The 66th Eurovision Song Contest took place in Italy over the weekend. Every year dozens

of countries face off in a competition full of pageantry, strobe lights and sparkles.

But Eurovision isn't just a talent search. It's also a lavish spectacle that attempts

to unify the world in song. This year's winner was Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine. I'm

Gwen Weldon.

Steven Thompson today, we are talking about the Eurovision Song Contest on Pop Culture

Happy Hour from NPR.

It's just Glenn and me today. The Eurovision Song Contest has produced a decent number

of superstars over the years, including Abba and Selene Dion. Just last year, Italy's

monoskin won Eurovision and became a worldwide sensation crossing over to the US charts in

many other countries. The way Eurovision works is they begin with 40 countries, each of

which nominates one song by one artist. Five of those countries get to skip the semifinal

round for some reason and go straight to the finals. Those countries are the UK, Spain,

Germany, France and Italy, while the other 35 countries perform over the course of two

nights of semifinals. On Saturday, the 25 finalists performed in Turin, Italy. We heard

everything from towering ballads to chill folk pop, to glam metal, to dance pop bangers.

In the US, the whole show was on peacock, who wisely got the great two-time Olympian

Johnny Weir to serve as America's very enthusiastic tour guide to Eurovision. Eurovision's point

totals are determined by the combination of a jury vote made up of representatives from

the 40 participating countries. An audience vote which has a huge bearing on the outcome

of this year Ukraine finished fourth in the jury vote, but was an overwhelming favorite

of the voting public. Those 439 points, plus 192 points from the jury, gave Ukraine the

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