Ukraine's ‘politicized’ entry for Eurovision 2016 is a song about the deportation of Crimean Tatars

Europe's annual celebration of musical manure takes place this May in Stockholm. This year, Ukraine's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest is pop artist Jamala's tune “1944,” which tells the story of the Soviet-era deportation of the Crimean Tatars.

The song was selected by a vote of television viewers and judges. Performed in English, with a refrain sung in Crimean Tatar, the song was inspired, Jamala says, by stories her great grandmother used to tell her about the deportation. Jamala, 32, is from an Armenian-Crimean-Tatar family. Her real name is Susana Dzhamaladinova, and she was born in Osh, in Soviet Kyrgyzstan.

The first deputy chairman of Russia's State Duma told reporters today that he hopes Eurovision's organizers won't allow the song into the competition, arguing that Ukraine's entry is a politicized attempt to “humiliate Russia.”

Given the song's subject matter, it comes at no surprise that the lyrics of “1944” are not hugely uplifting. It begins, “When strangers are coming / They come to your house / They kill you all / and say / we're not guilty / not guilty.” You can read the rest of the song's lyrics here.

• In 1989, the Soviet authorities officially recognized the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars to have been illegal.