The contest should’ve held in Ukraine this year after the country’s Kalush Orchestra won in 2022, but Russia’s invasion made that impossible
Liverpool has proven an inspired choice. The city has been gripped by Eurovision fever and organizers have put the war in Ukraine at the centre of the activity. Ukrainian flags can be seen all over downtown and a two-week EuroFestival with art, poetry, music and theatre productions has focused on the war. The city’s iconic Nelson monument has been surrounded by more than 2,500 sandbags and embedded with a video about the importance of music during wartime, narrated by a Ukrainian musician.
Taras Khomych left Ukraine in 1999 for Belgium to study theology, and in 2012 came to Liverpool, where he is now a lecturer at Liverpool Hope University and a priest at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. After one organizational meeting, a local businessman approached Khomych to arrange space in a building for a new Ukrainian Community Centre at no cost; the centre, which opened last month, already hosts dance classes, language lessons, cultural events and art programs. Another donor has freed up a hotel banquet room Saturday night so that around 300 refugees can have a party and watch the Eurovision final.
The snub likely won’t prevent displays of Ukrainian solidarity during the show. Ukraine’s entry, a pop duo called Tvorchi, is singing a piece titled, written in honour of the soldiers who held out during Russia’s siege of Mariupol last year. They’re accompanied by dancers wearing gas masks and video images of nuclear warning signs.
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