Loreen of Sweden performs during the Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, England, on Saturday.
Martin Meissner/AP
hide captions
switch captions
Martin Meissner/AP
Loreen of Sweden performs during the Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, England, on Saturday.
Martin Meissner/AP
Swedish singer Loreen was named the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest for her pop ballad “Tattoo,” beating 25 other countries in the event’s finale on Saturday night.
This is the second time she has won the hearts of the judges and the public, after her first win for Sweden in 2012.
The lavish, eclectic event celebrated the resilient spirit of war-torn Ukraine as it stuck to the theme of the 2023 contest, “united by music”, held at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool , Older brother. Traditionally, the host country was the winner of the previous year’s event. But since last year’s winner, Ukraine, is in the middle of a war, the 2022 runner-up, Britain, will host this year’s event on its behalf.
Loreen, sandwiched between illuminated platforms, whirled across the stage as she sang her lyrics – “You’re stuck in me like a tattoo-hoo-hoo.” The performance tended towards a more classic pop option for a contest that in recent years has leaned towards melodramatic action and fantasy.
Remarkable runner-up
Finland’s Käärijä took second place with the industrial metal-meet-hyperpop song “Cha Cha Cha”. The song emerged as a pop culture critic of NPR Glen Weldon’s Top Picks. Weldon writes, “the hellish bop exists to get you up and moving; imagine a Crossfit trainer shouting at you in Finnish.”
Another standout performance, at least in the opinion of the American public, came from Austria, which finished in 15th place.”Who is Edgar?” by Teya & Salena (a song about being haunted by the ghost of gothic horror writer Edgar Allen Poe, of course) started trending on Twitter in the US shortly after the duo hit the stage.
Representing Croatia, Let 3 perform”Mother ŠČ!,” a hallucinogenic ride of an antiwar production, not too thin with mustaches, scissors and rockets — think deranged Master Sergeant Pepper.
