Lena Meyer-Landrut, a 19-year-old German student, won the 55th Eurovision song contest in Oslo, Norway on Sunday.
Lena`s song Sattellite gathered 246 points. She received the maximum of 12 points from Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Spain, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden.
With a comfortable advantage of 76 points over her closest rival, a Turkish rap rock band maNga, Lena secured Germany`s first Eurovision victory since 1982 and the country`s first-ever victory as a unified state.
The third place went to Paula Seling & Ovi, whose song Playing With Fire scored 162 points.
Russia`s Peter Nalitch and Friends received 90 points and were 11th with their song "Lost and Forgotten."
This year Russia concentrated more on musical capabilities of its contestant, rather than presenting gimmicks.
Wearing a green cardigan, grey scarf and black trousers, Nalitch did not make a single step aside while singing the song with a woman`s photo in his hands. The only special effect was artificial snow, which fell around Nalitch and his band during the performance.
Bookies and experts predicted the victory of Azerbaijan`s singer and saxophonist Safura, and saw Lena as a runner-up. Peter Nalitch and Friends were not even included into the top-20.
The show`s budget initially stood at 150 million Norwegian crowns ($23 million), but was later increased to 211 million Norwegian crowns ($32.5). The sum is below Moscow`s record budget of $43 million, but still above 13 million euro ($16 million) which Helsinki spent for the contest in 2007.
The show was watched by an audience of 18,000 in the Telenor Arena and over 120 million TV viewers in at least 45 countries.
Representatives of 25 countries took part in the final, including 20 who directly qualified in one of the two semi-finals, held on May 25th and 27th. The remaining five were directly qualified for the show: the host country, Norway, and the "Big Four" (The United Kingdom, Spain, France and Germany).
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