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.

Look Mum No Computer gave a quirky, if awkward, performance – failing to win the hearts of viewers

The musician predicted his downfall earlier in the week, admitting that his synth-driven track was “Marmite – you either love it or hate it”.

But he put a positive spin on the situation. “I always say to expect nothing,” he said, “because if you expect nothing, you lose nothing”.

“He gave it his all,” said Graham Norton as the results became clear. “It just clearly didn’t shine with the audiences across Europe.”

It is the third time since 2020 that the UK has placed last.

The top five of the leaderboard looked like this:

Bulgaria: Dara – Bangaranga (516 points)
Israel: Noam Bettan – Michelle (343 points)
Romania: Alexandra Căpitănescu – Choke Me (296 points)
Australia: Delta Goodrem – Eclipse (287 points)
Italy: Sal Da Vinci – Per Sempre (281 points)

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.

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