The bookmakers and fans got it right - Norway's wonder kid Alexander Rybak, 23, walked off with the coveted Eurovision title.

He was clearly the favourite right from the start and he sailed past his competition, remaining in the lead throughout, earning 387 points. Iceland came in second, while Azerbaijan placed third.

Despite giving her best interpretation of the song What If We, Malta's ballad queen Chiara failed to woo Europe this time and placed a disappointing 22nd with 31 points.

Malta got the highest points - seven - from Serbia, six from the UK, and five from Ireland, among others, which helped lift Chiara from the bottom of the pile.

Ironically, despite the fact that Chiara's song was penned and composed by Belgians, Malta got nil points from Belgium.

Pauline Agius read out Malta's votes which went to: 12 points to Iceland, 10 to the UK, eight to Norway, seven to Greece, six to Denmark, five to Turkey, four to Sweden, three to Finland, two to Ukraine, and one to Azerbaijan.

This year national juries were given 50-per-cent of the stake, some countries could not resist voting for their neighbours: Andorra gave douze points to Spain, Cyprus did the same to Greece, and Montenegro gave its 12 points to Bosnia Herzegovina.

The Opposition congratulated Chiara for her "confident and prestigious" performance and said that the final result could have been fairer to her talent and the song’s potential.