Norway storm Eurovision

Norway set an all-time competition record as they stormed home in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, hosted in Moscow.

Alexander Rybak scored as massive 387 points with his song 'Fairytale' and won in convincing style.

Jade Ewen, representing the United Kingdom, performed well with 'It's my time' and finished fifth, the UK's first top five placing since 2002 when Jessica Garlick finished third with 'Come Back'.

But the night belonged to favourites Norway and the 23-year-old Rybak who ended up with little competition.

So often mocked as being perennially useless, Norway stormed ahead of Icelandic soloist Yohanna who finished second, 169 points behind, while Azerbaijan managed a surprise third place.

Turkey's bellydancer Hadise earned fourth with Jade fifth.

Greece's highly-fancied Sakis Rouvas could only manage seventh while multi-award-winning singer Patrice Kaas could not finish higher than eighth for France.

The previous points record had been held by Finland in 2006 when heavy metal band Lordi won with 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' scoring 292 points.

But this was the first song contest for years in which tactical or geographical voting was kept at a minimum, undoubtedly helped by the new rules in place.

The change to the rules meant that half of the votes for the contestants came from the public of each country participating and the other half was influenced by music experts within those countries.

It helped the UK record their best finish for years but it soon became clear there was no chance of Jade beating Rybak's brilliant vocal and violin performance.


Full Results
1 NORWAY 387 points* (Alexander Rybak, 'Fairytale')
2 Iceland 218 points (Yohanna, 'Is It True?')
3 Azerbaijan 207 points (Aysel and Arash, 'Always')
4 Turkey 177 points (Hadise, 'Dum Tek Tek')
5 UNITED KINGDOM 173 points (Jade Ewen, 'It's My Time')

6 Estonia 129 points (Urban Symphony, 'Randajad')
7 Greece 120 points (Sakis Rouvas, 'This Is Our Night')
8 France 107 points (Patricia Kass, 'Et S'il Fallait Le Faire')
9 Bosnia and Herzegovina 106 points (Regina, 'Bistra Voda')
10 Armenia 92 points (Inga and Anush, 'Jan Jan')

11 Russia 91 points (Anastasiya Prikhodko, 'Mamo')
12 Ukraine 76 points (Svetlana Loboda, 'Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)')
13 Denmark 74 points (Niels Brinck, 'Believe Again')
14 Moldova 68 points (Nelly Ciobanu, 'Hora din Moldova')
15 Portugal 57 points (Flor-de-Lis, 'Todas As Ruas Do Amor')

16 Israel 53 points (Noa and Mira Awad, 'There Must Be Another Way')
17 Albania 48 points (Kejsi Tola, 'Carry Me In Your Dreams')
18 Croatia 45 points (Igor Cukrov feat Andrea, 'Lijepa Tena')
19 Romania 40 points (Elena, 'The Balkan Girls')
20 Germany 35 points (Alex Sings Oscar Swings!, 'Miss Kiss Kiss Bang')

21 Sweden 33 points (Malena Ernman, 'La voix')
22 Malta 31 points (Chiara, 'What If We')
23 Lithuania 23 points (Sasha Son, 'Love')
24 Spain 23 points (Soraya Arnelas, 'La Noche Es Para Mi')
25 Finland 22 points (Waldo's People, 'Lose Control')

*Eurovision Song Contest record