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May 11th, 2014

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In the end, as much as Basim bamboozled us with his boogie and the Swedish soprano strutted her stuff, they were never going to be a match for Conchita Wurst, the Austrian representative in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, who just minutes ago took the 2014 crown with the song 'Rise like a Phoenix'. 

The bearded singer (whose father, it was revealed in the semi-final, is rather paradoxically a sausage-maker, or was that a joke?) wowed the audience at B&W Hallerne on Refshaleøen in Copenhagen. And in the voting, she eased to victory with three rounds to spare, scooping 12 points from a lot of different countries to finish with 290 points.

Favourite from the moment she sang 
Ten minutes before the start, the bookmakers made it an eight-horse race. Sweden were marginal favourites at 11/4, Austria at 10/3, the Netherlands at 9/2, Armenia at 10s, the UK at 12s, Ukraine at 16s, Hungary at 25s and Denmark at 33s.

Every year since 2011, the bookmakers have managed to call the winner by the time voting has started thanks to their use of Google Analytics. The act most searched tends to win.

Thank you Google … again
And this year was no different with Austria at 6/4 marginally shading Sweden (11/4), with no apparent hope for the Netherlands (7s), the UK and Ukraine (25s), Armenia (33s), or Hungary and Denmark.

Austria's win is its first for 48 years – before tonight, of all the countries that have ever won Eurovision, it had waited the longest for a second victory. 

Conchita Wurst's stage name roughly translates as 'Conception Sausage' and her real name is Thomas 'Tom' Neuwirth. Described as Transvestite Jesus in some circles, she is one of Eurovision's most controversial winners ever. 

Meanwhile, the Netherlands finished second, 52 points behind Austria, and Sweden third, a further 20 points back, while Denmark ended up in ninth place with 74 points.