Eurovision 2023: Forget Sweden, Loreen and Mae Muller – Mel Giedroyc and her churning just won
The IndependentThe best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy In the space of seven days we have gone from 400 million people watching a show of pomp and pageantry in the King’s coronation, to Mel Giedroyc sitting behind Hannah Waddingham at the Eurovision Song Contest churning butter. The opening of Eurovision saw a spectacular performance from Ukraine, with comedian Verka Serduchka losing her shoe as she opened with a throwback performance that felt like it stepped right out of the year 2007. Five men with massive moustaches singing about their mothers buying a tractor, ending with them stripping to white underpants shouting, “I love you Croatia”, while rockets went off behind them, turning Eurovision into a “who can get the most naked without being arrested?” competition. Shout out to the German announcer who pretended to propose, and to Cyprus who told the Ted Lasso star: “You broke my unbroken heart.” Eurovision went on longer than Liz Truss’s premiership, and I was nodding off till I heard Graham Norton shouting: “What am I to know?