Sweden have won the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with Loreen’s song “Tattoo”.
The final results arrived in a tense showdown with Finland at the live ceremony in Liverpool, as the public vote temporarily sent Käärijä and his song “Cha Cha Cha” to the top of the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, it was a devastating result for the UK’s entry Mae Muller, whose performance of “I Wrote a Song” failed to sway the jury or the public and ending up coming second-to-last. Yet the 25-year-old once again displayed a positive attitude, sending a message to her supporters soon after the final scores were in.
“I just want to say thank you,” she tweeted. “I know I joke a lot but we really put our all into the last few months, not the result we hoped for but so proud of everyone and what we achieved on this journey. Congrats to all the countries, I’ll never forget this journey and I love you all.”
This year’s competition marked the first time the UK has hosted a Eurovision final in 25 years. It was decided that Liverpool would host after 2022’s winning country Ukraine said it would be unable to do so due to the ongoing invasion by Russia.
Twenty finalists including Norway and Australia competed against Eurovision’s Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and Ukraine, who automatically qualified to the grand final.
