The 62nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine from 9 May 2017 to 13 May 2017, following Jamala's win with "1944" in Stockholm the previous year. This was Ukraine's (and Kyiv's) second time hosting the contest.
The three live shows were hosted by presenters Oleksandr Skichko, Volodymyr Ostapchuk, and Timur Miroshnychenko. This was the first (and to date, only) instance of an all-male hosting trio in the contest's history, and the second to not be hosted by a woman in any capacity after 1956. The branding for this edition, "Celebrate Diversity,"
utilizes the imagery of a traditional Ukranian necklace, with each unique bead symbolizing a different country in Europe to celebrate its diversity. (Yes, the irony of this message being pushed in a year hosted entirely by straight white men was noted by many.)
Forty-two countries competed in this edition, matching the previous year's count despite losing two countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, citing financial difficulties, and a last-minute withdrawal from Russia, whose planned representative was discovered to have broken Ukranian lawnote and therefore forbidden to return) thanks to the returns of Portugal and Romania, who'd both skipped the 2016 contest.
This edition was won by Portugal's Salvador Sobral with the stirring ballad "Amar Pelos Dois"note , and his victory made Eurovision history on several fronts. As Portugal's first-ever win, they set the record for the longest gap between a country's debut to their first win (fifty-three years), as well as the largest final score for any entry ever (a whopping 758 points) by absolutely dominating both the jury tally as well as the televote.note "Amar Pelos Dois" was also notable for being the first winning entry sung in a language entirely other than English since Serbia's "Moltiva" in 2007.note
Tropes seen during this year's contest include:
- The Ace:
- Sweden, as per usual, finishes with a good result, with Robin Bengtsson's "I Can't Go On" placing fifth overall.
- Australia continues their inaugural streak of good finishes, with Isaiah's "Don't Come Easy" giving them their third-consecutive top ten placer since debuting at the contest in 2015.
- Azerbaijan qualifies for the final, maintaining their 100% qualification rate since their debut in 2008.
- Ascended Extra:
- Israel's Imri Ziv was a backing singer for that country's most recent entrants Nadav Guedj (2015) and Hovi Star (2016).
- Serbia's Tijana Bogićević backed Nina in 2011.
- Bowdlerization: The line "When you look this freaking beautiful" from Sweden's entry was originally "When you look this fucking beautiful" in the Swedish song selections. After it was selected as Sweden's entry it was censored to comply with Eurovision's "no swearing" rule.
- Breakup Breakout: Estonia's Laura previously competed as a member of Suntribe in 2005.
- The Bus Came Back: A few notable returning acts include:
- Estonia's Laura (as a member of Suntribe) and Koit Toome previously represented their country in 2005 and 1998, respectively.
- Slovenia's Omar Naber previously represented the country in 2005.
- San Marino's Valentina Monetta, who previously represented the microstate in 2012, 2013, and 2014, enters the contest for a fourth time, tying her for the most participations at Eurovision from a woman with Switzerland's Sue Schell (1971, 1976, 1979, 1981) and Sweden / Norway's Elisabeth Andreassen (1982, 1985, 1994, 1996).
- Moldova's SunStroke Project (primarily known for the "Epic Sax Guy"), who came back for a second shot after representing their country alongside Olia Tira back in 2010... and scored an impressive third place, an all-time high for Moldova.
- As for the countries, Portugal came back after sitting out the 2016 contest and ended up winning the whole thing for the first time ever.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Portugal handily won the jury and televote, receiving points from all countries, and finishing with 143 points more than second place.
- Dramatic Pause: A skit featuring Mans Zelmerlow and the 2017 hosts had Måns discussing the importance of mastering the use of this trope to be a good ESC host, then showing them how it's done.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Netherlands' O'G3NE competed at Junior Eurovision in 2007 as Lisa, Amy and Shelley.
- Eliminated from the Race: Georgia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Albania, Iceland, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Latvia are eliminated after the first semi-final, while Serbia, Switzerland, Ireland, Estonia, Macedonia, Malta, Lithuania, and San Marino fail to qualify in the second.
- Foreshadowing: A minor one, Portugal and Sweden aren't known for seeing eye to eye on music in the contest. (Put it like this, Portugal had never sent a song that didn't have some Portuguese in it even if contained other languages - they would break this tradition in 2021, but with a song remaining within the jazz/soul paradigms that drive most of Portugal’s classic entries - whilst Sweden hasn't sent a song in Swedish since 1998, before the language ban was lifted, and usually have straight-up pop entries. Furthermore, the Portuguese had 3 one-off absences in 2000, 2013 and 2016, all of which were hosted by Sweden) Sweden, due to hosting the prior iteration Portugal missed, was the first country to announce their jury points in 2017 and Portugal got their twelve points. This put Portugal on the top of the leader board and they were only overtaken once, by Bulgaria, before getting the top points of the televote and winning for the first time.
- Gratuitous English:
- Played straight by Italy's "Occidentali's Karma" by Francesco Gabbani and France's "Requiem" by Alma, which all incorporate English lyrics into their otherwise non-English songs.
- Inverted with Spain's "Do It for Your Lover" by Manel Navarro, which had originally been composed in English but had the verses translated to Spanish for the competition.
- Averted by Portugal's "Amar Pelos Dois" by Salvador Sobral, Belarus' "Historyja majho žyccia" by NAVIBAND, and Hungary's "Origo" by Papai Joci, as none of them contain English lyrics. "Amar Pelos Dois" in particular became the first winning song performed entirely in an another language since Serbia's "Molitva" by Marija Serifovic a whole decade earlier in 2007. (The previous year's winner, "1944" by Jamala, was partially song in Crimean Tatar with predominantly English lyrics.)
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Italy's entry also contains elements of this, as the lyrics contain trace amounts of Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.
- Gratuitous Italian: Croatia's "My Friend" by Jacques Houdek is sung half in Italian, which is perhaps justified by it also being half an operatic performance.
- Incest Subtext: Either this, or a case of self-inflicted Incestuous Casting, when Salvador Sobral and his sister (and songwriter) Luísa decided to perform the Triumphant Reprise of the ultra-romantic song Amar Pelos Dois as a duet. Not helped by rumours that the song was Luísa's message to Salvador given his heart condition.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Azerbaijan's "Skeletons" by Dihaj is a sinister-sounding song, complete with a performance featuring a man in a horse mask.
- Solo Duet: Croatia's entry, "My Friend" by Jacques Houdek, has Houdek using two different voices to perform the song, with a half-and-half outfit suggesting that the two voices represent two different characters. The English-language parts of the song are performed in a higher-pitched voice, but the Italian-language parts are performed in a deeper voice, more akin to that of an opera singer.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After a whopping 53 years since their debut in the contest, perennial whipping boy Portugal takes home the win with a still-unbroken points record of 758 in the Grand Final. Not only they broke the points record, their win also marked the longest time a participating nation had to wait for their first overall win in the contest.
- Villainous Underdog: Many interpreted Russia's planned participation as being this, since they were still occupying the Crimean peninsula while the contest was set to happen. The fact that their entrant, Julia Samoylova, had been disqualified by the Ukranian government for illegally entering the country didn't help matters, either. It ultimately led to Russia skipping the competition for the year altogether.
- Vocal Range Exceeded: Manel Navarro, representing Spain, notoriously attempted a high note at the end of his performance of "Do It For Your Lover" only to go badly off-key instead. He ended up receiving no points from the juries and only five points from the televote, putting him in last place.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Because copyrighted brand names aren't allowed in competing songs, Italy had to remove a reference to Chanel in "Occidentali's Karma".
- Yodel Land: Averted by Romania's "Yodel It!", which incorporates yodeling into an otherwise modern-sounding pop song without the usual stereotypes of the genre.
