Sweden's Loreen wins Eurovision for the second time
With Daniel Rosney in the arena, Andre Rhoden-Paul and Gem O'Reilly at the Eurovision Village fan zone, and Helen Bushby, Emma Saunders and Mark Savage watching live in Liverpool
With Daniel Rosney in the arena, Andre Rhoden-Paul and Gem O'Reilly at the Eurovision Village fan zone, and Helen Bushby, Emma Saunders and Mark Savage watching live in Liverpool
Live Reporting
Edited by Marita Moloney and Jasmine Taylor-Coleman
All times stated are UK
8) Spain – Unapologetically flamboyant flamenco
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
How do flamenco dancers take their coffee? Au lait!
Sorry… I’m getting carried away. But Spain’s entry is one of my favourites this year, fusing the folkloric handclap rhythms of flamenco with a thrumming bassline and sinuous, Arabian melodies.
33-year-old Blanca Paloma wrote the song to honour late grandmother, Carmen, who introduced her to flamenco, and she performs with five backing singers, representing the power and strength of her female ancestors.
Beautifully choreographed, this is a real head-turner.
Lots of sparkle in the fan zone
Gem O'Reilly
Reporting from the fan zone
Helen, Verity, Laura, Holly, Gina, Abi and Lydia are all friends from Sheffield enjoying the show from the fan zone in Liverpool.
Abi said: “It’s amazing here, it beats watching it from your living room”. They’re all wearing Union Jack jackets with tassels.
“Everyone that I know has been talking about Eurovision all week, I work in a school and even the kids have been super excited.”
The group is behind Mae. Laura said: “I think Mae Muller is brilliant, she’s current and she’s just what we needed”.
Relight my fire
Emma Saunders
Watching at the venue
Aussie singer Andrew Lambrou is flying the flag for his parents’ homeland Cyprus with Break A Broken Heart.
He enters the stage barefoot (yes, anyone over a certain age is thinking of Sandie Shaw - Google it youngsters).
Andrew’s looking confident in his black vest and matching wide pants. Think stylish but comfy - would have been perfect for those lockdown video meetings we all loved so much.
There’s a very generous amount of 80s disco smoke swirling around him, which we are here for, 100%. Must admit, I wasn’t quite ready the Love Island-style firepits to pop up behind him. And there’s more pyrotechnics surrounding our Andrew at the front of the stage.
We can literally feel the heat. Where’s the fire extinguisher? Anybody?
7) Cyprus – Burn, baby, burn
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
You cannot, advises Andrew Lambrou in this overblown mega-ballad, break a broken heart.
Swathed in dry ice, the Austrian-Cypriot singer keeps the staging simple, ensuring that his voice is the star.
Until, that is, the pyrotechnics operator goes nuts and spends the last 30 seconds of the performance shooting columns of flames into the sky.
It’s a temperature-raising performance, in more ways than one.
Post update
Marita Moloney
Live reporter
We're just watching a lookback over the week, six acts in. Before that we saw Alesha Dixon bring out her rap skills for the first time tonight.
Inside the official Eurovision party venue
Andre Rhoden-Paul
Reporting from Euroclub
I've now sashayed away from Eurovision Village and headed to Euroclub - hosted by club venue Camp and Furnace - some 15 minutes away.
It's standing room only here at the venue designated by Eurovision organisers as the official party venue for delegates and fans.
The drinks are flowing and everyone's singing along with the songs, and shimmying along in their flags, sequinned jackets and light up headbands. It's camptastic!
La Zarra’s looking for love
Helen Bushby
Watching at the venue
This is a very classy number, all sung in French, naturellement.
Looking like a gothic Jessica Rabbit fixed on top of a giant, black wedding cake, France’s La Zarra sings about the trouble she’s having finding love.
This line, translated from the song Évidemment, is a classic: “I'm looking for love, I can't find anything/Like in my handbag.”
Just tip it all out onto the bed and have a sift through. That’s my advice anyway.
6) France – La Zarra has the best view in the arena
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
French star La Zarra has literally been wheeled out to the stage, perched on top of a giant platform that rises into the sky, from whence her sparkly black dress cascades to the floor.
It’s quite a look, I’ll give her that.
Inspired by Audrey Hepburn, Edith Piaf and Lana Del Rey, her performance is a chic, stylish, fusion of smoky torch songs and filtered French disco.
There’s a more emotional moment towards the end, where La Zarra stops and demands: “Tell me, did I manage to sing the greatness of France?”
After 45 years without a Eurovision victory, it’s a line that’s loaded with meaning.
The Princess of Wales makes Eurovision cameo
The Princess of Wales made a surprise Eurovision appearance this evening.
She played the piano alongside last year's Eurovision winners, the Kalush Orchestra, who opened the show.
In a tweet, the account for the Prince and Princess of Wales said it was a "pleasure" to join the orchestra. "Enjoy the show, Liverpool".
The performance was recorded earlier this month in the Crimson Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.
Eurovision parties kick off
Some of you have been getting in touch to let us know how you're watching the Grand Final.
Louise, Alice, Helen, Yolly, Ed and Sarah are watching from the Eurovision Village.
"We've had a Eurovision party together every year for the past 11 years and couldn't not be in Liverpool this year. We've had an amazing day," they said.
Ames, Beau and the Frenchie Boo said from York: "I've burnt my fingers on the glue gun but our outfits of the spirit of Eurovision, where Terry and Graham are the shoulder-pads and the runner up in jogging gear, are complete."
The descent into Eurovision madness has begun
Emma Saunders
Watching at the venue
Luke Black (Serbia) was seen fencing in the postcard video but we’re disappointed to report that there’s no sword action on stage.
There’s a huge giant white flower petal on stage (or is it an oyster?) and Luke is lying inside it. As you do on an average Saturday night. You’ve got to give him some props for singing while lying down (we’ll be seeing more of that with some of the other acts later).
He’s wearing a gothic white shirt (eat your heart out, Lord Byron) surrounded by robotic dancers, each attached to what look like vacuum cleaner hoses.
“I just want to sleep forever,” Luke croons but I’m afraid he’s only got about two minutes left until France’s La Zarra takes the stage, so he’s going to have to wake up!
5) Serbia – Luke Black’s lockdown fever dream
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
You can’t say Eurovision doesn’t give you variety.
We’re only five songs in and we’ve already had a demonic possession, a Mediterranean can-can, a heartfelt anti-war protest and an Ace of Base rip off.
Now, here’s Serbian artist Luke Black with what can only be described as a long, dark night of the soul (musical version).
His song, Samo Mi Se Spava, translates as “I want to sleep”, and explores the altered states of reality he experienced in isolation back in 2020.
He arrives on stage inside an alien pod, as he wakes up from his dream-state and tries to rejoin reality.
If you watch closely, you’ll notice his backing dancers are all tethered to the Matrix - but by the end of the performance, Luke has unplugged them all and emerged, blinking, into the daylight.
Sunsets, palm trees and parrots
Helen Bushby
Watching at the venue
Line up your cocktails (mine’s a pina colada) while you watch Solo, from Poland’s Blanka.
There’s an unmistakable beach holiday vibe. It’s all sunsets, palm trees and parrots with some slick dance moves.
Blanka’s singing about being empowered and going it alone.
She and her colourful dancers are rocking bright colours and metallics and some teeny, tiny shorts - definitely one of tonight’s upbeat numbers.
4) Poland – Blanka revives a Eurovision tradition
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
The UK often moans about its Eurovision track record, but poor old Poland has been part of the contest since 1994 and never won.
Hoping to change that this year is model-turned-singer Blanka, whose Mediterranean bop Solo has one of the night’s breeziest, catchiest melodies.
The song caused a bit of controversy back at home, where it was accused of plagiarising a similarly upbeat reggae-pop song, Up by Inna.
There was even a petition for Blanka to be replaced by the act who came second in Poland’s national selection.
But she survived, and she’s here with some cute hand-choreography and a Eurovision tradition: A tearaway costume.
How is Graham balancing two jobs?
Daniel Rosney
Eurovision reporter, inside the arena
Graham Norton ran across the arena and up the stairs to the BBC’s commentary booth.
He’s literally sprinting because he’s commentating on the performances with Mel Giedroyc as well as hosting duties.
We saw torchlights flash across the arena as he was directed while the show continued on stage.
Having been in a commentary booth last night, with my Eurovisioncast co-host Måns Zelmerlöw last night, I can confirm they’re an intimate space and could do with some air-con!
A bit like a school PE changing room.
Dancers’ bonds keep them close
Helen Bushby
Watching at the venue
Here’s a soulful anti-war message from Switzerland’s Remo Forrer.
There’s some floaty dancing going on here, with four dancers tethered to him, as he sings about not wanting to be a soldier.
They’re not able to break free from him or each other, which could be a metaphor for his message.
Or it could just be an arty performance, with him looking like a giant maypole. You decide.
3) Switzerland – The night’s first anti-war song
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
Unsurprisingly, given that tonight’s show is designed as a message of solidarity with Ukraine, a lot of the acts go out of their way to address the horrors of war in their lyrics.
Switzerland’s Remo Forrer pulls no punches, with lyrics about body bags and blood spilled on the frontlines. Dancers fall to the ground as pyrotechnic flashes represent falling bombs and the muzzle flash of machine guns.
Forrer, who’s just 21, has a strong and sincere baritone that drives the message home. But will the sombre tone resonate with viewers?
From conveyancing to cabaret
Emma Saunders
Watching at the venue
Mimicat spent several years as an estate agent to help pay the rent while also writing music.
In fact, she penned her Eurovision entry Ai Coração for Portugal a few years back while waiting for a client to arrive to view a house.
There’s not a mortgage deed in sight tonight though. She bursts on to the stage in a flouncy, feathery red dress (before you say it, she’s already made a joke about Sesame Street’s Big Bird although at least he’s a different colour).
This is a traditional song with a modern twist. There are plenty of full skirt swishing opportunities from Mimi and her dancers if you feel so inclined to mimic her performance in front of the TV (or on top of a bar perhaps?)
2) Portugal – Can-can they break the curse?
Mark Savage
Watching at the venue
Portugal’s Mimicat brings a touch of the Moulin Rouge to Eurovision with her sultry cabaret number Ai Coração.
The title translates as “Oh, heart!” and the lyrics are all about a love so passionate it drives you crazy.
“I feel dizzy and worse every day,” she sings.
“Somebody, please snap me out of this!”
Her fiery performance was a firm favourite in the semi-finals, but nobody has ever won Eurovision from second place in the running order.
Teya and Salena channel Edgar Allen Poe
Helen Bushby
Watching at the venue
This opening number is peak Eurovision - just don’t expect to fully understand what’s going on here.
The first slot hasn’t historically been great for capturing votes, but Austria’s Teya and Salena are going for it. They’re singing Who the Hell is Edgar, surrounded by hordes of identical, robotic women in red and black.
Just go with it, it’s great fun.