For the second time since 2012, the singer Loreen has won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden. Her song "Tattoo" received a total of 583 points. Finland (526 points) came in second place in the world's biggest music show on Sunday night with singer Käärijä and the metal-pop-electro song "Cha Cha Cha". Third place in Liverpool went to Israel, followed by Italy and Norway. With the rock band Lord Of The Lost ("Blood & Glitter"), Germany only reached the last place – as it did last year.

The German ESC series of bankruptcies since 2015 with only penultimate or last places has only been interrupted in recent years by Michael Schulte, who finished fourth in 2018. For the last time, 75-year-old Peter Urban commented on the show on ARD.

The Nordic showdown between Sweden and Finland had already been hinted at before the final in Liverpool: Sweden's Loreen and Finland's Käärijä had been identified in advance by experts and betting shops as the two biggest favorites of this year's ESC. Loreen, who won the music competition eleven years ago in the Azerbaijani capital Baku with the song "Euphoria", had been considered a top favorite by the bookmakers early on – and that even before she had even won the Swedish ESC preliminary round in March.

ESC power Sweden

Loreen is 39 years old and comes from Stockholm. With "Euphoria" she had not only won the ESC title in 2012, but had also stormed to the top of the charts in Germany and other countries. Since then, it had become quieter around the Swede internationally - until she hit a very similar sound with "Tattoo" as with her successful hit eleven years ago.

The pop nation Sweden has now won the ESC seven times – making it the record holder on a par with Ireland. The previous Swedish winner was the singer Måns Zelmerlöw with "Heroes" in Vienna in 2015.

However, the Scandinavian country experienced its greatest moment at the competition almost half a century ago: In 1974, the pop group Abba won the Grand Prix in Brighton, England, with "Waterloo". The success made Abba suddenly internationally known – a world career followed.

According to the ESC tradition, Ukraine would normally have hosted the 67th Eurovision Song Contest as last year's winner. However, Great Britain, as the second-placed country of the previous year, took on this task because Ukraine is not a safe place because of the Russian war of aggression.

In a BBC interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said he would have liked it better if the competition had been moved to a Ukrainian neighboring country such as Poland or Slovakia. Then it would have been easier for Ukrainians to travel or feel close. The moderation quartet in Liverpool was attended by the Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, who expressly thanked the British hosts in the show.

She was joined by actress Hannah Waddingham ("Game of Thrones"), "Britain's Got Talent" judge Alesha Dixon and talk show host and author Graham Norton, who is one of the most famous television personalities in the English-speaking world and has been commentating on the ESC for the BBC for years.

26 participants

26 songs competed in the final. A total of 37 countries took part in this year's ESC. 11 entries were eliminated in the two semi-finals, including entries from the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark and Iceland.

France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany are automatically seeded for the final as major donors, as is last year's winner, this time Ukraine.

As always, the spectators were able to vote for the winner, but not for their own country. Their voting was supplemented by jurors.

In 2023, the announcement of points by expert juries and the public was separated for the seventh time, first the jury voting was queried via a link to all 37 participating countries, which Sweden won with 340 votes. Germany came in last place with just three points. Then the moderators read out the televote (the viewers' votes).

The jury points from Germany (this time in the jury including Katja Ebstein and Frida Gold frontwoman Alina Süggeler) were announced for the first time by the presenter Elton, after Barbara Schöneberger had done so for years. He was connected live from Hamburg. The maximum score of 12 went to Sweden. The German spectators, on the other hand, gave Finland the maximum score.