"
1944" is a song written and performed by
Ukrainian singer
Jamala. It represented
Ukraine in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and won with a total of 534 points.
[1][2]
A music video for the song was released on 21 September 2016.
[3]
National selection and Eurovision Song Contest
Main article:
Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016
Ukraine withdrew from the
Eurovision Song Contest 2015, citing costs.
[13] After deciding to return to the contest in 2016, a selection process to determine the representative of Ukraine was opened, combining resources from the state broadcaster
NTU and private
STB.
[14] Jamala was announced as one of the eighteen competing acts in the Ukrainian national selection for the contest. She performed in the first semi-final on 6 February 2016, where she won both the jury and televote, advancing to the Ukrainian final.
[15] In the final, on 21 February, she was placed second by the jury and first by the televote, resulting in a tie with
The Hardkiss and their song "Helpless". Jamala was announced as the winner, however, as the televoting acted as a
tiebreaker.
[1] She received 37.77% of more than 382,000 televotes.
[16]
Jamala represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, performing in the second half of the second semi-final...
[17] "1944" is the first Eurovision song to contain lyrics in the
Crimean Tatar language. She won the final receiving the second highest televoting score and second highest jury vote.
Accusations of politicisation
In a February 2016 interview with
The Guardian, Jamala said that the song also reminded her of her own family living in
Crimea nowadays, claiming that since the
2014 Russian annexation of Crimea "the Crimean Tatars are on occupied territory".
[4][nb 1] The song lyrics, however, do not address this annexation.
[19] Eurovision rules prohibit songs with lyrics that could be interpreted as having "political content".
[19]
Immediately after the selection of this song, some Russian politicians, as well as authorities in Crimea, accused the Ukrainian authorities of using the song "to offend Russia" and "capitalising on the tragedy of the Tatars to impose on European viewers a false picture of alleged harassment of the Tatars in the Russian Crimea".
[8][nb 2]
On 9 March 2016, a tweet from the
European Broadcasting Union confirmed that neither the title nor the lyrics of the song contained "political speech" and therefore it did not breach any Eurovision rule, thus allowing it to remain in the competition.
[21]
Eurovision Song Contest
The song won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, receiving a grand total of 534 points, officially surpassing the previous record set by
Alexander Rybak with his song "Fairytale" in the
2009 Eurovision Song Contest, which won with 387 points.
[2][nb 3]
The national juries voted the entry by
Australia first with 320 points, and the televote voted the entry by
Russia first with 361 points. The televoting result for Ukraine, of 323 points, however, was sufficient, when added to their jury score of 211 points, to put them in first place, with a grand total of 534 points, leaving Australia second and Russia third.
Critical reception
Prior to the Ukrainian national selection finals, "1944" received 8.33 out of 10 points from a jury of Eurovision blog
Wiwibloggs,
[22] the highest score among the six finalists in Ukraine.
[23]