1944 (song)

1944
Jamala
publication	February 12, 2016
length	3:00
Genre (s)	Lament , pop , folk
Author (s)	Susana Jamaladinova, Art Antonyan
Label	Enjoy Records
album	1944

1944 is a song by the Ukrainian singer Jamala . She won the title for the Ukraine the Euro Vision Song Contest 2016 in the Swedish Stockholm .

Background and publication

In January 2016 the participants for the Ukrainian preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 were announced. Among them was the singer Jamala with the song 1944 , which she wrote with Art Antonyan.

Jamala with 1944 at the ESC 2016

The first semi-final of the preliminary decision took place on February 6, 2016, in which Jamala prevailed against six competitors and qualified for the final of the preliminary decision on February 21, 2016. The piece was released on February 12th.

On May 14, 2016 Jamala won the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 for Ukraine with 1944 ahead of Australia and Russia. The piece came second in televoting and in the international juries and received a total of 534 points. On September 21, 2016, the official music video was released on YouTube . On May 9, 2017, Jamala appeared in the first semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with a modified version of her song as a pause filler.

content

The title of 1944 refers to the year in which the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin after the reconquest of the Crimea from the German Wehrmacht , the Crimean Tatars to Central Asia deport was because he the collaboration with the German Reich accused.

The lyrics are about Jamala's great-grandparents, who were deported as Crimean Tatars by the Stalin regime from the peninsula on the Black Sea . On May 18, 1944, her great-grandmother Nasylchan and five children were deported from their house in the village of Kutschuk Osen to Kyrgyzstan . In the text she goes into the lost childhood in the homeland and the deeds of the Soviets . The lyrics are in English ; the refrain consists of two lines in Crimean Tatar , which can also be found in the 1966 song Ey Güzel Kırım (“Oh, beautiful Crimea”). Crimean Tatar was heard for the first time at the competition.

At the beginning of the song, the instrumental lineup used was a duduk , played by Aram Kostanyan . Their velvety sound in connection with the melisms typical of Armenian music often triggers associations of melancholy and sadness. The mugham was used as a singing technique .

Controversy

The day after Jamala won the preliminary round, discussions began about whether the song was too political. According to the official rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, songs whose text can be interpreted politically are prohibited. The European Broadcasting Union confirmed, however, that neither the title nor the lyrics could be traced back to a political background and therefore no rule of the Eurovision Song Contest would be broken.

Chart placements

Despite winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1944, it only made it into a few charts.

Charts (2016)	Best placement	Weeks
France	49	1
Austria	54	1
Sweden	46	1
Switzerland	73	1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ukraine: Eighteen hopefuls in the national final for Eurovision 2016 ( Memento from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Ukraine: Selection results of semi-final one
3. ↑ Eurovision Song Contest: Ukraine wins, Germany is last. May 15, 2016, accessed May 15, 2016 . 
4. ^ Paul Jordan: Jamala premieres official video of her song "1944". In: eurovision.tv. September 22, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Crimean Tatar Jamala can start with "1944". Norddeutscher Rundfunk , March 11, 2016, accessed on May 15, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Jamala wants to represent Ukraine in Stockholm!
7. ↑ Razmik Martirosyan: «Հենց ինքնաթիռը վայրէջք կատարեց Հայաստանում ՝ միանգամից զգացի, որ ես տանն եմ». Ջամալայի բացառիկ հարցազրույցը 168.am- ինԱղբյուրը. (No longer available online.) In: 168hours. April 17, 2016, archived from the original on May 18, 2016 ; Retrieved June 5, 1016 (Armenian). 
8. ↑ About Jamala. (No longer available online.) In: eurovision.tv. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016 ; accessed on May 6, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Ukraine: The country's choice sparks controversy
10. ^ Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest
11. ↑ Matthias Breitinger: Entertainment is also political . Zeit Online, May 15, 2016, accessed May 16, 2016
12. ^ SNEP
13. ↑ Sverige Topplistan

predecessor		successor
Heroes ( Måns Zelmerlöw )	Winner song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016	Amar pelos dois ( Salvador Sobral )
Tick-Tock ( Marija Yaremchuk )	Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016	Time ( O. Torwald )