Italy’s Maneskin have won the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam.
The group – who were among this year’s pre-show favourites – claimed the coveted accolade in front of a socially-distanced crowd at the Rotterdam Ahoy arena on Saturday night (22.05.21) and after they were named the winners, the band hailed their triumph as a sign that “rock and roll never dies”.
They said: “We just want to say to the whole of Europe, to the whole world – rock and roll never dies!”
The group achieved a landslide result from the public vote after wowing fans across the continent with their track ‘Zitti e buoni’.
The Italian group actually sat in third place after the jury vote, on 208 points. At the time, they trailed the entrants from France and Switzerland, who topped the leaderboard.
However, their fortunes were totally transformed by the public vote, which earned them 318 extra points.
By contrast, this year’s UK entrant, James Newman, finished rock bottom of the table.
The 35-year-old musician failed to earn a single point on the night, as viewers were left unimpressed by his dance track ‘Embers’.
Despite that, the night will be considered a success by its organisers, who managed to stage one of the most high-profile live events to take place during the coronavirus pandemic.
After months of uncertainty, some 3,500 people – around 20 percent of the arena’s capacity – were on hand in Rotterdam and millions of TV viewers were able to see Maneskin win the Eurovision crown.
The result means that the next edition of the long-running event will be held in Italy.