Concert For Ukraine: Eurovision Winner Jamala Delivers Powerful Performance

The concert helped raise more than £12 million to help those fleeing the war.

ITV’s Concert For Ukraine took place on Tuesday night, helping raise upwards of £12 million towards the humanitarian appeal in Ukraine.

The benefit concert took place at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, with money raised going towards the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, which is helping those who have been forced to flee the war in Ukraine.

Performers on the night included chart-topping stars like Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello, as well as Ukrainian Eurovision winner Jamala, who delivered a powerful and emotive rendition of her song 1944.

She performed the song while holding a Ukrainian flag, ending her set by raising it above her head and delivering a message of support to her home country in her mother tongue.

Jamala performing during the Concert For Ukraine
Jamala performing during the Concert For Ukraine
John Phillips/Disasters Emergency Committee via Getty Images

Jamala triumphed in the Eurovision final back in 2016, with her winning song 1944 referencing the year of the forced deportation of Crimean Tatar people during the reign of Joseph Stalin.

The song’s chorus also features lyrics in Crimean.

Earlier this month, Jamala fled Ukraine with her children following Vladimir Putin’s invasion, leaving her husband and many of her close friends and family behind.

Jamala posing backstage at Concert For Ukraine
Jamala posing backstage at Concert For Ukraine
Tristan Fewings/Disasters Emergency Committee via Getty Images

She recently told BBC Breakfast: “When I wrote this song, 1944, I did not know history repeats itself.

“It was about my family, it was about my granny, it was about deportation in 1944. I thought I wrote this song about 1944 but nowadays it sounds so real and it’s horrible.

“Anywhere my voice can be heard, anywhere my voice can help my country, I will do everything in my power to spread the word about Putin’s bloody crime in Ukraine,” she added.

Watch Jamala’s stirring performance of 1944 in the video above.

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