Last week the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave his second address to the Australian public, this time answering questions put to him by Australian university students about the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the importance of Ukraine's Eurovision 2022 victory during a time of war.
The live address was held at the Llewellyn Hall at the Australian National University in Canberra where students from 21 universities took part online. The event was hosted by the former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop.
The question that wrapped up the event was asked by student, Olivia, from the Australian National University and it concerned Ukraine's Eurovision victory this year, where 'Stefania' by Kalush Orchestra won the Contest in Turin with a record televote score.
Olivia asked:
"Amidst the conflict and violence how do you feel about the participation and victory of Ukraine at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, particularly with the song that recognises so much of Ukraine’s language and culture, do you believe that music is an important tool for cultural connection during violence?"
President Zelenskyy responded:
“First of all, yes I do think that the culture, sport and science have the great significance in times of war. Even more important than in the peace time and you know for Ukraine, motivation is to win for every Ukrainian and that’s why we are motivated by any victory. We support our sportsmen and therefore we support our cultural activists. Eurovision… is one of the greatest examples of where we support our cultural activists. We support our scientists when they are becoming the best, our mathematics, our physicist scientist we support them as never before. Before this somebody, a lot of people, haven’t heard about us. That’s why this is a victory in all directions for us, it’s important for us. It’s a great battlefield for us everywhere. Thank you.”
Australian televoters gave 12 points to the Ukrainian Eurovision winning song in the Grand Final back in May. A total of 28 voting countries gave 'Stefania' 12 points by the televoters, to finish with a total of 631 points when combined with the jury and televote scores.
After their Eurovision win Kalush Orchestra managed to raise $1.3 million from sale of the Eurovision trophy to help fund the purchase drones for the war effort.
Concluding the event, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, gave a speech where he mentioned his favourite question of the night was the one regarding the Eurovision Song Contest. He revealed that he was personally involved in Eurovision for 10 years and contributed behind the scenes to Ukraine’s Eurovision win in 2004. He received a round of applause.
Back in July the EBU revealed that despite Ukraine's 2022 victory the nation was unable to host the event due to the ongoing conflict with Russia. It was confirmed that the United Kingdom will host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest.
The Ukrainian broadcaster UA: PBC will work closely with the BBC to develop Ukrainian elements of the show.
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