Jamala's hit "1944" places third in Guardian's Eurovision best song list
Photo: EBU
The Guardian decided to create a list of the best-winning songs in the history of Eurovision, in which the hit of the Ukrainian singer Jamala 1944 took third place.
The Guardian reports that first place was won by the legendary song Waterloo by the ABBA group, which brought victory to Sweden in the international song contest in 1974.
In second place was the song Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son, performed by the French singer France Gall. She took first place at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965 and greatly influenced the further development of the competition.
The honorable third place in the list of the best-winning songs in the history of Eurovision was taken by the composition 1944 by the singer Jamala, with which she won the competition in 2016.
"The lyrics of 1944, about the ethnic cleansing of Crimean Tartars by Stalin, caused controversy: Russian politicians complained that it was linked to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. But it would be an authentically fantastic track whatever it was about: understated and moodily atmospheric, a rhythm influenced by two-step garage, great chorus," the editors emphasized in The Guardian.
On her page on Instagram, Jamala expressed gratitude for the high appreciation of her composition.
Ukrainian singer Jamala won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, which was held in Stockholm. She scored 534 points with 211 jury votes and 323 audience votes.
Jamala became the first Crimean Tatar to ever perform at Eurovision in its entire history.
The first lines of the song 1944 were written in 2014 in Ukrainian. In the song, Jamala sings about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944. Jamala heard stories about this event from her grandmother Nazilhan, who survived the deportation.
In the chorus, the words the singer heard from her grandmother — two lines from the chorus in the Crimean Tatar language are borrowed from the song Hey, Guzel Kyrym. The song has a complex vocal part with many semitones and mughams.
