Liverpool set for Eurovision Song Contest final, with Sweden favored and Ukraine in spotlight

The grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place Saturday in Liverpool

What includes a Swedish diva, a Finnish rapper who loves pina coladas, a band of Croatian agit-rockers and an Austrian duo possessed by a long-dead writer? It could only be the Eurovision Song Contest.

The grand final of the pan-continental pop music competition takes place Saturday in Liverpool. This year’s theme is “united by music,” and the event fuses the soul of English port city that birthed The Beatles with the spirit of war-battered Ukraine.

Britain is hosting the event on behalf of Ukraine, which won last year’s competition, and the show is set to open with a performance by Kalush Orchestra, the Ukrainian folk-rap band that took the 2022 trophy with its lyrical and defiant song “Stefania.”