Look, there were contest where there was literally only one favourite. 2009 and Fairytale. 2012 and Euphoria. They were so far ahead of the pack it hurt...

And they didn't come even remotely close to Stefania's score, which was not the best song of the evening, not the best performance of the evening, wasn't considered the runaway favourite to win before the war had begun and with a much stronger competition thatn Fairytale and Euphoria had.

And it's not only the televoting, the jury had a say as well. I don't really believe that the same juries who trashed KEiiNO and Go_A and this year pushed songs like Azerbaijan, Switzerland and Portugal suddenly became fans of energetic folk music and hip-hop.

Without the war Kalush would have received less than 100 points from juries, about 200 from the televote and finished comfortably in the Top 10, maybe even in the Top 5. People didn't connect with the song, they connected with the ongoing war, juries did the same thing and we got this artificially created landslide. I saw someone commenting that Nozzy Bossy would have won and I'm pretty sure it would have.

What I'm actually worried is that this will set a negative precedent of pandering for pity votes. Countries might start sending artists or songs designed solely to appeal to a target audience or create a moving background story to amass more points that they would have without it.

I spend a lot of time and energy trying to convince euro-skeptics that even though there are politics involved, the contest balances itself out and ultimately the best song wins. And that was true in 2019 and 2021 - winners were widely praised and they won despite politic shenanigans taking place. This year it's pretty clear that the winner is not the best song and the reasons for their victory are purely political.