The 58th Eurovision Song Contest: Sat 18 May 2013. Malmö, Sweden

[Mr Jules]

Tonight (Sat 18 May 2013), is the 58th Eurovision Song Contest. It's a live 3 hr 15 minute television programme beginning at 20:00 UK time, 21:00 Central European time, 15:00 US - EST.

For the unfamiliar, this is a european wide contest with 39 competing countries each fielding a song. After the two semi finals earlier this week, tonight we have 26 countries taking part in the grand final. Each of the 26 countries will perform their song, and after all the performances, televoting wll take place in all 39 countries. After televoting is complete, one by one, each country will announce their votes via live satellite link. The winner will be the country with the most votes. Denmark are the hot favourites with 'Only Teardrops'. Watch here:

By tradition, the winning country goes onto host the contest the following year. Last year, Sweden won with the contest with 372 points. So this year, the contest comes from the Swedish city of Malmö.

My own United Kingdom will perform 15th on stage tonight and the song is performed by Bonnie Tyler. And remember, during televoting you cannot vote for your own country !!!

The contest is highly entertaining with some real visual treats. This year, you'll see the Azeris perform their song in a cube, Finnish lesbian kissing and Romanian operatics.

The Eurovision Song Contest first started in 1956 from Swiss town of Lugano. The UK, France, Sweden and Luxembourg have all won 5 times. And Ireland have won 7 times including winning three times in a row in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Hosting the contest three times nearly bankrupted Irish television broadcaster RTE !!

5 countries always qualify to the final: Italy, UK, Spain, Germany and France as they make the largest financial contribution to the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) who organise the contest.  Watch and learn more here: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/timeline

Especially to everyone across Europe - have a great time tonight watching the contest. This is biggest televised televoting event in the world !! May the best country win.

I predict a good chance for Georgia, Norway or Denmark.

[tomgallagher]

And the winner is the favorite.,.Denmark. Great number.

[Adamski1972]

Great show as always!

[Mr Jules]

Yep, the favourites Denmark won the contest with 281 points, receiving the maximum 12 points from 8 countries including the UK.

Azerbaijan came second with 234 points, followed by Ukraine and Norway. The UK did better than last year, receiving 23 points and coming 19th. I was particularly disappointed with Ireland's result - a great song and well performed - coming last with just 5 points.

Seems the winning Danes have confirmed they'll hold 59th contest in Denmark in May 2014. The winners going on to host the contest is an unbroken tradition going back to 1980.

Full results from last night's contest here: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-year/contest?event=1773
UK's performer Bonnie Tyler reflects: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22585800
And for those who can read Danish, plenty of coverage on DRK - Demark's main television broadcaster: http://www.dr.dk/

[Focus]

And here is the France's performer :



We had poor results, but I am still proud of our good singer Amandine Bourgeois.