Sweden’s entry Euphoria won the contest
The rest of Europe failed to warm to the UK’s Eurovision entry, sung by Engelbert Humperdinck – with the veteran pop singer coming second from last.
Sweden’s entry Euphoria, performed by Loreen, stormed home to win with 372 points.
Humperdinck’s ballad, Love Will Set You Free, opened the show at the Crystal Hall in Baku, which is thought to have been watched by a TV audience of 100 million.
Wearing a black suit and lit by a single spotlight, the 76-year-old was cheered by the crowd as he started singing and blew kisses to the audience when the performance came to an end as fireworks rained down.
But the cheers from the crowd failed to translate into points from the viewers at home.
Interviewed by the show’s host after his performance, he said: “I had a great time, a very wonderful time.
“I hope everyone listening to the song… we shared the song with every generation. I sang it from my heart.”
He was up against Irish pop twins Jedward and a group of six Russian grannies called Buranovskiye Babushki, who want to raise money to build a church in their village.
Humperdinck had a good luck token given to him by his friend Elvis Presley – a necklace with the motto TCB, which stands for “taking care of business” – but sadly it appeared not to be working.
Jedward wore identical metallic suits for their performance of Waterline.
It was their second Eurovision appearance, having come a respectable eighth last year with Lipstick.
But this year the twins did less well.
Wearing their trademark quiffs slicked down, the twins sang around a fountain placed in the middle of the stage – jumping into it and joining hands at the end of their song.
Jedward failed to win Eurovision for the second timeCelebrities took to Twitter to give their opinions of the acts.
Piers Morgan, referring to England’s match against Norway, wrote: “England would have a better night if Andy Carroll sang in Eurovision and Engelbert Humperdinck played upfront in Norway.”
Cheryl Baker, a former Eurovision winner with Bucks Fizz, told Sky News earlier: “(Engelbert) has got a great voice and he can still hit those high notes, he’s great.”
Britain has not won the contest since Katrina & The Waves sang Love Shine A Light in 1997.
Humperdinck, whose last Top 10 hit was 42 years ago, did less well than boy band Blue, who finished 11th last year.
His song marked a change in style from previous years when high energy pop songs have been favoured by the UK.
Eve may not have been able to emerge victorious in the contest, but the truth is that she “stole” the hearts of the crowd.
«Come on everybody, go», Eve cried before the last chorus.
It is significant that Sweden, which was the winner of the competition gave us the most (along with Greece of course) 12 points each.
Greece and Eleftheria Eleftheriou who is Cypriot with the song Aphrodisiac won 64 points and took 17th place.
The Cypriot singer thrilled the «Crystal Hall», and was very good on vocals and the group and dancers performed perfectly.
Also, at the end of the song Eleftheria called «Thank you Europe! Greece love you. ”
In the final on Saturday there was a total of 26 countries.
Sky News