Sweden races to victory in 57th Eurovision Song Contest 2012

London: Despite taking to the stage wearing a special necklace given to him by Elvis Presley as a good luck charm, Engelbert Humperdinck failed to defeat Sweden’s Loreen in the 57th Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Loreen came forth as the runaway winner on 372 points with her track ‘Euphoria’.

Speaking after her win, she thanked all of those who had believed in her. “I want to say thank you so much thanks you for believing in me, I wouldn’t have been able to do with this without you. This is not just mine, it is ours, I love you,” a leading daily has quoted her as saying. She then took to the stage for another rousing rendition of her winning track. Humperdinck, nicknamed The Hump, scored a total of 12, with only Belgium, Estonia, Latvia and Ireland voting for him and ended up just one position above Norway, famous for gaining “nul points” in the annual competition. The 76-year-old, who used the name Gerry Dorsey during the early years of his career, kept ‘The Beatles’ off the number one spot in the singles chart with ‘Release Me’ in the 1960s. “I had a great time, a very wonderful time. I hope everyone listening to the song... we shared the song with every generation. I sang it from my heart,” he said after his performance. Humperdinck’s song was written by Sacha Skarbek, who teamed up with James Blunt to compose ‘You’re Beautiful’, and record producer Martin Terefe. ANI