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The Financial Express

Israel's Netta Barzilai wins Eurovision Song Contest

| Updated: May 16, 2018 14:08:23


Israel's Netta reacts as she wins the Grand Final of Eurovision Song Contest 2018 at the Altice Arena hall in Lisbon, Portugal, May 12. Reuters/File Israel's Netta reacts as she wins the Grand Final of Eurovision Song Contest 2018 at the Altice Arena hall in Lisbon, Portugal, May 12. Reuters/File

Israel's Netta Barzilai has won the Eurovision Song Contest for her quirky dance song Toy - complete with its trademark chicken dance.

She had been an early favourite, but the vote went down to the wire with Cyprus finishing in second place.

Netta thanked juries and the public for "choosing different" as she lifted the glass microphone trophy.

UK entrant SuRie, whose performance was interrupted by a stage invader, finished 24th out of the 26 countries.

She was part-way through singing Storm when a man, with a rucksack on his back, ran on and grabbed the microphone from her hands. She was given the chance to perform again but declined.

SuRie later tweeted that she knew "anything could happen" on stage.

Netta - full name Netta Barzilai - picked up a total of 529 points to take the title, while bookies' favourite Eleni Foureira from Cyprus got 436 points, with Fuego.

Austria had topped the leaderboard of the 63rd annual contest after the juries' votes had been given, with Cesar Sampson's Nobody But You the surprise frontrunner.

But it became clear it was between Netta and Eleni when the viewers' votes started coming in, reports BBC.

On stage, the Israeli singer said of her win: "Thank you so much for choosing different. Thank you so much for accepting differences between us.

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