Swedish singer Loreen (Lauryn Talhaoui) taken First place at Eurovision 2023. The annual music competition was held in Liverpool, England, between 9-13 May.
The song Tattoo performed by Loreen is dedicated to relationships and love. According to the results of the jury voting, the artist received 340 points, according to the results of the audience – 243 points. The artist’s total score was 583.
As the winning country, Sweden won the right to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 and automatically advanced to the final of the next contest.
Loreen became the first woman to win the competition twice. In 2012, the song Euphoria brought her her first victory. Swedish players have won Eurovision seven times in total: 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015 and 2023. Ireland won the same number of times in the competition, the last of which came in the 1990s.
Second and third place
Finnish rapper Käärijä sang the song Cha Cha Cha in a bright neon bolero with spikes on the collar and cuffs took second place. He scored 526 points in the final. Käärijä has been making music since 2014 and started collaborating with a major local record label in 2017. His debut album, Fantastista, was released in 2020.
In third place was Noa Kirel (Noa Kirel) from Israel with her Unicorn composition scoring 362 points. The singer has won the MTV Europe Music Awards five times in the Best Israeli Artist category. The girl served in the Israeli army in 2020-2022, where she made her tracks for soldiers.
This year, German metal band Lord of the Lost took the last 26th place with the song Blood & Glitter. Contestants only got 18 points. The penultimate one was British singer May Muller, whose performance was rated 24 points.
In 2023, artists from England, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Finland, Czech Republic, Israel, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, Serbia, Moldova, Austria, Armenia, Belgium, Norway took the stage. Albania, Italy, Sweden, Cyprus and Australia take part in the final of the competition.
The show opened with the performance of the Eurovision 2022 winner Ukrainian hip-hop group Kalush Orchestra with the song Stefania. Ukrainian Eurovision participants of previous years also appeared on the stage: showman Andrey Danilko in the image of Jamala and Verka Serduchka, who won the contest in 2016.
Following the end of the main program, British singer Sam Ryder took the stage and placed second at Eurovision 2022. Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, performed with him in front of the audience. He turned out to be the “secret guest” of the event.
Ukraine was supposed to host Eurovision this year, as the Ukrainian group won the contest in 2022. However, due to the ongoing hostilities in the country, the European Broadcasting Union moved the event to England. Russia was excluded from the competition due to military operation. Residents of the country were also unable to vote in the contest.
What is known about the winner
Swedish singer Loreen has Moroccan-Berber roots. Her family moved to Sweden before their daughter was born, and Loreen was born in Stockholm in 1983. When the girl went to school, the family moved to Västerås (a city west of the Swedish capital). His passion for music started there.
In 2004, Lorin took part in the TV project Idol (Swedish “Star Factory”) and took fourth place in the final. But until 2011, the singer did not perform on television, working as a producer. Returning to the stage in 2011 and participating in various music competitions, Loreen managed to get the right to represent Sweden at Eurovision in 2012. At the contest in Baku, she took first place with the hit Euphoria.
When Lauryn decided to perform at Eurovision again in 2023, bookies almost instantly bet on her victory.
“Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought life would put me on this path. I thought this chapter of my life was over.” – said Loreen in an interview before the performance. She also admitted that she felt “happier than ever” at the competition.
“This is great because I never thought I would be here again,” the singer said.