Eurovision 2021 grand final live coverage: Winners, losers and upsets
There's been a new development in the controversy surrounding this year's Eurovision winners, who say they're "shocked" at the accusation levelled against them.
Controversy continues to swirl around this year's Eurovision winners, who will now undergo a drug test in a bid to clear their names.
Glam rockers Maneskin from Italy took out the win, thanks to a massive show of support from the public that saw them rocketing up the leaderboard from their original jury vote position.
France placed second and Switzerland third - but spare a thought for the UK's artist James Newman, who suffered the rare indignity of receiving zero jury votes and zero public votes. Ouch.
This year's winners courted controversy when their lead singer was caught on camera appearing to snort something off a table as they were celebrating after their performance. He insists he was picking up a broken glass - and will now undergo drug testing to prove himself, after calls for the group to be disqualified.
Follow all the action as it happened in our liveblog below.
Updates
Winners to be drug tested
Eurovision bosses have announced the singer from winning band Maneskin will take a drug test, after he was accused of snorting something during the broadcast.
Damiano David vehemently denied the accusations, explaining that he was bending down to pick up a glass broken by a bandmate.
A spokesperson for the competition said: "We are aware of the speculation surrounding the video clip of the Italian winners of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Green Room last night. "The band have strongly refuted the allegations of drug use and the singer in question will take a voluntary drug test after arriving home. This was requested by them last night but could not be immediately organized by the EBU. "The band, their management and head of delegation have informed us that no drugs were present in the Green Room and explained that glass was broken at their table and it was being cleared by the singer. "The EBU can confirm broken glass was found after an on-site check. We are still looking at footage carefully and will update with further information in due course."
Maneskin also released this statement via their Instagram stories:
Eurovision winner explains THAT moment
Speaking to press after the band's win, Maneskin frontman Damiano vehemently denied he was snorting anything in the instantly-viral clip of his band celebrating after their win.
"I don't use drugs," he told journalists, explaining that his bandmate Thomas had broken a glass with his leg and that he was bending down to clear it up. "I don't use cocaine… please don't say that."
Calls for Eurovision winner to be disqualified
This year's Eurovision winners, glam rock act Maneskin, have courted controversy with an odd on-camera moment after their performance. The band's frontman could be seen bending down and appearing to snort something off a table as they celebrated – with many viewers wondering if they'd just watched something illicit play out live on TV. In a press conference after their win, Damiano insisted he was actually bending down to pick up a broken glass knocked over by one of his bandmates: "I don't use drugs," he said.
That didn't stop some Eurovision fans from calling for the band's disqualification. "Anyone snorting drugs on live TV should be disqualified," tweeted one viewer."As a mother of 4 kids I am horrified to see that Eurovision is rewarding people who take drugs on live television! Italy should be disqualified," wrote another."Surely this means they should be disqualified if that’s true!? I’m sure there’s enough cameras in that place to check," said another.Other fans are furiously defending the band. "They had to ask Damiano at the conference if they did drugs because 2 idiots on Twitter can't see or think for themselves?" wrote one."You guys must be out of your minds if you do believe that the Eurovision Song Contest would allow the use of drugs in front millions of people watching the show! Just accept that Italy won and move on!" said another.
And the winner is...
Italy, after scoring massively in the public vote, with France placing second and Switzerland third. The winners, Maneskin, declared "ROCK N' ROLL NEVER DIES!" after their win was announced – looks like Eurovision's off to Italy next year, gang.
New frontrunners emerge
Ukraine and Finland suddenly sit in the top two positions, both scoring enormously in the public vote after not placing that well with the jury. It really is anyone's game…
Moments later, Iceland score even more points, rocketing to the top of the board.
The UK's absolutely brutal result
Having received zero points in the jury vote, the UK is the first country to discover how many points they received in the public vote.
And it's another zero. Double zero points for the UK, a rare dishonour.
The UK's entrant James Newman is at least not alone: Spain, Germany and the Netherlands all receive zero points from the public as well.
Here's the jury vote result
Switzerland won the jury vote, with France just behind. And spare a thought for the poor UK, who didn't get a single jury vote:
It's a two horse race so far
…for the jury votes, at least. Here's how the Eurovision votes are stacking up so far, with France and Switzerland neck and neck – remember, we still have viewer votes to be added, which can differ wildly from the jury votes and really shake things around on the leaderboard:
Australia's top jury votes revealed
Eurovision voting is a two-part process – first we hear each country's jury votes, then we go through again with the public vote. Joel Creasey delivered Australia's jury votes – awarding the top 12 points to Malta.
So who is the Australian Eurovision jury? It's a small group: Kamahl, Jack Vidgen, Ash London, Brooke Boney and Millie Millgate.
COVID-positive past winner performs
2019's Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence was all set to reprise his winning song at today's grand final – until he contracted coronavirus at some stage this week. He'd already performed at the first semi-final, so I'm sure it's still a nervous wait for some people involved with the competition to find out if the virus spread.
With Laurence now isolating, viewers instead watch footage of an earlier rehearsal he performed before he got the positive result.
