Hallelujah – Finland have finally done it, after 40 years of trying. Rock band Lordi literally took this year’s Eurovision Song Contest by storm, beating Russia and Bosnia Herzegovina into first place. Apparently the monster rockers got the highest score ever in the history of the competition (292!).

Mr Lordi himself hails from Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland and home to Santa Claus, which perhaps explains his penchant for dressing up!

Now all that remains is for YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation) to find the money to pay for next year’s competition in Helsinki! Thank goodness for EU grants…

Here's the what the British papers had to say:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/22/weuro22.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/22/ixnews.html