Headline News

Finnish Heavy Metal Act Lordi Wins Eurovision

In what is big news in Europe, a heavy metal band whose members have been accused of being devil worshippers has won the Eurovision Song Contest, shattering the competition's traditional image. The band from Finland performed its song dressed like characters from a horror movie.

The Eurovision Song Contest has never seen or heard anything quite like this before. But the Finnish band Lordi stormed through their set, demolishing their opponents and the bland reputation of the contest in one fell swoop: and when the votes of viewers and listeners from around Europe and beyond were finally counted up, Lordi had won an easy victory. Even the band leader himself, Mr Lordi, seemed stunned by what they'd achieved. (BBC)

Mr Lordi: "We feel great, think about it, this is weird, this is strange this is interesting. You know think about it, we're a rock band and we just won the pop song contest. That is weird and also Finland won which is kind of nice."

He also hailed the result as "a victory for open-mindedness."

From the moment Lordi won eight points at the start of the voting, Finns watched incredulously as the band continued to lead the field until it hit an all-time Eurovision high of 292 points – more than 40 ahead of Russia. (Belfast Today)

This was indeed a big victory for Finland, which first entered the contest more than forty years ago, but until now had always come away empty-handed.

Since March, when Lordi won the contest for the Finnish entry, many in the highly self-conscious nation feared that the band would damage the country's reputation. Lordi's piece was heatedly debated and the group's exploits regularly hit tabloid headlines. Band leader Mr Lordi said the group may have changed the face of Eurovision for good. "This is proof that there were rock fans watching Eurovision," he said in Athens.

The show attracted a peak viewing audience of 10.8m viewers, or 50% of the total audience, half-an-hour before the contest finale, according to unofficial overnight figures. The contest averaged 8.2m viewers throughout the duration of the show, which was broadcast between 8pm and 11pm.

Finland will now host the 2007 competition.