List of All Articles with Tag 'awards'

'They spent a few days together during rehearsals where the flirting began', said one of the sources close to Madonna

Eurovision is over and done with for another year, with Sweden’s Loreen becoming the first female entry to win the song contest twice (first in 2012 with 'Euphoria', and then this year with 'Tattoo'), but the drama surrounding the beloved night of entertainment continues. First came the conspiracy theory that a victory for Loreen was “rigged” so Sweden could host the contest in 2024 – 50 years after ABBA’s success with 'Waterloo' – and now, there’s speculation that France’s entry gave the audience in Liverpool and everyone watching at home the middle finger. Well, it would be a step up from Ukraine’s entry Tvorchi, whose track 'Heart of Steel' only included a middle finger in terms of the lyrics, when vocalist Jeffery Kenny sings: “Sometimes you just gotta know / When to stick your middle finger up in the air.” During Saturday’s grand final, France’s representative La Zarra – who took to the stage with the track 'Evidemment' – didn’t look too thrilled with her country’s final position of 16th on the leaderboard, getting only 50 extra points from the voting public on top of their 54 points from the national juries. After co-host Graham Norton shared the result, an unenthused La Zarra was captured reacting to the news by raising one hand, before splaying out the fingers on the other with her middle finger pointing down. She then turned it around to have the offending digit pointing upwards, which then looked like she was flipping the bird, as it were. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Viewers soon expressed their glee at the potentially offensive gesture when they saw it: However, in an interview with the French news channel BFM TV, La Zarra – who was born in Canada to Moroccan parents – insisted the gesture had been misinterpreted, saying she has a “double culture”. “It’s not a negative gesture. On the contrary, it’s just a gesture of disappointment that we use between friends. “Afterwards, I can understand that overseas it is considered another gesture.” It’s not the first time that Eurovision fans have accused an act of doing something naughty, as 2021 winners Måneskin – from Italy – were hit with false and disproven claims that their lead singer took drugs at their green room table. The group said at the time that they were “really offended” by the accusations and that what had actually happened was that the group’s guitarist had broken a glass. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has contributed to the Eurovision chat by dropping a playlist on Spotify. The certified man of the people used his Prime Minister Twitter account to post the playlist in the run up to the final of the competition last night, which saw Sweden take the crown. The playlist description read: "Liverpool is doing us all proud by staging this year’s Eurovision. And I think they’re doing Ukraine proud too. It’s an honour for us to host on behalf of our Ukrainian friends. "To help you get ready for the finals, I’m sharing some of the very best of Eurovision. Have a great night." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He was immediately trolled by social media users for his 16 song playlist, which included songs previously featured in the contest over the last few years, like Loreen's Euphoria and ABBA's Waterloo. After all, you would hope the UK prime minister has better things to do than sit around and make playlists of his favourite songs, what with the Tories recently doing terribly in the local elections and the need to, you know, run the UK. But maybe not. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

She had something none of the other contestants did - experience of winning it before.

Sweden's Loreen has won the Eurovision Song Contest for a second time, earning a historic triumph at an extravagant and crowd-pleasing show held in Liverpool, United Kingdom, on behalf of Ukraine.

This weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest is taking place in a city brimming with Ukrainian flags, Ukrainian food, Ukrainian musicians and Ukrainian fans: Liverpool

Eurovision, that famously camp song contest which has a strong pro-LGBTQ+ stance and has this year acknowledged Putin’s war in Ukraine as the reason for it being held in Liverpool on the country’s behalf, has blocked President Volodymyr Zelensky from making a video address - because it would breach the event’s “non-political nature”. Organisers behind the show, who on Thursday saw no issue with drag queens absolutely slaying on the M&S Bank Arena stage and preaching messages of love and acceptance, rejected the request ahead of the grand final on Saturday. In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – whose previous decisions to ban Russia and Belarus from participating definitely weren’t political, obviously – said the request from Mr Zelensky to address the Eurovision audience “while made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted by the European Broadcasting Union management as it would be against the rules of the event”. Belarus was disqualified from the contest in 2021 over political messaging in their planned entry (their second attempt before the deadline), while Russia was kicked out of Eurovision a year later for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And the rules state “all participating broadcasters” must ensure that “the ESC [Eurovision Song Contest] shall in no case be politicised and/or instrumentalized and/or otherwise brought into disrepute in any way”. That’s ‘instrumentalise’ in the sense of using Eurovision as a platform to spread a political message, before anyone makes a musical pun (we know you want to)… Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The EBU’s decision has since been criticised by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister who became a meme over how many times he’d meet with the Ukrainian president whenever he was experiencing a turbulent moment in his premiership. “It would have been right to hear from President Zelensky at tomorrow night’s Eurovision. There is only one reason the contest is not in Ukraine and that is because of Putin’s illegal war,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman told reporters: “The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelensky to address the event and we’re disappointed by the decision from the European Broadcasting Union. “The values and freedoms that President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political; they’re fundamental, and Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.” No 10 added, however, that they are not planning to call on the EBU to change its mind. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

When it comes to Eurovision, you kind of have to accept and embrace the weirdness. So, when the second semi-final of this year’s contest – taking place in Liverpool, of course, on behalf of Ukraine – decided to bring out Peppa Pig to do the conga, many British viewers weren’t that surprised at all. The popular children’s character made an appearance shortly after voting opened during Thursday’s show, which eventually saw fan favourites Belgium and Austria go through to Saturday’s grand final, amongst others. She was also joined by the pop group Scooch, who represented the UK in Finland with “Flying the Flag (For You)” back in 2007. While Peppa danced away, UK commentators Scott Mills and Rylan Clark revealed the latter’s dressing room had also been taken over by the pig. “My dressing room was removed today,” said Clark. “It used to say ‘Rylan’, now it says ‘Peppa the Pig’,” added Mills. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Incredible. Following Peppa Pig’s appearance, many just accepted the scenes as peak British weirdness, and some noticed Ukrainian host Julia Sanina looked rather bemused by it all: As the camera cuts back to the presenters, co-presenter Alesha Dixon can be seen telling Sanina that she will “explain it to you later”. We don’t think it requires any explanation, Alesha… Others, meanwhile, expressed glee at the show’s credits making clear that Peppa Pig was, in fact, Peppa Pig: Peppa has since taken to Twitter to confirm she had an “oinktastic time”, which is nice to hear. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Eurovision Song Contest has barred President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from addressing the final of the pan-continental music competition

A request by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to address the Eurovision Song Contest final in the English city of Liverpool on Saturday has been denied by broadcasters.

The 67th Eurovision Song Contest will soon reach its climax with a grand final broadcast live from Liverpool

The Eurovision Song Contest has barred President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from addressing the final of the pan-continental music competition