DHAKA: Ukraine’s Jamala has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, held in Stockholm, Sweden.

The country scored 534 points with its song 1944, about the deportation of Crimean Tatars under Josef Stalin, reports the BBC.

Australia finished second with 511 points, while Russia - which was the favorite going into the competition - was third with 491 points.

Joe and Jake, who represented the UK with their song You’re Not Alone, finished in 24th place with 62 points.

Jamala is the first Crimean Tatar to perform at the contest and her song caused controversy because of alleged political overtones.

It references the year when Stalin deported almost all of the Tatar ethnic people from its native region of Crimea in what was then the Soviet Union.

The song has angered Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, as tension between the two countries grew.

There have been calls in Russia for a review of her victory after a prankster told Russian TV that Jamala had admitted to him her song had a political subtext while he posed as an aide to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

A Russian MP, Elena Drapeko, blamed Russia’s defeat on what she called an ‘information war’ and ‘general demonisation’ of her country.

But Poroshenko hailed Jamala’s victory and said her performance had been ‘incredible’.

The juries from Russia and Ukraine did not award each other any points.

However, large numbers of the Russian public voted for the Ukrainian song, awarding it 10 points while the Ukrainian public gave Russia’s entry the maximum 12 points.

BDST: 1701 HRS, MAY 15, 2016
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