Eurovision shock: Kaleen in penultimate place

"I'm not disappointed at all. The crucial thing is that I'm allowed to be there - it doesn't matter where you end up," said Austria's Song Contest candidate this year, Kaleen, who was anything but crushed by her penultimate place at the 68th ESC on Saturday night.

She thoroughly enjoyed her performance: "I wasn't nervous at all, I was able to soak up everything. I felt more like I was an interval act and not part of the competition."

"Didn't expect that"
However, the 29-year-old was surprised that her song "We Will Rave" ultimately turned out to be more of an expert song with 19 points from the international juries and five points from the audience: "I didn't actually expect that. But it shows that you never know where the journey will take you. It's a game, a competition."

And so the native Upper Austrian is already looking ahead again, as she has been signed to a record deal with Global Records: "It's on to the next adventure."

Kaleen was the last act in the field of participants at the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.

Could not convince
Although she delivered a perfect show with her techno number "We Will Rave" in a designer glittering body by Stefan Orlić, she was apparently unable to convince either the national juries or the audience.

In the 2nd semi-final, she came ninth out of the 16 competing countries with 46 points. Israel secured first place here with 194 points, followed by the Netherlands with 182, who were ultimately disqualified from the final due to an incident involving singer Joost Klein and a camerawoman. This can be seen in the detailed results, which were published by the organizer EBU on Saturday night.

Switzerland wins
Switzerland is the winner of the 68th ESC in Malmö. Nemo became the first non-binary person to win the title of the world's biggest music competition with the bombastic number "The Code" in the Malmö Arena. Austria's candidate Kaleen, on the other hand, finished the evening in a disappointing penultimate place with just 24 points.

Switzerland's victory ultimately came as a surprise, as Croatian contestant Baby Lasagna had recently been considered the clear favorite. He now ended up in second place with a certain margin of respect. While Switzerland received 591 points, Croatia scored 547, with Ukraine following at a distance in third place with 453 points.

A sign against politicization
With its mixture of rap, opera and Queen paraphrase, Nemo emerged as the clear favorite of the international juries, who voted the act from Switzerland into first place with 365 points. Croatia only managed 210 points and came in behind France with 218 points in the pure jury ranking. Croatia was clearly ahead in the public vote, but this was not enough to catch up with Switzerland.

Switzerland's triumph in Sweden marks the country's third victory in the competition. The ESC, the world's biggest music competition, is broadcast in dozens of countries around the world - from Australia to the North Cape. Every year, around 150 million people watch the final round of the show alone.

At the same time, the ultimately clear vote for Nemo is also a sign against the recent strong politicization of the competition and for the music. Above all, Israel's participation in the middle of the Gaza war had caused some angry protests within the ESC bubble, but also in the city of Malmö itself. After a large anti-Israel demonstration had already taken place in the city on Saturday afternoon, during which "Fridays for Future" icon Greta Thunberg, among others, was taken away, there were also loud protests outside the event hall shortly before the start of the final.

Protesters, boos and an expulsion
A few hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators greeted the ESC audience with shouts of "Shame on you". In the hall itself, Israeli singer Eden Golan, who ultimately finished in fifth place thanks to a high audience rating, was always accompanied by massive whistles and boos during her performances.

Added to this was the surprising exclusion of the Netherlands due to an incident involving the singer Joost Klein. According to the Dutch TV station Avrotros, the background to this was an aggressive gesture by the artist towards a camerawoman. She had filmed Klein against his will after a performance.

However, the police began an investigation into why Klein's performance was inappropriate, according to the organizers. The Dutch public broadcaster has now lodged a formal complaint against the exclusion.

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