During “Germany 12 Points”, a show where the German public can choose their representant for the Eurovision Song Contest, a total of 67 million Euros was raised to help Ukraine. Without a doubt, the performance of Jamala – Ukrainian representative and 2016 Eurovision winner – helped to achieve this goal.
On March 4th the live show of “Germany 12 Points” took place. “12 points” is the biggest amount a country can give to an artist in the Eurovision Song Contest, and that’s where the name of the pre-selections comes from. Out of the six artists nominated as candidates for the German representative, the winner was Malik Harris with “Rockstars”.
However, besides the nominees in the line-up were also Conchita, a 2014 Eurovision winner from Austria, and also Jamala, who had just fled from Ukraine with her family. She had won the 2016 edition of the contest with the song “1944”, which told a story of her family being deported from Crimean Tatars to Central Asia in 1944 by the Soviet regime.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine being on the mouth of everyone, the song resurfaced and Jamala performed it on the “German 12 Points” broadcast. Before the last chorus there is a shout, and this time it had new meaning: it was a cry for help and a call for Europe to take action. It wasn’t left unanswered; 67 million euros were collected during the show and was donated to the Ukrainian army.