This year’s Eurovision Song Contest has come to an end, with a series of shocks and surprises along the way.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
From hand-washing anthems to fruitarian wolves and last year’s winners making a reference to their “drug” controversy, Eurovision 2022 had it all.
Pre-final favourites Ukraine scored 192 points from the jury, and with 439 points from the public vote had an unbeatable total score of 631 points.
Their rap group Kalush Orchestra’s ‘Stefania’ was one of the best performances of the night, although there’s little doubt the current situation in their home country added to the public support.
It does leave one question hanging over the finals: where will Eurovision 2023 be held? The winning country usually hosts the following year’s event, but with the Russian invasion of Ukraine still going strong, it’s difficult to imagine the war torn country being ready to host next year.
This year’s event in Turin, Italy, followed the country’s victory at the 2021 contest, with Måneskin’s ‘Zitti e buoni’ taking out the win.
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UK finalist Sam Ryder won the jury vote with 283 points for his power ballad ‘Space Man,’ which evoked both Elton John and Queen vibes.
The former construction worker brought home the UK’s best result since 1998 – they came last in both the 2019 and 2021 contests.
Former The Voice contestant Sheldon Riley represented Australia at this year’s finals, scoring 123 points from the jury but only 2 points from the public vote, placing him 15th out of 25 entries.
It is only the second time Australia has placed outside the top 10 after making it past the semis.
Watch Sheldon Riley’s second semi-final performance, ‘Not The Same’:
Whilst nobody suffered the humiliation of scoring zero points this year, Germany came last with a score of just six points.
France and Iceland rounded out the bottom three.
Notable entries this year included Norway’s Subwoolfer and their illogical song ‘Give That Wolf A Banana,’ and Serbia’s entrant, Konstrakta, commentating on COVID safety protocols by washing her hands in a bowl of water during her entire performance.
Special mention must also go to Latvia, who didn’t make it past the semi-finals but left an impression with their song, ‘Eat Your Salad,’ which opened with the very memorable line, “I don’t eat meat, I eat veggies and p***y.”
The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final will air at 7.30pm tonight on SBS.
