Eurovision 2016 Winner: Ukraine Entry: Jamala - 1944

28 December Critic Jonni 0 Comments

Well, anyone who has followed my Eurovision Special would have realised that this is from the wrong year. The thing is Måns Zelmerlöw hasn't released an official music video to "Heroes"; unfortunately, there is only a lyric video available. So that left me a little unsure of what to do. Then I remembered Jamala had released this video for her winning entry from Eurovision 2016, and I've been trying to find the time to review it. So today is as good of a day as any, but the today is the best day because it totally completes all my Eurovision blog posts. Watch Jamala perform "1944" amongst an intricate contemporary dance that raises goosebumps and gives chills. Absolutely amazing.

Jamala, full name Susana Jamaladinova, has released a lot of songs and albums. She has really embedded herself as a confident professional singer with amazing vocal ability. It's not much of a surprise that she did well in the contest, and she managed to win it even when the top was very competitive. She won the Ukrainian national final, after initially tying with second place. She represented Ukraine and won with 534 points. Due to a change of the points system, this marks the highest score of the Eurovision Song Contest, ever. There was controversy over the fact that she won because Australia won the jury vote, and Russia won the public vote; Ukraine came second in both and with a combined total, Jamala won overall. The song also gained a lot of controversy due to the potential political content of the song, however the Eurovision Broadcasting Union looked into this and claimed that the song didn't contain any political speech and therefore ruled that the song doesn't break any of the Eurovision rules. Jamala's song tells a story and it really packs a punch, definitely a worthy winner in my books. The song was written by Art Antonyan and Susana Jamaladinova. The song is in English and Crimean Tatar.

Directed by Anatoliy Sachivko, who was also the choreographer for this video; the music video interprets all the emotion Jamala expresses into the song, into an emotional contemporary dance that completely flows and presents the song in the most beautiful way.

Jamala proves that she can dance too, throwing in her ability to perform this song with full emotion. The video was set an abandoned military base: Pamir. Which is on top of Tomnatik mountain.

The weather plays an important part of this music video, I love the rain effect on the camera, as well as the tornadoes that affect the people dancing.

It's all shot under an undue expectation of emotion. There's dark depths to this video and the visual shows it off perfectly. The choreography is amazing and all the dancers manage to stand out and prove their worth.

There's not much else left for me to say. It's quite a battle, one they obviously can't beat and yet they show a strength in unity. It's completely intricate and easily displays the emotions found in the song.
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