Azerbaijan win Eurovision

Country crowned 2011 winner, while UK come in 11th...

10:00 16 May 2011

Reformed boyband Blue did Britain proud with their performance at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, despite Azerbaijan triumphing in the competition overall.

More than nine million viewers in the UK watched the contest on 14 May, with the audience peaking at 12.7million as towards the end as the winner was revealed.

Blue came 11th overall, restoring Britain's Eurovision dignity after years of poor scores, while Irish pop duo Jedward finished in eighth position.

Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal of Ell/Nikki were voted Europe's favourites, after scoring 221 points with their love song, Running Scared.

Italy's entry Raphael Gualazzi came in second place, followed by Swedish pop sensation Eric Saade.

At one stage during the voting process, both Italy and Bulgaria awarded the UK entry high scores, briefly making it top of the results table.

Host Graham Norton then joked:

"Quick, take a picture!"

Viewers at home in all 43 competing nations voted for their favourite song by phone or text message, which accounted for half of each country's vote.

The event, which was hosted by Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers and Stefan Raab, attracted 35,000 to the Fortuna Dsseldorf Arena.