Ladies and gentlemen! It has now all come to an end, bringing a triumphant winner onstage! Following countless hours of preparations, hundreds of songs recorded and performed, a great number of artists trying to reach the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, 41 countries which dared to dream of the coveted victory, we have now crowned the only one winner; it’s Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands!

The Israeli organizers of the contest kept their promises for a fabulous show which will pass through history and gave their 100% to provide an unforgettable edition of the world’s biggest music event.

The show opened with last year’s winner Netta in a pilot role who was landing on stage, together with the 26 finalists of the evening. Then, the 1998 Eurovision winner Dana International sang her victorious entry Diva, apart from paying tribute to this year’s host city, Tel Aviv, with the homonymous song. Nadav Guedj, who represented the country of Middle East in 2015 also performed in the show’s beginning. The show’s opening also featured the appearance of the very first Israeli entrant, Ilanit, who finished 4th in 1973.

After the 26 amazing acts that competed on stage, past participants that are now considered as… Eurovision legends (Verka Serduchka, Conchita Wurst, Måns Zelmerlöw and Eleni Foureira) took the stage to perform each other’s entry. A little later, the night peaked with the appearance of one of the best-selling artists around the globe, the pop icon Madonna.

This is Europe and Australia calling!

But the moment of truth was not late to come! Following the closure of the voting lines, the most exciting part started; the 41 spokespersons announced their national juries’ results, within the traditional Eurovision style.

The revelation of the jury vote saw Sweden lead the scoreboard, followed by North Macedonia and The Netherlands, which finished 2nd and 3rd with the juries respectively. The show moved on to its final part, the nerve-wracking disclosure of the televoting results. Presenters Bar Refaeli and Erez Tal announced each country’s total score, in a slightly different way, as they started with the country that bottomed the scoreboard with the juries before gradually reaching the entry that was favoured by the 41 panels.

Each country’s ranking emerged by the total score (jury & televote points) and brought The Netherlands on the top, with 492 points overall!

Congratulations Duncan Laurence! See you in The Netherlands in 2020!