Pre-event favourite, Alexander Rybak of Norway has secured a comfortable victory in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest Final, finishing with a record total of 387 points. No country has ever previously exceeded the 300 point barrier, as Lordi held the previous record at 293.
Rybak's performance of 'Fairytale' secured high scores from nations across Europe and clearly had been well received by juries and the voting public alike. From early on in the voting sequence, Norway surged to an early lead and never looked likely to be caught. Iceland were a huge 169 points behind with 218 and fended off Azerbaijan to claim second place, with Turkey nudging ahead of the UK for fourth position. Estonia was sixth, followed by Greece, France and Bosnia Herzegovina.
Alexander Rybak turned 23 this Wednesday and both composed and performed this year's winning entry. The 2010 contest is provisionally slated for 18, 20 and 22 May. Since the Olsen brothers brought Eurovision to Denmark, Belgrade has been the most westerly city to host the contest. Norway's victory shows a significant shift win voting patterns across Europe in 2009.
The full results listing is as follows:
01 - 387 points for Norway
02 - 218 points for Iceland
03 - 207 points for Azerbaijan
04 - 177 points for Turkey
05 - 173 points for United Kingdom
06 - 129 points for Estonia
07 - 120 points for Greece
08 - 107 points for France
09 - 106 points for Bosnia and Herzegovina
10 - 092 points for Armenia
11 - 091 points for Russia
12 - 076 points for Ukraine
13 - 074 points for Denmark
14 - 069 points for Moldova
15 - 057 points for Portugal
16 - 053 points for Israel
17 - 048 points for Albania
18 - 045 points for Croatia
19 - 040 points for Romania
20 - 035 points for Germany
21 - 021 points for Sweden
22 - 031 points for Malta
23 - 023 points for Lithuania
24 - 023 points for Spain
25 - 022 points for Finland
The EBU will shortly make the full results of the semifinals also available, we will of course bring these straight to you.
