With war raging in Ukraine and Russia expelled from the Eurovision contest as a result of the invasion, the horrors unfolding in the eastern side of the continent were always going to play a part in the show.

There were appeals for peace from some singers and outright messages of solidarity from vote-readers as they gave their nations’ douze points to Ukraine, but no moment was quite as powerful as the on-stage appeal by Oleh Psiuk, frontman of the Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra.

“I ask all of you to please help Ukraine, help Mariupol, help Azovstal, right now,” he implored, referring to a steel plant in the port city which Russian forces have besieged.

2. The Rasmus and Mika return to the big stage

People who grew up in the early 00s could have been forgiven for thinking they had just experienced a time warp. First up, The Rasmus, the band behind the hit 2003 song In The Shadows, represented Finland and showed the same kind of energy on stage that had made them so popular.

At the end of the show, Mika, who hosted the show alongside Alessandro Cattelan and Laura Pausini, delighted the audience with a medley of some of his greatest hits, including Grace Kelly and Love Today. If you knew the lyrics, you couldn’t help but sing along.

3. Damiano’s wry cocaine joke

As the winners of last year’s Eurovision, Italian rock band Måneskin got to perform again last night, although they didn’t perform their winning song Zitti e Buoni.

At one point, lead singer Damiano David was asked to give some advice to the artists waiting anxiously backstage.

“Have fun and dont get to close to the table, just don’t it!” he joked, an obvious reference to a controversy that erupted last year after he was wrongly accused of snorting cocaine following video footage that caught him bending down towards a table.

4. Aidan gets to show Ritmu to Europe… kind of 

Unfortunately, Malta didn’t qualify to the final but it still had a few seconds to address Europe when reading out its jury votes.

That task fell to Aidan, whose song Ritmu finished in second place at this year’s Malta Eurovision Song Contest. And the Maltese singer seized the opportunity to wear his Ritmu cowboy gear, also performing some dance moves to the world as he announced the Maltese jury had awarded its 12 points to Spain.

5. That nervy finish

Everything looked set for a United Kingdom victory, with Sam Ryder winning the jury vote by a clear margin, but the European public had other plans.

As Ukraine won a record number of televotes, the continent held its breath to find out whether the UK had scored enough votes to clinch the victory. However, 183 points wasn’t enough and Ukraine was confirmed as the winner, prompting widespread celebrations from the audience, including from Ryder himself.

It was a well-needed reprieve for the war-torn nation and a sign of solidarity from the continent, while the UK will still gain comfort from the fact that it achieved its best-ever Eurovision result this century.

6. Lovin Malta’s commentary keeps us entertained

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On a night of entertainment, Lovin Malta’s commentary team – composed of David Grech Urpani, Matt Baldacchino and Valentina Rossi – added to the fun with a series of Instagram stories in which they gave their take on each entry while performing a range of eating and drinking games. 

UK presenter Steve Miller also provided some commentary of his own from Malta’s No. 1 queer party Lollipop. 

All this was made possible by Sphinx Pastizerria and CFC, who provided the food, along with P Cutajar, who provided the Disaronno and Corvo wine.

Did you watch the Eurovision last night?