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Bangaranga! Bulgaria wins Eurovision - but UK comes last
Bulgarian pop star Dara has won the Eurovision Song Contest with her pneumatic dance anthem Bangaranga.
The 27-year-old topped both the public and the jury vote in a nail-biting conclusion, soaring ahead of Israel in second and Romania in third to score a massive 516 points.
Dara was far from a front-runner going into the contest, but her intricate choreography and naggingly catchy chorus helped her eclipse the competition - giving Bulgaria its first ever Eurovison title.
The UK, however, continued its run of disastrous results. Look Mum No Computer's song Eins, Zwei, Drei took last place, with one solitary point from the Ukrainian jury.
The musician predicted his downfall earlier in the week, admitting that his synth-driven track was "Marmite - you either love it or hate it".
After the contest, he put a positive spin on his loss.
Bulgaria honestly deserved winner!" he posted on social media. "The most important thing is we all tried our hardest... regardless of the outcome!
It is the third time since 2020 that the UK has placed last.
The top five of the leaderboard looked like this:
Unlike Look Mum No Computer, who is best known for a YouTube channel where he builds eccentric contraptions, Dara is a major pop star in her home country.
Her songs and videos have amassed over 80 million listens and views, including the number one single Thunder, and she is a coach on the country's version of the TV talent show The Voice.
To the uninitiated, Bangaranga seems cast in the mould of nonsensical Eurovision songs like Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley - but the title actually means "uproar" in Jamaican patois.
The lyrics address Dara's commitment to overcoming anxiety and ADHD, which she was diagnosed with last year.
"Bangaranga is something that everyone's got in themselves," she explained.
It's the moment you choose to lead with love, not fear.
Her performance came with whiplash-inducing choreography, based on the ancient Bulgarian tradition of Kukeri, in which masked performers chase away evil spirits.
Before the grand final, it also earned the singer an award for the year's best staging, voted for by commentators, including the UK's Graham Norton.
The UK was among the many countries who gave Bangaranga 12 points in the public vote.
Speaking backstage after lifting the crystal microphone trophy, Dara said: “I want to thank everybody who felt the Bangaranga and felt connected to the force.”
Bulgarian National Television also confirmed next year‘s contest will be held in the country’s capital, Sofia.
The run-up to this year's contest was overshadowed by protests over Israel's participation, due to the death toll of the war in Gaza.
Five countries boycotted the event, including Spain, Iceland and seven-time winners Ireland. In Vienna, there were protests in the city centre ahead of the grand final.
Protests were also anticipated during Israel's performance, after singer Noam Bettan was heckled with anti-Israel chants during Tuesday's semi-final.
However, there were no disturbances during his song, Michelle - a heartfelt Mediterranean love song, that took second place.
Czechia's performance, meanwhile, was interrupted by a technical error, during which the video feed was interrupted and singer Daniel Žižka temporarily disappeared.
That did not happen at any of the rehearsals, the distorted picture," said Graham Norton on BBC One. "I think the camera[man] fell, I'm not quite sure.
Žižka asked for a chance to reprise his performance, but organisers declined, saying his "performance and audio were not affected" by the "small camera issue".
Surprisingly, the contest's two presumed favourites were pushed out of the top three altogether.
Finnish duo Pete Parkkonen and Linda Lampenius topped bookmakers' odds for weeks - but although their stormy duet was called Liekinheitin (flamethrower), it failed to catch fire, ending in sixth place.
Meanwhile, some commentators believed Delta Goodrem could become Australia's first ever Eurovision winner, with her Celine Dion-adjacent power ballad Eclipse.
She delivered the night's most jaw-dropping vocal, rising above the arena on a platform she allegdly borrowed from Beyoncé. But ultimately, the song proved too dated to top the leaderboard, coming fourth.
This year's contest was held in Vienna, Austria, after 25-year-old JJ lifted last year's trophy in Basel, Switzerland, with his song Wasted Love.
The show opened with a recap of that song - before the competition started in earnest with Denmark's Søren Torpegaard Lund.
Writhing with dancers in a sweaty plastic box, his performance set the tone for a night dominated by stories of obsession and animal passion.
Germany's Sarah Engels was "on fire", Norway's Jonas Lovv had "no self control" and Sweden's Felicia gave us an image that's hard to forget: "You're in my head, my heart, my body parts". TMI, Felicia.
As for Serbia, the lead singer of rock band Lavina was so tortured by someone who "trampled on his heart" that he ended his song with a blood-curdling scream.
Representing Romania, meanwhile, Alexandra Căpitănescu provoked controversy with the lyrics to her song Choke Me.
Campaigners criticised the track for glamourising sexual violence - but Căpitănescu said it was really about suffocating under the weight of self-doubt.
Performed second-to-last, her powerful performance - essentially Lady Gaga fronting the nu metal band Evansecence - proved tantalising enough to take third place.
More on the Eurovision Song Contest 2026:
But it wasn't all lust, lust, lust.
Italy's Sal Da Vinci delivered a sweetly nostalgic slice of 70s disco, with a song dedicated to his wife, Per Sempre, which came fifth.
And Greece's Akylas had the most kaleidoscopic performance - sliding down a fireman's pole, raiding a bank vault and dancing with a Greek statue during his techno banger, Ferto.
It was a lot to take in - but the maximalism hid a sweet message about working overtime to pull his parents out of poverty.
Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984 was Lithuanian singer Lion Ceccah.
His song, Sólo Quiero Más, was all about breaking free of algorithms and reclaiming our humanity - a struggle he illustrated by painting himself head-to-toe in silver.
Croatian band Lelek also wore face paint, with symbols representing the resistance of Catholic women during the Ottoman Empire, a topic they addressed with haunting folkloric harmonies on their song Andromeda.
The evening also marked the 70th anniversary of Eurovision, which launched in 1956 under the name European Grand Prix.
Back then, only seven nations took part, with Swiss singer Lys Assia taking the first title.
To mark the platinum anniversary, organisers staged a spectacular tribute featuring some of the most memorable songs of last seven decades.
Former winners Lordi played a heavy metal version of Brotherhood of Man's Save Your Kisses For Me; while Ukranian comedian Verka Serduchka played Sandie Shaw's Puppet On A String with an Oompah band.
Erika Vikman recreated Abba's Waterloo - 1974's Eurovision winner - while Alexander Rybak gave Cliff Richard's Congratulations the hoedown treatment.
The performance ended with a mass singalong to Nel blu, dipinto di blu, originally by Italian singer Domenico Modugno.
Placing third at Eurovision in 1958, it sold more than 18 million copies worldwide.
Whether any of this year's entries reach such heights remains to be seen.
Source: BBC
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