TURIN, Italy (AP) — Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra has won the Eurovision Song Contest in a clear show of popular support for the war-ravaged nation that went beyond the music.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the victory, Ukraine’s third since its 2003 Eurovision debut, and said “we will do our best” to host next year’s contest in the hotly contested port city of Mariupol. He underlined “Ukrainian Mariupol,” adding: “free, peaceful, rebuilt!” Kalush Orchestra’s front man, Oleg Psiuk, took advantage of the enormous global audience, last year numbering more than 180 million, to make impassioned plea to free fighters still trapped beneath a sprawling steel plant in Mariupol.
