “about her relatives.”

The next Eurovision contest will be held in Ukraine in 2017. During her press conference, Jamala invited all to Ukraine and assured journalists that members of the LGBT community would feel safe in our country.

As reported, March 19, the far right radicals disrupted the Equality Festival in Lviv. The unknown persons mined the Dniester hotel, where the organizers conducted their events.

On the eve, the Lviv District Administrative Court banned all public events on March 19-20 at the street, where the organizers planned to hold an LGBT quest. Ukrainian human rights activist Maksym Butkevych said that the practice of restricting the peaceful assemblies by Yanukovych-era means returned to Ukraine.