In a year when Belarus had a near tumble off their boat on stage and Australia couldn’t help themselves by streaking during Jamala’s performance, the grand final then went ahead with barely a fault. At the end of the day, when all the votes were tallied, it was Portugal who were crowned the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with 758 points. Second place went to Bulgaria, with 615 points. Moldova came in at third with 374 points.

Portugal’s performer, Salvador Sobral, offered up the following when asked about his win for Portugal.

“We live in a world of disposable music… this is a victory for music.”

Sobral then went on to ask his sister onto the stage to help him sing the song she originally wrote for him.

You can view Portugal’s official Eurovision Song Contest entry for 2017 below.

Final Tally

The full results for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest are below.

1. Portugal — 758 points

2. Bulgaria — 615

3. Moldova — 374

4. Belgium — 363

5. Sweden — 344

6. Italy — 334

7. Romania — 282

8. Hungary — 200

9. Australia — 173

10. Norway — 158

11. The Netherlands — 150

12. France — 135

13. Croatia — 128

14. Azerbaijan — 120

15. United Kingdom — 111

16. Austria — 93

17. Belarus — 83

18. Armenia — 79

19. Greece — 77

20. Denmark — 77

21. Cyprus — 68

22. Poland — 64

23. Israel — 39

24. Ukraine — 36

25. Germany — 6

26. Spain — 5

Highlights

Eurovision 2017 was fraught with controversy from the moment Ukraine was announced the winner in 2016. At first, some fans speculated that Ukraine’s song “1944” violated the official rules of Eurovision. Officials, however, deemed the song was acceptable under the rules of Eurovision.

While there was initial debate over whether Russia would attend Eurovision 2017 due to ongoing political disputes between themselves and the Ukraine, Russia announced their 2017 entrant would be Yulia Samoylova, with her song “Flame is Burning.”

However, on April 13, 2017, Russia announced their withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest. This withdrawal was caused by Ukraine placing a three-year ban on Yulia Samoylova from entering the country. While full details of the reason for banning the Russian contestant remain unknown, the Telegraph suggests it has to do with the fact Samoylova entered Crimea in 2015. Due to disputes between the two countries, Russia believes Crimea belongs to them, while Ukraine believes Crimea is an “illegally occupied territory and reserves the right to impose a travel ban on anyone who visits it without obtaining appropriate permission from Kiev first.”

According to the Guardian, as a result of this ban, Russia will not be broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest this year.

Fears have been rising over whether Israel would be eligible to enter Eurovision next year, thanks to their closure of local broadcasting network, thus nullifying their European Broadcasting Union membership due to a lack of news broadcasting on their new network. Israel went on to confirm their withdrawal from future Eurovision events during their live vote broadcast. Unfortunately for Israel, they finished in 23rd place.

With Eurovision being known as “gay Christmas” to some in the LGBT community, some fans were concerned at just how welcome members of this groups would be when they attended Eurovision 2017 in Ukraine.

Jonathan Khoo, a 39-year-old programmer from San Francisco, told the Independent of his concerns for Eurovision this year.

“While they’ve been trying to promote themselves as a gay-friendly destination it remains to be seen how successful that will be. That said, there is safety in numbers or at least one would hope.”

Fears were unfounded, however, and the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 ran smoothly in this regard.

Entering the Eurovision Song Contest can be exciting enough in itself. However, for Macedonia’s entrant, Jana Burceska, a pregnancy announcement and marriage proposal added exponentially to the occasion, according to the BBC. Unfortunately, Macedonia did not qualify for the grand final of Eurovision 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OfYiDhmXMY

While Australia advanced to the finale of Eurovision 2017, a vocal hiccup recorded during rehearsal went on to be “repeated during the performance recaps during the voting period for fans,” according to News.com.au. His performance during the grand final, however, was flawless, but not enough to win the event. They placed ninth at the end of the competition.

But, it was the streaker that turned up in an Australian flag and bared his naked behind during Jamala’s performance while voting was underway that caused the biggest stir. Security tackled the flasher off the stage pretty quickly and News.com.au have confirmed, while the person was wearing an Australian flag, they were not actually Australian. Instead, Ukrainian journalist and serial pest, Vitalii Sediuk, donned an Australian flag before dropping his pants on stage.

Eurovision streaker not an Australian but Ukrainian journalist

— Kathy McCabe (@McCabeRadar) May 13, 2017

The #Eurovision stage invader was serial pest Vitalii Sediuk NOT Australian. We live to sing another day

— Kathy McCabe (@McCabeRadar) May 13, 2017

What do you think about Portugal winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2017? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below.

[Featured Image by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Images]