The Netherlands wins Eurovision 2019, UK comes in last place
Duncan Laurence, representing The Netherlands, wins the Grand Final of the 64th annual Eurovision Song Contest. (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)
The Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence took home the prized trophy with ‘Arcade’.
The Coldplay-esque ballad scored a total of 492 points, with Italy’s Mahmood and Russia’s Sergey Lazarev coming in second and third place respectively.
As the votes from each country’s jury first came in, Sweden took the top spot of the leaderboard with 239 points while North Macedonia was close behind with 237.
The Netherlands were in third place with 231 points but managed to secure a further 261 from the public vote to become victorious.
“Yes, yes!” Laurence exclaimed as he lifted the Eurovision microphone trophy.
“This is to dreaming big, this is music first always, thank you, thank you!”
The Netherlands last won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 with ‘Ding-a-dong’ by Teach-In. Laurence’s 2019 win marks the fifth win for the country.
United Kingdom’s Michael Rice came in last place
Unfortunately for United Kingdom’s Michael Rice, his performance of ‘Bigger Than Us’ was not enough to impress voters, coming last in 26th place with just 16 points.
Belarus was slightly ahead with 31 points in 25th place – almost double the UK’s total score.
France’s Bilal Hassani came in 14th place with a total of 105 points.
Iceland’s entry, the BDSM group Hatari, caused controversy during the point scoring as they held up Palestinian flags as their scores were revealed. The action was met with loud boos from the crowd.
Despite protests from outside the Tel Aviv arena, the remaining event ran without much controversy and only a few technical hitches.
Earlier in the evening, Madonna performed ‘Like a Prayer’ and ‘Future’ with Quavo which ended with a pair of dancers wearing Palestine and Israel flags.
