When Jamala beat rival Russia’s entry Sergey Lazarev to win the Eurovision Song Contest in May, it was cited as a triumph for the underdog: Ukraine’s unusually political competition song shone a light on the tragedies of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars at the hands of Joseph Stalin, and won the hearts of Europe.
But hosting next year’s competition – the traditional honour for the Eurovision winner – is proving so costly that Ukrainian television executives have warned they may not be able to host it in 2017 – and the funding crisis has caused the head of the country’s national television company to resign.
