The competition for Best Eurovision Song Contest song ever ended as most fans predicted: Waterloo by ABBA was Europe's overwhelming choice. In the end, several other songs were also clearly favourites, while others attracted less support. Here's our analysis, by the (voting) numbers.

In the final round, there were a maximum of 372 points (12 points times 31 voting countries) available. ABBA's Waterloo garned 329 of those votes, which represents 88% of the maximum; this included 17 douze points and 8 dix points: in other words, 25 of 31 countries ranked ABBA as first or second. No countries ranked Waterloo as low as 5th, though three–Portugal, Greece and Germany–ranked it 4th of 5. ABBA's win was overwhelming and decisive.

But the second and third place songs were very close. Domenico Modugno's Nel blu di pinto di blu (Volare) scored a final score of 267 (71%), while Johnny Logan's Hold me now scored 262 (70%). Helena Paparizou's My number one (245 points, or 66%) and Brotherhood of Man's Save all your kisses for me (230 points, 62%), while making the top 5 in the preliminary voting, were much farther back than the other 3 songs.

Bear in mind that the lowest score possible in the final round was 186 points (31 times 6). If we adjust the scores by the difference between lowest possible score (186) and highest possible (372), the margin of ABBA's victory is even clearer. Waterloo's adjusted score of 143 points (77% of maximum) is well ahead of Volare (81 points; 44%), Hold me now (76 points; 41%), My number one (59 points; 32%) and Save all your kisses for me (44 points; 24%). Waterloo had nearly twice the support of its nearest competitor,Volare

Preliminary round: who didn't make the final
We don't yet know what score the top 5 received to make the final. But among the songs that didn't qualify, places 6 through 10 were clustered very closely. The Olsen Brother's Fly on the wings of love, in 6th place, was only 13 points ahead of 10th place Céline Dion's Ne partez pas sans moi (111 versus 98 points). Amazingly only one point separated songs 7, 8 and 9. Nicole's Ein bißchen Frieden scored 106 points, Cliff Richard's Congratulations received 105, and Sertab Erener's Every way that I can garnered 104.

After Céline, Mocedades's Eres tu received 90 points. Johnny Logan's second song What's another year netted 74. Dana International's Diva (39 points) and France Gall's Poupée de cire, poupée de son (37 points) rounded out the tally, finishing well back.

What was the cut-off? How did the top 5 change?
The scores for the final (top 5) were effectively reset for the last round of voting, so we don't yet know the gap between whichever of the top 5 songs qualifed in 5th place and Fly on the wings of love. It's possible that the order of the original top 5 changed somewhat with the final round of voting, and that some songs benefitted from “vote transferring” in the final round. As more information becomes available, we'll let you know. Stay tuned to esctoday.com!