WE ARE GOING TO STOCKHOLM!

The 60th anniversary Eurovision Song Contest has ended in Vienna. Mans Zelmerlow, a singer from Sweden who sang the song Heroes (365 points), won the contest. The Russian entry, Polina Gagarina, who sang the song A Million Voices (303 points), came in second, and musicians from Italy - the operatic pop trio Il Volo - were judged third (292 points). Azerbaijan came in 12th.

Australia, although is it located outside Europe, debuted in the contest and came in fifth. It was represented by Guy Sebastian, who is one of the most popular singers in his country and was one of the favourites in the competition. Twenty-seven countries vied for victory in the final.

Worthy performance

This year Azerbaijan was represented by Elnur Huseynov, who had performed at Eurovision together with Samir Cavadzada in 2008. Back then our duo came in eighth. Recently, the singer won the Turkish vocal competition O Ses Turkiye (an equivalent of the international project The Voice). In Vienna, Elnur performed Hour of The Wolf, which had been written by an international team of authors - Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif, Lina Hansson, and Sandra Bjurman. His act involved two dancers - Lukas McFarlane, the winner of the Canadian show So You Think You Can Dance, and France's Julia Spiesser, who is already experienced in producing Eurovision acts.

"This dance, which was staged in the style of modern art, was inspired by wild nature. It's a story about us, people. We say how it feels to be rejected, to be different, an outcast, with no hope of change. After all, every one of us have had something like this happening in our life, haven't we? But the main message of the song is never give up, your heart deserves to fight," Elnur said ahead of his final performance. The video for Hour of The Wolf has been viewed on YouTube more than 4.5m times, which brought Elnur to second position among best Eurovision songs.

Elnur's performance on the Vienna stage got points from Montenegro (8), Malta (8), Romania (3), Moldova (3), the Czech Republic (12), Lithuania (2), Russia (3) and Georgia (10). Incidentally, neighbouring Georgia gave 12 points to the representatives of Armenia - the group Genealogy - for their provocative song Face the Shadow, which is dedicated to the so-called "genocide". Russia gave six points to the "troubled" Armenia (Russia received 12 points from Armenia - authors' note). However, Armenia did not benefit from this - it only came in 16th.

It is interesting that shortly before the contest, Turks, who missed this year's Eurovision, had called on their compatriots around the world to vote for Elnur Huseynov. However, either because few of them heard the call or they forgot about Eurovision altogether, the Azerbaijani singer only came in 12th. However, this does not detract from Elnur Huseynov's merits at all. The singer is incredibly talented and charismatic, he has a bright future.

A regular guy, thank God

Shortly before the contest started, bookmakers predicted that either Sweden's Mans Zelmerlow or Italy's operatic trio Il Volo would win. In the course of the song contest, Russia's Polina Gagarina broke into the top three, which nobody would have expected. For several minutes, the singer fought Eurovision's chief favourite - the Swedish guy. Web users even began to make jokes, saying that if Russia did win, it would have to open its wallet wide to host the song contest, and this would deal a further blow to the country's budget. However, at the final seconds, the song performed by the handsome Mans did move ahead, leaving Polina behind. The Swede's funny act that involved an animated little man and a catchy pop tune did their job. This time round, Europe did not vote for a freak or a representative of sexual minorities, but for a talented young man from the small Swedish town of Lund. Mans Zelmerlow (his full name is Mans Petter Albert Zelmerlow) was born to a family of doctors. His father worked as a surgeon and his mother was a professor in speech pathology. He has been interested in music since his childhood and he loved to listen to Michael Jackson and Elton John. In the beginning, he learnt to play the piano and was a member of an African dance interest group, but soon he got bored and began to learn to play the guitar on his own. Mans's participation in the music show Idol 2005, his victory in the first season of the dance show Let's Dance and his starring in the musical Grease made him famous. In 2007, the musician took part in casting for Eurovision with the song Cara Mia, but only came in third. After the unsuccessful performance, he went on a tour of the country, performed at Christmas concerts, worked as a host on television, and starred in the musical Romeo and Juliet. In 2007, the Swedish gay magazine QX named him the sexiest man. In 2014, Zelmerlow got involved in a major scandal. The musician was accused of being homophobic after he made statements against representatives of sexual minorities. Speaking on a cooking show, Zelmerlow said that same-sex couples did not have a right to bring up children. He later apologized for his remarks and explained that he had been misunderstood.

Incidentally, Ukraine did not participate in this year's contest. The country refused to do so due to an unfavourable political and economic situation. Cyprus, Serbia and the Czech Republic announced their comeback to the competition after a break: Cyprus and Serbia refused to participate in 2014, while the Czech Republic had not been represented in the contest from 2010 to 2014. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the contest, the European Broadcasting Union decided to slightly modify the logo and introduced minor amendments to its design (the word Eurovision became neater, the words Song Contest and "Year and city of the contest" had their font changed, and the host country's flag inside the heart now appears at an angle).

It was also decided to improve the crystal trophy of the contest on the occasion of Eurovision's 60th anniversary: the glass surface of the trophy now features the new logo of the European show.