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MALMO, Sweden — Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won this year's Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune "Only Teardrops," despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, hippie-chic de Forest for the catchy love song that is driven by her deep, Shakira-like voice. She received a total of 281 points in the glitzy music battle, which also featured a bizarre opera-pop number from Romania, the comeback of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" star Bonnie Tyler and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.
"It was overwhelming, and I could really feel the fans and the audience and the people in the arena," the 20-year-old de Forest said after her victory. "I'm really, really excited and happy."
De Forest was followed by runner-up Farid Mammadov of Azerbaijan, who got 234 points for the song "Hold Me," which he performed on top of a glass cubicle containing a male dancer. The Ukraine's Zlata Ognevich, who sang "Gravity," finished third with 214 points.
The extravaganza, with a TV audience of 125 million worldwide, is now in its 58th year. Once again, it produced a mix of bubble-gum pop songs, somber ballads, bagpipes, accordions and bizarrely kitsch musical productions.
Sweden hosted the event because contestant Loreen won last year with "Euphoria."
This year's event also saw the return to the international stage of two seasoned European stars. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" singer Bonnie Tyler represented Britain with the sleepy love ballad "Believe In Me," while Anouk, whose song "Nobody's Wife" was a big hit in Europe in the 1990s, performed the song "Birds" for The Netherlands. Tyler ended in 19th place, while Anouk finished in the ninth spot.
Having won five times, most famously with ABBA's "Waterloo" in 1974, Sweden is a veteran of Eurovision. It took the opportunity Saturday to showcase some of its big music acts. At the opening of the competition, contestants marched into the stadium with flags, Olympics-style, accompanied by a choir singing a song especially composed by Swedish super DJ Avicii and ABBA members Bjorn Ulveaus and Benny Andersson.
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