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Viktoria Veselova and Oleksandra Melnykova from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service look at how the annual kitch fest that is the Eurovision song contest could have serious political overtones this year, at least as far as Ukraine is concerned:
Crimean Tatar Singer Hopes To Take People's Tragedy To Eurovision
KYIV -- The leading contender to represent Ukraine in this year's Eurovision song contest is a 32-year-old Crimean Tatar with a heart-rending song recalling how Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the mass deportation of her entire nation to Central Asia in 1944.
Singer Jamala won the national quarterfinal competition with her song 1944, receiving the highest scores both from the judges and from the text-message voting -- even though the vast majority of Crimean Tatars were unable to cast ballots because they live in Crimea, which was forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014. (Ukrainian telecom companies were kicked out of the region following the Russian takeover, and now their equipment is being used there by Russian firms.)
"It makes me very sad," Jamala told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. "I know that many of my supporters are in Crimea. Many people wrote to me that they would send texts anyway, because they support me. I tell them they are wasting their money and their votes don't count, but they tell me they are sending them anyway."
Nonetheless, Jamala's performance at the February 6 quarterfinals in Kyiv produced an outpouring of support on social media.
"Your music today made me understand the pain of our loss of Crimea," wrote a user identified as Ruslan. "I simply wept along with you."
WATCH: Jamala Sings 1944
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