Today - the final of "Eurovision"

We talk about favorites (these are the Swedes with a song about the sauna) and the political context (for which they want to cancel musicians from Israel and Estonia)

On May 17, in Basel (Switzerland), the final of the Eurovision Music contest will be held. As in previous years, Russia is not involved in it, but some musicians are called to cancel for connections with the country - for example, Tommy Kesh, coming from Estonia; In addition, his song “Espresso Macchiato” outraged the Italians. At the same time, the Israeli performer Yuval Rafael, who survived the attack of terrorists on October 7, not only causes outrage of some part of the public, but also receives threats. And the leader of the competition is the Swedish group Kaj, who sings a song about the Finnish sauna. We tell you what to know about the competition on the eve of the final, if you are going to follow it.

Musicians from 26 participating countries took place to the Eurovision-2025 final. The largest bookmakers and bets of bets consider Sweden a clear favorite: its chances of victory are estimated at almost 50%. The probability of Austria’s victory is 20–25%, France is about 15% (the semi -finals of the competition spurred interest in this performance, before it the probability of French victory was evaluated three times lower).

The rest of the participants, according to bookmakers, can hardly claim victory.

Favorites

Sweden

The main favorite, the Kaj group, brought to the “Eurovision” the song “Bara Bada Bastu” (“Simply Parish in the Sauna”). This is the first participant in the competition from Sweden since 1998 with a song in Swedish .

The KAJ trio was also formed not in Sweden, but in the Finnish municipality of the berries. The name of the group consists of the first letters of the names of its participants Kevin Holmstrem, Axel Oman and Jacob Norrgord. They are not only musicians, but first of all comedians, so Kaj can be compared, for example, with The Lonely Island or Bread groups.

Since 2012, Kaj has already been released eight albums, the last of which, “Sauna Collection” , was released on May 9 and, apparently, was dedicated to the entire Sauna.

If the forecasts of bookmakers regarding Kaj are confirmed, this will be the second victory of Sweden in three years. In 2023, the “Eurovision” was won by singer Lorin, after which the 2024 competition was held in Malmö. This time, the city authorities have already refused to hold it again in advance.

Austria

Austria at Eurovision is represented by a 24-year-old singer of Philippine descent Johannes Pitch, speaking under the pseudonym JJ. In 2020, he participated in the British version of the show "Voice" and a similar Austrian show Starmania. Pitch is a counterattacent of the Viennese state opera, and the influence of the opera school is clearly noticeable in his song “Wasteed Love” (“Very Love”), with which JJ went to Eurovision.

This is a ballad about unrequited love, in which the lyrical hero of Pitch is drowning, as if in the ocean. But the main thing in his room is not a text, but a complex vocal party - the success of JJ will largely depend on how confidently he will perform in the final. The semi -final was clearly a success.

As a participant in Eurovision from Austria, Johannes, of course, speaks highly about the end of the VURST , representing the country and won in 2014. “Classes are my mother. I am ready to die for her. She shows me that regardless of who you are, you are important and loved, ” says Pitch.

France

The French singer and actress Louane (Luan Emer) came to Eurovision with the song “Maman” (“Mom”). Luan is 28 years old, she became known in France after participating in The Voice (Voice) in 2013. The next year, the film “The Voice of the Londer Family” was released, in which Emer played the only hearing girl in the family with deaf parents and brother. For this role, she received the Cesar Award in the nomination "The Most Commanding Actress".

In reality, the singer lost both parents when she was still a teenager. Father, a Frenchman of Polish-German origin, Jean-Pierre Pesher, died before her debut in a “voice”. Mother, Brazilian Isabelle Pinta Santush, died in 2014 after a long illness. Emer, on the one hand, dedicated the song to her mother, on the other - she sings about her daughter . In the song there is a line "Now she calls me a mother."

Other participants

Netherlands

Until the first semi-finals, which changed the alignment of forces, the three of the Favorites “Eurovision-2025” was closed by Claud Kiambe, representing the Netherlands with the song “Cʼest La Vie” (“This is life”).

Kiambe was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2003, his family fled from the Second Congolese War. According to Claud, he sang with his mother, brothers and sisters since childhood. And after moving to the Netherlands, he saw the performance of the same end of the VURST at Eurovision - and his love of music "broke out with renewed vigor."

The performer dedicated his mother to his mother, who taught him to look optimistic even at failures. “Even if for a second it seems to you that everything is very gloomy, you always need to focus on the bright side. It was this thought that I want to convey to you, ”said Kiambe.

Ukraine

Ukraine is often considered one of the main applicants for victory (the country did not take a place below the sixth since 2021), but this time it is not among the favorites. The chances of the rock band Zferblat are estimated below 1%.

The trio in which the twin brothers Daniil and Valentin Leshchinsky played with the song “Bird of Pray” (“Bird of Prayer”).

Daniil Leshchinsky said that the bird symbolizes “our freedom, revival and expectation of new changes. She is a harbinger of spring and a symbol of cyclicity in life. ” In the song, according to him, “house longing is intertwined, painful loss and at the same time the prayer that we pass through this symbolic bird, which should convey it to where there is still light and hope”. He added that the group began to work on the song last summer and that work on it was not easy.

Who was called to cancel

Estonia

The most familiar to the Russians is a participant in Eurovision this year is the Estonian rapper Tommy Cache (Thomas Tammemets). He speaks Russian and repeatedly collaborated with the Little Big group and her frontman Ilya Prusikin (and even called him his older brother).

At Eurovision-2025, the cache brought the foolish song “Espresso Macchiato” in the spirit of his “older brother”.

The song on a mixture of broken Italian and English mentions Espresso Machiato, Mafiosi, Spaghetti, Chao Bell and Mi Amore. In Italy, however, not everyone was appreciated by the joke: the Codacons Consumer Protection Organization complained about the cache in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), considering the track offensive-just because of the mention of the mafia. The broadcaster was asked to consider the possibility of disqualify the cache (this request was also supported by the Italian Senator Dzhan Marco Chentinayo), but this did not happen. As rightly noted by BBC, Espresso Macchiato is far from the first song in history, built on national stereotypes. And cites the example of the 1954 Mambo Italiano .

The participation of Tommy Kesh in Eurovision was also criticized from Ukraine. In particular, due to the fact that the number and video was put by the director of the-Russian woman Alina Pyazov (she condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and left Russia in 2022 with Little Big).

On the day of the first semi-final, in the UA War War Infographics telegram channel, which publishes infographics dedicated to the Russian-Ukrainian war, an unexpectedly appeared a list of artists who were not recommended for Ukrainians, "in order not to indirectly support Russia."

In addition to the cache, which was charged not only by cooperation with the hog, but also to “Nostalgia for the USSR” , Mariam Shengelia (Georgia), Parg (Armenia), JJ (Austria) and Emmy (Ireland) fell into this list. Initially, there was a Swedish group of Kaj, but later it was removed.

Why these countries?

One of the favorites of the competition, the Austrian Johannes Pitch, according to UA War Infographics, "admitted that the Russian woman inspired him to write a song." He really called Anna Netrebko among his sources of inspiration - along with Mayrai Carey, Ariana Grande and Maria Callas.

Pargeva Vardanyan (Parg) from Armenia was accused of speaking in Russia after 2022.

Mariam Shengelia-in agitation for the Georgian Dream party (the singer participated in protests against the party in 2023, but in 2024 starred in the pre-election video “Dreams”).

Emmy Christiansen (Emmy) was accused of “nostalgia for the USSR” (her song “Laika Party” is dedicated to the dog like into space).

Ireland and Georgia did not go through the stage of the semifinals - and they will not fight for the first place on May 17.

Israel

Like last year, participation in Israel is widely discussed. The country is represented by singer Juval Rafael with the song “New Day Will Rise” (“The New Day will rise”).

Despite the apoliticality of the competition declared by the organizers, in the center of the discussion is again politics and war in the Middle East. The Irish broadcaster RTé asked EBU to consider the removal of the singer. Broadcasters from Spain and Slovenia and more than 70 former participants of the competition joined this request, writes BBC. According to the Israeli journalist Max Lurie, among them are five participants from Russia, including Dima Bilan, Tatu and Serebro groups.

On October 7, 2023, Rafael was at the Supernova music festival in Israel, which became one of the goals of the Hamas terrorists attack. Then 360 people died . Juval, along with other people, hid in the bomb shelter, where the terrorists threw grenades. She and another 10 survivors hid under the bodies of the dead for more than eight hours. The singer received fragmentation wounds.

On May 11, in Basel, during the traditional parade of delegations of the Eurovision participants, a man with the Palestinian flag made a gesture to Raphael - he ran his hand around his neck, simulating his throat cut, and then spat on the members of her team. The Israeli corporation of television and radio broadcasting appealed to the police.

In an interview with BBC, Rafael said that before the performance in the semifinals she conducted several rehearsals with an imitation of hooking-to be ready for this. Eden Golan, representing Israel at Eurovision 2024, also booed .

During a general rehearsal on Thursday, I did not have to simulate a whistle in the afternoon: six people with Palestinian flags tried to prevent Rafael’s performance. They promptly increase from the territory of the arena. The singer’s performance in the semifinals also booed - but, as the Israeli media wrote , the applause in support of Rafael sounded louder. Joav Cafir, who heads the country's delegation at Eurovision, said that Juval acted “flawlessly”, despite the whistle. The author of the song Keren Peles believes that the reaction of dissatisfied viewers "was caused exclusively by hatred and nothing else."

Some spectators considered that the organizers of the competition drowned out the whistle of the audience in the broadcast. It was heard, but it seemed to eyewitnesses that Juval Rafael was more dissatisfied with the performance. “Eurovision imposes the noise of the crowd on the performance of Israel so that the audience does not hear a whistle,” quotes The Independent with a quote from one of the users of the X social network. “Of course, they filter a whistle, this is so typical,” one more wrote.

"Jellyfish"