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Liverpool declared the winner after hosting 'brash, bonkers' Eurovision
The Guardian
|May 15, 2023
Saturday night's Eurovision song contest in Liverpool was the most watched grand final in the competition's history, the BBC has said.
In the UK, there was a five-minute peak of 11 million people watching and an average viewing figure of 9.9 million - a 63% television audience share. The previous ratings record was the 2011 grand final when an average of 9.5 million tuned in to watch Blue finish in 11th place.
The contest was won by the bookies' favourite, Loreen, for Sweden. She also made history by becoming the first woman to win the contest twice. She triumphed with her power ballad Tattoo - as in "you're stuck on me like a tattoo" - which came more than a decade after her victory in 2012 with the floor-filler Euphoria.
This year's contest should have taken place in Ukraine after the emphatic victory last year of Kalush Orchestra and their song Stefania.
This story is from the May 15, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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