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“I’ll always come to you, by broken roads.” Ukrainian singer Oleh Psiuk first rapped these words as an ode to his mother, but when his band, Kalush Orchestra, performed Tuesday at Eurovision, the lyrics resonated differently.
Now the folk-rap mash-up, “Stefania,” is a favorite to win Eurovision 2022, the world’s longest-running televised music contest and Europe’s most popular, which draws on votes from the public, mostly on the continent.
The Ukrainian contender was one of 10 acts that qualified for the Grand Final in the first round of semifinals in Turin, Italy, after becoming the most-watched on YouTube among this year’s 40 national entries.
For 27-year-old Psiuk, the song has transformed into a tribute to Ukraine, and the stage into a way to...