“Fairytale” casts a spell over Eurovision

It was a magical ending to the 54th Eurovision Song Contest for Norway. Their pre-competition favourite song entitled “Fairytale” ran away with the tournament, achieving the highest ever total of 387 points.

Iceland came second followed by Azerbaijan, with the UK doing much better than in previous years, coming fifth. But it was Alexander Rybak who had everyone spell bound. The 23-year-old took an early lead in the newly re-vamped voting system which was split between televoting and panels and aimed at avoiding predictable and political outcomes. A total of 42 countries award their points in one of the most watched television shows in Europe every year and this time is was also reportedly the most expensive, costing Russia around €31 million to stage. So with Norway scoring its third win in the contest it will be off to Oslo next year for the European song fest.

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