"1944" is a song written and performed by

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

singer

Jamala Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova, ; rus, Суса́на Али́мовна Джамалади́нова, Susána Alímovna Dzhamaladínova, sʊˈsanə ɐˈlʲiməvnə dʐəməlɐˈdʲinəvə, links=yes. (born 27 August 1983), known professionally ...

. It represented

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organised by the European Broadcasting ...

and won with a total of 534 points. A music video for the song was released on 21 September 2016.

Background and lyrics

The lyrics for "1944" concern the

deportation of the Crimean Tatars The deportation of the Crimean Tatars ( crh, Qırımtatar halqınıñ sürgünligi, Cyrillic: Къырымтатар халкъынынъ сюргюнлиги) or the Sürgünlik ('exile') was the ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide of at ...

, in the 1940s, by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

at the hands of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

because of their alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Jamala was particularly inspired by the story of her great-grandmother Nazylkhan, who was in her mid-20s when she and her five children were deported to

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. One of the daughters did not survive the journey. Jamala's great-grandfather was fighting in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

at this time and thus could not protect his family. The song was also released amid renewed repression of Crimean Tatars following the Russian annexation of Crimea, since most Crimean Tatars refuse to accept the annexation. The English lyrics were written by the poet Art Antonyan. The song's chorus, in the

Crimean Tatar language Crimean Tatar () also called Crimean (), is a Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should n ...

, is made up of words from a Crimean Tatar folk song called '' Ey Güzel Qırım'' that Jamala had heard from her great-grandmother, reflecting on the loss of a youth which could not be spent in her homeland. The song features the

duduk The duduk ( ; hy, դուդուկ ) or tsiranapogh ( hy, ծիրանափող, meaning “apricot-made wind instrument”), is an ancient Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. It is indigenous to Armenia. Variations of th ...

played by Aram Kostanyan and the use of the

mugham Mugham ( az, Muğam) or Mughamat ( az, Muğamat) is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik. It is a highly complex art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific l ...

vocal style.

National selection and Eurovision Song Contest

Ukraine withdrew from the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

, citing costs. After deciding to return to the contest in 2016, a selection process to determine the representative of Ukraine was opened, combining resources from the state broadcaster NTU and private

STB State Security ( cs, Státní bezpečnost, sk, Štátna bezpečnosť) or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it d ...

. Jamala was announced as one of the eighteen competing acts in the Ukrainian national selection for the contest. She performed in the first semi-final on 6 February 2016, where she won both the jury and televote, advancing to the Ukrainian final. In the final, on 21 February, she was placed second by the jury and first by the televote, resulting in a tie with The Hardkiss and their song "Helpless". Jamala was announced as the winner, however, as the televoting acted as a

tiebreaker In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests. General operation In matches In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...

. She received 37.77% of more than 382,000 televotes. Jamala represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, performing in the second half of the second semi-final. "1944" is the first Eurovision song to contain lyrics in the

Crimean language Crimean Tatar () also called Crimean (), is a Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should n ...

. She won the final receiving the second highest televoting score and second highest jury vote.

Accusations of politicisation

In a February 2016 interview with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Jamala said that the song also reminded her of her own family living in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

nowadays, claiming that since the

2014 Russian annexation of Crimea In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv th ...

"the Crimean Tatars are on occupied territory". The song lyrics, however, do not address this annexation. Eurovision rules prohibit songs with lyrics that could be interpreted as having "political content".Ukraine picks Crimean Tatar for Eurovision
, Times Union (21 February 2014)
Eurovision: Ukraine's entry aimed at Russia

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

(22 February 2016) Immediately after the selection of this song, some Russian politicians, as well as authorities in Crimea, accused the Ukrainian authorities of "capitalising on the tragedy of the Tatars to impose on European viewers a false picture of alleged harassment of the Tatars in the Russian Crimea".Russia MPs slam Ukraine's choice of Crimean Tatar for Eurovision

Yahoo News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

(23 February 2016) On 9 March 2016, a tweet from the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

confirmed that neither the title nor the lyrics of the song contained "political speech" and therefore it did not breach any Eurovision rule, thus allowing it to remain in the competition.

Eurovision Song Contest

The song won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, receiving a grand total of 534 points, officially surpassing the previous record set by

Alexander Rybak Alexander Igorevich Rybak (russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак) or Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak ( be, Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак; born 13 May 1986) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pian ...

with his song "Fairytale" in the

2009 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song " Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

, which won with 387 points.Because of the new scoring system, however, with separate sets of televotes and jury votes, the results are not directly comparable with each other, as the number of points was limited to 492 in previous contest. With the current system, the score of "Fairytale" would have been 690. The national juries voted “ Sound of Silence” by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

first with 320 points, and the televote voted “ You Are the Only One” by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

first with 361 points. The televoting result for Ukraine, of 323 points, however, was sufficient, when added to their jury score of 211 points, to put them in first place, with a grand total of 534 points, leaving Australia second and Russia third.

Critical reception

Prior to the Ukrainian national selection finals, "1944" received 8.33 out of 10 points from a jury of Eurovision blog ''

Wiwibloggs Wiwibloggs is a fansite and YouTube channel focusing on the Eurovision Song Contest, launched in 2009. It has a seasonal audience, peaking at 250,000 page views per day during the week of Eurovision in May 2016, based on Google Analytics data. ...

'', the highest score among the six finalists in the Ukrainian national selection.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

External links

"1944"
- lyrics at eurovision.tv {{authority control 2015 songs 2016 singles English-language Ukrainian songs Eurovision Song Contest winning songs Eurovision songs of 2016 Eurovision songs of Ukraine Songs about World War II Songs about Crimea Jamala songs Crimean Tatar music Crimean Tatar-language songs