Loreen from Sweden was named the winner of Eurovision 2023 with her song Tattoo. She makes history as the first woman to win the competition twice, and only the second performer ever to have multiple wins.
The singer had huge success when she won the competition back in 2012 with the song Euphoria, which is a rare example of a Eurovision song also finding chart and club success. The only other performer to win the competition twice is Australian born singer Johnny Logan who won for Ireland in 1980 with the song What’s Another Year and picked up the trophy a second time in 1987 with Hold Me Now.
Australia was represented this year by Perth band Voyager who performed their song Promise. The performed well coming in ninth place.
In the voting Australia got the desired 12 points from Albania, Estonia and Iceland who all declared Promise as their favourite song in the competition. Australian audiences declared their favourite tune in the competition was Finland’s Cha Cha Cha, while the Australian jury gave it’s 12 votes to Gustav from Belgium.
We’ve taken part in the competition eight times so far and Voyager scored better than last year’s effort from Sheldon Riley, who came in 15th spot. In 2021 Australia was not able to travel to Turin Italy due to the Covid-9 pandemic and Montaigne was forced to perform from a studio in Australia. That year we failed to make it through the grand finale.
Dami Im in 2016 has been Australia’s best result to date when she was the runner-up. Guy Sebastian’s 2015 effort scored a 5th spot, while Isiah in 2017 and Kate Miller-Hidke in 2019 also both scored ninth place. Jessica Mauboy’s 2018 song We Got Love only made it the 20th slot.
While Loreen had been tipped to win the competition from the outset, she faced some competition from Finland’s entry, the catchy Cha Cha Cha from Käärijä.
Their ‘slightly bonkers’ song came in second with 526 points in total, while Loreen was out in front with 583 points at the conclusion of the counting.
The other countries making up the top 10 were Israel, Italy, Norway, Ukraine, Belgium, Estonia and Czech Republic.
Germany scored the lowest result in the grand final coming in 26th spot, dark mental act Lord of the Lost didn’t find a lot of love with their song Blood & Glitter.
The United Kingdom also scored badly coming in second-last spot. While Mae Muller’s I Wrote a Song has already found chart success and was tipped as a potential winner when it was first released, it failed to capture the attention of either the juries or the home audience.
Next year the competition will return to Sweden. With Loreen’s win they now hold an equal spot alongside Ireland for the most wins in the competition’s long history, both have won it seven times now. The 2024 outing will align with the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning the competition in 1974.
The final can be watched on Sunday 14 May at 7:30pm on SBS and anytime on SBS On Demand.
Graeme Watson, images Sarah Louise Bennet, Corrine Cumming EBU.
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