Denmark's Emmelie de Forest takes Eurovision crown

A 20-year-old Danish singer, who performed barefoot, emerged victorious at the Eurovision Song Contest.

The 20-year-old Danish singer Emmelie de Forest. EPA
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The 20-year-old barefoot singer Emmelie de Forest was the toast of Denmark on Sunday after winning this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the Swedish city of Malmoe.

Her song, Only Teardrops, scored 281 points at a glittering ceremony watched by millions of viewers.

Azerbaijan was the runner-up with 234 points, followed by Ukraine with 214 points.

“Europe adores Emmelie,” Denmark’s tabloid newspaper Ekstrabladet declared on its website soon after the result. “Denmark’s darling was the big favourite and met all expectations,” said the public broadcaster DR. The broadsheet Politiken chimed in, too, noting that Only Teardrops was “the best song in Europe”. Denmark last won the contest in 2000.

“I believed in the song but the exciting thing about Eurovision is that you never know what’s going to happen,” de Forest said after the contest. The Danish singer sang her dramatic pop number about the state of the world barefoot, her trademark since she began performing in her early teens, against a flaming backdrop.

Azerbaijan was represented by Farid Mammadov. His ballad Hold Me was one of several dramatic performances during the evening, the singer’s moves mirrored by a dancer inside a glass cage.

The Ukrainian entry Gravity had drawn attention after it was revealed that the singer Zlata Ognevich would be carried on stage by a 2.34-metre-tall “giant” meant to symbolise her inner strength.

With an estimated 125 million viewers, Eurovision is a bigger broadcasting event than American football's Super Bowl. – AFP

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