EUROVISION: Does stealing for Ukraine help?

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After the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, the United States, European Union, and other countries expressed their full support for Ukraine and did everything to help Kiev regime, financially and militarily, and to help those who were leaving Ukraine because of the war.

Rich countries, like the United States and Western European powers, sent billions of dollars in cash, goods, guns, tanks, military airplanes, best and newest rocket launchers to Ukraine. Poland offered its old Russian military MIG planes to Ukraine in order to receive some new American F-35s. All East European NATO states offered military help to Ukraine and, of course, everybody opened their hearts and wallets to help refugees from Ukraine. Even Romania did that; it opened its border and its wallet to help Ukraine and its refugees, though the important Romanian minority living in Ukraine was left with no rights after the Maidan Square Revolution - no schools available to learn in Romanian and no right to use Romanian language in administration, not even in cities inhabited mostly by Romanian ethnics from Bucovina, a province taken away from Romania by Stalin and given to Ukraine when the Soviet Union was dismantled. Romanians made donations and did everything to help Ukrainian refugees. Everybody expressed their solidarity with Ukraine.

Then a horrible thing happened. 

Each year, since 1956, in Europe, we have a nice music contest, where all European countries, along with the not so European "Israel", are represented by an artist or a band, and the song that conquers the Europeans’ hearts wins, or at least that is what I thought until two days ago, wins. The country of the artist/band that wins Eurovision hosts next year’s edition. 

Every country involved in Eurovision gives a number of points to the artists of those country’s voters and jury they love the most. For example, France can give X points to the German singer, Y points to the Bulgarian band, and Z to the Swiss singer.

Thirty-six hours after Russia launched its special military operation against Ukraine, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decided to exclude Russia from Eurovision Song Contest 2022.  

I personally didn’t understand what does music have to do with politics or armies, why does culture have to suffer because of some politicians’ decisions, and what does music have to do with war, especially as music is, in most cases, something that unites countries and peoples, away from politics, ideologies, and regimes. The best example is one of my favorite artists, Toto Cutugno, one of the best Italian singers and composers who won Eurovision in 1990 for “Insieme: 1992”, a song about Europe’s unity, freedom, cooperation, fraternity, and love without borders, a song that would be the best European Union’s anthem, a song named “Together” (that’s the English translation for the word “Insieme”). I’ve always thought that INSIEME/TOGETHER is the essence of the whole European Union and Eurovision idea. 

The only rational explanation for the European Broadcasting Union’s decision would be their fear to see Russia represented by The Red Army’s Choir, but I don’t think Russia would have chosen The Red Army’s Choir to represent it…

After all, excluding Russia from Eurovision was like excluding Russia from other competitions, neither Vladimir Putin, nor his generals or ministers were expected to sing or run in any championship. It was something not very normal, but… expected, considering the trend.

Even giving sympathy votes to Ukraine’s song, “Stefania”, though it was one of the worst songs in the competition, was expected. As I said before, many Europeans showed their strong support for Ukraine and its people. 

What was surely not expected was Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra and their “Stefania” actually winning Eurovision. When you feel pity for someone, usually you give that person some money, some support, but you never give away all your money or your honor for that person. EBU didn’t give away all its money to Kalush Orchestra, but it surely lost its honor after Eurovision 2022!

What European Broadcasting Union (EBU) did during this Eurovision 2022 votes counting was unacceptable and horrible. They practically STOLE VOTES from different countries AND GAVE THEM TO Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra!

It wasn’t something so subtle at all! It was a robbery in plain sight, during live TV broadcasts!

The votes from six countries - Romania, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Poland, San Marino, and Montenegro - were disregarded, and these countries’ jury votes were substituted by aggregate scores at Saturday’s (14 May) Grand Finale.

According to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), six countries were found to have reported “irregular voting patterns” after the second dress rehearsal of the second semi-final.

According to EBU, Romania gave 12 points to Ukraine’s “Stefania” and NONE TO Moldavia, despite the fact that Moldavia was represented by Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers, with the song “Trenuletul” (“Little Train”), a gorgeous song about the brotherhood between Romania and Moldavia (territory ripped from Romania, after World War II, inhabited by people with the same cultural identity as Romanians), also, despite the fact that Zdob şi Zdub is a very loved band in Romania. EBU’s representative proudly said, “The jury from Romania has awarded 12 points to Ukraine”. 

TVR (Romanian public television) considers that Eurovision’s organizers CHANGED ROMANIA’S VOTES.

In fact, Romania had awarded 12 points to Moldavia’s “Trenuletul”, 10 points to Greece, 8 points to Poland, 7 points to Holland, 6 points to Azerbaijan, 5 points to Australia, 4 points to Italy, 3 points to Spain, 2 points to Finland, and one point to Lithuania, but, when Eda Marcus, the Romanian lady representing Romanian Television, was about to go live on Eurovision live broadcast, the organizers in Torino announced that, because of technical difficulties, the live feed from Romania is not working and that Romania was giving 12 points to Ukraine’s “Stefania”.

Of course, so many countries giving ALL THEIR POINTS TO UKRAINE’S “Stefania” looks pretty cool for Kalush Orchestra and its boring song, but… makes the rest of us seem pretty stupid and brainwashed, considering the fact that there were so many better songs! … Who can believe so many Europeans don’t think? Maybe some people believed that, maybe others believed that compassion for Ukraine’s refugees made us vote for “Stefania”, but it surely isn’t so!

Well, stealing from here, stealing from there made many people rich, but it also made Ukraine’s “Stefania” win Eurovision 2022! … Also, this “stealing from here, stealing from there” attitude made European Broadcasting Union and Eurovision contest lose all their credibility! What can someone think about a contest in which countries’ votes are not only canceled by the organizers but also given to some entirely different participant, one who wasn’t even in the top ten?