Ed Balls baffled by Sweden’s ‘dull’ song winning Eurovision – while Susanna Reid raises ABBA ‘conspiracy theory’

While there were many people across Europe and the rest of the world who loved Loreen’s winning performance at Eurovision 2023 for Sweden, Ed Balls wasn’t one of them.

His Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid also brought up the conspiracy theory that the returning winner’s victory might have had something to do with ABBA’s 50th anniversary coming next year – although she stressed that the theory musn’t be ‘indulged’.

On Saturday night, Sweden was crowned the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, tying with Ireland for the most wins ever at the competition.

Numerous people were left sorely disappointed by the result, as Finland’s Käärijä, 29, had been a huge favourite to win with his catchy track Cha Cha Cha.

Loreen, 39, who performed the song Tattoo, previously won the contest in 2012 with her widely popular hit Euphoria, which topped charts across Europe when it was released.

On Monday’s GMB, Ed, 56, and Susanna, 52, lambasted the fact that the UK’s Mae Muller wound up in second-to-last place on the leaderboard, showing their support for her performance of I Wrote A Song.

Loreen was delighted to win Eurovision for a second time (Picture: Reuters/Phil Noble)

Many people felt that Finland’s act Käärijä deserved to win (Picture: Patricia J. Garcinuno/Redferns)

‘I don’t know what the judges and the voters were thinking,’ Susanna said in Mae’s defence, as Ed added: ‘What were they thinking?’

The former politician then continued: ‘To be honest, that Swedish song, it’s so dull. And Mae Muller, she was really good.’

Susanna questioned the sound quality of Mae’s performance, saying that the 25-year-old singer sounded as though ‘she was so low in the mix’.

Ed found Sweden’s song ‘dull’ despite its unquestionable popularity (Picture: ITV)

Mae didn’t get the result she wanted (Picture: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

‘I thought it was a terrific song. It was very punchy, but apparently we’re wrong, and also anybody who thinks it’s anything to do with the fact that it’s ABBA’s 50th anniversary next year and the Eurovision is now going to be held in Sweden, that is a conspiracy theory and we mustn’t indulge those theories at all,’ she stated, although it’s unclear if her comments about ABBA were sarcastic.

Ed also brought up the fact that Finland was the favourite to win from the public vote, as he said: ‘But, the public spoke. And the public said the best song of the night was Finland.’

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Nonetheless, in the end, the combination of the jury and televote meant that Sweden soared to victory.

This year, there were no juries for the votes during the semi-finals, but they returned for the grand final.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.

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