Finland's Monster Rockers Lordi Sweep to Victory in Eurovision
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Lordi, a Finnish heavy-metal band that performs in monster masks, won the 51st Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, the first time Finland has won the contest in 40 years of trying.
Twenty-four countries competed in the final, including first-timer Armenia, which finished eighth with 129 points.The winners ``Hard Rock Hallelujah'' received 292 points from a telephone vote in 38 countries, beating Russian heart-throb Dima Bilan, who received 248 points. Bosnia-Herzegovina's Hari Mata Hari, a star in the former Yugoslavia before the country descended into civil war in the early 1990s, was third with 229 points. Lordi's victory will bring the Eurovision Song Contest to Finland for the first time. Best known for Nokia phones, Finland had never placed higher than sixth in the Eurovision Song Contest, the world's most-watched song contest.
First held in 1956, the Eurovision contest is best known for launching the careers of performers such as Abba and Celine Dion. Last year's final in the Ukraine was watched by more than 100 million viewers in 40 countries, three times the number of viewers who watched the final of ``American Idol,'' the biggest U.S. television hit.
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