Ryder restores British pride as Europe shows solidarity with Ukraine

SAM RYDER scored the best result for the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 24 years, finishing as a valiant runner-up to the entry from war-torn Ukraine.

TikTok star Ryder topped the jury vote - and also scored well with the public - but his lead was swallowed up by a massive outpouring of support for the folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra.

The winning song Stefania took an incredible 431 points out of a maximum possible 468 from the European public - becoming the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian and the first rap song to win the competition.

Nevertheless, Ryder can still be extremely proud of putting the UK right back into the Eurovision spotlight after years of underperformance.

Instead, this year, the UK took a maximum of douze points in the jury vote from a disparate set of nations: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, and Ukraine.

In fact, only four of the juries failed to reward Ryder with any points - Armenia, Australia, Croatia, and Greece.

Meanwhile, in the televote, only Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia - all of which are former republics of Yugoslavia - failed to catch the mood.

In short, outside of the Balkans, Space Man was a fabulous success.

"This is the tip of an iceberg," Ryder told the BBC afterwards. "The UK is going to be a force next year. It's gonna be mad."

"This is a red letter moment," added Graham Norton, who presented the contest on BBC One. "I am so happy for [Sam], for the UK and for the BBC who have worked so hard to turn our fortunes."

Overall, the UK actually still holds a proud record at Eurovision, winning the competition on five occasions, a total beaten only by Ireland (seven) and Sweden (six).

However, the most recent British victory was now a quarter of a century ago when Katrina and the Waves achieved Eurovision glory in 1997 with Love Shine a Light.

In 1998, Imaani provided a strong defence with Where Are You - while, in 2002, Jessica Garlick finished in third place with Come Back.

Just a year later, though, the UK suffered its first ever occurrence of nul points following a distinctly off-key performance of Cry Baby by Jemini.

Four further bottom-placed finishes would follow starting with Andy Abraham in 2008 and Josh Dubovie in 2010 who sandwiched a strong performance by Jade Ewen.

Then, in the two most recent years in which a Contest has been held - in 2019 and 2021 - the UK picked up the wooden spoon on both occasions, with a second humiliating instance of nul points for James Newman last year.

That was perhaps not much of a surprise as large swathes of the European public demonstrated their dislike towards the British entries following the Brexit vote.

But, even in the years before the political landscape shifted, the UK had treated the Contest with some disdain.

Arguably, the low point came not with the bottom-placed finishes - but in the successive years of 2012 and 2013 when the UK put forward then-76-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck followed by comparatively sprightly 1980s star Bonnie Tyler.

The selection and performance of the hugely likeable Ryder, however, was the antithesis of those tired choices.

For a start, Ryder did so well because of his falsetto singing ability which goes a long way to explain his massive popularity on social media.

In the background, he was also part of a crack team of writers which also included Amy Wadge, who has also written hits with Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Kylie Minogue and Alicia Keys.

The song itself, Space Man - pieced together over a Zoom call - leaned heavily on reflecting the sound of British music legends like Elton John, David Bowie, and Queen.

Of course, a supranational competition will struggle to avoid having a political element to it - and Ukraine undoubtedly garnered no shortage of sympathy votes.

However, the politics of the Eurovision Song Contest has been grossly overstated in the past in Britain as an excuse for our woes.

True, the Croatian and Montenegrin public still helped Serbia to a top five finish with their votes - but Ukraine took douze points from the viewers of a record 28 different European countries, spread far and wide across the continent in solidarity.

For the UK, Ryder - an unassuming 32-year-old from Maldon in Essex - hit the right note on all counts with his tune in Turin.

Furthermore, his runner-up spot puts the UK with a strong shout of being the next host if Ukraine finds itself in the unfortunate position of being unable to stage the extravaganza next year.

That, of course, is hopefully not the case - but hostilities in Ukraine would surely need to be brought completely to a halt, and - even now - that does not appear likely any time soon.

So, although it would not be in the usual or expected way, Eurovision might once again be headed to these shores.

And for that we have to thank our very own Space Man - Sam Ryder.

		Artist - Song	Jury	Public	TOTAL
(1)	Ukraine	Kalush Orchestra - Stefania	192	439	631
(2)	United Kingdom	Sam Ryder - Space Man	283	183	466
(3)	Spain	Chanel - SloMo	231	228	459
(4)	Sweden	Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer	258	180	438
(5)	Serbia	Konstrakta - In corpore sano	87	225	312
(6)	Italy	Mahmood and Blanco - Brividi	158	110	268
(7)	Moldova	Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers - Trenulețul	14	239	253
(8)	Greece	Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord - Die Together	158	57	215
(9)	Portugal	Maro - Saudade, saudade	171	36	207
(10)	Norway	Subwoolfer - Give That Wolf a Banana	36	146	182
(11)	Netherlands	S10 - De diepte	129	42	171
(12)	Poland	Ochman - River	46	105	151
(13)	Estonia	Stefan - Hope	43	98	141
(14)	Lithuania	Monika Liu - Sentimentai	35	93	128
(15)	Australia	Sheldon Riley - Not The Same	123	2	125
(16)	Azerbaijan	Nadir Rustamli - Fade To Black	103	3	106
(17)	Switzerland	Marius Bear - Boys Do Cry	78	0	78
(18)	Romania	WRS - Llámame	12	53	65
(19)	Belgium	Jérémie Makiese - Miss You	59	5	64
(20)	Armenia	Rosa Linn - Snap	40	21	61
(21)	Finland	The Rasmus - Jezebel	12	26	38
(22)	Czech Republic	We Are Domi - Lights Off	33	5	38
(23)	Iceland	Systur - Með hækkandi sól	10	10	20
(24)	France	Alvan and Ahez - Fulenn	9	8	17
(25)	Germany	Malik Harris - Rockstars	0	6	6

• In the Jury vote, United Kingdom gained points from...

12 Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Ukraine

10 Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal

8 Ireland, Latvia, Malta, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Sweden

7 Iceland

6 Denmark, Italy, Norway, Switzerland

5 Montenegro

4 Estonia, Netherlands

3 Cyprus, Spain

2 Slovenia

1 Serbia

• In the Public vote, United Kingdom gained points from...

12 Malta

10 Israel

8 Austria, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Spain

7 Australia, Iceland, Ukraine

6 Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden

5 Estonia, Greece, Switzerland

4 Albania, Finland, Georgia, Lithuania

3 Belgium, Bulgaria, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania

2 France, Czech Republic

1 Armenia

Clucking-mad Israel win marred by SuRie stage invader

ISRAEL won the Eurovision Song Contest for the fourth time in history on a night marred by a stage invasion during the British entry.

Netta Barzilai netted the Israeli victory in Lisbon with her gimmicky song Toy which bizarrely featured clucking chicken noises as part of its lyrics.

The competition was tight - and, thrillingly, it was not at all clear who had actually won until the final few seconds of voting.

For many British viewers, though, Netta's otherwise enjoyably quirky success was overshadowed by a shock stage invasion during the performance of United Kingdom entrant SuRie.

Nothing particularly unusual had happened at the Altice Arena until SuRie - appearing ninth in the running order - launched into the second chorus of her song, Storm.

Then, out of nowhere, a rather unkempt man assailed the Essex singer, stole her microphone and shouted some totally unintelligible diatribe.

It was later transcribed as: "Nazis of the UK media, we demand freedom. War is not peace".

The culprit - a London-based Greek national called Konstantin Bouki - goes by the name of DrACactivism on social media. He has previously interrupted The Voice and the National Television Awards.

Far from advancing his cause, though, the actions of this tiresome attention-seeker only serve to alienate himself from the popular support which he presumably craves.

For SuRie, the whole experience must have been absolutely petrifying. For all she knew, the idiot could well have been carrying a knife.

Considering that, she remained amazingly calm on stage, clapping to the beat before immediately picking the lyrics back up once she had a microphone back in her hands.

Nevertheless, her Eurovision experience had been irredeemably tarnished.

In fairness, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) officials offered SuRie the chance to perform again at the end of the running order. Having recovered so well, though, the 29-year-old was perhaps sensible to decline.

The show must go on, after all - and, before long, it was time to tot up the tallies.

Sadly, SuRie finished in 23rd place with 23 points from the jury voting which was announced first and based upon a Jury Rehersal held on Friday evening.

In the public vote, meanwhile, she fared only a little better, placing 20th with 25 points.

Consequently, her overall points total (48) left her in 24th place out of 26, ahead only of Finland's former X Factor contestant Saara Aalto (46) and rock-bottom hosts Portugal (39).

Elsewhere, Norway (144) and Ireland (136) will also be disappointed by their mid-table finishing positions. 

Norwegian representative Alexander Rybak - a former winner in 2009 with Fairytale - was hugely underwhelming this time around and made little impact.

By contrast, the Irish - in a first Grand Final since 2013 - qualified having caused quite a stir in China with its entry Together by Ryan O'Shaughnessy.

Indeed, Ireland was edited out of the Chinese broadcast of the first semi-final on Mango TV because of its representation of a homosexual couple by its on-stage dancers.

As a result of the censorship, the EBU terminated its partnership with the Chinese broadcaster, a decision which pleased O'Shaughnessy himself.

Back to the results - and it was Austria (271) who emerged as the front-runner following the verdict of the jury ahead of Sweden (253) and Israel (212). Cyprus (183) took fifth place behind Germany (204).

However, it was all change when the public vote was announced. Leading nation Austria (71) could only manage 13th place, Germany (136) was sixth - while Eurovision stalwart Sweden (21) surprisingly finished way down in 23rd.

As such, it became a straight contest between two eastern Mediterranean countries - Israel and Cyprus.

Clumsily, it became apparent that Cyprus had come second overall after picking up 253 points in the public vote.

And so, Israel - with 317 votes - could celebrate a momentous victory on the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Middle East state.

Next year then, the Contest will most likely be held in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv - but the stage invasion in Lisbon surely means an unprecedented amount of security will be required whichever city is chosen.

After all, it is not as if Israel keeps a low profile on the international stage.

Of course, in likeable winner Netta, there was a little random joy on Saturday in these troubled political times.

At the same time, though, her victory has left the Eurovision apparatchiks with the sort of headache which will take more than a few painkillers to remove.

2018 EUROVISION FINAL SCOREBOARD

		Song	Artist	Points
01	Israel	Toy	Netta	529
02	Cyprus	Fuego (Fire)	Eleni Foureira	436
03	Austria	Nobody But You	Cesár Sampson	342
04	Germany	You'll Let Me Walk Alone	Michael Schulte	340
05	Italy	Non mi avete fatto niente (You haven't done anything to me)	Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro	308
06	Czech Republic	Lie to Me	Mikolas Josef	281
07	Sweden	Dance You Off	Benjamin Ingrosso	274
08	Estonia	La forza (The Force)	Elina Nechayeva	245
09	Denmark	Higher Ground	Rasmussen	226
10	Moldova	My Lucky Day	DoReDoS	209
11	Albania	Mall (Yearning)	Eugent Bushpepa	184
12	Lithuania	When We're Old	Ieva Zasimauskaitė	181
13	France	Mercy	Madame Monsieur	173
14	Bulgaria	Bones	Equinox	166
15	Norway	That's How You Write a Song	Alexander Rybak	144
16	Ireland	Together	Ryan O'Shaughnessy	136
17	Ukraine	Under the Ladder	Mélovin	130
18	Netherlands	Outlaw in 'Em	Waylon	121
19	Serbia	Nova deca (New Generation)	Sanja Ilić & Balkanika	113
20	Australia	We Got Love	Jessica Mauboy	99
21	Hungary	Viszlát nyár (Goodbye, summer)	AWS	93
22	Slovenia	Hvala, ne! (No, Thanks)	Lea Sirk	64
23	Spain	Tu canción (Your Song)	Amaia & Alfred	61
24	United Kingdom	Storm	SuRie	48
25	Finland	Monsters	Saara Aalto	46
26	Portugal	O Jardim (The Garden)	Cláudia Pascoal	39

Eurovision finds its way back home

EUROVISION returns to its spiritual home tonight as the Globe Arena in Stockholm hosts the 61st Song Contest, starting at 8pm.

Winners for the first time in 1974 when ABBA launched their glittering careers with Waterloo, Sweden have tasted victory another five times since.

Only Ireland, with seven wins following their domination of the competition in the 1990s, can beat the Swedes' overall total of six.

But, whereas Sweden has sustained its success and enjoyed two triumphs in the 21st century, Ireland's last win was still back in 1996.

That is something that will not change this year either as, for Ireland, the 2016 Contest is already over.

Former Westlife member Nicky Byrne failed to negotiate his semi final on Thursday with his scratchy voice doing him few favours.

Yes - it was, sadly for him, a case of my lovely hoarse voice - and it did about as well as the fictional Father Ted entry My Lovely Horse.

As one of the Big Five contributors to the European Broadcast Union, the United Kingdom faces no such semi final worries and receives a bye to the final each year along with France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Nevertheless, duo Joe & Jake - a 21-year-old from Ruthin in Wales and a 20-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent - must turn around a dismal recent record of British failures.

Still in third place on the all-time winners list with five victories, the United Kingdom has finished in the top 10 only once since 2002 when Jade Ewen finished fifth in 2009 with It's My Time.

Indeed, in the 14 years since the UK's last top-three place, we have had to endure the likes of Jemini, Scooch, Daz Sampson, Andy Abraham, and Josh Dubovie.

That hall of shame includes three last places including an infamous set of nul points for the woefully out-of-tune Jemini.

But, at least Joe & Jake's youthfulness should ensure an energetic performance on You're Not Alone - and that can only be an improvement on sending Bonnie Tyler at the age then of 61, or a 76-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck.

In short, it would be a major surprise if Joe & Jake pulled off a victory - but there is genuine hope of the young lads achieving a respectable position.

That, at least, would be a step in the right direction. For many countries, the dire performance of the UK in recent years has come as little surprise considering the standard of entrants.

Frankly, the Eurovision is still considered a bit of a joke in the UK and some would argue that this is right to be the case.

But, for Sweden especially, the Song Contest is a serious business, a part of their cultural milieu.

Every year, the most watched Swedish programme on television is Melodifestivalen, which is a bit like the X Factor, except the winner is selected to represent the country at Eurovision instead.

It certainly worked in 2012 when Loreen won with dance track Euphoria and again last year when Måns Zelmerlöw took top spot with Heroes.

Unsurprisingly, this year's entry, If I Were Sorry by Frans, has also been well-backed.

The overwhelming favourites, however, are Russia. In fact, the Sergey Lazarev - with You Are the Only One - is likely to start the night in the unusual position of actually being odds-on, and therefore holds little value for a bet at all.

Of course, we could all just sit back and enjoy the three hours of music on BBC One - and, for this year at least, remember the contribution which Terry Wogan made to the Contest.

Wogan died from cancer in January this year, aged 77, having been the UK commentator every year from 1980 to 2008.

His successor Graham Norton has continued the tradition of adding Irish wit to the often bizarre occurrences on stage - and, this year, after Sweden sing the ninth song of the night, Norton will pay tribute to Wogan and encourage everyone to raise a glass.

Sláinte, Terry - and good luck tonight to Joe & Jake.

EUROVISION 2016 RUNNING ORDER
Click on the links for the official Eurovision videos of each of the songs. Odds supplied by Ladbrokes, subject to change. See www.oddschecker.com/tv/eurovision/winner 

	Country	Artist - Song	Odds
01	Belgium	Laura Tesoro - What's the Pressure	40/1
02	Czech Republic	Gabriela Gunčíková - I Stand	200/1
03	Netherlands	Douwe Bob - Slow Down	50/1
04	Azerbaijan	Samra - Miracle	150/1
05	Hungary	Freddie - Pioneer	200/1
06	Italy	Francesca Michielin - No Degree of Separation	66/1
07	Israel	Hovi Star - Made of Stars	80/1
08	Bulgaria	Poli Genova - If Love Was a Crime	100/1
09	Sweden	Frans - If I Were Sorry	16/1
10	Germany	Jamie-Lee - Ghost	250/1
11	France	Amir - J'ai cherché [I have searched]	12/1
12	Poland	Michał Szpak - Color of Your Life	100/1
13	Australia	Dami Im - Sound of Silence	3/1
14	Cyprus	Minus One - Alter Ego	150/1
15	Serbia	Sanja Vučić ZAA - Goodbye (Shelter)	80/1
16	Lithuania	Donny Montell - I've Been Waiting for This Night	150/1
17	Croatia	Nina Kraljić - Lighthouse	150/1
18	Russia	Sergey Lazarev - You Are the Only One	4/6fav
19	Spain	Barei - Say Yay!	100/1
20	Latvia	Justs - Heartbeat	50/1
21	Ukraine	Jamala - 1944	15/2
22	Malta	Ira Losco - Walk on Water	33/1
23	Georgia	Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz - Midnight Gold	250/1
24	Austria	Zoë - Loin d'ici [Far from here]	66/1
25	United Kingdom	Joe & Jake - You're Not Alone	33/1
26	Armenia	Iveta Mukuchyan - LoveWave	28/1