Ukrainians have chosen a Crimean Tatar singer and her song about the mass deportation of Tatars under Josef Stalin as the country's entry for this year's Eurovision song contest.
Susana Jamaladinova, 32, who performs under the stage name Jamala, was chosen on Sunday night.
Her song 1944, which is sung half in English and half in Tatar, Jamala’s song tells the story of the Soviet Red Army’s deportation of nearly 250,000 Crimean Tatars in 1944.
The Soviet government had accused Tatars of collaborating with the Nazis forces occupying the peninsula, resettling them in Central Asia and remote regions of Russia.
Between 20 and 50% of the deportees died within the first two years of exile, a tragedy Ukraine’s supreme council recently declared a genocide.
They were not allowed to return to Crimea until the 1980s. Jamaladinova herself was born in Kyrgyzstan.
The song lyrics do not touch on Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, but entering the singer in the hugely popular song contest could raise the issue by implication.
“This song really is about my family, my grandmother,” Jamala said. “I had to write it. It is a memorial song and it is difficult for me to sing it.”
The song features the lyrics: "Where' s your mind, humanity cries, you think you are God, but everyone dies, don't swallow my soul, our souls."
Six acts fought for the honour to sing for their country in the Eurovision Song Contest being held in Stockholm in May.
Jamala, who had already won the first semi-final with the highest number of points from the expert jury and TV viewers, was said to have delivered a "powerful performance" and the final.
Jamala is a Ukrainian singer of Crimean Tatar descent.
Earlier this month she expressed disappointment that most of her Crimean Tatars supporters were not eligible to take part in the competition previously as they live on the peninsula itself, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
“It makes me very sad,” Jamala said. “I know that many of my supporters are in Crimea. Many people wrote to me that they would send texts anyway, because they support me. I tell them they are wasting their money and their votes don’t count, but they tell me they are sending them anyway.”
Since Crimean Tatar leaders pledged to work with Ukrainian Eurovision organisers to enable people in Crimea to vote in the second semi-final on February 13 and in the final in Sunday's final.
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