Crimean Tatar from Ukraine wins Eurovision Song Contest

By Atila Altuntas

STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Crimean Tatar singer from Ukraine Jamala has won the 61st Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Swedish capital Stockholm.

The 32-year-old’s song, 1944, on the deportation of Crimean Tatars under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, scored 534 points on Saturday night.

Jamala sung mostly in English but the chorus was in a Crimean Tatar Turkic dialect.

“I sung for peace and love,” she said in a news conference following the competition.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 following a contested referendum. Since then, the region’s Tatar minority has regularly denounced an increasing repression.

Ukrainian Culture Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko was present in the audience.

“I hope that this victory gives my country moral support,” he told reporters.

The 2016 contest’s theme was “Come Together”, referring to the refugee crisis. In total, 26 participants performed Saturday night.

Australia’s representative Dami Im’s song Sound of Silence came second with 511 points and Russian singer Sergey Lazarev’s You Are the Only One came third with 491 points.

Broadcasted in the U.S. for the first time, this year’s competition was watched by an estimated 180 million viewers, according to Eurovision’s official website.