The group Kalush Orchestra, from Ukraine, performing the song "Stefania", enters the hall at the beginning of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). Photo / Getty Images
Ukraine is the winner of this year's Eurovision song contest.
Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra came first in the 2022 edition of Eurovision.
The UK has taken second place.
Kalush Orchestra performed the song "Stefania" when representing Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, this weekend.
The six-member, all-male band received special permission to leave the country during the war against Russia, to represent Ukraine in Italy on Saturday night (local time).
One of the original members of the band reportedly stayed in Ukraine to fight and the others plan to return as soon as the contest is over.
At the end of their folk-rap performance, which included breakdancing, the group thanked everyone for supporting Ukraine.
The band's front man, Oleg Psiuk, took advantage of the enormous global audience to make impassioned plea to free fighters still trapped beneath a sprawling steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol following the six-man band's performance.
"I ask all of you, please help Ukraine, Mariupol. Help Azovstal, right now," Psiuk said to the live crowd of about 7500, many of whom gave a standing ovation, and a global television audience of millions.
The plea to free the remaining Ukrainian fighters trapped beneath the Azovstal plant by Russians served as a somber reminder that the hugely popular and at times flamboyant Eurovision song contest was being played out against the backdrop of a war on Europe's eastern flank.
Zelenskyy gave signs that he was watching from Kyiv, and rooting for Ukrainian band.
"Indeed, this is not a war, but nevertheless, for us today, any victory is very important,″ Zelenskyy said, according to a presidential statement.
"So, let's cheer for ours. Glory be to Ukraine!"
Ukraine's song "Stefania" was written as a tribute to the frontman's mother, but has transformed since the war into an anthem to the beleaguered nation, as lyrics take on new meaning.
"I'll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed," Kalush Orchestra frontman Oleg Psiuk wrote.
After Russia invaded Ukraine and began the war on February 24 this year, Eurovision organisers banned Russia and Belarus from competing in the contest.
- additional reporting by AP
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