Netta Barzilai netted the Israeli victory in Lisbon with her gimmicky song Toy which bizarrely featured clucking chicken noises as part of its lyrics.
The competition was tight - and, thrillingly, it was not at all clear who had actually won until the final few seconds of voting.
For many British viewers, though, Netta's otherwise enjoyably quirky success was overshadowed by a shock stage invasion during the performance of United Kingdom entrant SuRie.
Nothing particularly unusual had happened at the Altice Arena until SuRie - appearing ninth in the running order - launched into the second chorus of her song, Storm.
Then, out of nowhere, a rather unkempt man assailed the Essex singer, stole her microphone and shouted some totally unintelligible diatribe.
It was later transcribed as: "Nazis of the UK media, we demand freedom. War is not peace".
The culprit - a London-based Greek national called Konstantin Bouki - goes by the name of DrACactivism on social media. He has previously interrupted The Voice and the National Television Awards.
Far from advancing his cause, though, the actions of this tiresome attention-seeker only serve to alienate himself from the popular support which he presumably craves.
For SuRie, the whole experience must have been absolutely petrifying. For all she knew, the idiot could well have been carrying a knife.
Considering that, she remained amazingly calm on stage, clapping to the beat before immediately picking the lyrics back up once she had a microphone back in her hands.
Nevertheless, her Eurovision experience had been irredeemably tarnished.
In fairness, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) officials offered SuRie the chance to perform again at the end of the running order. Having recovered so well, though, the 29-year-old was perhaps sensible to decline.
The show must go on, after all - and, before long, it was time to tot up the tallies.
Sadly, SuRie finished in 23rd place with 23 points from the jury voting which was announced first and based upon a Jury Rehersal held on Friday evening.
In the public vote, meanwhile, she fared only a little better, placing 20th with 25 points.
Consequently, her overall points total (48) left her in 24th place out of 26, ahead only of Finland's former X Factor contestant Saara Aalto (46) and rock-bottom hosts Portugal (39).
Elsewhere, Norway (144) and Ireland (136) will also be disappointed by their mid-table finishing positions.
Norwegian representative Alexander Rybak - a former winner in 2009 with Fairytale - was hugely underwhelming this time around and made little impact.
By contrast, the Irish - in a first Grand Final since 2013 - qualified having caused quite a stir in China with its entry Together by Ryan O'Shaughnessy.
Indeed, Ireland was edited out of the Chinese broadcast of the first semi-final on Mango TV because of its representation of a homosexual couple by its on-stage dancers.
As a result of the censorship, the EBU terminated its partnership with the Chinese broadcaster, a decision which pleased O'Shaughnessy himself.
Back to the results - and it was Austria (271) who emerged as the front-runner following the verdict of the jury ahead of Sweden (253) and Israel (212). Cyprus (183) took fifth place behind Germany (204).
However, it was all change when the public vote was announced. Leading nation Austria (71) could only manage 13th place, Germany (136) was sixth - while Eurovision stalwart Sweden (21) surprisingly finished way down in 23rd.
As such, it became a straight contest between two eastern Mediterranean countries - Israel and Cyprus.
Clumsily, it became apparent that Cyprus had come second overall after picking up 253 points in the public vote.
And so, Israel - with 317 votes - could celebrate a momentous victory on the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Middle East state.
Next year then, the Contest will most likely be held in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv - but the stage invasion in Lisbon surely means an unprecedented amount of security will be required whichever city is chosen.
After all, it is not as if Israel keeps a low profile on the international stage.
Of course, in likeable winner Netta, there was a little random joy on Saturday in these troubled political times.
At the same time, though, her victory has left the Eurovision apparatchiks with the sort of headache which will take more than a few painkillers to remove.
2018 EUROVISION FINAL SCOREBOARD
| Song | Artist | Points | ||
| 01 | Israel | Toy | Netta | 529 |
| 02 | Cyprus | Fuego (Fire) | Eleni Foureira | 436 |
| 03 | Austria | Nobody But You | Cesár Sampson | 342 |
| 04 | Germany | You'll Let Me Walk Alone | Michael Schulte | 340 |
| 05 | Italy | Non mi avete fatto niente (You haven't done anything to me) | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | 308 |
| 06 | Czech Republic | Lie to Me | Mikolas Josef | 281 |
| 07 | Sweden | Dance You Off | Benjamin Ingrosso | 274 |
| 08 | Estonia | La forza (The Force) | Elina Nechayeva | 245 |
| 09 | Denmark | Higher Ground | Rasmussen | 226 |
| 10 | Moldova | My Lucky Day | DoReDoS | 209 |
| 11 | Albania | Mall (Yearning) | Eugent Bushpepa | 184 |
| 12 | Lithuania | When We're Old | Ieva Zasimauskaitė | 181 |
| 13 | France | Mercy | Madame Monsieur | 173 |
| 14 | Bulgaria | Bones | Equinox | 166 |
| 15 | Norway | That's How You Write a Song | Alexander Rybak | 144 |
| 16 | Ireland | Together | Ryan O'Shaughnessy | 136 |
| 17 | Ukraine | Under the Ladder | Mélovin | 130 |
| 18 | Netherlands | Outlaw in 'Em | Waylon | 121 |
| 19 | Serbia | Nova deca (New Generation) | Sanja Ilić & Balkanika | 113 |
| 20 | Australia | We Got Love | Jessica Mauboy | 99 |
| 21 | Hungary | Viszlát nyár (Goodbye, summer) | AWS | 93 |
| 22 | Slovenia | Hvala, ne! (No, Thanks) | Lea Sirk | 64 |
| 23 | Spain | Tu canción (Your Song) | Amaia & Alfred | 61 |
| 24 | United Kingdom | Storm | SuRie | 48 |
| 25 | Finland | Monsters | Saara Aalto | 46 |
| 26 | Portugal | O Jardim (The Garden) | Cláudia Pascoal | 39 |
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