Ukranian singer-songwriter Jamala has won Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with her track, “1944”, with 534 points. The lyrics for the song concern the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, in the 1940s, by the Soviet Union at the hands of Joseph Stalin. According to a press release:
“Jamala was particularly inspired by the story of her great-grandmother Nazylkhan, who was in her mid-20s when she and her five children were deported to barren Central Asia. One of the daughters did not survive the journey. Jamala’s great-grandfather was fighting in World War II in the Red Army at this time and thus could not protect his family”.
The song’s chorus, in the Crimean Tatar language, are words that Jamala had heard from her great-grandmother, reflecting the loss of a youth which could not be spent in her homeland.
#Peace.Love.Jamala
