The Eurovision fan from Sweden, who has nearly 2 decades of love for the competition, revealed to Bored Panda that, unfortunately, Italy as a host didn't leave her all that impressed. "Judging from the postcards and the interval acts (besides Mika’s and Diodato’s) looks like they were on a tight budget," the fan, who preferred to remain anonymous, told us.

"The biggest highlights for me were Ukraine’s victory and, well, all the memes," she echoed our own opinions. "My favorite [song] was Ukraine regardless of the support vote."

The fan stressed that the Kalush Orchestra's song 'Stefania' "is a banger" and a true winner. "I find that it being dedicated to the artist’s mother is more unique than the lyrical themes of the other leading songs in this year’s contest," she told us.

"Not to mention they delivered a great performance with great staging and costumes."

However, the Eurovision fan had other favorites lined up as well! "Two other favorites were Lithuania and Georgia, however, while being pleasant to listen to, they lacked that personality that Ukraine had," she was candid. "Naturally, I am happy about the winners, even more so considering the symbolism of this victory."

Meanwhile, the Eurovision fan from Lithuania told Bored Panda that she firmly believes that it's an event like no other in Europe. "A great deal of Europeans watch it (even when they are too cool to admit it) and it creates a feeling of togetherness where you leave all your worries behind and focus on the horrendous costumes, odd but catchy songs, and extravagant personalities you would not be able to see in your social bubble," she explained what appeals to her and a lot of Europeans, too.

She shared with us that a few of her highlights from this year include "an increase of songs in their native languages, universal support for Ukraine even with the restrictions from the organizers, and Italy showing its true colors with the most distasteful event design choices." Ouch, it doesn't seem like everyone's a fan of the host nation's efforts this year! 

The Lithuanian told us that she enjoyed the Portuguese and Norwegian songs the most. "The former because of its purity, beautiful vulnerability, and choosing to use live back vocals while others had the pre-recorded ones. The latter due to its quirkiness and the true mission of Eurovision (at least in my life): to have fun and make great jokes and memories with your friends," she pointed out that having fun is a large part of the Eurovision tradition for her.

"Nonetheless, I did want Ukraine to win even though this type of genre is not my first choice," she told us that Ukraine was able to pull off a great show and represent their culture in a creative way. Meanwhile, the victory was Europe's statement to Russia that the invasion "is not going to be unnoticed."

The founder of the @eurovisionmeme IG page told Bored Panda that this year, they enjoyed a lot of the songs because they made them happy and inspired them to move and dance.

"My biggest highlights were the dancing of Ronela Hajati [the Albanian singer] and the applause of the audience in the performance of Konstrakta [the Serbian performer]," they shared with Bored Panda.

For them, Hajati's song 'Sekret' holds a special place in their heart because it's very rhythmic and makes them want to dance. What's more, there are ethnic elements in the song that the creator of the page about Eurovision memes really enjoyed, as well.

They told Bored Panda that they're incredibly passionate about Eurovision because of the competitive spirit, the variety of songs from different European countries, as well as the awesome moment when all the points are announced at the end of the grand final.

This year’s Eurovision contest took place in Turin, Italy, and it was truly a show to behold. Ukraine won first place in this year’s Eurovision contest. The Kalush Orchestra’s song ‘Stefania’ got a whopping 631 points, as the public expressed its love and support for Ukraine which has been invaded by Russia. Ukraine was a favorite to win the contest: bookies, social media users, and our own social circles were very much in support of the country throughout the contest.

The Kalush Orchestra had gotten special permission to leave the war-torn country to perform in the contest, and pleaded with the world to “help Ukraine, help Mariupol, help Azovstal right now.” They were referring to the soldiers mounting a final defense at the besieged Azovstal iron and steelworks against the Russian invaders. After the Eurovision victory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised that the contest would “one day” be held in Mariupol.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom staged a massive comeback. Back in 2021, the UK didn’t get any points whatsoever, leading some to wonder if the country would even want to participate in the future. However, this year was completely different.

Sam Ryder’s powerful ballad ‘Space Man’ won the UK second place in Eurovision. It’s the country’s best result in the song competition since 1998. And it’s surely a sign that Europe (and Australia!) are ready to enjoy some British culture once again. There’s been a bit of bad blood since Brexit. And even though we can all pretend that the contest is apolitical, the votes (or the lack of them) usually show each country’s political preferences and dislikes quite clearly.

Not everything was as transparent this year as fans would've hoped. The European Broadcasting Union, responsible for calculating the scores for each country's song, actually had to remove six countries' votes. This happened after noticing "irregular voting patterns." They then replaced the votes with an aggregating result that's based on countries with similar voting patterns. This happened both in the second semifinal and the grand final. The countries that had their votes replaced were Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and San Marino.

"In order to comply with the Contest’s Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregated result for each country concerned for both the Second-Semi Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records). This process was acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor," the EBU stated.

"The EBU takes any suspected attempts to manipulate the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest extremely seriously and has the right to remove such votes in accordance with the Official Voting Instructions, irrespective of whether or not such votes are likely to influence the results and/or outcome of the voting."

The jury and the public were actually in disagreement about who should be in first place this year. The jury’s favorite was UK’s Ryder with 283 votes. Meanwhile, the public gave ‘Space Man’ a far more modest 183 points via televoting

Meanwhile, the public gave Ukraine 439 points and launched the country to first place. The Eurovision jury, however, was a bit less enthusiastic about ‘Stefania,’ giving the song 192 points.

Ryder told the BBC that the future looks bright for the UK. “This is the tip of an iceberg. The UK is going to be a force next year. It’s gonna be mad,” he said.

Meanwhile, Graham Norton, who presented the contest on BBC One said: “I am so happy for [Sam], for the UK, and for the BBC who have worked so hard to turn our fortunes." In short, the Brits are over the moon (pun very much intended) that Ryder’s ‘Space Man’ helped launch them into the hearts of Eurovision fans everywhere.

In third place was Chanel with ‘SloMo.’ The fiery song and passionate dancing won over many a viewer’s hearts, too. Personally, I couldn’t stop laughing for a minute straight after seeing Ryanair’s joke tweet about all the flights to Spain having been booked, and nobody supposedly knowing why.

Fourth place went to Sweden’s Cordelia Jakobs with ‘Hold Me Closer,’ while Serbia’s Konstrakta won fifth place with ‘In Corporare Sano.’ The latter’s lyrics Biti Zdrava and unusual (even esoteric) aesthetics have so much meme potential, it’s unreal. I’ve been hearing the song in my head every single time I’ve washed my hands these past two days, and I’m not sure when this will stop. Send help!

The hope is that Ukraine will be able to stage the contest in 2023. “I'm sure that next year Ukraine will be happy to host Europe in a new, integrated and happy Ukraine,” Oleh Psiuk, the frontman for whose mother the song is a tribute, said.

Despite this, it’s unclear if the war in Ukraine will be over by then. Usually, Eurovision is held in the country that won first place. However, this might not be possible due to the Russian invasion. So far, no decision has been made for 2023.

The last time the winner refused to host the competition was in 1980. Israel didn’t want to be the host twice in a row, so the Netherlands took over.

What will happen next year is still unclear. One thing we know for sure, though, is that we’ll be carrying a lot of bananas with us from now on. You never know when a wolf might come after your grandma.