LIVERPOOL, England — Liverpool cleaned up from the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday, as Sweden celebrated victory and Ukraine remained defiant after a night of Russian bombardment, including a strike on the hometown of the country’s competitors.
Electronic duo Tvorchi represented Ukraine at the spectacular pan-continental pop competition on Saturday night, coming sixth of the 26 finalists with “Heart of Steel,” an anthem to the country’s resilience inspired by the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as the contest was underway in Liverpool, and Ukraine’s military said a barrage of Russian drones and missile strikes left dozens wounded. One strike hit Ternopil, home city of Tvorchi in western Ukraine.
Ternopil was attacked again on Sunday morning, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Civilian buildings and cars were damaged; there was no immediate information on victims.
“Ternopil is the name of our hometown, which was bombed by Russia while we sang on the Eurovision stage about our steel hearts, indomitability and will,” the duo of Andrii Hutsuliak and Jeffery Kenny posted on Instagram late Saturday.
“This is a message for all cities of Ukraine that are shelled every day. Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Uman, Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and all others. Europe, unite against evil for the sake of peace! GLORY TO UKRAINE!”
Russia, a longtime Eurovision participant, was kicked out last year over its invasion of Ukraine.
Swedish singer Loreen won the contest with her power ballad “Tattoo,” at a colorful, eclectic music competition clouded for a second year by the war in Europe. Britain hosted Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine, which won last year but couldn’t take up its right to hold the event because of the war.
The sights and sounds of Ukraine ran through the show, starting with an opening film that showed 2022 Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra singing and dancing in the Kyiv subway, with the tune picked up by musicians in the U.K. — including Kate, Princess of Wales, shown playing the piano.
Kalush Orchestra said Sunday that the participation of Kate, who is married to Britain’s Prince William, “shows the depth of support the U.K. has for Ukraine and helps us highlight to the world what our country is going through.”
“It also shows impressive piano skills and we would definitely like to invite her to tour with us if she would…
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