Sweden wins as Australia locations in prime 10

She turned simply the second performer to win the competitors greater than as soon as, clinching victory with pop ballad “Tattoo” and cementing her legacy on the kitsch and wildly celebrated music contest.

Australia, who was represented by West Australian rock band Voyager, landed a prime 10 place, putting ninth.

Loreen had beforehand received the competition in Baku in 2012, along with her career-altering hit “Euphoria.”

Her newest win means Sweden ties Eire for probably the most victories within the competitors, with seven – and it got here 50 years after ABBA received with “Waterloo,” the second that shot them to superstardom.

The present was held in Britain for the primary time in additional than twenty years, after the nation – which got here second final 12 months – stepped in to deal with internet hosting duties on behalf of 2022 winners Ukraine. Internet hosting honours will go to winners Sweden subsequent 12 months.

The UK placed on a dramatic and transferring present that paid tribute to these displaced by conflict and celebrated the music of each nations. However a request from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to handle the present was rejected, organisers mentioned Friday.

Ukraine’s digital duo Tvorchi completed a powerful sixth place, whereas Britain returned to its conventional place towards the underside of the leaderboard, rating twenty fifth – the penultimate spot.

Sweden’s successful act, Loreen, informed CNN forward of the ultimate that her first victory was “one of the vital necessary moments in my life.”

“Earlier than ‘Euphoria,’ I used to be a struggling artist looking for my method,” she mentioned.

“It is like dwelling for me, the Eurovision group,” the singer added. “It is a protected house for me.”

She is the primary lady to win the competition twice; solely Eire’s Johnny Logan has carried out so earlier than.

“It feels loopy,” she mentioned after her victory was introduced.

“That is so surreal, man, I am pleased and I am grateful, I am grateful to all you guys on the market that voted for me.”

“The one factor I really feel proper now’s a lot love. Not in my wildest desires did I believe this was going to occur,” she mentioned.

However she needed to beat robust competitors from Finland’s rapper Käärijä, whose energetic performances of “Cha Cha Cha” all through the week have wowed followers and made him a powerful contender to win the crown.

The highest 5 was rounded out by Israel, Italy and Norway.

Across the host metropolis of Liverpool, Eurovision followers with out tickets rammed into venues to look at the present on large screens, a lot of them waving Ukrainian flags.

The British authorities made 3,000 tickets accessible at discounted costs this week for displaced individuals from the nation.

Eurovision is a famously eccentric pageant, and this 12 months’s present lived as much as the billing with an array of robust performances from 26 finalists.

It additionally catapulted the dockside metropolis of Liverpool – the house of the Beatles – onto the continent’s cultural map.

“I knew if we wished to do that, it wasn’t simply to tick bins for Ukraine. We would not simply put up some posters,” Claire McColgan, Liverpool’s director of tradition, informed CNN within the buildup. “What you see within the metropolis is an actual Scouse-Ukrainian mashup, which is what we wished.”