Ukraine: ESC Daily spoke to winner Jamala

This weekend, the 2016 Eurovision season came to an end with Ukraine winning the Grand Final in Stockholm and Australia finishing a close second. Team ESC Daily looks back at the work we have done over the past two final weeks, and takes you back to our interview with the winning singer: Jamala!

When we spoke to Jamala, she was very emotional when we asked about her personal story. Her song ‘1944’ is about Jamala’s family, whom she thinks about during her performance.

Her greatgrandmother lost her baby girl during the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars, but her story is not just about history. ‘The annexation adds sadness to my life. My parents live in Crimea, and I can’t go there to visit them. I do not believe the new authorities. People in Crimea dissapear with no trace, that is why young people moved out of there. I think about them everytime when I perform my song,’ said an emotional Jamala at the end of the interview.

‘This story is still relevant today, because what was happening back then is happening right now again. And other countries cannot think that this is a story far far away; we are all connected and we should all fight for the same values of freedom,’ Jamala stated. People believe her emotions and crowned her the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.