Portugal have won ‘The Eurovision Song Contest’ for the first time.
Salvador Sobral beat off fierce competition in Kiev, Ukraine, on Saturday (13.05.17) to be crowned the winner of the annual extravaganza, giving his home country their first win since they started competing 53 years ago.
The 27-year-old singer performed a heartfelt rendition of ‘Amar Pelos Dios’ – a song performed entirely in Portuguese – which was composed by his sister Luisa Sobral.
Not only is the win historic for the people of Portugal, but it will no doubt mean a lot to Salvador himself who suffers from a life-threatening heart condition, and was frequently absent from ‘Eurovision’ rehearsals in order to save his energy for the special night.
Salvador managed to score a whopping 758 points for his country on the night, beating second place Bulgaria by over 100 as they racked up a total of 613.
The gap between Bulgaria and Moldova – who took third place – widened even further though, as SunStroke Project managed to score just 374 with their song ‘Hey Mamma!’.
Rounding out the top five were Belgium with 363, and Sweden who finished on 344.
At the other end of the leaderboard, Spain failed to impress with only five points to their name, with Germany narrowly avoiding defeat with six points.
Meanwhile, the UK and Lucie Jones managed to score a respectable 111 points, finishing in 15th place between Azerbaijan on 120, and Austria on 93.
The competition marked the second year in which the voting system has been made up of two parts, the jury vote – where each of the 42 voting countries gave out 1-12 points based on the opinions of a selected jury – and the public vote, which added up votes from the general viewing public.
After being crowned the victor, Salvador took to the stage for one final rendition of his winning song, this time being joined on stage by his sister Louisa, who as well as composing the song filled in for her sibling whilst he was absent from rehearsals.
Portugal’s win means the 2018 ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ will be held in Lisbon.
Portugal win Eurovision Song Contest
