Danes win Eurovision contest

Denmark's Olsen Brothers strolled to Eurovision victory

Denmark has won the 45th Eurovision Song Contest.

The winning entry, Fly On The Wings Of Love, was performed in Stockholm by the Olsen Brothers before a television audience estimated at around 100 million.

The Danes collected 195 points, comfortably ahead of their nearest rival, Russia, as Baltic states took six out of the top seven places.

Britain's entrant, Nicki French, was never in contention and finished in 16th place with her rendition of Don't Play That Song Again.

Top Euro scorers

Denmark - 195

Russia - 155

Latvia - 136

Estonia - 98

The Olsen Brothers' win means that next year's contest will be staged in Copenhagen.

Belgium had to wait until competition scoring had reached the three-quarter mark before registering their first score - the two points awarded by Macedonia were the Belgians' sole reward for the night.

Estonia had been the bookies' favourite to win but Britney Spears look-a-like Ines, whose ditty Once In A Lifetime was priced at 5/2, got off to a poor scoring start and never recovered.

The UK's song title proved prophetic

Terry Wogan, who was BBC Television's anchor commentator for yet another Eurovision, suggested that her garishly-coloured trousers "may have put people off".

He voiced the exasperations of many British viewers when at one stage he asked: "Any sign of a point for the UK?"

Britain eventually drew 28 points.

The Irish-born commentator also suggested that Germany's entry did "remarkably well in view of the deep silliness of the song".

As has been the case in past song contests, tactical voting between neighbouring countries came into play, with Denmark and Iceland awarding each other the maximum 12 points allowed.

Russia's Alsou came second

This year's event was shrouded in controversy before a note was sung, and once again it was Israel at the centre of the dispute.

Following the high-heeled footsteps of transsexual Dana International, whose song Diva swept to victory in 1998, came bisexual peacemakers Ping Pong.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority nearly threw them out after learning of their plans to wave the flag of Syria - a country Israel is still officially at war with - during their performance of Happy. But they reluctantly agreed to let it go.